MADRID — Jon Rahm and Sean Lowry are having trouble returning to competition after helping Europe win the Ryder Cup, with Rahm getting into a brief altercation with a marshal trying to cheer him up at the Spanish Open on Thursday.
After he hit the left rough on the par-4 eighth, Rahm saw the lie and started complaining: “What a great day, what a great day,” he said, followed by an expletive.
The marshal who marked his ball said, “It’s okay.” Lahm immediately looked at him and said, “Please don’t tell me it’s okay. Thank you.”
The marshal apologized as he walked away, while Ram continued to complain: “This isn’t okay.”
Rahm shot par on the hole, but then bogeyed the next hole, his final hole of the day, to finish with a 1-over 72. He hit a bunker shot for eagle on the par-5 14th, but he only had one birdie and four bogeys in his round.
Rahm is in the same group as Lowry, who scored Europe’s decisive Ryder Cup putt in New York last month before a raucous home crowd tormented the European players from the start. Rahm said the Ryder Cup was the toughest week of his career mentally during his time in Madrid.
Lowry shot a 4-over 75 in the first round at Club Villa Campo in Madrid. The Irishman had six bogeys and two birdies.
The club leaders are Englishman Marco Penge and Frenchman Frédéric Lacroix, who shot 66 each round, 5 under.
Rahm is seeking to win a record fourth Spanish Open title and overtake Seve Ballesteros to become the European Tour’s most successful golfer since its inception in 1972. Lahm is making his seventh appearance in Madrid, having won in 2018, 2019 and 2022. Last year, he finished runner-up to Spain’s Angel Hidalgo in a playoff.
In 1995, Ballesteros won the last of his 50 titles on the European Tour at the Spanish Open.
For the first time, the event offers the winner automatic entry into next year’s Masters and Open.
World No. 1 tennis player Carlos Alcaraz (also Spaniard) is one of the players following Lahm in Thursday’s first-round match in Madrid.
