Jon Rahm has expressed great satisfaction with his round of 67 strokes this Saturday in much more complicated playing conditions in Mayakoba. The mere fact of having options to win in his first appearance in LIV already makes him proud, although obviously it is not enough for him. He wants to win and he is going to push hard this Sunday. The one from Barrika has also revealed his formula to motivate his team members.
Very positive balance of the day… “Fantastic day on a much more difficult golf course, much tougher conditions, much windier. With such narrow fairways I managed to keep the ball in play very well. I played very well from tee to green. It was a great day. The highlight of today is the number of necessary par putts I made from two, three, four meters to not give up strokes and, at the same time, make the birdies I needed”.
Legion XIII occupies the second position by teams… “I’m very proud. It was kind of a surprise when I saw that a couple more birdies were being made, that the guys were finishing strong and we were in second position. I couldn’t be prouder and I hope that tomorrow we can continue like this, that everything improves a bit and have a good Sunday to give us the opportunity to win”.
The new Google PMY platform… “If Google sees the potential of LIV Golf, I think it will open the eyes of other people. Being able to enter the application and see any shot at any time is not only great for fans and viewers, I am also a golf fan and I usually watch my rounds again, so I will definitely use it too. For me, selfishly, it’s fantastic. Also for my family who can’t always see all the shots I hit”.
The wind drew a smile on Jon’s face… “I was very happy when I got up today, went to breakfast and saw that it was already windy, because if you have to chase, the tougher the conditions, the easier it will be to recover strokes. If we have a day like yesterday, he can still play at a lower level than yesterday and shoot 5 or 6 under, which would require the rest of us to go super low, which is not easy. 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 is still a great player and has managed to shoot under par, but I smiled because it was the best way to, if anything, take a few strokes off the leaderboard, which is exactly what happened. I hope that tomorrow, again, whatever the conditions, I can have a good round.
The talk with Caleb Surratt after the first day… “The only one I saw was Caleb because he wasn’t feeling very well. I made sure he ate after the round because I’ve been in that situation where you’re a bit nervous and maybe your stomach doesn’t feel very well and you don’t want to eat. Dr. Ira and I had to explain to him why he was so nervous and why he needed some calories to be able to perform the rest of the week. I’ve been a bit of a sergeant both last night and this morning to make sure he ate everything he needed. I’m glad it worked. I’ll probably do the same now. I sent a video to the whole team this morning. I don’t know if they saw it or not. I think they did and it’s clear that it worked. That could be my duty in the future: keep looking for motivational videos to send them”.
That the four cards count for the team in the last round… “I think it’s better because even if your first two days are not the best, your score is still important. You can be in last place and still shoot seven under par, which individually may not make a big difference, but you can help your team to win. I think it was a good decision because it’s going to make the team competition even more exciting, so yes, I’m glad they changed it”.
Going out in the star group alongside the leader… “I’m happy to have the opportunity to win in my first tournament. It’s that simple. After having had as much free time as I had, I wasn’t sure that I was going to go out and start this way is to be happy. I’m going to keep doing what I know how to do. Joaco is going to keep doing what he knows how to do. It’s not going to be a boxing match in that sense. If the wind blows like today it’s much harder because there’s always going to be someone behind who’s going to shoot low. You have to go out there and get a good result”.
