Lagardère Sports has signed Jon Rahm, the No. 1 amateur golfer in the world for the last two years and the only player ever to win the prestigious Ben Hogan Award twice.
“I don’t want to put expectations on him, but his record so far is as good as Phil’s or Tiger’s coming out of college,” said Steve Loy, Lagardère Sports president of golf.
Loy, Phil Mickelson’s longtime agent, will lead Rahm’s representation team. Agent Jeff Koski will serve as Rahm’s day-to-day manager.
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Jon Rahm was a four-time All-American at Arizona State.
Photo by: GETTY IMAGES
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Rahm, a native of Spain, is a four-time All-American out of Arizona State, where he played for Mickelson’s brother Tim. The highly coveted player also won the 2016 Jack Nicklaus National Player of the Year award and finished in the top 10 in two PGA Tour events last year.
Loy acknowledged that many in the golf community expected Rahm to sign with Lagardère because of the Mickelson connection, but signing him is still a coup for the firm’s golf division, which has become a major player in the golf business in recent years.
Lagardère Sports, owned by Paris-based Lagardère Group, started in the golf business in 2012 when it acquired Loy’s former company, Gaylord Sports Management, and added to that business in 2013 by buying golf talent agency Crown Sports and hiring Jay Danzi, agent to Jordan Spieth.
Loy noted that when he sold his company to Lagardère Sports it had 17 PGA Tour players but now has 46.
As of last week, nine Lagardère clients, including Spieth, Mickelson, Brandt Snedecker and Smylie Kaufman, were among the top 50 golfers in the FedEx Cup standings. Spieth is the No. 2-ranked golfer in the world.
But landing Rahm is a boost for Lagardère as it competes in the golf market against Wasserman, which represents world No. 1 Jason Day and No. 5 Rickie Fowler, as well as IMG, which represents No. 7 Henrik Stenson and No. 12 Branden Grace.
In addition to signing Rahm, Lagardère Sports signed University of Oregon golfer Aaron Wise, who was the fifth-ranked amateur in the world. Koski will represent him as well.
Asked whether Mickelson differed from Rahm at the same age, Loy said, “I think Phil would tell you this — so I am not speaking out of school — Jon drives the ball better and Phil had maybe a little more creative short game.”
Rahm has been wearing Arizona State apparel and has played a mixed bag of clubs.
“He wanted to make sure everybody knows he could play a variety of golf clubs,” Loy said.
