After Jon Rahm won both the DP World Tour Championship and the Race to Dubai title, adding up to a $5 million payday, he was quick to credit all the golf he didn’t play in the last month.
Rahm has been busy this year, winning three times in Europe plus a team title with Ryan Palmer at the Zurich Classic. But the Spaniard hasn’t played since winning the Open de Espana in early October, creating a six-week break before the European Tour season finale.
Rahm showed no signs of rust in Dubai, shooting a final-round 68 to edge Tommy Fleetwood by a shot and bookend his break with a pair of victories.
“It was needed,” Rahm said. “For all these people who think that you need to work all the time, and keep working every day and not rest, I guess this is clear proof that you need some rest sometimes.”
Full-field scores from the DP World Tour Championship
A big reason for Rahm’s break is how busy he expects to be next year, when he likely adds an Olympic appearance to an otherwise crammed schedule. But he also spent some time with fiancee Kelley Cahill, as the two are set to get married next month.
It resulted in a rare break for the 25-year-old, who told reporters earlier this week that he didn’t touch a club for an entire month.
“I’m not going to lie, it was hard to let down and step away for a little bit,” Rahm said. "(Kelley and I) spend so much of our life making decisions just for me and my golf game that it was nice to just, you know, tell her for a month straight, ‘What do you want to do,’ right, instead of what do I need to do. It was nice to be able to do that.”
The pending nuptials were still on Rahm’s mind after sinking the final putt to secure a seven-figure check. As Cahill greeted him on the final green, he told her with a grin, “Wedding gift.”
