Jon Rahm is back in action for the first time in months.

He took time off for the birth of his child shortly after the BMW PGA Championship in September, but now the two-time major winner is back in action at the Abu Dhabi Championship. 

Rahm’s performance at Wentworth was the worst of his career, as he finished dead last in the field. This came shortly after his departure from LIV Golf when the tour declared bankruptcy. 

It appeared that Rahm’s former tour would survive for another season, but its new investors, BC Partners, withdrew their support for LIV 2.0 due to a lack of player commitments.

Meanwhile, Rahm looks to be back in a major way following his opening round at Yas Links.

How Jon Rahm performed during round one of Abu Dhabi Championship

Any concerns about Rahm’s form have been put to bed for now, as he got off to a storming start to the Abu Dhabi Championship. The 31-year-old is tied for second place after shooting a seven-under par 65.

Rahm caught fire on the front nine, making five birdies before the turn. He kept his scorecard clean on the final nine holes to finish three shots behind the leading Francesco Laporta.

He’s not the only former LIV golfer to hit the ground running. Adrian Meronk, who won the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, is T3 at six-under, and Rahm’s former LIV teammate Tyrrell Hatton is at five-under after a poor run of form of late.

All three have a fantastic chance of winning the first round of the DP World Tour playoffs if they maintain this level over the remaining three days.

Jon Rahm reacts to opening round 65 at Abu Dhabi Championship

After his round, Rahm was happy with his day’s work but felt he managed to score well despite some bad swings over 18 holes.

He said, “Yeah, obviously a very good score. I think the highlight today was my iron game. Very good with the irons. Gave myself plenty of chances and obviously holed a few.

“I would say, though, I got away with a couple of bad swings. Had a tee shot on three, and then up the middle of fairway, a tee shot on 11, being able to find that and have a birdie putt.

“So a few bad swings that I got away with. But overall, yeah, I shot really nice today.”

Rahm said he had low expectations for the week because of his poor play lately, and that helped him settle into a rhythm quickly.

He continued, “I think sometimes when your expectation is a little lower than usual, where I just kept thinking, listen, if we have a bad day, we have a bad day.

“But I just kind of took it one shot at a time, made a couple beautiful swings early on, great second shot on 2, and that kind of got things going. That second shot on 3 as well, making basically 3-iron swings — the 4-iron on one, the 5-iron on two, and then 8-iron on three – gave me some good confidence.”

With LIV Golf’s collapse going on in the background, now would be an incredibly poignant time to win for Rahm.