Jon Rahm enjoyed playing with the pressure off as he carded an impressive 65 in his first competitive round at Yas Links in the Abu Dhabi Aldar Championship.
The Spaniard had not played since the BMW PGA Championship due to the birth of daughter Begoña, with the arrival of his fourth child forcing him to miss the Open de España presented by Madrid for the first time in his career.
With a lack of practice due to family time and the overseeding of courses in Phoenix and no familairity with the layout at the fourth Rolex Series event of the season, Rahm could have maybe been forgiven for making a stuttering start in the UAE.
But the two-time Major champion revealed those factors actually lowered his expectations and he was able to play with freedom in the first event of the DP World Tour Play-Offs.
"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'," he said. "But I just kind of took it one shot at a time.
"I made a couple of beautiful swings early on, great second shot on two and that kind of got things going. That second shot on three as well, making basically three iron swings: the four iron on one, the five iron on two and then eight iron on three gave me some good confidence.
"Very good with the irons. Gave myself plenty of chances and obviously holed a few."
Rahm made five birdies on the front nine with the highlight being a stunning approach to the ninth and then finished birdie-birdie with the help of a long putt on the 17th.
He may have only seen Yas Links for the first time this week but the former World Number One looked right at home and believes his relative ignorance may actually have helped his performance.
"I think sometimes it can be a blessing, just not knowing where some of the trouble may be," he said. "You just kind of focus on what you can see.
"I think sometimes it helps to not be overly aggressive. On the hole like ten, I think it's easy to maybe want to hit driver but not quite comfortable with the lines, just lay it out, but giving myself a chance. And overall just trust in your feel more than what you've seen in the past. It can be a blessing.
"As far as my experience goes, sometimes just not overcomplicating things is what makes it a little bit easier, but a lot of work to do Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday to get comfortable enough with all the lines off the tee."
