Jon Rahm has finally made his LIV Golf debut at El Camaleon Golf Course in Mayakoba. He had a stellar start on the league as he finished tied for fourth rank on the leaderboard after the end of the first round on Friday. He shot a round of 4 under 66 with the help of seven birdies and two bogeys.
It was not the first time that the Spaniard was playing in Mayakoba. He previously played on the Riviera Maya three times between 2014 and 2016 on the PGA Tour. However, he still felt nervous at the venue during his debut round of the league. After completing his round, he was quoted saying,
“Yeah, I could feel the pressure, but it’s a good thing, right?”
Jon Rahm later recalled picking up his favorite song for the first tee shot and how it made his heartbeat go up a little.
“It’s weird. you do get to pick a song for the first tee, and I thought maybe it was going to help. If anything, it gave it a little bit more – the heartbeat went a little bit up just from hearing a song you like,” Rahm said.
The Spaniard was pretty satisfied with his first-round performance in his LIV Golf debut on Friday. Despite shooting two birdies in his last two holes, he appears confident and is looking to play even better on Saturday at Mayakoba.
“Cam Caught Me Looking” – Jon Rahm Reflects On Caring More About Team Performance Than His Performance at LIV Debut
The Spaniard is not the only player making his debut at the Mayakoba Invitational. His newly formed team, the Legion XIII GC, and its other three players are also new to the LIV Golf league. While golf is mostly an individual game, the Saudi-backed league has a slightly different format with team play also coming into the picture.
After his debut round at El Camaleon Golf Course, Rahm revealed that he was more concerned about his team’s performance than his own individual performance. He added that Cameron Smith also noticed him constantly checking his team’s performance.
“It’s funny, the first few times I was more interested in how the team was doing than myself, which was definitely something new, and I think Cam [Smith] caught me looking, he said that; it’s crazy how you might care more about the team than your individual,” Rahm said.
While Rahm is placed tied fourth after Friday’s round, his other teammates are placed pretty down on the leaderboard. The Spaniard said that he was confident of his players surprising people sometime sooner.
“But I feel like those two guys and Tyrrell at some point are going to surprise a lot of people. Maybe not Tyrrell because he’s done it so many times, but those two guys might play a level of golf that I know they can play but that a lot of people haven’t seen,” Rahm added.
Two Legion XIII GC players, Tyrrell Hatton and Kieran Vincent, are placed T32 on the leaderboard. Meanwhile, the exciting amateur golfer Caleb Surratt also had a decent start and ended up T26 after the end of the first round on Friday.
Jon Rahm’s team is ranked tied seventh with Sergio Garcia’s Fireballs GC after Friday’s round. It will be an exciting final two rounds at LIV Golf Mayakoba to see if the Spaniard’s men can cover up and jump higher on the leaderboard.
