Jon Rahm came into the 2026 Masters as one of the favorites for the Green Jacket after a superb start to the season in the LIV Golf League.
The two-time Major winner has gone 2-2-1-5-2 in his first five starts in LIV Golf this year, taking his record on the team tour to a remarkable 29 top-10s from 30 starts, with a worst finish of T11th.
He sits 2nd in Data Golf's professional rankings, too, so it was a huge surprise to see him fail to card a single birdie on Thursday and end the opening round in T73rd-position.
I have already written about LIV Golf's Masters problem following the circuit's players struggling on day one, with the tour taking two full weeks off before Augusta and not playing in the US since August.
That compares to last year where it visited Trump National Doral in the week prior to the year's opening Major.
Sir Nick Faldo, speaking on the Sky Sports Golf broadcast, admitted the LIV players are under pressure at The Masters and questioned whether the schedule Rahm has played this year has prepared him well enough for what is an exacting test at a very firm and fast Augusta National.
"Jon is having a battle with the European Tour over the Ryder Cup stuff, I wondering if that would inspire him and he'd be saying 'You know what to you, I'm gonna do you know what to this.' Maybe that's affected him," the three-time Green Jacket winner said.
"They've just played two tournaments on LIV, Singapore was like 25-under to win [14-under winning score] and South Africa 25-under [26-under winning score] to win and then you come here and go 'I'm not doing that here.'
"It's a completely different mindset, making a couple of birdies and hanging on to it.
"I don't believe that is the best preparation, where the [PGA] Tour was obviously at TPC [Sawgrass]. Pretty tough, it's always fiddly.
"It's the mindset, the thinking, the strategy. There's no strategy to shooting 25-under. You aim at the flag and fire it, it plugs.
"Where here you've got a lot of thinking of good shots, bad shots, how to deal with all the challenges of Augusta National."
Rahm, who matched his worst round in a Major on Thursday, admitted he was frustrated and now requires a "herculean" effort to get back in contention.
"It's a hard golf course. Some of the players might have been able to manage a respectable round, but when you have no feel with the swing whatsoever, it's just not an easy one," he said.
"What I manage? Hopefully get some physio, get some dinner, get something positive going in that sense.
"Tomorrow is a new day. It's going to be a very much more uphill battle right now, but I'm going to have to come out tomorrow and most likely post something in the 60s to have a chance to make the cut and give myself a chance on the weekend.
"I've done that a few times [bounced back from bad rounds], but it still sucks to be in this position, to need a Herculean effort the next two days to give myself a chance to maybe sniff having a chance to win. It's just frustrating."
