LIV GOLF MIAMI

April 7, 2024

Jon Rahm

Tyrrell Hatton

Kieran Vincent

Caleb Surratt

Trump National Doral

Legion XIII GC

Quick Quotes

THE MODERATOR: Let's welcome the team champions from LIV Golf Miami 2024, Legion XIII. We are joined by Tyrrell Hatton, Jon Rahm, our captain, Caleb Surratt and Kieran Vincent. It was a battle out there today. You guys finished only one shot ahead of RangeGoats GC. Tell us a little bit about your round and what you had to do to take home that W today.

TYRRELL HATTON: Well, I decided to stick it in reverse standing on the 10th tee and just carried on going that way and just navigate myself through the back nine looking backwards. Yeah, I made it a lot harder for the team, and it was a pretty miserable two and a half hours, to be honest.

JON RAHM: I don't know how I can follow that.

As far as my week goes, I think today was the day I struck the ball the best. Made a couple putts and gave myself a lot of good chances.

I think what could have made this round even more incredible is if after the tee shots on 11, 12 and 1, those three holes, to play them 2-over par is what I think cost me even having a chance to win it individually, especially down the stretch. I birdied 18, gave us a nice little four-shot cushion, smash it down the first fairway and shank it in the water. That was not what I had in mind.

It was fun. It's fun even when you don't have a chance to win it as an individual down the stretch, still feel the same nerves that you would. I'm going down the second fairway with a one- or two-shot lead. It made that second shot and putt a lot harder. I just thank God that that ball kept rolling and found the hole.

Q. Kieran, it all came down to you in the end. Did you know all that pressure was on you and that if you wouldn't have made that last putt you would have gone into a team playoff with the RangeGoats?

KIERAN VINCENT: Yeah, me and Tyrrell are sticking in reverse and staying in reverse. I had seen enough leaderboards when I was looking backwards. I didn't, but I'd seen enough leaderboards to kind of know it was getting a little bit more close to them than we wanted it. It's obviously nice to be on the winning side of a putt going in. But obviously credit to these guys for putting in such a good week.

Obviously Jon, Caleb and Tyrrell put in some good stuff this week, so excited for the rest of the season and seeing how things shape up.

Q. I think this was everyone's first time competing on this course. Did it live up to its name, the Blue Monster?

CALEB SURRATT: Yeah, it's a monster. It's really hard. It's just so challenging. All the tee shots are so demanding. That's kind of the hardest part I thought. You never get any time to breathe out here. As soon as you lose your guard, you're going to make a bogey or worse it feels like.

Q. Is winning out here maybe a little bit extra special? I know you guys took home the team champ at Mayakoba, as well, and that was a very challenging course. What does it say about you guys as a team and the way you play?

TYRRELL HATTON: Well, I guess that so far we've done well on challenging golf courses. I think more importantly this week, though, was to bounce back after how we finished last in Hong Kong. I think we were all pretty sad about that. To come back out next event and win as a team is great, and now we look forward to Adelaide.

Q. You guys have won two out of five events in your maiden season on LIV Golf. Did you find the magic with this team that you assembled?

JON RAHM: I'd say so. The best part for us is that I don't think either of us has played even what I would say is their best golf for a whole week. I feel like all of us have had some rounds where we left quite a few shots out there. I know some rounds might not count, but I think, exactly, it's a lot of good to look forward to when all of us show up to a tournament when we're all playing our B+ or A game. Either one of us four is capable of winning individually at any given tournament, and I'm looking forward for that day to happen.

Q. Caleb, Kieran, how motivating is it for you guys to be on the podium from a team perspective in order to advance your personal games?

KIERAN VINCENT: Yeah, obviously anytime you're on the podium I think is great. Obviously standing around guys that you've spent a lot of time with now as a team makes it even more special. Obviously credit to these guys but also the team behind us. There's so many other people between caddies and spectators and managers and the whole likes. It all is part of this whole team aspect, and it really makes the weeks and time out there a lot more special.

Obviously anytime you're on a podium, it's great, but I think we're just lead singers in a band. There's a huge band behind us that are doing so much pouring into us. We're so grateful for all of that and to obviously be hoisting the trophy.

CALEB SURRATT: Yeah, absolutely. It's super motivating. I think it goes back to the art of winning. Whether it's individually or a team, the mark of a great player is knowing how to win. Especially as I continue to grow as a player and Kieran because we're a bit younger, learning how to win is always a good thing no matter what it's for because winning is hard. We're going to keep trying to do it.

JON RAHM: He's trying to make it sound like you're 20, Kieran. He's closer to me than he is to you.

KIERAN VINCENT: I turned 20 last week. Still not old enough to drink.

Q. Obviously next week is a big week for both of you guys, heading to Augusta. How did you feel this course prepared you for next week and how are you feeling?

JON RAHM: Anytime you can go to a challenging, demanding golf course before a major championship, I think it's a really good way to prepare for it. Those greens were fast. They were difficult. I think it gets you in the mentality of fighting for every shot.

I think it was a great week, and hopefully I can keep doing all the good things I've done this week next week and avoid a couple silly mistakes and hopefully go back-to-back.

TYRRELL HATTON: I would just say just having the competitive rounds and obviously having the chance to win the tournament today as an individual, sort of being in that environment is only going to be a good thing going into next week.

I feel like my game is in a pretty good spot, minus off the tee, so if I can figure that out, then we should be all good. Easier said than done.

Q. Something that Tyrrell mentioned earlier, did you stew at all about the result after Hong Kong in terms of the team?

JON RAHM: God no. No, no, no. I know every one of us is trying out hardest out there. No. There was other circumstances. We had two players that were not feeling their best that week. The fact that they went out there and fought and tried to post a score to better the team says enough for me. No, I didn't really say anything about it. No TikTok, no nothing. But it does feel good to go from that to this, obviously.

Q. Can you talk about the caddie situation today?

JON RAHM: Well, yeah, what do you want me to say? Tyrrell and I both had substitute caddies for different reasons. Luckily in my case, one of my best friends, Ben Schur, who was a teammate who caddied for me my first few starts on Tour before I found Adam while he was trying to pursue professional golf, was here, so while I was warming up, my manager had his bib on, and it's like, hey, Ben is here, and I'm like, he should be caddying for sure because we have the experience, and we've spent a lot of time together.

Even though it was a little different, it was a familiar face to be with and somebody I'm comfortable with to talk around. It was nice to have him out there and for him to be around this win -- obviously I feel bad for Adam. Hopefully he gets better soon, which he will. It takes a lot for him not to caddie. Let's just say that.

TYRRELL HATTON: My caddie fell over last night after dinner. Now, his reputation is an interesting one, so I don't know how the fall really occurred, but either way, he landed pretty heavy on his shoulder. He spent the afternoon in hospital. He's had an X-ray. He won't be caddying for the next month.

As far as I'm aware he's got really bad bone bruising, so I think that's good that he's not broken anything, but I've got a friend on the bag. He's actually flying tomorrow now to Augusta, and he'll do Adelaide and Singapore if we can get a visa in time for him to do Australia.

Q. Kieran, you went through a stretch where you had four bogeys and you got to 16. Were you looking at the board at the time and things were getting a little tight on the team leaderboard. Can you talk about that stretch when you left 15 going to 16?

KIERAN VINCENT: I think I was just comfortable standing up on 16 tee knowing that I could probably reach the green. So kind of just suited my eye. I was just struggling a little bit off the tee. Kind of found myself in some really unfortunate positions and was hard to kind of really put up a score from there.

Obviously the four bogeys are not something that you really want to do, but I think I was proud of the fact that I was able to stand up on 16 and still able to hit a good shot under the circumstances. Unfortunately did see there's a big screen on 16 that is hard to miss, and so yeah, I did see that the lead was kind of shrinking a lot. It was nice to hit it on the green there and kind of roll in -- well, two-putt there and walk off with a birdie.

Q. I'm not sure what kind of expectations you had going into the season, but you've won two of the first five as a team. Are you about where you thought you were going to be? Are you ahead of schedule? You've got obviously a couple of young guys on the team. What did you think, Jon, coming into the season and now where you're at?

JON RAHM: I mean, the objective is always to win. You play to win. That's how we all approach it. But as team captain, again, with how closely to the first tournament the team got finalized, I wasn't really expecting much in that sense of possibly winning. I knew we could get it done together, but I wasn't really too worried if we didn't. I knew we would find our stride at some point. It was definitely a surprise to end up winning the first week, and I would say it was no surprise that we ended up winning this week.

If I had to say, I obviously think we're a little bit ahead of where I thought we would be. But it's a long season ahead, and the only thing that matters is who's standing at the end.

Q. Tyrrell, I don't know if you've seen this stat going around social media this week, but on average in the last 20 years every Masters on average has been 32 years old, ranked 17th in the world and played Augusta eight times. You're 32, ranked 17th in the world, and this is your eighth start at Augusta. I guess my question is what size do you want your green jacket to be?

TYRRELL HATTON: To be fair, me making the weekend around that place is like almost having the green jacket. It's a place that I've done pretty badly at, so I'll probably ruin your stat.

Q. Jon, this is obviously the first major you're playing since joining LIV. Do you extra element to the battle at the Masters next week between the three of you?

JON RAHM: No. I mean, the Masters is the Masters. I don't think there's any difference whether you play the PGA Tour, LIV, European Tour or Sunshine Tour. It really doesn't make a difference. You could have asked me the same question last year with some of the LIV players coming in. I wouldn't say there's anything added to it, no.

Q. I know there's obviously -- you don't need any more motivation. You're defending your jacket, Jon, and there's 13 guys going down there with you. How much does it mean to defend your jacket and represent the 13, including you two? Not only that, just to represent the other guys in the LIV family that are more than worthy and deserving of being down there, too? Does that give you any added motivation to go out there and represent them, as well?

JON RAHM: Being a major and maybe not playing for your team, I can't tell you that I'm thinking about the players that maybe should be there or shouldn't be there. I think I have enough on my plate going into next week trying to win another one.

It'll be a great story if one of us were to do it and would be great to support it, but not that it's going to be in my mind, no.

TYRRELL HATTON: I would say probably more media will make it more of a LIV/PGA Tour/European Tour, whatever. Ultimately at the end of the day that doesn't really matter. There's guys that are playing those tours that are our friends and we get on well with them, and yeah, when we go out on the golf course we're going to go out there and try our best and be trying to win the tournament.

Majors, it doesn't matter what side you're on. You're just trying your best.

Q. Jon, what's your favorite dish on the menu going into the Champions Dinner?

JON RAHM: Man, with all the respect to everybody cooking that week, I still have to say my grandma's. I hope they can get close. Probably not because in my mind I have it built up to obviously whatever grandma and mama's cooking is always going to be better than anyone else's. Even if they follow the recipe to a T, for some reason it always tastes different. That lentil stew is always the highlight for me.

Q. Do you think Bubba will be able to sneak in his cheeseburger sliders?

JON RAHM: Is that a thing?

Q. He usually says he eats his own food before he goes because he likes American food.

JON RAHM: He can do whatever he wants. It's not a big deal. If he wants to sneak in the cheeseburgers, he's more than welcome to.