LIV GOLF UNITED KINGDOM

July 26, 2024

Jon Rahm

Tyrrell Hatton

JCB Golf and Country Club

Legion XIII

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: We are joined today by teammates from Legion XIII, Tyrrell Hatton and our captain, Jon Rahm. Welcome guys and congratulations on a great round.

Jon, you are currently the solo clubhouse leader. You shot 8-under. Tell us about your day.

JON RAHM: Nothing much to say obviously but good things. Played really good golf all day. Had a very -- with days like this, it almost feels effortless. Things are just going your way, hit the right shots and making putts, and the momentum just carried all day.

If I have to look back, throughout the round gave a lot of emphasis to the pars on 5, 6, and 7, where things could have gone a little bit worse, and made two decently long putts from 8 to 10 feet on 5 and 7 and a great up-and-down from short left on 6. That feels like the only time throughout the round that I wasn't in a birdie position.

After that, it was really good golf throughout. Put the tee shots where I needed to and gave myself great chances and luckily made more than a few.

Q. Tyrrell, you fired off a 5-under. You're currently sitting at T-4. Tell us about your day.

TYRRELL HATTON: Obviously got off to a pretty miserable start with making double on 2, but it wasn't a case of anything to really worry about, still 17 holes to go.

My body felt better in the warmup today, so that kind of gave me a little bit of confidence. Yeah, just tried to go out and forget about the first -- our first hole of the day and see what kind of recovery I can do.

Ended up playing some really nice golf and ultimately very happy with my score at the end of the day.

Q. Does this feel like a home game for you in some capacity?

TYRRELL HATTON: Yeah, definitely. Playing in front of English fans, they were quite vocal out there today, which was nice. It really felt like you're playing a big tournament, which is great. I think all the players would have enjoyed that today.

Q. How much did you guys enjoy playing the round together today? Is it helpful, do you guys think?

JON RAHM: It was the first time I played with any teammates in LIV Golf. I wasn't sure how that was going to go. I was a little curious.

Tyrrell had the start that he had, so I knew how quickly I wasn't going to be talking to him for the next few holes. Then my ball went in the water on 3, right after not making a bad swing. So he probably knew I wasn't going to talk for the next few holes.

But luckily we both, obviously, we had a good day. It's a lot of fun, especially playing with somebody that you've shared a lot of stages like Tyrrell. Every time we get paired together, we play good golf, do good, good scores, and you can feed off of that. We both got going playing good golf after the first few holes, and it kind of shows.

Too bad about Caleb, he didn't have his day. I feel like we might have taken all the good shots away from him today. Besides, obviously, him having a bad day, it was definitely a lot of fun.

Q. Tyrrell, how was it for you playing with Cap today?

TYRRELL HATTON: It was good. Like he was saying, we've shared some pretty cool stages over the last few years, and we generally play well when we play together. So it was nice for both of us to have a good round of golf and have some momentum going into the weekend.

Q. Last one from me. Obviously we had beautiful weather today. I was told throughout the week that this course could really change depending on what happens with the weather. What are you guys anticipating going into the weekend, and do you think today was kind of an easy day given the weather situation?

TYRRELL HATTON: I don't think it was particularly easy. At times the wind got up, and that sort of presented quite its own challenge. That being said, the greens are rolling really nicely. When the best players in the world are playing on decent greens, the scoring is always going to be good. So there's no surprises there.

However, I think we might be due some rain tomorrow, which is sad. Hopefully that somehow doesn't happen, and we can have another day like today, and hopefully the course should probably get a little bit firmer.

But if there is rain, we'll try and deal with it the best we can. I know Sunday, I think, is actually meant to be pretty good, so that will make up for it.

Q. Do you think the course will show some teeth tomorrow, Jon, if there's inclement weather?

JON RAHM: I agree with what Tyrrell said, weather is definitely a factor on a golf course of this length. It doesn't take a lot setup-wise if they want to make the scoring significantly lower. You have plenty of distance and plenty of difficult spots on the greens where you can make the golf course show a lot of teeth.

If they wanted to see the scores lower, given the weather tomorrow, maybe not getting too crazy. But if it gets a little firmer, make it just a little bit more difficult in setup, and it will be hard to score.

I think today, with what he said, when you have greens that are rolling good and they're receptive at the same time, the best players in the world are always going to get going. There's always someone who has a good day. Luckily that was me today, but I'm not surprised to see a lot of 4 or 5-unders out there.

Q. Jon, you kind of touched on this Sunday, but you shot 63 today without birdieing any of the par-5s. Any thoughts on that?

JON RAHM: It's funny. I don't mean to be laughing. Recently, I feel like I'm not doing anything wrong. I'm not making bad swings. I don't feel like I'm making terrible decisions, but it's just I've got a little streak of bad luck on the par-5s. Didn't birdie of them at The Open. Didn't birdie any of them today. I don't feel like I did anything terribly wrong.

But this is golf, it happens. There are times when you get going and you enjoy a streak of tournaments where it just seems like everything is going your way. So hopefully today is the start of something like that.

Q. This is for each of you, but now that we're past the major season for this year, is there any kind of different mindset, any kind of like -- because obviously you're focused on the majors during the last few months. Anything, now that we're past it, it's almost freeing your mind to a certain degree?

TYRRELL HATTON: I don't think it really changes how -- even in season when you've got majors coming up, I think you're still focused on the tournament that you're playing in.

Yeah, if you're thinking about the majors and the tournaments, like you would like to play well in the buildup to it. But I don't think it really changes your preparation, and you can't switch off from one tournament week because you're thinking about something in the future.

Yes, majors are in the back of your mind because they're coming up, but I don't think it changes how you play the tournament you're currently playing.

Q. Jon, you're obviously bringing in some momentum coming into this week.

JON RAHM: Yeah, it's not something I believe a lot of us think about, like okay, majors are over because in golf you're always used to thinking about the next week. Good or bad, there's always the following week. I really hadn't thought about it until you just mentioned it.

There's always something to play for, luckily. So I think as the year progresses, you're just kind of, okay, win or lose, good or bad, next week, next week, next week. That's how I usually approach it. What's done is done, and this week is the most important week of the year right now.

It doesn't really change the process in that sense, right? So, yeah, I think right now for us, I would say the end of the season and the team championship would be the new highlight of the year. So I think that's the new goal and don't really think about what has happened so far.

Q. You guys were talking about didn't really talk that much early. What was the most interesting bit of conversation you had between the two of you today?

JON RAHM: It's a weird scenario because, as good friends as you are, you want each other to do good, but you also want to beat each other. I could tell one of us was making a birdie, we first look at each other like seriously? Don't get too far away or don't make many of those, but obviously we want to see each other make birdies.

My funniest one was his reaction to my chip shot on 6. Being low left, I hit a good shot, and he just froze and looked at me like this. I didn't know what to do with that reaction, so I was just a little confused down there on the left.

TYRRELL HATTON: I enjoyed it, but it obviously scared him. It had a nice bit of spin to it, but I was expecting quite a bit -- we're big kids when we're on the chipping green, so it was a perfect shot for getting some spin on it, and that's generally, as sad as it is, quite exciting to see.

Q. Have you been surprised how difficult it is to win an individual event on the LIV Golf league?

JON RAHM: No. I'm fully aware of the quality of golfers out here. It's never easy to win. So I would say it's definitely a challenge.

Q. Tyrrell, obviously LIV doesn't have any direct access to majors at the moment. Is that something that concerns you for the future at all?

TYRRELL HATTON: Well, I know that the guys at LIV are trying to figure it all out with the powers that be in golf. I think everyone in the golf world can agree that there's enough fantastic players on LIV that you would like to see them in the field at majors.

Currently, obviously, they got off the World Ranking system. I think, from a player's perspective, I hope that something can be worked out where if going into 2025 there's X amount of spots that LIV receive to play in majors. Just with the quality of the fields that we have, I don't see how people could argue that those guys wouldn't be deserving of a spot in those tournaments.