THE MEMORIAL TOURNAMENT PRESENTED BY WORKDAY

June 2, 2023

Jon Rahm

Muirfield Village

Quick Quotes

Q. How would you kind of compare today to yesterday?

JON RAHM: To be honest, somewhat similar. Conditions on the golf course were much harder than yesterday morning, obviously. But when it comes to my game, somewhat similar. I feel really comfortable tee to green all day. Hit a lot of good putts that just didn't go in. But I always like to think that things usually even out and we kind of guessed the wind very well on 16 and made three really good putts on 15, 17, and 18 to kind of post a really good score. So at the end of the day, it evens out.

Q. When you went to the third tee today what was your mindset after those two opening bogeys?

JON RAHM: Well, they're two different bogeys. That first tee shot wasn't terrible and I ended up in a lie where -- hard to predict. It can come out good, it can come out like it did. And then, from then on it wasn't easy.

2 was just a terrible tee shot that I put myself in a really bad spot. I actually thought I made the putt.

From then on, you got to assume not very few players in the afternoon were going to play bogey-free, so I just -- you kind of have to go to work and take advantage of the holes coming up, right?

Luckily 3 it was 4-iron wedge today, so you could take advantage of that. Kind of go past 4 and escape, if you can. And then kind of take advantage of 5, 6 and 7, which I feel like I did a really good job playing those holes.

Q. Which of the par-3s do you look forward to the least?

JON RAHM: None of them are easy. You're not really looking forward to any of 'em. I would say 12 downwind does help. It was a 9-iron for me today, so at least you're not really concerned about the water.

I would say 16. You know, that back tee it's a very small target. There's not really a bailout where you really are confident you can get an easy up-and-down.

Q. What are you hitting there, 6?

JON RAHM: I hit a 6-iron. Both Collin and Jason hit a 5, and had Collin hit his good, it would have been over. Jason flew it into the back bunker. So 6-iron seemed like the play.

But you know you're landing it short of the pin, which makes your landing area a lot smaller. It's just a small target. That's it.

Q. This probably won't make any sense, but you've won a lot already in your career. Do you know how winning happens? How much of winning do you -- is you going and winning and how much do things fall into place?

JON RAHM: Yeah, I know what you mean. Sometimes you play a lot of good golf and unfortunately the guy next to you plays better and he beats you. That's just how it is. Sometimes with -- maybe not with your best game, you can get the few lucky breaks and sometimes you need to win and put yourself in position and just get it done.

I think it's a bit of both. You have to go and get it. Nobody's going to really give it to you, but you if play good golf, sometimes it can happen, that at the end the few guys you are competing against make a mistake. But that's just part of the game. You still have to go and do what you have to do.

Q. What's more important in the closing stretch, making putts or not screwing up -- or excuse me, not making mistakes?

JON RAHM: Making putts is always going to be good, obviously. Again, it's a bit of both. But I would say making putts. If you're rolling them in on the back nine, if you're in the final groups, you rarely will be for a high score. So I would say making putts.

Q. You said yesterday that this golf course kind of takes the driver out of your hand.

JON RAHM: Sometimes.

Q. Sometimes. Is this unique on TOUR? Are there other courses that do the same thing?

JON RAHM: Last week was another one. There's a lot of courses like that. It's just this one allows you to play however you want to play it. But there are holes where, yeah, I mean, you just, driver's not really an option. A lot of it depending on the wind. But you take the 5th hole, the par-5. You're not really hitting driver there because you can't go anywhere.

You're not hitting driver on 3.

You're most likely not hitting driver on 14.

So there's three holes right there that if you just put it in the fairway on -- and let's say even in the layup on the par-5 on the two short holes you have a wedge in hand. Not the easiest wedge shots in the world, you can easily make a number. But you don't need to take the risk that you might need to take on some other courses.

And then of course you have holes like 17 and 18 where you most likely have to hit a driver and danger is lurking all over the place.

Q. What are you doing next week? What do you do the week before a major?

JON RAHM: What am I doing next week? I don't know what I'm doing for dinner, so I can't really tell you what I'm doing next week.

Q. When you're not playing the week before a major, how do you prepare differently than if it's you're just having a weak off and you're getting ready to go play somewhere else?

JON RAHM: Well it all depends on how well you know the golf course. I might be, being so close to L.A., I may pop over for a day and see the golf course and get an idea of what I need to do. But it is a U.S. Open, so you kind of have to work on everything and making sure everything's on the proper state. I wouldn't know how to say anything else. It's a balancing act of not overdoing things either, so you're not, you know, kind of overdoing it and going into a major a little bit not tired or fatigued, but feeling like you might have done too much.

Q. We as journalists have a level of excitement going to a major. What about you? Do you have that same level of excitement?

JON RAHM: I think at least it's the same level, if not more, yeah. I mean, imagine the excitement you have right now and the fact that you're competing in it. It's a pretty good feeling to have.

Q. I have no idea what you're talking about.

JON RAHM: Well, instead of writing you're actually playing for the win, so...