Phoenix 24
A childhood experiment in Barrika became a career built on discipline, curiosity and family support.
BARRIKA, SPAIN
Jon Rahm has recalled that his first contact with golf came through his parents, who had begun taking lessons near their home in Biscay. As a child, he sometimes accompanied them after school and watched from the practice area. When he finally tried the sport at around eight years old, his earliest swings produced more contact with the ground than with the ball. The satisfaction of eventually striking a clean shot persuaded him to continue.
Golf was only one of several activities Rahm explored during childhood. He also played football, practised canoeing and kung fu, and dreamed of becoming a goalkeeper for Athletic Club, the Bilbao team followed by his family. What distinguished golf was its individual character. Rahm became fascinated by the idea that every result depended largely on his own decisions and execution.
His beginnings were far removed from the facilities he later encountered in elite competition. Rahm trained at a modest golf school with a short practice range, six par-three holes and an artificial putting green. His parents regularly drove him to courses and tournaments, gradually reorganising family life around an ambition whose eventual scale could not yet be predicted.
Rahm has repeatedly credited his parents with providing both opportunity and discipline. His mother, Ángela Rodríguez, worked as a midwife, while his father, Edorta Rahm, spent much of his professional life working for a company supplying service stations. Edorta also encouraged his son to understand and summarise what he studied instead of relying on memorisation, a habit Rahm later adapted to his sporting preparation and written reflections.
At 15, Rahm left Barrika for Madrid after receiving a scholarship from the Spanish Golf Federation. He subsequently moved to the United States to attend Arizona State University, initially confronting a significant language barrier. He won 11 collegiate tournaments, twice received the Ben Hogan Award and completed a communications degree before turning professional in 2016.
The child who discovered golf while observing his parents eventually became world number one and won the 2021 US Open and the 2023 Masters. His career did not begin inside an established golfing dynasty, but with parental curiosity, repeated journeys and an unusual attraction to personal responsibility. Rahm’s story shows how an ordinary family decision can become the starting point for an exceptional sporting life.
Lo visible y lo oculto, en contexto. / The visible and the hidden, in context.