THE RYDER CUP

September 24, 2021

Jon Rahm

Sergio Garcia

Whistling Straits

Quick Quotes

Friday Morning Foursomes

Q. So the two Spaniards with a 3 and 1 win in the opening match of the day. Jon, number one player in the world, what were your thoughts when you saw that not only were you paired with Sergio, which you obviously knew, but that this was going to be the opening match of the day against this pair?

JON RAHM: Yeah, we had an idea it was going to be Justin and Jordan. I think everybody would have picked both of them to play together pretty much, they're great friends, and they did a great job in pairs.

So we had an idea, and when the matchup was announced. My first thought that we fire in the first, you got to do, and the Spanish legacy that the Ryder Cup has, and then me and Sergio play, you know, and Sergio being the European with the most amount of points ever. A little bit of pressure to play with somebody like that, but at the same time, with his ball-striking, I knew my job was going to be to make some putts, and that's exactly what I did early on, and we kept the vibe going.

Felt so good out there. Such a complete day, and I think everybody out there was feeling what we were feeing. And it was a really fun day.

Q. Sergio, you have obviously an awful lot of experience. It's math. All points are worth the same amount. But the first point in the opening day, is there added significance to that?

SERGIO GARCIA: Well, like you said, every point is important, and obviously if you don't win the first, you can't win them all, I guess. But no, I mean, just jokes aside, I think that any point that you can bring to the team, it's always welcome and it's always exciting.

And I was just very honored to even -- even though this is my 10th Ryder Cup, I was very honored to play with Jon. It's something that I wanted to do for a while. I was very honored to hit the first tee shot, and it was just amazing how both -- how well we both played and how Jon stepped up every time he had to do it. It was great.

Q. Obviously you won the match, but I can't let you get away without asking you about what you thought as golf fans of Jordan's second shot on 17.

SERGIO GARCIA: You saw me. I was clapping. I was -- I was truly afraid for him to hurt himself because of those wood logs that are there, and it was very close to the wall. So I was hoping that he wouldn't hurt himself, but he hit an unbelievable shot. I didn't think there was a chance he could get it on the green.

Q. All the best, thank you.