THE NORTHERN TRUST

August 21, 2021

Jon Rahm

Liberty National Golf Club

Quick Quotes

Q. Can you talk about the idea that this could be 54 holes and that you were looking towards that being an option?

JON RAHM: Yeah, you know, I was told that we weren't playing tomorrow while I was warming up and definitely Adam and I thought about it, and let's just play today like there's no more golf. Let's try to end it up on top as if it was a Sunday just in case, because you never know, right. You can't -- sometimes it's easy to be complacent and like maybe I'm going to be one back tomorrow or whatever. I guess I didn't want to leave it up to chance. Today I definitely had that in mind. Didn't really affect the way I played golf.

But it just being I guess aware that it could be a possibility.

Q. How different do you feel about today's 67 versus the one you shot yesterday?

JON RAHM: Well, it's tough because a double-bogey on 13 and I made two good swings and the ball ended up in the water. That 4-iron was flushed, absolutely flushed. I started walking out there, well, that's on the green. I saw Adam wasn't and looked up and it was a little higher than I expected it and seems like the wind might have picked up a little bit. It looked like about this short from covering, so it's one of those things that happen in golf.

But from that bad break, all I kept thinking was it's a good swing, there's plenty of birdie opportunities, let's get it going. And then at the same time got two good breaks on the tee shots on 17 and 18. One of those two could have ended up in the bunker and they didn't and I ended up having an easy tap-in birdie and a really good look for birdie on 18. At the end of the day, things seemed to balance out.

Q. What do you do tomorrow?

JON RAHM: I have no idea. I'm going to say, you know, it's the third time I'm saying on the interviews, because I can't repeat this enough to myself: If COVID quarantine has taught us anything, it's what to do the whole day cooped up in a room. We're at a hotel, so instead of me getting up to get food, I can room service the food and hopefully the fitness center and spa and some of the amenities at the hotel are open and we can take advantage of it. At the same time we have a four month old in the room that needs a lot of attention. Take a lot of walks around the hotel, I don't know, but it's definitely going to be a fun family day.

Again the hesitation are we playing Monday because the forecast looks terrible Monday, too. I'm hoping but no I have not, I can tell you that. I'm thinking tomorrow as, whatever.

Q. In the rain --

JON RAHM: I honestly haven't thought about it to be honest. If I had a one-shot lead at 17-under, would hope the hurricane comes and stays for two days and we don't have to play again. Unfortunately we don't know. We'll see. Again, weather is hard to predict, right, and we can only take it day-by-day and that's what I'm going to do.

Q. How much has the golf changed since Thursday when it was tough and windy and you were one of the only guys to go low and then today there was a couple 62s?

JON RAHM: I started seeing those scores yesterday afternoon and people started taking advantage of it. It's doable, whatever Cameron shot, 61, 60, I didn't see as many people as we have seen shoot that low. But it's out there. That's the thing. If you can put the ball in the fairway, or even sometimes in the rough, the greens are soft enough to where you can be aggressive and still stop it. I think that's the beauty of it. That's why you're seeing low scores. Somebody is going to go aggressive, hit the right shots and make the putts and put a low one out there.

Q. Would you have liked to try to play 36 today and get it done?

JON RAHM: It was too late to, I don't even know if we would have had time. If that was an option, yeah, definitely, I would have been fine with it.

Q. What were you trying to do on 16?

JON RAHM: I read the lie and it looked like a lie where the ball went soft, and I was just trying to hit a flop shot that if anything would end up short and I would try to end up with par. Never in my mind I thought that ball was going to be somewhat of a flyer. That's why I went as aggressive as I did. Had I thought that was a possibility I would have probably tried to run it up and be a little bit more cautious, but you know, just right or wrong, looking at it, I didn't believe it was going to happen.

Q. Right after Memorial, you come back and win the U.S. Open, and now you're in the lead, do you play with any chip on your shoulder or just doing your thing out there?

JON RAHM: Just doing my thing. I think this time I'm just more rested. I think I said earlier in the week to where I definitely could have used a couple more weeks off after winning the U.S. Open.

Two weeks was not enough to feel fully rested especially mentally and after playing Scottish and playing good and playing good again at The Open, I didn't do much before the Olympics, and having those extra weeks off, I'm not going to lie, I think in my case it helped a lot. My mind needed it and then when I get to spend more time with my son than I anticipated -- and I know in the future I'm going to miss a lot of things in this life.

And hopefully I'm there when he walks for the first time and many milestones like there, and I was there when he rolled over for the first time, and in those last few weeks I've seen him learn how to move and that's something that I would have never been able to see if I wasn't home. I think those weeks off were good for me mentally and for my soul as a father. When I was able to enjoy that, I came in here a little more rested and with my batteries a little more recharged than most of the people that had travelled around the world.

Q. Will you bring any clubs with you to the hotel?

JON RAHM: No. God, no. (Laughter) I said it was a joke, I guess I could meet Adam at Chelsea Piers where they have TopGolf and we can go and try -- not really. What are you going to do in the room, just have carpet? There's not much you can do, right. I feel in my case I could do more wrong than could. I will try to go to the gym and get a workout and stay mobile because if I lay in bed all day I'm not going to be moving the same and try to make the best of it I guess.