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THE 147TH OPEN

July 19, 2018

Jon Rahm

Angus, Scotland, United Kingdom

JON RAHM: To me, it almost seemed like it was a horror movie happening for the past week. Even if somebody tried to do that on purpose, I think you couldn't really do it, where last week, last Thursday I was supposed to travel here, get here by Friday morning, have a few days to kind of adjust to the time and all that stuff. So I look at my visa, and I got really confused with the dates. Obviously, the UK does the day, and I've been living in America, I guess, for too long, and I got used to kind of just see the dates flipped, which at the end of the day, it wasn't that big of a deal because I could have gotten a visa in 24 hours.

So I decided to go on Thursday morning, apply for a visa. Yeah, I was supposed to get here on Friday. For some real reason, the people at the consulate in New York decided not to respond to the application. So, obviously, it was a weekend. So they responded on Monday morning, saying that I applied for the wrong visa. There's tons of things you can apply for. So it was the wrong visa. We fixed it on Monday, and I was supposed to be in Houston on Tuesday morning, to get our flight and be here Wednesday, right? Which still gives me a day to at least see the golf course, which would have been nice. But that didn't happen.

Obviously, I got the reply, but that day something happened with UPS in New York that the whole UPS shut down. So the visa never left New York until late that day. I mean, I waited -- I literally waited in a car in front of the consulate in Houston for seven hours, hoping for that visa to show up that day. It never did.

So I went Wednesday morning, got it, got on a flight from Houston here through Toronto, and I got my agents to give me a helicopter ride from Glasgow here. So it opened up for me to be here at least two hours before tee time, which at least two hours it gives a little time to kind of settle down and go play, but my clubs decided not to show up today, which was nice that the only bag that didn't show up was my golf clubs. I called my caddie, "Man, scramble some clubs, whatever you can fine. Go ask." Luckily, the vans are still here because, if it was the PGA TOUR, it would have been gone, and I probably would have played with some member's clubs here today.

I grabbed the clubs, went out and hit about 20 balls. Luckily, they were going forward, which was nice. Give it a try. I was 5-over. I was actually 1-over through eight holes, and I was feeling good because, I mean, the course is really giving me a great feel. Then I decided to start hitting the driver, and bad things started happening with that shot. It didn't really fit. So I got a few bogeys and shot 76.

But at the end of the day, I gave it a try. I wouldn't do it every single day. It's fun playing here. It's fun playing majors, fun playing The Open. This is my second one, so I wouldn't really miss it for anything.

Q. At least you got your visa.
JON RAHM: My visa, there you go.

Q. Are your clubs in Houston, Toronto, New York?
JON RAHM: Toronto. They made it to Toronto, and for some reason they didn't put it on the plane. Hopefully, they'll show up tomorrow morning. I don't know when. It would be nice to have them tomorrow.

Q. Is there any point where you thought, this just isn't going to happen?
JON RAHM: As long as I had a shot at making it, I was going to go for it. And like I said, I played this even feeling awful. It feels good, I'm sure, if you tell anyone in the world, hey, you're going to have a chance to play The Open Championship, even if you show up two hours before the time, everyone in the world would take it.

So I definitely did and gave it a try, and it didn't work out as good as I wanted.

Q. When you walked into the 1st, were you thinking, this isn't going to go well? Or were you trying to be positive?
JON RAHM: I started hitting the ball on the range, and some of the shots were going somewhat straight, especially with the irons. It was like, you never know. I'm a positive guy. I'm going to go and give it a try and see what happens in kind of the end. But the moment I hit a few drives, it really cost me way too many shots around here.

Q. Do you have any idea where you were going to be aiming and where you were going, and do you have a game plan?
JON RAHM: That's the advantage of having a good caddie, where you can trust him.

Q. He was here early?
JON RAHM: Yeah, so he got here on Saturday. He looked at the course a bunch. But that wasn't a concern. Obviously, the firmness of the golf course was a concern. Shots landed 20, 30, 40 yards short of the green. That was a little different, a little hard to comprehend. But, I mean, obviously, conditions were a lot easier. So I made it easier. But at the end of the day, I mean, I'm here. I had a good time. I just need to go to sleep.

Q. Did you get any sleep over the course of the last couple of days?
JON RAHM: No. I probably slept two hours on the flight. One flight. So I left Houston, and it was 10:00 a.m. there, so 4:00 here on Wednesday afternoon local time here, 4:00. So it took over 14 hours to get here, and I had two hours sleep. So not ideal. I don't recommend it for sure.

Q. Going to be pretty boring now. Going to do something else to spice it up?
JON RAHM: I'll be asleep. Luckily, I'll be up late tomorrow. I can get some sleep. I hope conditions somewhat stay the same. I've just got to go fire it up. Hopefully, my clubs would show up. That's the main thing. If they don't, it's going to be hard to play good. But I'm going to just go out there and have fun. It's a phenomenal golf course. Always good competing here.

Q. Were the clubs the same as yours?
JON RAHM: No, they were a different brand. Different brand putter. The same, but different shot. Literally everything was different. So I mean, I've got TaylorMade woods, I have Titleist irons and wedges, and TaylorMade putter and I played Mizuno irons. I was looking at the Titleist build, that set for me, before I go. I literally called my caddie an hour -- 2 1/2 hours before my tee time to start scrambling some clubs. So I don't know how that went.

But it was fun. To be honest, it was -- even though the journey seemed really crazy and frustrating at times, I just -- I mean, I just thought that somebody was really playing a joke on me. I mean, it couldn't be that way. Just how everything just got interrupted on the way. And even today when my clubs didn't show up, I went it's impossible that my clubs didn't make it. I haven't had any issues all year long with my clubs, and they didn't show up today.

Q. It's a long story (inaudible).
JON RAHM: No. I mean, obviously, just being here and my clubs not showing up, I started laughing. I went -- that's kind of when I said, okay, I'm done. What else can I do? I've done everything I can to give myself a chance, but it's just like literally felt like someone is playing a big joke on me.

Q. Was it helpful that your tee time was a bit late? Lucky it wasn't the earliest.
JON RAHM: Both. I wish I would have had tomorrow's tee time, 3:00, at least got here, get some sleep, kind of have a little better chance to prepare. Either way, I mean, I'm here. I played. I gave it a try. It was fun. Like I said, it's always fun playing in this championship and especially at this golf course. So that's how I'm taking it. Hopefully, it will be something good for the future.

Q. I guess despite the fact it's The Open, so there is a serious element to it. I guess you had a good laugh with Tony and your playing partners out there. Did they find it funny?
JON RAHM: Obviously, everyone sounded funny. Especially when you start putting the pieces together, like literally, it almost feels like somebody on purpose did it. So everyone is having a laugh at it, which is good because I'm thinking the same way. If I would have had a different attitude, I would have broken a few clubs by now.

Q. Do you think your clubs just happen to like it in Toronto?
JON RAHM: Well, maybe they do. That's what I was thinking. Maybe they want to stay there for next week. Thank you guys. Appreciate it.

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