AUGUSTA, Ga. – On a weekend when he aimed to make a charge on the leaderboard, Jon Rahm instead found himself in the 'experimental phase' of his enigmatic Masters week. The 2023 Masters champion shot a 1-over-par 73 on Saturday in the third round, leaving him at 5-over-par after 54 holes and tied for 48th among the 54 players in the field who made the cut. Unless he finishes within the top 45 on the final day, it would mark his worst result in his 10 Masters appearances. “The only thing about a weekend like today, when things aren't going well enough, is that you can start trying things just to see how it feels or how you can implement it in competition,” Rahm said. “A little bit of what I did today. Probably what I will do tomorrow. Hitting it on the driving range is one thing; doing it on the golf course is another.”
It's not the position he expected, especially given his strong start to the 2026 LIV Golf season with one win, three second-place finishes, and a fifth-place rank in the first five tournaments, placing him first in the season-long Individual Championship points standings, which he has won in both of his first two LIV Golf seasons. But an opening 6-over-par 78 – where the Legion XIII Captain admitted to losing the feel for his swing – left him struggling just to make the cut. A 2-under-par 70 on Friday got him into the weekend, but 16 strokes behind Rory McIlroy's 36-hole lead and needing a couple of 'Hail Mary' low rounds just to make things interesting. He birdied two of his first three holes on Saturday but missed a 16-footer (4.88 m) on the par-5 second. Still, he had a 9-foot (2.74 m) birdie attempt after a great tee shot on the par-3 fourth. But his missed putt seemed to take the remaining wind out of his sails, and he didn't make another birdie until the 15th hole. Augusta National's greens were definitely not his friends this week. On Thursday, he needed 33 putts; only seven of the 91 players in the field needed more.
“One thing I'll tell you: My putting hasn't been the best,” Rahm said. “I've been putting on the line the last two days – which I rarely do, right? – just to help myself a little.” When asked why the week hadn't gone as he – or honestly anyone else in the golf world – expected, Rahm could only shrug. “If I knew why, then two things: I probably wouldn't say it now, and I would have tried to avoid it if I had known why I've played this way so far,” he said, just as perplexed as the rest of us.
