TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP

September 3, 2021

Jon Rahm

East Lake Golf Club

Quick Quotes

Q. 8-under on the back nine this week. There's some tough holes back there. Your closing stretches have been tremendous and put you in a great position heading into the weekend.

JON RAHM: Yeah, if I could each week choose when I'm going to play my best golf, I would always choose the back nine, especially the last few holes, but obviously you can't choose that. I think it just happened to be when I hit some really good shots and make the birdies. At the same time, there were some bad shots out there. I didn't play 10 or 11 good at all. I was just able to make some great saves for par. I made a great save for bogey on 14, a great up-and-down as well at 15. And great chip in technically on 13. So essentially played four good holes and I made four birdies.

So I think that's the key and that's been the key all week. I've been able to get a lot of good up-and-downs, and avoiding those mistakes is what allows me to keep going. Hopefully I can just keep playing those final holes really well and give myself a chance on the weekend.

Q. How much does it help when both you and Patrick are playing just great golf and just coming into this event, but also today, how much does that help when you guys are paired together and maybe feeding off each other a little bit?

JON RAHM: You definitely feed off the other player. When you have somebody like him who played a round with very few mistakes, you could argue that it could have been a lot lower, it only motivates me to keep doing a little bit better.

Even though I want to focus on myself, every time you see a score, you know he's not going to let up and he keeps putting it in the fairway and on the green and in the fairway and on the green, you know, kind of raises -- it can raise your playing level a little bit as well as much as me raising his level when I'm making birdies. So we definitely feed off each other and that's probably why you see the difference in the scoreboard right now.

Q. I don't want to read too much into the last two days, but has it felt like a normal Thursday and Friday at a TOUR event or is it ratcheted up at all?

JON RAHM: To me, it has. That's the goal, at least, right, to come out and shoot the lowest score each day. Simple as that. I guess it is a little weird in the sense of you're starting a tournament and you're four back or you're leading or you're in a certain position, but essentially, it doesn't really change. So in that sense, yeah, it hasn't really felt that different.

Q. Do you have any thoughts on who you would vote for Player of the Year?

JON RAHM: It depends on what happens this week. Exactly the same thing. There's a couple guys out here who by winning this week clinch it and there's a couple others that if they win this week could make an argument and then it's up to the people voting.

Obviously I like to say myself, but, no, I mean, I have less wins than others, but let's put a one and a half in wins as an asterisk risk of what it could have been and hopefully I can get a win this week and plead my case.

Q. Rory gives you a full win for Memorial.

JON RAHM: Well, I mean, listen, confidence-wise, personal boost-wise, I did win. Resume-wise, I did not. So on paper I didn't; mentally, I did.

Q. How do you feel about the ground you've been able to make up these first few days to put yourself in position going into the weekend?

JON RAHM: At this point it just feels like we played two rounds and I'm going to go into the weekend in a great position. That's about it. I'm not really thinking on the ground because it's three shots over 36 holes, it really not that much. And starting four shots back over 72 holes it truly isn't that much. It's one shot a round and that is absolutely nothing. I mean, bigger leads have been overcome in a lot shorter time. So haven't really thought about it like that.

Q. Is there one thing you're focused on to help your success this weekend?

JON RAHM: I'm just going to keep doing exactly what I've been doing this week, nothing special. Again, just trying to hit the best shot I can at each moment. That's it.