MADRID — Jon Rahm and Shane Lowry struggled to return to action after helping Europe win the Ryder Cup, with Rahm briefly arguing with a commissioner who tried to cheer him up during the Spanish Open on Thursday.
After his drive found the left rough of the par-4 eighth hole, Rahm saw his lie and began to complain: “What a day, what a day,” he said, followed by an expletive.
The marshal who marked his ball said, “Everything’s okay,” and Rahm immediately looked at him and said, “Don’t tell me everything’s okay, please. Thank you.”
The marshal apologized as he walked away, while Rahm continued to complain: “This is not OK.”
Rahm made a par on the hole, but then made a bogey on the next – his last of the day – to finish with a round of 1-over 72. He holed a bunker shot for an eagle at the par-5 14th, but his round included just one birdie and four bogeys.
Rahm played in the same group as Lowry, who made the decisive Ryder Cup putt for the Europeans in New York last month, when the rowdy home crowd tormented the European players from the start. Rahm said in Madrid that the Ryder Cup had been the most mentally difficult week of his career.
Lowry shot a 4-over 75 in his first round at Club de Campo Villa in Madrid. The Irishman made six bogeys and two birdies.
The club leaders were Englishman Marco Penge and Frenchman Frédéric Lacroix, who shot rounds of 5-under 66.
Rahm is trying to win a record fourth Spanish Open title and surpass Seve Ballesteros as the tournament’s most successful golfer since the European Tour was established in 1972. Rahm is making his seventh appearance in Madrid, with victories in 2018, 2019 and 2022. He was runner-up to compatriot Angel Hidalgo in the playoffs last year.
Ballesteros won the last of his 50 titles on the European tour at the Spanish Open in 1995.
This is the first time the tournament has offered the winner an automatic berth into next year’s Masters and the Open Championship.
World number one tennis player Carlos Alcaraz, also from Spain, was among those who followed Rahm in the first round on Thursday in Madrid.
