Who Is Jon Rahm’s Caddie?

Jon Rahm has made real waves in the game of golf in recent years, famously winning The Masters and more recently becoming the most high-profile signing in the LIV Golf League.

The Spaniard also won the 2021 US Open, and has accumulated more than 20 professional victories in total. Being a champion is about more than just playing good golf, however, and having a great team by your side certainly helps. So, with that in mind, who is Jon Rahm's caddie?

Who Is Jon Rahm's Caddie?

Hayes was born in Rockledge, Florida and learned to play the game through his grandparents, with some of his most-cherished memories arriving at that time.

After high school, he played golf at Brevard Community College between 1995 and 1997, going on to transfer to the University of Central Florida between 1997 and 1999.

Once he had graduated, the Floridian looper secured gigs on the LPGA Tour until 2003, later moving over to the PGA Tour in 2004 and joining up with Vaughn Taylor.

Caddying apparently came quite naturally to Hayes as he and Taylor secured their first victory together in their debut season - at the Reno-Tahoe Open.

In the subsequent years, Hayes moved on and carried the bags of some great players - including Webb Simpson, Jason Dufner, Russell Henley, and Ben Crane - and secured plenty more wins.

A particular highlight in his stellar career to date came with Jonathan Byrd, when Byrd made a hole-in-one on the fourth play-off hole to win the 2010 Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open.

But it is with Rahm where he has enjoyed some incredible success. Rahm and Hayes started working together in September 2016 after Jim 'Bones' Mackay enquired whether Hayes - who was working for Henley at the time - would be interesting in moving across.

At the time, Rahm was 126th in the world and had only made 12 professional starts, but his reputation was growing after a strong college career at Arizona State and a notable performance at the Phoenix Open earlier in the year.

Hayes agreed to make the switch, and it is a decision which proved to be arguably the best of his life. The pair achieved their first win together at the 2017 Farmers Insurance Open, at Torrey Pines, before ascending to the World No.1 spot in 2020.

Describing why their on-course relationship has always worked so well, Rahm told the Caddie Network in 2021: "I think the most important thing to understand with (Adam) is he wants to win as much as I want to win, and that’s the beauty of it.

“Adam is amazing. I think what’s made it work so well early on, the best way I can say it is we’re both no-BS guys.

"If you have something to tell me, tell me to my face, and it’s reciprocal. So he will tell me if he has something to tell me, and I will tell him if I have something to tell him.

"Besides the obvious chemistry and friendship that we have, I think the honesty and willingness to work is what makes it work so well and why we’ve made such a good team."

For father of two, Hayes, he loves Rahm's on-course spirit. The caddie said: “The best caddies are guys that just are almost like chameleons. They can read people’s personalities and learn their tendencies, and they don’t try and change people, and I’ve never tried changing Jon or anybody that I’ve ever worked for. Jon is who Jon is.

"He’s a very competitive guy on the course and a lot of people take that the wrong way when he gets mad, but that’s just something that he’s had to figure out on his own, and I’ve never judged him for it and I never will. So I think that I’ve never tried to coddle or pamper the guys I’ve worked for but you hold guys accountable.”

Following the pair's switch to LIV Golf at the end of 2023, Rahm and his caddie received a good deal of criticism which the looper admitted was tough to deal with.

Speaking after Rahm won the LIV Golf Individual championship in his first year, Hayes revealed the Spaniard was initially inspired to the crown by trying to prove people wrong.

An emotional Hayes said: "This year had a lot of expectations and different stuff. It's hard not to listen to the people, so when you have those expectations...

"It's been a tough year for a lot of different reasons. But really since Valderrama, the game was good and the new shaft in his driver was good, and then he was just very... had a plan. I felt being here we were playing more to prove other people wrong, but then the last part of the season he played more for himself."