MASTERS TOURNAMENT

April 13, 2024

Jon Rahm

Quick Quotes

Q. Conditions a bit more playable today, better than yesterday, yeah?

JON RAHM: You think?

Q. Yeah.

JON RAHM: Yeah. There is still a couple spots where if it gusted still some heavy winds.

Obviously a little bit easier, but the golf course is quite firm and fast also, so that's always going to make things a little more interesting.

Q. You feel you've played better as the week has gone on? How do you feel?

JON RAHM: Oh, no, yesterday was terrible. Today I kept in in play off the tee, which is going to do a lot. Didn't really make any putts, did I? Gave myself plenty of chances; just didn't make them.

Luckily made the one on 17 to have the only birdie of the day, and the one par putt on 6. Besides that, it was just seeing a couple fall in.

I had a few really good chances on 3, 4, and 5. 8. Couple others. 12, 13, 14, just -- 15, none of them wanted to go in.

Q. How are you feeling about the first three rounds, sum up your emotions?

JON RAHM: Well, it's -- those first two days I think I said it yesterday, it's just too hard of conditions to not have your swing. Being a little lost and not being under control of what was going on makes it so much harder.

Had to play very defensively and try to pick my spots and just couldn't put myself in a good position coming into today. I think if you came out today and somehow shot 67 or lower, maybe you could give yourself a little bit of hope.

But it's a hard golf course out there. Anything under par is a good round. Anything in the 60s is a fantastic round today.

Q. Have you thought at all about what tomorrow is going to be like when you finish, sticking around and doing the ceremony and all these things you see on TV every year?

JON RAHM: Yeah, I mean, worse case I'll be a part of the ceremony. I'll be there. Yeah, I'm guessing be a little different. I don't know if I'll go back home or not, but obviously going to have to come back and get ready at some point.

Bit of a sour feeling knowing you're not in contention.

Q. If a guy like Max or Nicolai were to ask you about what -- any advice for sleeping on a lead, or Bryson, sleeping on a lead here potentially, what are your lessons from last year that you would share?

JON RAHM: Well, I don't think besides the first round I didn't sleep on the lead because we didn't really finish most of our rounds. I couldn't tell you. The only time it was those two hours or se we had manage between third and fourth rounds to manage your nerves a little bit.

But since I've never had the 54-hole lead in a major I can't tell you. Wouldn't be any different to any other tournament, right? Obviously a little bit bigger.

Yeah, I don't know what I would say to be honest. I guess it all depends on the person, right? Personal routine in that sense.

Q. (Regarding José María Olazábal.)

JON RAHM: Let me tell you what, I think I share a lot of his emotions. I don't know if it's Spanish players in general or not, but all the passion that we have on the golf course is because we love it so much.

I think it comes out in various different ways. So I don't know if he has the most amount of soul, but I'll put him up there with some of the most in the world for sure.

Yeah, he loves this game. Why else would he still be here trying to compete and grinding out there and shooting 1-over with the triple.

At his age, it's incredible. Like him, there is many of those great players that keep fighting when they really don't need to just because they love it so much.

Q. Apologies if you were asked this earlier, just your mindset and strategy going into tomorrow, what do you do when you get out of here tonight?

JON RAHM: Tonight?

Q. Today. When your leave here today, in preparation for tomorrow what do you do differently?

JON RAHM: I'm going to go eat, see my physio, and the only perk of finishing by 3:00 pm is that I can go back home and my parents are here and my wife's parents are here, so we can all go back to the house and spend some family time with the kids together and watch the broadcast.

That's it. So just enjoy.

Q. Mentally do you change anything?

JON RAHM: No, just have family time. Have a little bit of positivity, and tomorrow is a new day.

Q. (Indiscernible.)

JON RAHM: Yeah, it's one of the few perks of missing the cut here, you get to hang out in places you usually can't.

Luckily I haven't experienced that yet and hopefully I don't. Hopefully I don't. Listen, in our line of work you're going to have some bad weeks. You can't let it beat you down too much. Otherwise be a very hard life.

Q. (Indiscernible.)

JON RAHM: It's not always as people think. It's just when people go over to Spain and you're being hosted, yeah, those lunch and dinners can kind of extend themselves very, very long. It's not a normal occurrence that you have a three-hour lunch.