PINEHURST, N.C. -- Jon Rahm walked into the U.S. Open news conference room Tuesday with a golf shoe on his right foot, a flip-flop on his left foot, complete with a toe separator.
The two-time major winner said the foot injury, which he described as an infection, that caused him to withdraw from last week's LIV Golf tournament in Houston is "a concern" as he prepares for the third major championship of the year.
"Could I have dragged myself out there and posted some kind of a score? Yeah." Rahm said of his withdrawal. "But it was getting to a point where I wasn't making the swings I wanted to make, and I could have hurt other parts of my swing just because of the pain. As to right now [playing] this week, I don't know."
Rahm said the lesion or cut he suffered is in between his pinkie toe and the next toe on his left foot and that he is unsure how it happened or how it led to an infection. On Saturday in Houston, Rahm received a shot before the round to numb the pain so he could play through it.
"It was supposed to last the whole round, and by my second hole I was in pain already," Rahm said. "The infection was the worrisome part. The infection is now controlled, but there's still swelling and there's still pain."
The 2022 U.S. Open winner made a scouting trip to Pinehurst in recent weeks and said is hoping to still play in this week's tournament. It's why he's using the flip-flop, Rahm explained, in order to keep the foot dry and let it heal faster.
"I can only do what I can do," Rahm said. "The human body can only work so fast."
After finishing inside the top 10 and winning the Masters in 2023 before signing with LIV, Rahm is now ranked eighth in the world. At Augusta this year, he finished tied for 45th while he missed the cut at the PGA Championship in Louisville.
Despite consistently finishing inside the top 10 at LIV events, Rahm's struggles in majors have shifted him out of the spotlight. Rahm, for his part, said that even though he has had a slow start to the year, he is content with where his career stands at the moment.
"I'm in a happy place. It's not like I've been playing bad, even though a lot of you make it sound like I'm playing bad," Rahm said. "Yeah, it hasn't been the best first half of the year, but there's been many times where I haven't had a great start, but that doesn't mean you can't have a great finish."