Jon Rahm walked off the 18th green at Aronimink on Saturday evening at 4-under for the championship, two shots behind leader Alex Smalley, with a clear path to a piece of golf history that no Spaniard has ever achieved. Should the LIV Golf star win on Sunday, he will become the first player from Spain to lift the Wanamaker Trophy, completing a national grand slam tally that has eluded every Spanish great that came before him.
The 31-year-old has been here before. Rahm is the reigning Masters champion of 2023 and won the 2021 U.S. Open at Torrey Pines. A PGA Championship victory would leave only The Open Championship between him and the career grand slam. More immediately, it would put a Spaniard's name on a trophy that Seve Ballesteros, José María Olazábal and Sergio García could not claim across decades of contention.
Rahm acknowledged the broader stakes after his third round but pushed back at the notion of carrying them publicly into Sunday.
'In a week like this one, I'm thinking more about myself,' Rahm said. 'I'm not going to take on anything outside what I can control when it comes to competing tomorrow. If I do get it done, and I sit here again tomorrow, then you can ask me the same question. I'll give you an answer, but what it would mean for Spain as well in the Grand Slam tally and being the last leg of the Grand Slam for us as well, there's a lot of things that would mean a lot, but too much of it is out of my control.'
The Spaniard's path through Aronimink has been a study in patience on greens that have rewarded almost nothing aggressive. He ranked 122nd in strokes gained putting after Round 1 before sharpening his work on the most slope-heavy surface set of the year. His own analysis of why the course has played so much harder than the early-week chatter suggested is worth recording.
'They're hard,' Rahm said of the greens. 'The best way I can describe them is you're going to see very few of major championship golf courses where if you're in the middle of the green, you're going to have as hard a time to two-putt as you can on some of the holes out here. Especially with the pin locations. Usually being in the middle is a safe haven. This week, you need to think about where you're going to leave the ball cuz the middle is not always the best option with how sloped these greens are.'
Rahm has been one of the most consistent voices this week pushing back at the pre-tournament suggestion that scores of 20-under were even plausible at Aronimink. He repeated the point on Saturday with characteristic directness.
'I would like to know who came up with that, by the way,' Rahm said. 'Honestly, when I heard people talking about 20 under par, it made me question my ability to read a golf course because I was looking at the greens and where they could put pin locations and possible wind. My mind was never — I actually got worried. I'm like, if somebody shoots 20 under, the amount of records they're going to break this week would be unheard of.'
He praised the PGA of America for the setup despite the difficulty, including pins he had not believed they would dare use.
'Credit to the PGA for the setup,' Rahm said. 'They've found some incredible hard pin locations out there. Usually when we're practicing, we put our discs out. And there's definitely quite a few that I would have told Adam, I'm like, man, there's no way they're going to put a pin there. And we did. So they found a way to keep it all close together. And as hard as it is to play, the challenge can also be kind of fun if you do well.'
Pressed on whether his current form is the best he has played since his 2023 Masters win, Rahm conceded the feeling is there.
'I would say so far this week is felt really really good and so far this year,' Rahm said. 'At times perhaps better than in 23. The only year I would say that has felt better than so far this year would be 2021.'
For a Spaniard chasing the trophy that no Spaniard has ever won, the final 18 holes at Aronimink may be the most important round of his career.
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*Originally published on [Golf News Global](https://golfnews.global/article/jon-rahm-first-spaniard-pga-championship-wanamaker-aronimink). Visit for full coverage.*
