Jack Nicklaus had some surprising advice for Jon Rahm on how to win the 2023 Masters Tournament — just forget about it.
It seemed to do the trick for the 2023 champion.
Rahm, who won this year’s major, told “The Loop” podcast this week that the 18-time major championship winner said that before every major, he would spend Wednesday, Thursday and Friday playing the venue, but come the weekend, he laid his clubs to rest and flew home.
Saturday and Sunday were spent relaxing with family, completely forgetting about what would await him Monday morning.
Taking the Golden Bear’s advice, while putting his own twist on the tradition, Rahm, 28, decided to give the method a go with a few buddies and a few more drinks — and he earned a green jacket to show for it.
The week before this past April’s Masters, Rahm practiced “as intense as he could be” with his swing coach at the beginning of the week.
But when Friday rolled around, he headed home to Scottsdale, Arizona, to play a skins game “just for fun” with his buddies at Silverleaf Country Club before heading to Augusta.
“We took it to an extreme,” Rahm said. “I told Kelley [his wife] we’re going to have fun. We’re with friends, we’re playing music, we’re all drinking, smoking cigars. My goal was to tee up driver on every single hole that’s not a par 3, hit it as hard as I can and see what happens.
“We stopped counting after eight drinks.”
But, even with some drinks in him, Rahm managed to shoot a 60.
When asked if 60 was his best score at Silverleaf, Rahm quickly set the record straight.
“No, I’ve shot 59 twice…but sober,” Rahm said.
He went on to shoot a tournament-best 3-under to win the Masters.
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