\t\t\t\tRahm\u2019s rest and recuperation<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been a long year,\u201d said Rahm, announcing his intended break. \u201cI\u2019ve never had three months off, but I\u2019m looking forward to it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOther athletes have it, and we\u2019ll see. I\u2019m 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\u2019s too much, then maybe I won\u2019t do it next year, but I\u2019m looking forward to it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rahm and his wife, Kelley Cahill<\/a>, have three children, born in 2021, 2022, and 2024. <\/p>\n For most tour pros, the offseason lasts a few weeks, not months. Four months out of tournament golf is almost unheard of for a healthy, top-ranked player. It suggests Rahm isn\u2019t just tired \u2013 he\u2019s seeking a full reset after an intense and, by his standards, frustrating season.<\/p>\n Rahm\u2019s 2025 campaign has been steady but unspectacular. He clocked up 12 top-10 finishes in 13 starts on the LIV Golf League, which was enough to win the season-long Individual Championship \u2013 but, for the first time in his professional career, he went an entire season without winning a tournament.<\/p>\n He made the cut in all four majors, including top-10 finishes at the PGA Championship (T8) and US Open (T7), but was never really in contention at either as he looks to add to his 2021 US Open and 2023 Masters titles.<\/p>\n By his own lofty standards, he\u2019s hit a plateau. His frustration has been visible at times \u2013 most recently during the Open de Espa\u00f1a, where Rahm argued with a marshal who tried to cheer him up during the opening round.<\/p>\n After his drive found the left rough on the par-4 eighth hole, Rahm saw his lie and started complaining. \u201cWhat a day, what a day,\u201d he said, followed by an expletive.<\/p>\n The marshal who had spotted his ball said, \u201cIt\u2019s OK,\u201d to which Rahm replied, \u201cDon\u2019t tell me it\u2019s OK, please. Thank you.\u201d<\/p>\n The marshal apologized as he walked away, while Rahm continued complaining, \u201cIt\u2019s not OK.\u201d<\/p>\n Having won the tournament in 2018, 2019, and 2022, Rahm arrived on home soil as the pre-tournament favorite as he sought to surpass Seve Ballesteros\u2019 haul and draw nearer to the record of Angel de la Torre, who won his national open on five occasions between 1916 and 1925.<\/p>\n But a 10-under-par total left Rahm tied for 9th, five shots behind champion Marco Penge<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m frustrated. I\u2019m so angry,\u201d said Rahm after an opening round one-over-par 72. \u201cI\u2019m frustrated because I didn\u2019t feel like I played that badly, and this course isn\u2019t really one where I\u2019d expect that kind of round.<\/p>\n \u201cBut that\u2019s the challenge. It\u2019s golf. You can win a major, and come Thursday, there\u2019s another tournament going on \u2013 everybody\u2019s already forgotten.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s part of the deal. It\u2019s a blessing and a curse. In a sense, when you win, you can quickly get over it. You move on to the next tournament.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd if you have a bad week, again, you get over it, because there\u2019s always another one following.\u201d<\/p>\n Rahm seems to be echoing world No.1 Scottie Scheffler\u2019s sentiment that the joy of winning is fleeting and there\u2019s more to life than golf<\/a>. The difference is that Scheffler said that and went on to win the 2025 Open Championship a few days later<\/a>. For Rahm, there won\u2019t be another chance to win for quite some time.<\/p>\n The next LIV tournament is LIV Golf Riyadh on Feb 5-7, which means Rahm will have gone 117 days and over 16 weeks without hitting a competitive golf shot.<\/p>\n The Ryder Cup cloud<\/p>\n Rahm\u2019s hiatus comes at an awkward moment in his ongoing standoff with the DP World Tour. <\/p>\n Rahm has remained eligible to play in DP World Tour events, despite joining LIV, as he is appealing fines imposed for playing in LIV tournaments without permission \u2013 the same process that has also kept Tyrrell Hatton eligible. That appeal allowed both to represent Europe in this year\u2019s Ryder Cup, but their long-term eligibility remains unresolved.<\/p>\n When asked about the situation recently, Rahm admitted he\u2019s not paying the fines and doesn\u2019t know when the issue will be settled.<\/p>\n \u201cYou know as much as I do,\u201d he said. \u201cI have no idea. I completely forgot about it \u2013 which is a good thing. I hope I forget about it until it happens.\u201d<\/p>\n While Rahm insists he\u2019ll continue representing Europe, that may depend on the outcome of the ongoing appeal and whatever compromise LIV and the DP World Tour can eventually reach.<\/p>\n The four-month break conveniently removes him from the firing line. He can focus on family, avoid awkward media cycles, and let the legal process play out.<\/p>\n But it offers little in the way of goodwill to the DP World Tour, the circuit where Rahm cut his teeth and ascended to World No.1. At a time when the DP World Tour has increasingly become a feeder tour to the PGA Tour, having one of the game\u2019s biggest stars opt out of its end-of-season showcase is a substantial blow.<\/p>\n A calculated reset \u2013 or a warning sign?<\/p>\n There\u2019s a precedent for sabbaticals in golf. Rory McIlroy took a few months off in 2017 to heal a rib injury, Jordan Spieth stepped away after 2021 to reset mentally, and Tiger Woods<\/a> came back from long stretches rehabilitating injuries to win the 2019 Masters \u2013 but Rahm\u2019s pause seems to be a strategic retreat rather than an injury-forced one.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a luxury only a LIV player can afford. Guaranteed contracts mean he doesn\u2019t need to chase paydays or points, and can take time off in a way that few players could.<\/p>\n Still, absence can have a cost. While Rahm resets, his rivals will keep piling up wins and staying match sharp.<\/p>\n If Rahm returns refreshed and refocused, this break could be remembered as a smart, mature decision that reinvigorated him and reignited his best form.<\/p>\n But if the rust lingers \u2013 or if his Ryder Cup eligibility evaporates \u2013 it may be seen as the moment his faltering momentum truly stalled.<\/p>\n Rahm\u2019s talent, passion, and pride suggest he\u2019ll come back swinging in full force come February. But this optional break, coming during what should be his peak, hints at something deeper: the emotional toll of modern golf\u2019s fractured landscape. LIV, majors, travel<\/a>, politics, Ryder Cup questions, family \u2013 it\u2019s a lot to balance, even for someone as resolute as Rahm.<\/p>\n For now, he\u2019s chosen peace over performance. When he finally returns in February, we\u2019ll find out whether the rest has rekindled the fire \u2013 or merely revealed how far the game has moved on without him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jon Rahm has stunned fans by announcing a four-month break from golf. After a flat-out 2025 and ongoing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":197709,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[5904,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-197708","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-golf","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197708\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/197709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Jon](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/jon-rahm-under-an-umbrella-at-the-open.jpg\")
A year of fatigue and frustration<\/p>\n![\"Jon](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/jon-rahm-tyrrell-hatton.jpg\")
Where does he go from here?<\/p>\n