LIV GOLF MAYAKOBA

February 3, 2024

Jon Rahm

El Camaleón Golf Course

Legion XIII

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Let's welcome Jon Rahm, the captain of Legion XIII, currently at T2. You're at 9-under, shot 4-under today. Had another great round. Tell us about your day.

JON RAHM: Fantastic day on a much tougher golf course, much tougher conditions, a lot windier, where in a place with fairways this narrow I managed to keep it in play very, very well. I played really well tee to green. It was a great day. The key highlight today is how many of those necessary par putts I made, five, six, seven feet, to keep those pars going and not give up shots, and then at the same time making the birdies that I needed, obviously.

It was a really good fun round of golf. I was happy to finish a little bit better. Those tee shots on 18 and 1 were fantastic. Too bad I couldn't capitalize, but with how hard it was playing, I'll take the somewhat easy pars.

I'm really proud of my team. It was kind of a surprise towards the end when I saw a couple more birdies happening and the guys finishing strong and find ourselves in second place. I couldn't be prouder, and hopefully tomorrow we can keep it going, everything get a little bit better and have a good Sunday and give ourselves a chance to win.

Q. We announced our technology partnership with Google and PMY with our Any Shot, Any Time new application that we're going to be launching. Tell us what that means to LIV Golf, to have a partner like Google.

JON RAHM: I mean, it means if Google sees the potential of LIV Golf, I think it should be certainly eye-opening for other people. Being able to basically go on the app and be able to see any shot any time, it's not only great for the fans and the spectators out there, I'm a golf fan, as well, and I'm somebody who usually goes back and tries to see it, so I'll definitely be using it, as well. So selfishly for me, it's fantastic. I know my family back home, you can't always be seeing the shots that you want, but now they're going to be able to actually be watching the shots I hit.

I'm really happy to hear that this project is going to be launched and actually happen. I think it's great for golf, great for all of us, and selfishly, great for me and my family.

Q. You just mentioned obviously your team made moves up the leaderboard today. What would it mean to get a team win on your debut weekend with LIV compared to an individual win tomorrow?

JON RAHM: You know, I think if any of that happens tomorrow, you can ask me the same question, and I'll give you a better answer than right now. I can just give you a generic, it would be amazing. But if either of one or both happen, I think I'll be better qualified to answer it.

But like I said, I'm really proud of how the guys finished. I know Caleb had it going at one point, struggled and then finished with a birdie on 5, and I saw his putt on 6 must have been really close from going in.

Same with Tyrrell. 9 is not playing easy and to close the round with a birdie was very clutch to pick up those spots.

I'm very proud of them, and hopefully I can keep doing what I've been doing, hitting the ball great and giving myself plenty of birdie chances.

I'm still going to need a low round tomorrow to catch Joaquin. He's clearly playing good golf, and he's probably not going to make it easy.

Q. You said yesterday in your press conference that it's going to take a lot to catch him after his 59 yesterday. How did that affect how you approached your game today? Did you feel you had to be more aggressive?

JON RAHM: I was really happy when I woke up today, went to breakfast and saw that it was already windy just because if you have to catch up, the harder the conditions, the easier it's going to be to make up shots. If we have a day like yesterday, he can still play a lower level than he did yesterday and shoot 5- or 6-under, which would require the rest of us to go super low, which is not the easiest. But I think you can manage your round on a windy day, shoot under par, and he could have easily shot over par. Obviously he's still a great player and managed to shoot under par, but I smiled because it was the best way to, if anything, take a few shots off that leaderboard is just what happened today. Hoping tomorrow, again, no matter what the conditions are, I can post a good round.

Q. Can you take us through post-round yesterday in terms of your duties as captain. What did you do? Did you give a rousing speech? Obviously Legion played great today.

JON RAHM: Well, I don't think after I did media and I got back, I didn't see two of my teammates -- one of them I didn't see until I saw him on the range because we're still individuals. They have things to do. People cope with the round a little bit different.

The only one I saw was Caleb because he was one of those that wasn't feeling great, and I was making sure he was eating food after the round because I've been in that spot where you're a little nervous, maybe your stomach is not feeling the greatest and you don't want to eat, but me and Dr. Ira had to explain to him why he needed some calories to be able to perform the rest of the week, and I was a bit of a sergeant last night and this morning making sure he ate all the food he needed to, and I'm glad it worked out. I'm probably going to be doing the same thing right now.

I did send them a video this morning. I don't know if they saw it or not. I think they did, and clearly it worked out. That might be my duty in the future; keep finding motivational videos to send them, and hopefully keep finding good ones.

Q. I wanted to get your thoughts. Obviously not being here the first two years you haven't done the three rounds counting in the final round. We've got four rounds counting for the first time. What are your thoughts on that?

JON RAHM: I haven't experienced anything else, so I think it's better because even if you don't have your best two first days, your score still matters. There's nobody going to be out there kind of just like, today doesn't matter. You can be in last place and still post a 7-under, which individually might not make a big difference, but you can help your team win. I think it was the right move because it's going to make the team championship even more exciting, so yeah, I'm glad they changed it.

Q. How important was it or is it to be in that final group able to stare at Joaquin? You've got Dean there, but going mano-a-mano type of thing?

JON RAHM: I'm just happy that on my first start I have a chance to win. It's that simple. After having as much time off as I did, I'm always confident in myself, but I wasn't sure I was going to come out, and to start this way, I'm very, very pleased.

I'm going to keep doing what I can do. Joaco is going to keep doing what he can do. It's not like it's going to be a boxing match in that sense, especially if we have a windy day like today.

It's a lot harder to focus -- you make it a lot harder on yourself if you focus too much on the other players. You can have somebody from behind like Dean today had a 6-under par round going, which was absolutely spectacular in these conditions, so you never know. There's always going to be somebody behind us that's going to shoot low. You still have to go out there and post a good score.