Jon Rahm has a word of warning for anyone planning to place a futures bet on him to win the Masters next month.
Think twice.
The 26-year-old Spaniard said his wife, Kelley, is due with the couple's first child around April 10, and the world's third-ranked golfer has no plans to miss the birth of his first child.
The Masters is scheduled for April 8-11 at Augusta National in Georgia.
"I'm not going to disclose too much," Rahm said Tuesday. "All I can say is ifanybody's thinking of a betting on me on the Masters, maybe think about it twice because there's a chance I have to just turn around and leave that week."
Rahm tied for seventh at the 2020 Masters that was postponed to last November due to the coronavirus pandemic. He's the fourth betting favorite at +1100 at Draft Kings for next month's event as he seeks his first career major title. Rahm's best finish to date at the Masters was fourth in 2018.
Jon Rahm looking out for the gamblers of the world @betthegreens pic.twitter.com/mw81z9lZn7
— Barstool Sportsbook (@BSSportsbook) March 23, 2021
He's also the +1200 betting favourite for this week's WGC Match Play, an event Rahm says is one of his favourite. It's the only head-to-head tournament on thePGA Tour.
"I enjoy it a lot. I really, really like it," he said. "It's about just trying to somehow get it done. Strategies change, it goes back and forth, sometimes you need to be aggressive, sometimes you don't.
"It's certainly something I wish we had more often."
Rahm has failed to advance out of group play in each of the past two MatchPlay events, but he did reach the final in his first attempt in 2017 before falling to Dustin Johnson, 1-up.
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Rahm has six top-10 finishes in 10 starts in the 2020-21 season, results he sees as positive while making a switch to Callaway clubs. Still, he says he competes to "win tournaments."
To do that this week, he'll need to advance from his group that includes No.24 seed Ryan Palmer, No. 38 Shane Lowry and No. 56 Sebastian Munoz. From there, Rahm would need to win four single-elimination matches to claim his first WGC title.
"I'm going to say that I'm kind of wanting to do a little bit better on Sundays. I just haven't," he said. "Yes, I'm doing top-10s and that's alright,but I'm here to win tournaments. And if I'm not going to win, then I want toat least give myself a chance coming down the stretch because I haven't done that this year so far.
"Every week is a little bit different but, still, same thing. I've been playing good, I've been playing consistent, so hopefully I can get it over the line."
Rahm is attempting to conquer one of the PGA Tour's biggest hurdles while also planning for the birth of his first child. He said he's ready to leave "at any moment's notice" and is excited to be by his wife's side for the event.
"If I knew it, if I could give anybody a timeline, I would, but nobody knows,"he said. "So I'm just hoping everything goes well. I've said it before; if Ihave to leave any event, I'll leave. If I have to leave this week, hopefully it doesn't come when I'm in the final and I just have to leave after nine holes. I mean, that would be unfortunate for the winner, but it is what it is.
"Being a father is much more important than any golf event would ever be, so that's my head right now."
Reuters