The merger game is starting uphill for Jon Rahm

Rickie Fowler was supposed to star. When he turned pro in 2009, his resume included a 36-week streak as the world’s top amateur and the Ben Hogan Trophy for America’s most accomplished college golfer — Jon Rahm has a pair. In 2012, he won his first PGA tournament, and in 2015 he signed a double (The Players and the Deutsche Bank Championship) that allowed him to place himself in fourth place in the world ranking. In February 2019, he won the Phoenix Open, which was his fifth career victory. There was no more.

The Murrieta, Calif., player got into a rut that took out a caddy (he dumped childhood friend Joe Sovkan) and a swing coach. The victims of a string of poor results have finally been exhausted in 2022. Fowler has not added any new trophies, but he came close to winning in Japan and his game has returned to a consistency that makes him a tough contender to start the Match Play World Cup. Today starting at 17:54 will be Rahm’s first opponent in Austin.

Due to his format, the Spaniard had an extremely complicated shortlist of opponents for the opening phase of this very special tournament. It is the only one in the PGA that is decided through direct qualifying rounds, to which only the first place in each of the 16 groups has access.

Head-to-head matches played between today and Friday (Movistar Golf will be broadcast daily between 15:30 and 01:00) will contribute one point to the winner, and in the event of a tie, a point will be shared. From there, the 64 participants will be whittled down to 16 and head-to-head clashes will take place.

To catch up with them, Rahm won’t just have to get rid of Fowler. You will also have to beat the scores of two other Americans: Billy Horschel and Keith Mitchell. Placed on the 22nd or 39th place in the world ranking, where the Spanish representative is in second place.

Billy Horschel, the strongest rival

Horschel emerges as the most dangerous competitor. Among other things, because he already took Match Play two years ago. On that occasion, he defeated the current number one, his compatriot Scottie Scheffler, in the final match. It was his sixth career title; the seventh came just nine months ago, at the Muirfield Memorial Tournament.

Mitchel, on the other hand, is the youngest of the trio of Spanish rivals. At the age of 31, he has only one PGA title, the Honda Classic held in Florida in 2019. That time he beat Rickie Fowler by one stroke.

Rahm faces the challenge of becoming the first Spaniard to win a World Cup Match Play. He came close in 2017, when he lost to Dustin Johnson. He arrives in good form for this edition, having resolved the problems that caused him to withdraw from The Players a few weeks ago. There, he left the top of the world rankings to Scheffler, who starts as the favorite in Austin, where he is defending his title.

If Jon Rahm progresses, he could find another tough stumbling block in Cameron Young. That would already be on Saturday, when two qualifying matches are played before the semi-finals and Sunday’s final. Rather, there is a tilt to save.