Jon Rahm appeared this Tuesday, together with his teammates in the Legión XIII, to discuss how he approaches this week’s LIV Golf tournament in South Africa. With less than a month to the Masters, it was inevitable that the man from Barrika would face some questions about his form and his goals at Augusta, the first major of the season. But the most striking moment of his press conference was undoubtedly when he revealed how he manages his bag of clubs depending on the tournaments he plays.
The Spaniard made it clear he is not fond of changes, even less so during competition weeks. Experiments, if any, during training-free weeks or in the preseason… “I travel with the absolute minimum of clubs that I need. Honestly, in my entire career there have been very few changes. Unless we have new clubs, new irons or a new driver or whatever, the only change I make in the bag is to play a 5-wood or a 2-iron. That’s it. I don’t change the wedges. I don’t change anything”.
Rahm explained his method saying: “I feel that thinking about changing clubs is more complicated for me than adjusting my own technique on the course. With these fairways, I think the main thing is that the ball stays higher, so you get a more solid strike and the irons can go a bit further. As long as you are aware of that, there is nothing else to change. So, in my case, I don’t change anything. I don’t like to change, especially in tournament week. It seems to complicate things excessively for my style of play”.
The man from Barrika was questioned about the variety of winners in the early events of the tour year: “I’m not quite sure how to give you an answer that isn’t obvious. There is a very high level of golf in the league and there will always be certain players who can perform consistently at a given level. But anyone can win in any week, and I think last week is a perfect example of that“.
“With Elvis, we’ve had a bit of history as a league, in this short history, of new players who arrive and win immediately. I don’t know why that has happened. We’ve had several players. I can think of Henrik, Cam and Elvis, or even if they don’t win, they play a big part. I think it’s fantastic. The more diversity we have, the better. It’s never easy to win, and I hope that some of those of us here can get more wins, if not all four. I also think it speaks to the difficulty of achieving it”, he added.
And regarding the Masters, the most obvious question at this stage of the season, Jon made clear what his sole objective is: “About Augusta? My thoughts? I hope to win. I’m going to give my best and I hope to be able to get a second green jacket. That’s the goal“. A big challenge for the Spaniard, who also aspires to soon have all his teammates from the Legión XIII playing in the majors: “I hadn’t thought about it until now. Yes. Yes, I think it speaks to the level of golf we all had before and after joining LIV. The goal now would be to have all four in the majors and to say that we are all good enough to qualify and be there. I wouldn’t be surprised if that happened in the near future”.
