Jon Rahm identifies a major problem with underplaying in pro golf

At the 2026 Open Championship, golf fans have seen conflicting realities when it comes to slow play in pro golf. On the other hand, Ryan Fox put on a fast-paced clinic en route to victory Sunday at Royal Birkdale, which Jon Rahm called “an eye-opener.”

On the other hand, some experts suffered from cycles on Thursday and Friday of up to 5 hours and 40 minutes.

Ahead of this week’s LIV Golf UK event, Rahm settled both seemingly contradictory opinions in his pre-tournament press conference. But he also identified a major problem with underplaying in pro golf and suggested a simple solution.

Rahm says slow-play rules need to be ‘tough’

Rahm introduced his idea of ​​controlling the pace of play on Tour while addressing an entirely different issue: the new code of conduct policies at the majors.

The two-time champion was given a conduct warning at last week’s Open following a club defeat in the second round.

“Now that you’re showing the level of play, I can give you an idea,” Rahm continued. “If you get a warning about the code of conduct on Thursday, that warning lasts for a week and it doesn’t go back. You can drink on Thursday; your team is warned; you have time to respond. Then you’re put on the clock, and if you’re on the clock you get another warning before you’re punished. So you get three bad times out of many others, and then when you start to rest it’s not good for me.”

Rahm went on to say that golf’s governing bodies should relax the rules of the code of conduct or change the pace of play to make the warnings last for the entire tournament instead of just one round.

“How is it possible that the problem that exists right now in the game can cause slow play and affect other people, get a lot of breaks, and be completely monitored, and then with the code of conduct, you don’t know where the line is. You don’t have an explanation of what you can or can’t do, although we understand where the limit can be, and that warning stays with you all week,” Rahm said on Tuesday. “I know the different things and why they do it, but I make one of them too hard or the other too easy. It doesn’t matter what you choose. But it would be nice to see them in the same line. Don’t worry.”

But if Rahm were to make a decision, he would choose to change the pace of the game.

“I think it’s to make the pace of play stronger,” he said.

Why Rahm thinks underplaying has been ‘overlooked’

While Rahm acknowledged that underplaying is a problem in pro golf, he also pointed out that the problem has been overstated. Why? Because slow rounds are just the reality of tournaments with big fields and difficult setups, especially on Thursday and Friday.

“It comes to a point where you can do so much, but if you have – like last week, for example, a hole like 14 where it’s reachable but the green is very difficult to hit like a par-5, very few people will hit the green, now your ball is gone. It’s a difficult chip. It’s going to take time. It’s going to be really waiting. The nature of the game,” explained Rahm.

He supported his argument by noting that tournaments with small fields, such as the Masters, rarely see problems with slow play.

“I think the pace of play is broken a little bit,” Rahm said. “I think a lot of people go back to playing a little bit just because the front group is slow, and you see a small part of the whole story, when the truth is that I think if you have a small field, it’s rarely a problem.”

Rahm credits Ryan Fox and the pros for the fast pace of play

As for Fox’s lightning-quick performance Sunday at the Open, Rahm wasn’t surprised, having played the longtime pro many times. Although he admitted he was shocked by how Fox hit his winning birdie putt on 18.

“I think what was surprising was that it took 22 seconds from Sam’s last time [Burns] goes in until Ryan hits his putt to win the championship. “I think it shows more than just a quick process, how confident he was and how good he felt that day,” Rahm said.

He also said that Fox’s success while playing fast could be an “eye-opener” in the golf world and give players of all styles a good example to follow.

“I’ve played a lot with Ryan [Fox]and obviously I’m not surprised because I know how fast he is, but I think it’s an eye-opener for the world when you see every shot he hits that day and how fast he really plays.”

But Rahm also noted that while slower players get a lot of attention, most of the top pros are fast players. He name-checked Rory McIlroy and Brooks Koepka to show that Fox’s example was out of the ordinary.

“Another incredibly fast player is Rory McIlroy. [Koepka] like that. There are a lot of people who have won great events very quickly. It’s never been talked about because I think it’s easier to focus on the other side of the coin, isn’t it,” Rahm argued.

While Rahm spoke extensively about the pace of play in his Tuesday LIV press conference, he did not address the tumultuous future of LIV Golf. When asked if he expected to play at LIV Golf in 2027, he simply replied, “I can’t share things that I can’t share with you right now.