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DELL TECHNOLOGIES CHAMPIONSHIP

September 2, 2017

Jon Rahm

Boston, Massachusetts

JOHN BUSH: We welcome Jon Rahm, current leader of the Dell Technologies Championship, 66 today.

Jon, excellent playing. If we can get some comments on your round.

JON RAHM: Well, thank you, first of all. Man, it felt like very different, that front nine and back nine, it was a big difference.

You know, I don't know what to say. I played a nearly perfect back nine. Felt like I didn't miss a shot. I felt I putted for birdie pretty much from every hole from a really close distance. Nothing to say about that one.

But that front nine is the one that probably looked worse than what it felt. Felt like I was making great swings. You know, they were going on line, hitting the shots that I wanted.

It's just me and Adam, I feel like we misjudged the wind a couple times or we got a couple gusts, and probably got the worst of it. Ended up missing greens, like on 13. I thought it was a perfect shot; it was going to be inside ten feet and it ended up short of the green. On 16, I ended up long of the green, costing me a couple shots.

Even though it looked bad, I was making good swings. I kept a positive attitude, and you know, on 18, I don't know what happened, hit a good shot, made the putt and everything just happened.

Q. Could you explain your eagle on 18? We've seen some eagles there. How did you do it?
JON RAHM: Well, after a great par save on 17, I grabbed a 3-wood and probably hit it about as perfect as I can, right over the bunkers. Ended up in the edge of the fairway in a little bit of an upslope. I could not have had a better lie to attack that pin.

I had, I believe, it was 187 meters to that pin with some -- I think it was some left-to-right wind, which for my shots, I like hitting a high fade. It was perfect. So I aim -- if you go in the fairway, you can see the 18-hole sign, which is about 30 feet left of pin. Aimed at it and tried to hit it as high as I could and let the wind and my shot do the rest and just basically executed perfectly. Landed on front edge, you know, and had ten feet for eagle.

Q. You talked about fighting it a little bit in your first nine, but you were still able to sink some putts. How important is that psychologically to allowing you to attack the second nine?
JON RAHM: Well, it's a huge difference. You know, I actually hit really good putts on the first few holes. Made an up-and-down on 11, made a good 10-footer on 13, and a great putt on 14 and another one on 15, right.

So when you're making those par putts and making a bonus one for birdie, you feel like you're kind of stealing some shots from the course and that's always a bonus, especially feeling that I haven't had the best breaks possible yet.

Me and Adam kept saying, you know, let's keep playing and hitting good shots. We're going to get the breaks at some point. You know, it happened on 18, and luckily the putts kept going in and the shots ended up being more what we expected.

But to your point, yeah, it's basically being able to make those putts; it's key, because if I don't make those, I would have been, what, 3-over through 15, a really big difference.

Q. This is your first look at TPC Boston. What are your thoughts on the course, and did you feel like kind of right away that it fit your eye to a certain degree?
JON RAHM: It does fit my eye. I mean, I think it's a great golf course. After what we played last week with the rough we had last week, anything seems simple. I really think it's a really good golf course.

You can tell it's a ball-striker's course because on every green, there's little sections for the pin to be at, right. It can be a big green, but there's little sections for the pin to be at, right. It can be a big green, but there's little sections you can hit it at. So being precise off the fairway, it's going to give you some close birdie putts, which luckily for me has been happening.

It does fit my eye. You know, it's something I feel comfortable on, and I feel like I've adapted to it pretty good. So you know, hopefully I can keep playing the way I feel about it.

Q. Yesterday you said you scored about as well as you could have, given the conditions and everything. Does that inspire you that you were able to score yesterday and maybe didn't have your perfect game, or does it take a little bit longer to sort of sink in and maybe aggravate you a little bit?
JON RAHM: No, you realize it. Today was sort of the same day.

It's good to realize it, because you can tell. I mean, you know you don't have the best stuff; you're not hitting the best shots. But when you end up with the scores I've ended up with the last few days, you realize it.

It's always a positive, because maybe the next few days, I can actually start playing the way I finished the last two, it will be a much more comfortable round to play, that's for sure.

But yeah, luckily for me, at least it's sunk in pretty quick. That's probably why I was able to turn the round around today.

Q. Just curious, you probably get asked all the time: Do you get surprised you've come this far, this fast?
JON RAHM: I was for awhile. I'm not going to lie. The last -- the two-month stretch after Colonial that I didn't play my best golf in the States, it's probably because I got to the point where I had accomplished so much more than I had set myself to in the beginning of the year; that I felt like there was nothing else to do, right.

I had a few goals early on in the year, and I ended up accomplishing a lot more than the ones I had in mind. And I believe, after Colonial, I got into the Top-10 in the world. This is kind of what, you know -- it made me complacent of what I had accomplished all year.

You know, I didn't play with the same intensity or the same -- I really didn't have a goal, like see some goal after that, and kind of realized that a couple weeks ago. Talked to my mental coach about it. Talked to a couple people about it.

You know, I feel like I'm on a good track; so to your question, yeah. It's taken me two months to realize what I've done, and you know, hopefully I can keep surprising myself.

But it's been a process. It wasn't easy. I really couldn't understand why all of a sudden I wasn't playing good and my mind wasn't in the same place, and it was because of that. It took me some time to adjust to what I had done.

Q. You said you surpassed your goals. What were your goals for this year?
JON RAHM: Well, to be honest, one of the goals was making it to East Lake, and then hopefully winning a tournament. And you know, making it to the majors and WGCs. And then Torrey Pines, which is one of the first tournaments of the year, I get my win. And then I played the way I did in both WGCs and I get to 12th in the world going to Augusta.

Getting to the Top 15 in the world, it's a huge -- it's a long-term goal. It takes people years to get to that spot. So once I got there, my next goal was, okay, let's get into the Top-10. And thanks to that, I kept playing really good golf. I kept making Top-10s, top fives, giving myself chances. Finished top five in Wilmington at the Wells Fargo, and followed by a great week in Colonial. And once I got there, I mean, I got to Top-10 in the world. It really -- I kept adding.

Then I became a European Tour Member; I win on The European Tour. That wasn't even in my mind at the beginning of the year. I'm like, if I can somehow get enough money to become a European Tour Member and get points for The Ryder Cup, it would be amazing. Little did I know I was going to win in the way I did in Ireland and get to seventh in the world.

Things just kept piling up and I got to the point, like I explained. I felt like for awhile, I had nothing else to play for. I went from two goals to accomplishing many of them.

Q. So what are your goals now?
JON RAHM: Well, I think we all have the same goal in the next few weeks, which is the FedExCup.

Q. Still early in Dustin's second round, but if it happens to be you two guys in the final group tomorrow, will it feel a bit dÃ©jÃ vu going back to Austin, and do you feel like you owe him one to a certain degree?
JON RAHM: No, it wouldn't be a dÃ©jÃ vu, because I think I've learned and improved so much since then. Like I said, that was basically when I really just came out; a win, and MÃ©xico. After MÃ©xico, that was my next tournament, and I was playing the best player in the world when he was playing his best golf.

So I feel like right now, I still will be playing against the best player in the world but I feel like my golf game and myself have grown quite a bit since then. I wouldn't think it would be the same exact feeling because especially it's not match play.

But you know, it will be a little bit of a dÃ©jÃ vu. I think it will be a lot of fun to play with him and hopefully get to beat him. I played with him last week, and I didn't get to beat him either the first two days. So hopefully it would be a nice feeling.

Q. We've been hearing the roars out there today, very energized crowd here in Boston does. That help pump you up at all while you're out there?
JON RAHM: Of course it does. I mean, the crowds in the northeast has been nothing but great so far.

It's great when you hit a good shot and you get the crowd going towards you when you make a putt and you get the cheers; it's always nice. And to be honest, it's been great to have them around on the bad shots, as well.

When I made the double bogey on 16, frankly I was not happy about it. I think I didn't even watch Hideki hit his 4-footer. I just went straight to the next tee. And from the green to the tee, there was a bunch of people lined up and I must have heard about 50 times, they were pulling for me, and to keep my head up and to keep going, and that always helps you. No matter how bad of a mood you're on, when you have people that you've never met cheering for you, it's always going to help you.

So far, it's been great.

JOHN BUSH: Jon Rahm, best of luck the next two days.

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