|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
ZURICH CLASSIC OF NEW ORLEANSApril 27, 2019Jon RahmRyan PalmerAvondale, Louisiana Q. Finish hitting it in the water on 17, but then that birdie putt gets you into the last group for Sunday. How fulfilling was that? JON RAHM: Kind of feel like I (indiscernible - music) Ryan a little bit there. He played a perfect 18th hole. Yeah, that finish was crucial. That putt Ryan made was probably the most important shot we made so far in the tournament. Felt like a birdie, and then to keep tied for the lead, very important. Q. You played this event in the past, but this weather is just always a jinx here at TPC Louisiana. What has the flow of this week been like for you guys? RYAN PALMER: It's been 4:30 four nights in a row. Dinners at 9:00 and back up at 4:30. Took its toll on me. Just feeding me sugar and food trying to keep my energy up. Tomorrow we'll be on a lot of rest. Like I said, if we're on tomorrow in alternate shot, we're going to be hard to beat. Q. Foursomes is always difficult. Not going to see too many birdies. What's the game plan? What worked well for you through the second round? Now you'll be able to at least play 18 all together. JON RAHM: He just mentioned it, we hit it so good off the tee in foursomes days - because it was two days - that we were able to go aggressive with the irons and give ourselves chances. It kind of worked out where our first nine holes when I putted most, I made my putts, and then came in the next day and the nine he was going to putt more and he started making the putts. We were on fire at the right time, and that's why the score was so low. Hopefully tomorrow we can do the same thing. But, again, hopefully can get the ball striking going and make a few putts. Q. What's something you learned about Jon through being his teammate? RYAN PALMER: Something I've learned? He's just fun to be around. He's actually a great guy. I've enjoyed every second with him. When you're up close and personal and watching it and see the shots he can hit around the green, you know, his short game is phenomenal. You can learn something from that, too, so I learned a lot. Honor to be a part of it. Q. Just some general thoughts on your round. Looks like 17 was the crucial moment in your round this afternoon. RYAN PALMER: Yeah, we -- I had some good golf on the front, front but I rode John's back that back nine. He played some great golf and made some unbelievable putts to keep the round going. For me, I just hit the wrong shot on 17 and hit the water. But step up and it hit the shot I should have hit the first time by eight feet, but to make that putt was (indiscernible - music) probably made on that back nine. Gave us a chance to make birdie and stay tied for the lead. It just put us right there for tomorrow. Q. Jon, talk about the putt on the last hole and the little fist bump. JON RAHM: Well, it really -- besides completely stealing Ryan's momentum after that... RYAN PALMER: I get one chance to make birdie. JON RAHM: Well, I mean, I assumed you were going to make it. I just hit it. The emotion was after Ryan hit it in the water I just needed to keep to dry on 17. Trying to make just a comfortable shot, which is a fade, and went in the water and I was a little frustrated. Hit a good drive in the bunker, layup, so to just make the putt, it was just a good way to finish. (Indiscernible - music.) Just a good way for me personally to finish the round and look forward to tomorrow. Q. How doable is a 65 again tomorrow? What's it going to take and what makes you guys such a good foursome pairing? RYAN PALMER: We drive the ball well. That's the key. That's what we did the last two days in foursomes, and even today we drove the ball well. For us, if we drive the ball and put it in play we've got a great chance every hole. We both get our iron play going and knowing we can get hot with the putter real fast. We drive the ball well tomorrow and we're going to have a lot of chances. I think we're going to be right there. Q. Talk about how you became a partnership, when you first met, and what was the feeling like when Jon accepted your invite? JON RAHM: (Laughter.) You're assuming. I'm going to thank you for that. Actually we first met in 2015. Final round in U.S. Open. I was still an amateur. I played with Ryan. I think we each had a low round, 6- or 7-under to be one back of the playoff. I finished Top 5, which was I think one of the highlights of my college career. So we met there. He made every single putt he looked at and I looked how he made every single putt. That was the first time we met. How this came along is last year we were paired in the same group. He was playing with Jordan and I was playing with Wesley, and Wesley got injured and had surgery. Jordan couldn't make it. We both played good last year, we know our games, we have very similar games, very similar ball flights off the tee and ball flights with the irons, so it's very easy for us to get in each other's mind and see what's going to happen. Very comfortable with how each other played, and, yeah, felt like a right fit. RYAN PALMER: Just sent him a text out there during Palm Springs, and I was just seeing if he was going to bite. Fortunately he did, and here we are. Q. Coach Peyton, the draft is over with today. Do you think you'll have an extra cheerleader up in the stands tomorrow? RYAN PALMER: I think he went to L.A. His daughter is graduating from college, so I know he's there right now if he's not back yet. I don't know. I'm sure I'll talk to him, but I don't know if he'll be back for tomorrow night. He was excited for the draft, that's for sure. He picked up an Aggie, which is even better. See how it goes. I'm sure I'll hear from him soon. I've been. Q. Go in the draft room again? You have anything to do with the drafting Aggie? RYAN PALMER: No, we were done so late. We just couldn't make it. He sent me a text saying (indiscernible), so I knew he got him. Q. Nice to be playing only one round of golf tomorrow? JON RAHM: Yeah, we don't have no 7:00 am or 6:00 p.m. tee times tomorrow, which is nice. RYAN PALMER: Nice dinner finally. Sleep in until a little bit, until 7:00, 8:00. JON RAHM: Yeah, we can actually set the alarm past 5:00 in the morning. Q. You mentioned the fatigue factor and keeping your sugar intake up. Can you elaborate on that with the candies? RYAN PALMER: We started earlier yesterday. Adam, his caddie had a bag of Skittles, and we figured we needed to get something going, so we had Skittles for birdies. So every birdie we made, pulled out and Federer each one of us one skittle. Q. Is that going to happen tomorrow? RYAN PALMER: Oh, yeah. JON RAHM: Oh, yeah. We got to keep it going. It's been working out pretty good. Q. Might need to go on a diet if you make a lot birdies tomorrow. RYAN PALMER: It's only eight or nine Skittles a round. JON RAHM: Yeah, over the span of four hours you sweat, and you just keeping that sugar level intact, so that's just try to keep a balance. Q. Can you talk about what kind of mentor Ryan has been, you as a younger player knowing him the past few years and how he's been a good role model for you? JON RAHM: In a week like this, to have somebody who has played here a lot of times, compared to me who's played here once, it's a lot of help because of the knowledge of the game, the knowledge of the golf course, and the little things, right? It's incredible to see how whenever I played bad, which is the case the first few holes the first day, he stepped up and stayed in there. When the tables flipped I kind of stepped up. Just there to make sure I'm ready to play good when he is not playing good. That's kind of what happened. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|