Why Jon Rahm just finished one of the weirdest years in golf history
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Jon Rahm's golf year is over. That in itself is a bit odd as he acknowledged on Sunday after finishing T-9 at the Spanish Open.
“I’ve never had three months off, but I’m looking forward to it," Rahm told reporters at the DP World Tour event. "Other athletes have it, and we’ll see. I’m lucky to be able to go home now, have a preseason, be a father, be with my family, and well, if I see that it’s too much, then maybe I won’t do it next year. But I’m looking forward to it."
Rahm's long layoff is due to LIV's season-opening event of 2026 not being until February in Riyadh. So he'll have plenty of time to be with his family—as well as to ponder the weirdest golf year of his life.
The 30-year-old played plenty of good golf and made plenty of money during 2025, but there were no great weeks. For the first time since turning pro in 2016, Rahm failed to hoist an individual trophy.
Yes, he and his European teammates recently won the Ryder Cup. And Rahm was a big reason for that, earning three points. But his fantastic play at Bethpage Black even made his winless drought seem more bizarre.
Oh, yeah, his Legion XIII squad won LIV's team championship as well. But, somehow, Rahm never stood atop a LIV podium by himself this year.
It wasn't all bad, though, because even stranger is how Rahm was able to finish No. 1 in the LIV individual standings for the entire year. Despite the fact he won zero times compared to Joaquin Niemann's five victories.
How does that happen? Well, again, Rahm played plenty of good golf throughout the year. In 13 individual LIV starts, a T-11 in Dallas was his worst finish. He earned an $18 million bonus for finishing first in the standings and he pulled in $34.25 million overall in LIV money. In addition to his contract money. Not too shabby.
Rahm also wasn't too shabby at the majors with a pair of top-10s. But, again, we've just come to expect more from the two-time major champ with over 20 pro wins before turning 30.
For the year, Rahm had 15 top-10 finishes and four runner-ups, a staggering amount of good results without a win. For reference—and it's not an apples-to-apples comparison—Tommy Fleetwood had nine top 10s on the PGA Tour without a win in 2022-2023. And Scottie Scheffler had 17 this year, but he also won six times.
In any event, if the Rahm golf fans saw at the Ryder Cup shows up next year, he'll certainly hoist more trophies. Or even the Rahm we saw just about everywhere else in 2025 considering he's No. 3 in Data Golf's ranking behind only Scheffler and Rory McIlroy. But for now, Rahm remains in an odd state of limbo. And now he has a lot of time to think about it.