New Delhi, March 27 -- He has a bouncer's heavy walk and a pause when he speaks which is striking. His answers aren't rehearsed or impatient or from some well-worn drawer of cliches. Ask him a question and he waits a beat. Golfer Jon Rahm, Masters champion in 2023, makes you feel he's actually thinking about what you asked. In Singapore in March, the Spaniard stands and chats, never looking at his watch as he speaks about Navy Seals, Rafael Nadal, Michael Phelps and how the taste of winning is fleeting.

"You think this (feeling of euphoria) will last forever. If you were a kid and you were playing at recess and you won a game of football, how long did that last? An hour later you want to win again. So it essentially is the same thing." I...