One out of one. First tournament for Jon Rahm with his team Legion XIII and first victory. He couldn’t win the individual title, but at least his first triumph as captain alongside Tyrrell Hatton, Caleb Surratt and Kieran Vincent served as a balm. “I feel great. The most normal thing would have been for me to be upset about my finish today, so having something to celebrate is very nice. That’s one of the big reasons I decided to come to LIV, to share the stage with those three guys. It’s about competing for something more. It means a lot”, he said as soon as he got off the stage after the champagne ceremony.
Rahm acknowledged that how well Hatton and Surratt were playing this Sunday served as a spur to raise his level. “The first time I could see the leaderboard was on hole 12. At that point, Tyrrell was already seven under par and the other guys were also doing a great job. We had a comfortable lead and that also motivated me to play a little better. You can use all the variables to your advantage. It helped me to sink a one-meter putt and then achieve that birdie streak. It’s been a lot of fun. I’m proud of how they’ve fought. I’m glad we’ve proven to ourselves and everyone that we’re a team to be reckoned with. The goal is to win. I’d like to think that everyone on the team wants to win. That’s the goal of being here”.
In addition, Jon revealed that to motivate his teammates he reminded them of a quote from Seve Ballesteros. “It’s a well-known quote from Seve, but I don’t know if Caleb and Kieran had seen it before, so I thought it was appropriate to use it. Definitely, Tyrrell knew it from the Ryder Cup, as it was on the locker room wall. I’m glad it served some purpose”.
The quote from Seve that was in the European locker room at the Ryder Cup in Rome and that Jon preferred not to reveal publicly to the journalists, was the following: “Seeing us win and passionately wanting to win is the first step towards victory”.
The first one for Legion XIII is already in the bag.
