SENTRY TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS

January 9, 2022

Jon Rahm

Plantation Course at Kapalua

Quick Quotes

Q. Another clean card today. Is there anything you can pinpoint or 7-under, really you did your part and not much else you can do?

JON RAHM: There's always something you can do. If we go back on every shot of every day I could point out a lot of mistakes. The obvious one yesterday on 4. Hitting one ball to an unplayable area on this course, that's a pretty bad shot.

But if we focus on today, there's a couple moments that I could have hit a better shot. I think 1, 2, and 3 I gave myself good chances to make putts. I just didn't make them.

And then I think it's 5 and 6. Even though I made birdie on 5, it should have been a better chance for eagle, and on 6 I should hit the green from 80 yards. That's just, you know, I'm not expecting to hit it to tap-in, but give myself a chance for birdie, not struggle for par.

I think that was the difference. From 7 on I played good golf. I had a couple good chances on 7 and 8. And on 9 on, I shot 6-under. I think the biggest difference was those first six holes today should have been a little bit better.

Q. Overall dynamic on the course between you and Cam. Pretty much like match play. I know Jones was kind of sneaking up there, but what was that dynamic like between you two on the course?

JON RAHM: I was not paying attention to whatever was going on behind me. I knew I needed birdies and I was just looking at where Cam was at. That was it.

I knew somebody was going to come and shoot 10-, 11-, 12-under. Somebody was going to because there was absolutely no wind today. That's probably why those 7-unders feel like it should have been a lot better, right?

But yeah, not really, not that I thought it was a match play situation. I was just trying to do the best I could on each shot and trying to catch up with Cam.

Q. You're one of three people to breaker Ernie Els' scoring record for 72 holes. What's to that? Like, this week why were so many people able to do that?

JON RAHM: Well, this golf course only has one defense and that's the wind. If people are shooting between 20- and 26-under with 20-mile-an-hour winds, what do you expect us to do when there's absolutely no wind. Maybe, maybe getting to 10 miles an hour gusting every so often, right?

I think that's the difference. I'm not surprised. When it comes to records I think, what was it, Jordan shot 30, D.J. shot 31, and Ernie shot 31, right? And all three of them won by a margin.

It's kind of weird when you look forward in the records that there's two of us that beat that score and lost by one and two. So, you know, I know we did a really good job and we shot low, but I think those 30- and 31-unders deserve a lot more credit than my 33-under.

Q. What do you take away from this week knowing you shot 33-under, you're still world No. 1 going forward?

JON RAHM: I actually didn't know I was going to stay world No. 1. Thanks for letting me know.

There's a lot of positives to take. There's some stuff I've been working on in the off-season that was a lot better today. Some of those flighted wedges I hit this week were a lot better than they have been in the past. I still can improve quite a bit, but it's moving and trending in the right direction, so I'm happy with that.

My iron play was really, really good. I know I'm usually ball striking but it felt amazing and I hit a lot of great shots today and even putting was great. My Achilles heel on this golf course has been putting and this is the first time I putted good and putted great. So hopefully I can keep that going throughout the season and give myself a lot more chances to win.

Q. We know what happened out here today, with as good as you guys are and perfect conditions. For people who go crazy looking at the number of scores under par is this something they should be getting used to when you have weather like that, just considering the fact there's so many good players?

JON RAHM: Well, that's it. I know who you're referring to, right? You have what's probably a lot of purists of the game who are probably going, Oh, you got to roll the ball back, shorter drivers, do this, do that.

The simple fact is since Tiger started playing golf you getting people that take this game a lot more seriously. Everybody thinks about it more like athletes. So the level of the game of all of us it's a lot higher than it used to be.

Not to take away anything from anybody, Tiger's an amazing player and he was better than all of us have ever been, but overall I think the average player, it's a better golf player. And when you come to a golf course where the only defense is wind, just, at least you expect 20 miles an hour here, and we usually shoot 20- to 26-under and win the tournament.

Q. And not so soft either, I would think.

JON RAHM: Exactly. And you get the same golf course with no wind, what do you expect? You have 50-yard fairways, soft greens, we're going to shoot low. It's just kind of how it goes.

Q. Curious, when you were during your time off, when you were still working, but not necessarily playing, what's a workday for you? Six hours, eight hours?

JON RAHM: Depends.

Q. What do you think it was 40 years ago for someone in your shoes?

JON RAHM: I have no idea. I'm usually, I mean I have golf on my mind 24/7, I'm a sunrise-to-sunset type of guy, so I don't know. I mean, there's very well weeks where I average 10 hours.

Q. If you're not working you're falling behind?

JON RAHM: No, I believe --

Q. Do you think that's true?

JON RAHM: Not always, no. I think there's a point of detriment when you do too much. I feel like you got to understand and know your body. If you're recovering properly and you know you can take it on, I think it's important, but it's not always the case. Sometimes you need to rest, your mind and body need to rest and I don't think you're getting worse, it's just taking care of yourself.

Q. I forgot, you tied the birdie record by the way.

JON RAHM: Did I?

Q. Congratulations.

JON RAHM: Oh, okay. Well, thank you.