Jon Rahm Reveals The Reason Why His Backswing Is So Short - He Was Born With A Club Foot

Did people know this? Was this common knowledge? I don't think Rahmbo's ever talked about this before. Which makes this pretty insane on multiple levels. First off, the fact that he's reached world #1 on multiple occasions, won numerous tournaments, and has now won a major championship without mentioning this is damn near maniacal. Rahm's shortened backswing is one of the more recognizable in the sport. You have to think he's been peppered with this question a good handful of times since starting his career and it's probably only come up more and more as the chase for speed on Tour rages on. I guess it's his right to have kept it to himself, but I'd use it as an excuse every chance I get. Fore right? Club foot. 3-putt bogey? Club foot. It's a phenomenal crutch and the fact that he hasn't used it until now is probably the (only) difference between him and I.

Obviously what's more impressive is that he's accomplished all that he has in spite of this. Sure, modern medical science is a wonderful thing and I'm sure he's lived a very normal life since what sounded like a horrific experience as a baby, but this still very much has an effect on how he swings the golf club. He can't take a full backswing because he'll literally lose stability and hit it all over the map. Common sense dictates that that puts him at a disadvantage when it comes to generating club speed, so the fact that he's still near the top of the driving distance charts every year is mind-blowing. He's got a great message about different strokes for different folks and sounded extremely nuanced about it and I think that's the real takeaway here. Find myself liking Rahmbo a little more every day now.

PS: Don't you think for a second that I'm not working "hypermobile" into my daily vernacular moving forward. I wrote this entire blog in 5 minutes flat. Hypermobile like you read about.