With less than a month left for one of the biggest events, if not the biggest, in professional golf, preparations are on the rise. It is natural for the press and fans to wonder how the elites are preparing for the 2026 Masters at Augusta National. And when the question rose at a press conference at the LIV Golf South Africa 2026, the room was full of details from professionals like Tyrrell Hatton and others. Jon Rahm, however, had a plain response.

“Into Augusta? My thoughts? I hope I win. I’m going to try my best and hope I can get a second green jacket. That’s the goal,” the Spaniard said when asked about his thoughts going into the Masters 2026.

Well, Jon Rahm secured his first individual LIV win in roughly 18 months at HSBC LIV Golf Hong Kong. He shot 23‑under and defeated Thomas Detry by three strokes. Besides that, the win followed two runner-up finishes at LIV Golf Riyadh and LIV Golf Adelaide. Recently, at the LIV Golf Singapore, he finished in solo 5th after scoring 10-under par. This shows that his form is peaking at the right time.

And while he aims to win his second green jacket, Rahm didn’t share anything about his preparation outright, as others like Tyrrell Hatton did.

“Yeah, so me and Tom, we’re going to fly up on the Sunday in the middle of the two weekends off. So we’ll play Sunday afternoon and then Monday morning and then go back to Orlando,” the Englishman said.

As he revealed, he plans to fly to Augusta National with Tom McKibbin. The two will play a practice round together to prepare for the main event in April. Hatton also acknowledged how crazy it feels to play in his 10th Masters this year, despite acting like a kid himself.

McKibbin will be heading to Augusta National to play the Masters for the first time this year. The Northern Irishman won the 2025 Hong Kong Open. Thus, under the new national open winner eligibility rules, he has been invited to play the 2026 Masters.

“Yeah, as Tyrrell said, going to go and join him for a little practice trip. Yeah, something I’m really excited to do, go for the first time and sort of get to enjoy that experience playing with Tyrrell,” Tom McKibbin said.

While Tyrrell Hatton and Tom McKibbin’s plans are clear, fans will have to wait to see how Jon Rahm prepares for the Masters 2026. However, he would certainly like to perform exceptionally there to clear the doubts about his Master’s performances.

Jon Rahm’s performance at the Masters after joining LIV Golf

Augusta National has been the LIV golfer’s worst-performing major since he joined the Saudi-backed league. He won the 2023 Masters before joining the league. The 11x PGA Tour winner carded rounds of 65-69-73-69 to score 12-under 276. This helped him secure a comfortable 4-stroke victory over runners-up Phil Mickelson and Brooks Koepka.

However, things have been different since he joined LIV Golf from the 2024 season. Jon Rahm finished T45 in 2024 and T14 in 2025. On the contrary, he finished T7 at the 2024 Open Championship, T7 at the 2025 US Open, and T8 at the 2025 PGA Championship. Thus, the Masters is the only major in which he has not posted a top-10 finish since joining LIV Golf.

The Spaniard has had an exceptional start to the 2026 LIV Golf campaign. His victory at LIV Golf Hong Kong 2026 even got him in the top 50 in world rankings. He would want to continue and build on that momentum to try to secure his second win at the Masters.

His recent record at Augusta suggests there is still something to solve. However, his form across other majors and the 2026 LIV season highlights that he is in the right direction. This contrast makes his reserved approach to Augusta plans all the more intriguing.