{"id":712774,"date":"2026-06-03T14:52:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T14:52:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/712774\/"},"modified":"2026-06-03T14:52:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T14:52:11","slug":"spanish-captains-at-valderrama-garcias-success-and-rahms-quest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/712774\/","title":{"rendered":"Spanish captains at Valderrama: Garcia\u2019s success and Rahm\u2019s quest"},"content":{"rendered":"

SOTOGRANDE, Spain \u2013 In the cafeteria at Real Club Valderrama, there are photos of each champion who has won a tournament at Spain\u2019s most iconic course. Sergio Garcia\u2019s image is a prominent one \u2013 no surprise considering he\u2019s won four times on his favorite course, his most recent victory coming in 2024 at LIV Golf Andaluc\u00eda<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Jon Rahm\u2019s image, however, does not appear at all. Not that Rahm needs any reminder, but the club\u2019s CEO and director general Javier Reviriego is quick to point out how much he\u2019d love to see the photo of the country\u2019s best active player added to the cafeteria\u2019s walls.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery time he sees me, he tells me the same thing, right?\u201d Rahm said. \u201cHe told me the same thing yesterday, that mine is missing, putting a bit of extra pressure on me.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether that helps or not, I don\u2019t know, but it certainly gives me motivation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rahm\u2019s quest to add his image among the club\u2019s champion golfers resumes at this week\u2019s LIV Golf Andaluc\u00eda. Victory at Valderrama is one of the few things that has eluded him since he joined LIV Golf prior to the 2024 season as the captain of the league\u2019s first expansion team, Legion XIII.<\/p>\n

In his 2-1\/2 seasons in the league, Rahm has won four individual tournament titles, two season-long Individual Championships and has captained the team to nine tournament wins as well as last year\u2019s Team Championship. He has two individual wins this season and is the points-leader through this year\u2019s first eight tournaments.<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"<\/p>\n

Jon Rahm congratulates Sergio Garcia after Garcia wins the individual title in 2024 at LIV Golf Andalucia at Real Club Valderrama. (Photo by Chris Trotman\/LIV Golf)<\/p>\n

Just as impressive as his success is his consistency. In 34 regular-season starts, he has 31 top-10 finishes. His only non-top 10s are a WD in Houston in 2024 when he suffered a foot injury; a T11 in Dallas last year; and last week\u2019s T16 in Korea, one of the rare times when he struggled to figure out a course.<\/p>\n

While Rahm has lifted a LIV Golf trophy at Valderrama, it was for his team\u2019s win last year. That doesn\u2019t get him on the cafeteria wall, although he came close on the individual leaderboard, finishing solo second, just one stroke behind Talor Gooch \u2013 who, by the way, already had his photo on the wall after winning at Valderrama in 2023.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not the first time Rahm\u2019s had a close call at Valderrama, as he tied for second at the 2019 Andalucia Masters. On the flip side, he missed the cut in his two prior appearances in that event. In his first LIV Golf Andalucia start in 2024, he tied for 10th.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a course where I\u2019ve either done very well or very poorly,\u201d Rahm said. \u201cThe truth is, I haven\u2019t had a middle ground. Once we land in Malaga, the desire to win kicks in. Every step I take on the course, I think about how much I would love to win.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been lucky enough to win on two different courses in Spain but joining the list of champions at Valderrama would be something very special.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you go strictly on results, Garcia is Valderrama\u2019s most special player. He\u2019s made 18 professional starts at the course and has finished inside the top 10 a mind-boggling 17 times. His only non-top 10 was a 34th in the Volvo Masters in 2007.<\/p>\n

In his three LIV Golf starts as the Fireballs GC captain, Garcia has the win in 2024 \u2013\u00a0he beat Anirban Lahiri in a playoff \u2013 and two top-10 finishes. His Fireballs also captured the team title in a playoff in 2024 against Bryson\u2019s DeChambeau\u2019s Crushers GC.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, his young Fireballs teammates were asked if Garcia ever reminds them about his track record at Valderrama. David Puig, sitting next to his captain, replied with a smile: \u201cEvery day. He keeps reminding us every day of how he played here. Yeah, we know.\u201d<\/p>\n

Responded Garcia: \u201cWouldn\u2019t you?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"<\/p>\n

Sergio Garcia and Jon Rahm shake hands after Round 2 of LIV Golf South Africa 2026. (Photo by Mike Stobe\/LIV Golf)<\/p>\n

Garcia was just 13 years old the first time he saw Valderrama. It was a team match in which he represented Spain against England. Current European Ryder Cup captain Luke Donald was on the other side.<\/p>\n

\u201cI loved it from the beginning,\u201d Garcia said. \u201cI loved the amazing conditions that it always had. One of the things that I\u2019ve always enjoyed about Valderrama is that it feels like a course that you have to use every club in your bag. That doesn\u2019t happen every week, for sure. It shows you the quality of the course itself. That\u2019s something very unique.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Rahm hasn\u2019t yet to experience an individual win at Valderrama, he does share Garcia\u2019s appreciation for the beloved course, which was the first in continental Europe to host a Ryder Cup. Spanish legend Seve Ballesteros, a hero to both Garcia and Rahm as well as all other Spanish golfers of their generation, captained the European team to victory.<\/p>\n

\u201cValderrama is a very difficult course where I don\u2019t know if you can ever truly feel comfortable,\u201d Rahm said. \u201cIt\u2019s a course that challenges you on every single shot, and there is no rest. It\u2019s a puzzle you have to figure out every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Garcia has figured out Valderrama across the 69 career rounds he\u2019s played here. He\u2019s gained an average of +3.02 strokes on the field per round and has lost strokes to the field just once (in 2007).<\/p>\n

Not surprising, his averages across key statistical categories at Valderrama are significantly higher than his career averages. His driving accuracy is 10% higher, his Greens in Regulation are 5% higher and his Strokes Gained Putting is +0.36 (compared to his overall career total of -0.03). Overall, his Strokes Gained Total average is +1.68 better at Valderrama that his career total.<\/p>\n

He especially loves the challenge at Valderrama when the wind kicks up, and the greens begin to firm. He knows that separates the field, those who embrace the challenge from those who succumb to it.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery moment is complicated, not only physically but mentally,\u201d Garcia said. \u201cFor me, that\u2019s what I love about this course, that it demands so much from you without being a long course. It\u2019s nice to see when many times you travel the world seeing that the only way they have to make courses more difficult is by adding distance.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really think there are other ways to do it, and Valderrama explains it in the best possible way.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SOTOGRANDE, Spain \u2013 In the cafeteria at Real Club Valderrama, there are photos of each champion who has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":712775,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,755,85],"class_list":["post-712774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=712774"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712774\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/712775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=712774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=712774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=712774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}