Exclusive Q&A – 2023 Masters Champion Jon Rahm – Plus Surprise Bonus

With a demonstrative win at the 2023 Masters today, Spanish golf star Jon Rahm is currently the best player in the world. But it’s no overnight success, it’s been going on for a decade. He held the amateur World Number One ranking for a record 60-weeks, the most of all time, while playing at Arizona State University, and was the first ever to win the Ben Hogan trophy for best amateur player twice. He won his first Tour event a year after turning pro, and eventually reached Number One in the World Golf Rankings. He went into the Masters at Number Three and should now return to the top spot when it is recalculated. At age 28 he already has 20 professional victories, including big ones such as the Memorial, BMW Championship, Sentry Tournament of Champions, Zurich Classic of New Orleans, American Express, Genesis and the 2021 U.S. Open, making him the first Spaniard to ever win what is generally considered the toughest Major. He has won the Spanish Open, the Mexican Open and has already posted four wins this year – just since January.

Through his primary sponsor, Mercedes Benz, I was able to obtain a one-on-one exclusive interview with “Rahmbo” in person in Augusta during the Masters. Our conversation ranged from his love of Spanish food to his roots in the Basque region around San Sebastian to hip-hop music and his love of performance cars. After he extolled the virtues of Mercedes’ new generation of electric vehicles (he drives one) and the handling skills he learned through their AMG Driving Academy, I was able to join a group of car journalists for a 3-hour pop up session of the Academy, which is primarily based in Sonoma, California, right there in Augusta. I got to try out both the remarkable electric cars like Rahm drives and the high-performance AMG enhanced gas versions in various race and skid simulations, and I had to agree with him.

Straight from the Masters, these are some of the more interesting questions and answers we got to.

Q: Golf is not that big in Spain, especially compared to soccer and other sports, and you played a lot of sports growing up. So why golf, what led you on the path, is it just that you were better at it?

A: No, I don’t think golf was what I was the best at early on. But I don’t think anyone is, right? You can’t just pick up a club and hit it in the air – if you even make contact the first try. I couldn’t pinpoint exactly when it happened, but it was just the fact that I could spend time by myself, and it was at a time when I could mainly be with family. I couldn’t play soccer, I couldn’t do all the other sports I did with my family, but on the weekend, I could always go out with my parents and my brother and play a round of golf, and I think a lot of that is what gravitated me to it.

And then the challenge. I think every golfer will say there’s just something about the sport that makes you want to just keep going back. And being the one sport that I could not need somebody in front of me to practice had a lot to contribute to it.

Q: The Masters does not have a pro-am, but most PGA tournaments do, and they are very special experiences for amateurs, a “Bucket List” thing. You’ve played in a lot of pro-ams, so what would you say to someone who golfs who has never played in one about what the appeal is?

A: I love pro-ams. I absolutely love pro-ams. You see these logos on my shirt? You see a lot of logos on the golf course? The reason I make a living is because of all those people who play in pro-ams. So, I support them 100%. I’ve made friends in pro-ams I still talk to till this day, it’s just a great opportunity to meet new people. It’s one of the great things about this sport. It’s one of the most social sports you’ll find out there. You have 4 hours to talk to someone you don’t know, and you can’t stare at your phone.

For amateurs, if you get the opportunity to go to a pro-am, I would say you absolutely should, because you’re going to see a couple of things. First of all, you’re going to realize how much better professional golfers are in person. It’s like if you get to run a 40-yard dash next to [NFL star] DK Metcalf you’re going to realize how much faster he is. That’s just how it is, you realize the truth about the sport. Second of all, you get to see the golf course from our perspective, and if you go to certain pro-ams during the year you’re going to see the crowds and get a bit of the experience we have. And third of all, you get to know the people that you watch on TV. You get one of those 18-hole pro-ams, four hours or five hours, you’re going to talk about a lot of things.

I would encourage people if they can to participate in pro-ams, and if they are on the fence they should always take the chance. It doesn’t matter how good or bad you are. I don’t think I’ve ever gone to a pro-am where the group was like “we must win.” They’re there to have a good time and so are we. I know I’m training, practicing, but mostly I’m there to entertain the people I’m with.

Q: You’ve played with a lot of amateur players of all abilities, but is there’s one top tip you could give the average golfer, or something they need to improve, what would it be?

A: It’s hard to say one, because everybody is so different. I can’t help you hit longer or do certain things, because that requires a lot of physical work. But when it comes to short game, if I could say one thing for most amateurs, I would say go to the chipping green – and this is very hard but it will help in the long run if you have the time – and go with your sand wedge, lob wedge, whatever you usually chip with, and practice just with your left hand [if you’re right handed].

Start practicing that. You’re going to chunk, skull, shank, maybe mishit, top a lot of them. I did that when I started doing it. But eventually you’re going to get a feel and that’s going to help you a lot in the long run just around the greens, which is where you can save the most amount of shots for amateurs.

Q: I know you’ve probably been asked about this a million times, but is it true you learned English from listening to hip hop?

A: (Laughs) My spoken English wasn’t the best, but my understanding of the language was better than people thought. I left Spain and my level of English was above average, I would be in the top 10, maybe 20 percent. Also, all my life I’d spoken UK English, UK slang, UK accent, so when I came to the U.S., a lot of it is understanding the slang and the accent, and that was one of the battles. So, when you are speaking to me, like the question you just asked, I would have had to take the whole question, translate it to Spanish in my head, think what I wanted to say, and then translate it back into English. Depending on the question, that could be a 5- or 10-second pause. So, I could see people getting impatient, and I’d get nervous and a lot of times I’d just say yes or no instead and a couple of times I got in trouble because I was too shy to ask someone to explain.

It’s funny how this happened. A friend of mine had basically memorized every single rap song in the Top 100, and he could rap on beat and everything, and he was born in Mexico and at first was mainly a Spanish speaker, so that was fun and at first, I wanted to be able to do that. So I remember once, in Hawaii, it was Kendrick Lamar, his album “good kid, m.A.A.d city” had just dropped, and we were listening to Backseat Freestyle, and there’s a fast part and I just wanted to learn the song, and I memorized it, I had no idea what I was saying, never knew what I was saying, but I memorized, and through that process it kind of helped my transitioning from sentence to sentence and word to word. It was more like a pronunciation and enunciation exercise. I didn’t “learn English” – I would speak very differently if it was all J. Cole, Jay-Z, Lil Wayne and Kendrick Lamar. It was basically a vocal exercise that helped me keep up with conversation a lot better.

Q: The Ryder Cup is in Rome this fall, just the third time ever in Continental Europe, and a as you know, the first time was Spain at Valderrama. The American golf audience has long been fixated on Ireland and Scotland, but do you think the Ryder Cups in Spain, Paris and now Rome might introduce people to the breadth and beauty of the golf on the Continent?

A: Yes, there are many great golf courses throughout Europe that many people don’t think about it. Obviously Great Britain, Ireland, the UK, is the home of golf and the appeal is going to be there, but there are some fantastic golf courses throughout Europe. So being able to take an event like the Ryder Cup to some of those countries is going to expose and show the world what they’re missing. But for so many reasons, Italy is just a very good country to go to, and I’m excited for that myself. I’m going to do a little vacation myself afterwards, which I have been talking about forever, hopefully be able to experience Rome and many other places around that area. It’s going to be great for Rome.

I’ve talked about this story a couple of times, my family, my dad started playing golf because of the 1997 Ryder Cup in Spain, so because of that Ryder Cup I am here today. You never know but there could be a future generation of Italian players that come because of the Ryder Cup. We had Seve [Ballesteros] as a captain in that one, and I know the Molinari brothers are going to be involved, and hopefully Francesco is playing, but you never know when a tournament like that can spark a new wave of players, that could be new talent from Italy coming out that could be a new champion someday. I think in that sense the Ryder Cup is very important.

Q: As Number One in the world, a Major Champion and a fan favorite, you’ve had a ton of sponsorship opportunities, but you’ve taken very few. Why Mercedes?

A: Why wouldn’t you want to be involved with a company that has absolutely the highest standard for automobiles in the world? What I expect of myself on the golf course I expect of their cars’ performance on the road. I have the utmost respect for the engineers, I have the utmost respect for the AMG Academy. If you get into an S63, GLS 63, G63, any 63 you can find, it’s pretty impressive what they can do, the performance of those cars, but I didn’t get to realize the full potential until I got to the Academy which was quite exciting. I almost felt bad because this car is never going to live up to the potential it could in my garage.

The range of cars, especially now that they are getting into electric, in all sedans, SUVs, G Wagon coming next year, it’s not like you have one, you have different cars with the level of class you’d expect. If you haven’t gotten in one of those EQEs [all electric performance sedan] it’s so comfortable. It really feels like – I know I’m supposed to say I like driving them, but I almost want someone to grab the wheel and I just go and relax because it’s pretty incredible how well those cars drive. Performance and class and to an extent also tradition, which relates to the Masters and is a complete package. To me it was a no-brainer, why not be with a company that has that high standard?

Just as Rahm is the top player on the PGA Tour sponsored by Mercedes Benz, 2-time Masters Champion Bernhard Langer is the company’s primary spokesperson on the Champions (formerly PGA Senior) Tour. Langer, who won here in 1985 and 1993, was at Augusta playing in his 40^th Masters, a remarkable run. He was the Number One player in the World back in 1986, and once he moved to the Champions Tour, he became the most successful golfer in its history, with a record 11 Senor Majors, and a tie for the most tournament wins of all time. Unlike the four Majors on the PGA Tour there are five on the Champions Tour and he is one of only two players ever to win them all for a career Grand Slam.

Langer, like Mercedes Benz, is German, and he used to run a tournament called the Mercedes German Masters in which the car company was the title sponsor, and he has remained involved with them as spokesperson since the 1980s, another long run. I got the bonus opportunity to chat with him, so I asked him some of the same questions, including the all-important tips for amateurs.

Q: You’ve played with a lot of amateur players of all abilities, but is there’s one top tip you could give the average golfer, or something they need to improve, what would it be?

A: One thing I’ve noticed quite often, maybe more than anything, is that they under club. So, I would play a couple of holes with them and give them a swing tip or the yardage, and say it’s 160-yards to carry the bunker to get on the green, and they say ‘Oh. that’s an 8 iron for me,’ and I say, ‘Oh really, you hit your 8 iron that far, because it’s a 7-iron for me,’ and they say ‘Really? Because I can’t hit it further than you.’ They don’t think in carry, they think in running out, but you can’t run it through the bunker, when it’s carry you have to carry the ball. Whether it’s an ego thing or overestimating their potential I don’t know. But I’ve had a lot of wonderful pro-am experiences, I’ve met a lot of fantastic people, they’re all great in their own fields.

Hit more club, and hit ‘em straight!