LIV GOLF NASHVILLE

June 22, 2024

Jon Rahm

Tyrrell Hatton

The Grove

Legion XIII

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Let's welcome Tyrrell Hatton and Jon Rahm, the captain of Legion XIII. Welcome, guys. You guys both had incredible rounds today. Jon, you shot an 8-under, and Tyrrell, you shot a 7-under. You're in the lead, three ahead of John Catlin. Amazing rounds from you both. Can you tell me a little bit about your day.

TYRRELL HATTON: Yeah, so obviously got off to a little bit of a slow start in terms of scoring through the first 11 holes. It was a little bit scruffy from tee to green in places, and it was nice to hole that putt on 12, and obviously chipping in on 13 was a bonus. Although I wasn't that far away from the hole, you just kind of want to make 3 and move on. And holing a long putt on 14. I definitely had momentum on my side and carried that through to the finish. Very happy with how the back nine played out.

JON RAHM: Besides my starting hole of the day where I just got a little unlucky with my lie in the bunker, the next 17 holes was really good golf. 9-under, never really was out of position. Really, really happy and comfortable with the way I drove it.

I was pretty much -- I can't remember if I missed a fairway after that first hole and gave myself a lot of chances. Didn't really do anything wrong after that. Had plenty of looks, and made a couple of putts on 9 and 11 that were bonuses. Took care of the rest.

I needed a round like that to get close to the lead. Obviously Tyrrell finished fantastic and still a little bit of work to do tomorrow, but I definitely needed -- I knew I could do it, and it was nice to get going quickly on the round to shoot a low score.

Q. Your injury completely healed, you're feeling great out there?

JON RAHM: I wouldn't say completely, but I played nearly 18 holes pain-free. I mean, that's probably why I hit it so much better. Yesterday it bugged me a little bit, and it's just in the back of your head for a second, at least it was yesterday, but not today. Never really questioned not being able to swing it, and I think that's what made the difference.

Q. Tyrrell, you're in position tomorrow to take home your very first individual LIV Golf championship. Are you going to have some extra nerves on that first tee tomorrow?

TYRRELL HATTON: I mean, yeah, I'll probably be a little bit nervous tomorrow, but I'd say that's a good thing. Obviously if you're nervous about something, you genuinely care about it.

It doesn't change the fact that I'm still going to go out there and try my best on every single shot, exactly the same as what I've done the last two days. That's all I can do tomorrow, and try and put together a good round of golf.

Q. People will tweet in things about the players and what's going on, and somebody tweeted in that they hope you win tomorrow because your presser would be so entertaining. Are you aware of how beloved you are by the people? People really, really love you.

TYRRELL HATTON: I don't know. I'm just being myself and saying, I guess, what comes into my head, albeit surprising for a few people sometimes. But it would be nice to have some support tomorrow, and I'm sure the crowds will be good out there, and I'll certainly be excited for the challenge.

Q. You guys both chose country songs as your walk-up songs this week. Are we going to see that trend continue post-Nashville?

JON RAHM: Yeah, and I think we both have the same artist tomorrow, I believe.

Q. How was the party hole today?

JON RAHM: It was good. It was good. It's always tricky when you have some sort of distance control wedge and then you have a song that you like and the atmosphere. You almost need to control the adrenaline to take into account -- which is not something we deal with very often, so you just got to make sure you're accounting a couple extra yards on that shot. But it's fun. It's a fun atmosphere. It's fun to be around, and it's always incredible to hear the cheers and how much fun everybody is having. It's just in that area, 14, 17, 16 and 15, it's a good vibe.

Q. Tyrrell, when you were going through that stretch of pars, did you feel your patience being tested at all?

TYRRELL HATTON: Most things test my patience. I feel like the last couple of weeks I've tried to be a little bit better. I'd say last week it was easier to be more accepting of certain things.

But around this golf course, if you hit the ball good, you're going to have a lot of opportunities for birdie. You don't want to be making too many pars. It was kind of okay in the end, but I guess tomorrow I wouldn't want to be stringing 10 pars in a row, obviously, when you're being chased.

Yes, my patience was tested.

Q. Last Sunday aside, did you feel like you've been trending really for the last few months? Did you feel like this kind of performance was going to come along sooner rather than later?

TYRRELL HATTON: If you -- well, no, to be honest. I think with how I felt in the practice rounds last week, I wasn't sure if I'd even break 80 come Thursday. Yeah, golf is a weird game. I just had a good feeling on my practice swing on the first hole on Thursday last week, and then hit it straight down the middle and just went with that and tried to take that into this week, not think too much about Sunday's round. That was just a bit of a freak day.

Yeah, I'll try and do that again tomorrow.

Q. Jon, when you were here earlier this week, you weren't really sure how -- it seemed like you weren't really sure how things would play out this week with the injury. Are you a bit surprised?

JON RAHM: Yes and no. I hit balls in my simulator at home on Monday before flying on Tuesday, and I had the speed. The only question was walking 18. Yesterday towards the last four or five holes, I started noticing that a little bit.

But today, tried to hydrate a little bit more in the morning and maybe get a little bit more food in me to account for that, and feel like I did a pretty good job of mitigating that.

I feel like the more I play, the more comfortable I'm going to get with it. I'm always confident I can shoot low. I just didn't know how it was going to play out.

Q. Obviously you've dealt with a post major win hangover, whatever you might want to call it. How impressed are you with what Bryson has been able to do this week?

JON RAHM: Yeah, I'm impressed, especially taking into account that he went and did the whole New York news show. I didn't do that. Played the week after in Hilton Head was quite difficult and tiring.

But we saw Scottie win the week afterwards this year, and Bryson seems to be a guy that naturally has a lot of energy. I would never question him being able to perform.

But I think it becomes more a mental thing, right; can you focus on still playing good golf even though you've accomplished something incredible. I think he's in good enough shape physically that he can handle it, it's just being able to do it mentally.

We actually mentioned that during the round. I think one of the things that is never really talked about enough about players -- obviously like Tiger or Jack, is the fact that they were able to win multiple majors in a season consistently, and I don't think most people understand how demanding that is mentally, just to get that done, the media obligations you have afterwards and other wins amongst all those things.

It's definitely impressive to see what some other players have been able to do.

Q. Tyrrell, the decision that you made a few months ago to opt out of being considered for the Olympics, what went into that process, and at this point, the way you're playing, any thoughts of maybe wishing you could take that back?

TYRRELL HATTON: I think it goes off World Rankings anyway, doesn't it. With the cutoff being last week and where I finished, I wouldn't have qualified anyway.

No, I mean, I sort of made that decision earlier in the year anyway that I wouldn't have been playing. But yeah, I wish the guys the best of luck that go and represent team GB, but yeah, it just wasn't for me.

Q. You seemed to have a few loose drives, yet when you stepped up to 16 you still pulled driver. Was that always in your game plan today with that forward tee? What went into that decision?

TYRRELL HATTON: I didn't know it was forward until I got there. I just walked around the corner of 15 and oh, it was forward, and you just carry on and stand on the tee and just going to hit a driver, and off we go. Nothing to it.

Q. Obviously a big day for you. What do you feel like are this course's defining characteristics? What's the hardest hole for you?

TYRRELL HATTON: I think probably the most awkward tee shot is 6, just where we're driving the ball, it kind of narrows a little bit, and obviously you have the water down the left. So I'd say that's probably the most awkward tee shot.

Outside of that, it's fairly -- I'd say the golf course is fairly forgiving off the tee. There's not a huge amount of rough. I went in a few hazards today, but I was able to still hit the ball out of them. So maybe I just got lucky today.

But I don't want to be doing that tomorrow. Hopefully we'll just be in the fairway.

Q. Jon, is there a hole that you find maybe awkwardly suits your eye or that's been especially challenging?

JON RAHM: I wouldn't say there's any that's awkward. 6 because you have hazard in play, obviously, can be a little trickier. 7, as well. Downwind today, if you hit driver down the right half of the fairway, you can get close to the edge.

But it's a golf course, it's not the most challenging off the tee. I think the defense of the golf course is obviously the greens. There's quite a few slopes in most of them, and they can tuck the pins quite a bit.

When you have some of the best players in the world and those zoysia fairways where it's basically on a tee every single time, we're going to be fairly confident being aggressive and have birdie chances.

I think the defense, if they ever were to do something, would be to play it a little bit longer. A couple of the holes we had -- there's one more tee behind the 3rd hole. We played the up tee on 5, although I don't know how else you play 5 if you don't play it on the up tee.

There's a few too many short irons in that if you changed that somehow, might be a little bit more challenging. But the main thing would be the greens. Otherwise it's also in absolute perfect conditions. The ball is rolling so good on the greens that as a player it's what you want to see, knowing if you hit a good putt, it's definitely going to be a really good chance of going in.

Q. You spoke a little bit about your frustration that after 12 yesterday, you bogeyed it. Today you birdied it. What did you see differently today?

TYRRELL HATTON: Well, yesterday I sniped it off the tee, which landed on the cart path and went in the hazard. So instantly you're kind of struggling. Although I actually tried my best to do that again today; I hit it so far off the toe, and I don't know how this thing flew straight to be honest. It was like a knuckle ball. It went a long way down there, and the difference was being in the fairway I've got gap wedge today, whereas yesterday I'm dropping and trying to chip an 8-iron under the trees and get it somewhere up by the green.

That's probably another one, going back to the previous question, for some reason that tee shot doesn't really suit my eye. I whiffed it in the hazard in a practice round and then I whiffed one right in the pro-am. Yeah, I feel pretty comfortable when I'm on that tee. It's lovely. (Laughter.)