Although his father Edorta was a big fan of sports, Edorta tended to lean more towards extreme sports such as free rock climbing, parasailing and free skiing.
But, after he suffered some accidents in those high-risk sports, and when the Ryder Cup came to Spain and he saw Spanish great Seve Ballesteros lead Europe to victory, Edorta and a young Rahm took an interest in the slower-paced game. That's when he stepped onto a golf course for the first time.
Rahm's parents began taking him to lessons after school and once he got a feel for the game, he knew he was destined for great things.
"Pretty much since I was 13 or 14, I think I told my coach I was going to be best player in the world at some point," Rahm told CNN Living Golf's Shane O'Donoghue.
Fast forward to July 19, 2020, and after winning the Memorial Tournament, the Spaniard fulfilled his prediction as he became golf's highest ranked player.
In the eyes of the 25-year-old, being ranked world No. 1 is more of an achievement than winning one of golf's five majors.
"Becoming a world No. 1 is a consequence of playing really good golf for a very long time, right? Winning a major championship is performing really well for a week," explained Rahm.
"Now, the odds of people just coming in and just having a better week than you are very high. The odds of, not an annual player, but somebody to perform better than you for four years, can be a little bit harder. They need to improve week after week after week."
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Growing up
Born in northern Spain in the Basque region, Rahm and his older brother tried their hands at a whole host of sports -- apart from golf.
While his family were always interested in sports, there was no sporting dynasty in the Rahm family DNA. His mother was -- and still is -- a midwife and his father has had numerous jobs, his latest being working for a company that owned gas stations.
In fact, Rahm's first golf club was less of an actual club and more of an "activity club."
"The way I started, my parents would pick me up from school when we finished, and then we'd go get the golf lesson when I was six, seven, eight years old. Sometimes I'll have a snack," he said.
"(The way) my mom tells it, sometimes I'll fall asleep. At some point I was always a curious kid, I played as many sports as I could. I just picked up the golf club and that's how I started."
Rahm moved between a few other courses, before he realized that he "might be onto something" and deciding to commit more of his time to the sport.
"At 14 is when I realized I was top at a national level. There was a big jump in 13-14 because I really hadn't won anything nationally at 13, but at 14, I hit my growth spurt.
"So I hit it a lot further and I won my first event at a national level. Shortly after that year, we had the national Under-16 event at my home club luckily, and I was able to win that one by nine [shots].
"So that's when I really realized: 'Okay, we might be onto something.' But then still working hard, there's been other time
