LOS ANGELES CLIPPERS MEDIA CONFERENCE

August 29, 2020

Jon Rahm

Press Conference

Q. What happened on the 5th hole?

JON RAHM: Not "good round, good day, great play"? Can we go straight to that? Come on!

Q. I was going to say, other than that --

JON RAHM: No, so I knew this was going to happen. Honestly, I can't tell you. For those that don't know, I hit it 30, 40 feet short right of line and was holding my marker in my pocket, just went at it, and for some reason I just picked up the ball thinking I marked it already. I was thinking of somebody else and something else or somebody, and yeah, I just picked up the ball without marking it, simple as that. Once replaced it, took the penalty and moved on.

I'm proud of being able to maintain my composure afterwards. I think the most important shot of the round was that second putt, the six-footer for bogey. Technically it helped out a lot. I was able to tell myself I was 1-under par through five holes. It's not easy; the first few holes aren't playing that easy today. Just more so proud that I was able to pull it off afterwards.

I really can't give you an explanation. It's one of those things that happen in golf. Never thought it would happen in my professional career, but here we are.

Q. Are you still using the poker chip?

JON RAHM: Yeah, it's the same thing. It's an Arizona State poker chip with a smaller one, a magnet, for when I'm closer to the hole. Yeah, I don't know if the camera saw my face or not, but -- I mean, when I was touching it just off the ground, I knew, and I looked at him like I just froze. I didn't know. I didn't know what happened, how it happened and how to proceed. That's all I can say.

Q. Other than that, how great was that round?

JON RAHM: Very satisfactory, I'm not going to lie. It's a really tough golf course out there. It's really, really demanding. Even if you're in the fairway you need to hit really, really good shots and I was able to hit more accurate iron shots out there today and have a couple tap-ins like I did on 3 and on 8, which the one on 8 I still don't know how I hit it that close. And when you have a couple easy birdies, making a few other putts, you get things going.

That was the key. Like I said, that putt on 5 and that par putt on 9 gave me a lot of confidence going down the stretch, and even on the back nine, I kept hitting good shots. I kept putting it in the fairway and giving myself birdie chances. The only time I had to make up-and-down for par was on 16. That was the only time, and it still was a good shot. Hopefully I can carry on with this ball-striking into tomorrow.

Q. I know there's still a lot of golf left, but do you feel like you're now in position where you could win this tournament?

JON RAHM: Heck yeah. Are you kidding? What's the leader, 2, 3? Yeah, four shots behind. Four shots on this golf course is nothing. Seems like the wind is picking up. The golf course is only going to get firmer. We've seen it every day. The first few hours you see people go under par and then slowly just come back to the field. Luckily I was able to finish it up, so hopefully I'm not too far off where I am right now. I do anticipate somebody playing good today and maybe getting to 3-, 4-under par. 5 would be a stretch, but I can see 3-, 4-under, and there will still be a lot of shots to make up, but it's doable. I'll need another 4-under probably tomorrow.

Q. Do you recall ever having an incident like you did on 5 back in junior golf or anything growing up?

JON RAHM: Oh, I'm sure, yeah. I'm sure. I used to have a marker that was -- the material on top of it was a little sticky so many times I would go tap it down and it would get stuck to my putter. I know it happened a few times and I've seen it happen to people before in instances where even in amateur golf where you've played maybe five events with lift, clean and place and you go somewhere and it's and you do it. I've seen things like that happen many, many times. Again, we don't see those on the PGA TOUR and usually it's not followed by a 66 on this golf course.

I just hope I don't lose by one. I'm just going to say that. I just hope. And if I do, well, very well my fault. It's as simple as that.