Masters favorite Jon Rahm reflects on a year of firsts

ON A WEDNESDAY morning in February, the crowd around the 12th tee at TPC Scottsdale swelled. Jon Rahm was standing behind his ball, ready to hit to the long par 3, but a commotion in the background grabbed his attention.

At the edge of the tee box, one of Rahm’s playing partners in the WM Phoenix Open pro-am, NFL superstar Aaron Rodgers, was talking to a group of spectators. This was back when Rodgers’ status for the upcoming season — Will he play with the Packers? Will he play at all? — was the topic of the moment, and the galleries had been hounding Rodgers about his plans. Come to Denver! Come be a Bronco! Come on, Aaron, why don’t you just give it a shot? (Nice, but maybe just a little too on-the-nose.)

Rodgers handled it all with mostly good humor, often signing autographs on his way from the green to the tee, or while waiting to hit. But now, standing with a group of fans who said they’d come all the way from Oshkosh (and so would he please sign their shirts?), Rodgers hushed them and implored them to look at the man with the club in his hand.

“Come on, let’s be quiet,” Rodgers said, pointing at Rahm. “That’s the best player in the world right there.” The fans dutifully fell silent and, as Rahm stepped in, Rodgers couldn’t resist. “I mean, just look at that incredible back,” he whisper-yelled, gesturing at Rahm’s broad shoulders, as everyone — including Rahm — broke up laughing.

After a moment to collect himself, Rahm addressed the ball again. He shuffled his feet. He brought his club up barely to his neck, then spun his hips and his back — that incredible back — through impact in the beautifully brief and violent motion that is unmistakably his golf swing.

The ball soared high and true and, in that moment, Rodgers was a stand-in for just about everyone in golf over the past year, everyone who has been stopping and standing and staring at Rahm’s transformation from an on-the-rise star with an oddly abbreviated swing to a dominant force who may well be the…