Jon Rahm speaks to the media ahead of the 2024 U.S. Open. | Photo by Alex Slitz/Getty Images
Ahead of the U.S. Open, Jon Rahm discussed his foot injury, which led to his early exit at LIV Golf Houston.
Jon Rahm withdrew midway through last week’s LIV Golf Houston event due to a foot injury.
Three days later, at Pinehurst No. 2, Rahm provided more clarity about the situation.
“It’s a concern. It’s doing better. But definitely still in pain,” Rahm said.
“I think that the closest term would be a lesion on the skin. If I were to show you, there’s a little hole between my pinky toe and the next toe. I don’t know how or what happened, but it got infected. The pain was high.”
Rahm then added that he received a shot on Saturday morning, hours before he withdrew, to help alleviate the pain.
“It was supposed to last the whole round, and by my second hole, I was in pain already,” Rahm said.
“The infection was the worrisome part. The infection is now controlled, but there’s still swelling and there’s still pain. There’s a reason I walked out here in a shoe and a flip-flop, trying to keep the area dry and trying to get that to heal as soon as possible. But I can only do what I can do. The human body can only work so fast.”
Photo by Alex Slitz/Getty Images
Jon Rahm walks to his press conference wearing a flip flop on his left foot.
Rahm has not played up to his standard so far in 2024. He has not won an event during his first season on LIV Golf, nor has he won anywhere since his win at Augusta National last year.
He obviously has the talent to win on any golf course against any player, but this injury raises tremendous concerns going into this week.
“Could I have dragged myself out there and posted some kind of a score? Yeah,” Rahm said about withdrawing.
“But it was getting to a point where I wasn’t making the swings I wanted to make, and I could have hurt other parts of my swing just because of the pain. As to right now this week, I don’t know.”
Rahm did not sound confident when asked if he could play this week, yet he still feels he can win.
“Anytime I tee it up, I feel like I have a good chance,” Rahm said.
Maybe he does not have as good of a chance as he had three years ago at Torrey Pines, where he won his first U.S. Open. But ruling Rahm out completely would be foolish, knowing his caliber. Despite that, the infection between his toes will be something to monitor as the week progresses.
Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough for more golf coverage. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko as well.
