Jon Rahm gave his second public appearance to journalists this Wednesday after his signing for LIV Golf. The first was the same day his departure to the Saudi league was announced, back in December, and now it has been as a preview of his debut in Mayakoba. He has reviewed his team, the signings, his role as captain and the state of his golf.
The difficulties of forming the team and his teammates… “Being a captain is a different feeling than I’m used to. Thinking about being part of any kind of team is unusual for me. The process was a bit harder than we would have liked to get all the players. Obviously, as Kieran Vincent was one of those coming from the School, I was watching the last nine holes today and his performance impressed me quite a bit. Caleb Surratt is a great golfer, as everyone who follows amateur golf knows. We played a practice round together last year, in fact, on the Wednesday of the American Express, so I knew him well enough to know how good he was and what he was capable of. He seemed ready to turn pro, so when he proposed it to us, I didn’t hesitate. I’m very happy to have him on the team. Then Tyrrell, Tyrrell is someone I respect a lot. He’s a very good friend of mine. We’ve shared the stage at some of the world’s biggest events and most recently at the Ryder Cup. I’m proud to say that we’re undefeated together. He’s someone who’s always been very high on my list. I think he’s someone who can perform under any circumstances. I think the two of us understand each other very well for several obvious reasons that we’re not going to go into, but I also see a lot of myself in him, so that’s why I think I feel such a good connection with him. I’m very happy that he accepted the offer and is part of the team”.
His new role as captain… “I think a good captain can adapt to each player. I don’t think there’s a one-size-fits-all formula that works for everyone. I know that what can work to bring out the best in me may not work for Kieran or Tyrrell or Caleb. I’m going to have to get to know everyone a little better to know which buttons to push and when. I’m pretty sure I already know how to do it with Tyrrell. We’ve spent a lot of time together. But with Caleb and Kieran I’m going to have to learn a bit about what they’re like in general, how to handle that. To answer that, no, I actually don’t know exactly what I’m going to do, but again, as I’ve said before, I’m very eager to learn”.
What the last two months have been like since his signing was announced… “Well, the weeks leading up to the announcement weren’t the easiest. I had to weigh a lot, basically get enough information to make an informed decision. Even through the negotiation process, it was very, very deep waters compared to what I’m used to. I had to get more involved than I thought. But once the announcement was made, I think everything was much easier. Having to keep the secret and not being able to talk to anyone about it was hard. Once it became public, the reaction was more or less what I expected. Obviously, there are people who are not going to agree with any decision we make in life. More or less what I expected, but it was nice to have some time before my first competitive round at LIV Golf to process it and refocus and get to work”.
The level of his game… “I feel good. It’s one of the strange things. By now I would have played three or four tournaments, so I’m getting used to it. I’m very used to having to push a little harder over Christmas and early in the year to start competing. I feel confident. Every time I go out on the course, my goal is to win. It doesn’t matter what shape my game is in. There have been times when on a Tuesday I felt pretty bad and ended up performing great, so it really doesn’t matter how I feel today”.
About the Ryder Cup and the possible return to the PGA Tour… “I haven’t talked much with Rory lately. He may have changed his way of thinking compared to the past. Maybe he’s seeing that the golf landscape is changing and that at some point you have to evolve. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but it’s nice to have the support of a player of Rory’s caliber, especially for those Ryder Cup comments he made at the beginning. I think it’s an important statement for change to occur”.
About the PGA Tour and SSG agreement and LIV Golf’s position… “I was worried about not having Tyrrell here this week. Yes, that was on my mind. There are a lot smarter people than me who are going to worry about that, who really have something to say about it, and they should be thinking about it. I think we’re here to play golf and whatever comes”.
About the name Legion XIII and the lion logo… “The story of how we came up with it is a bit long. I’m going to try to summarize it a bit. I don’t want to leave anything out. Basically, especially after the Ryder Cup and being in Rome, the whole gladiator theme was very appealing to me. Gladiator, warrior spirit was something that meant struggle, a kind of team fighting together, and a couple of names came up, and at some point someone said Legion XIII, that we were going to be team number 13, and my wife and I and a couple of other people looked at each other like, it sounds better than other things. Then, when you get into the legion and what it means in itself, I thought it was an empowering name, and then, basically, two things as to why I thought it was so good. There’s a comic I grew up reading as a kid. Surprising, right? It’s called Asterix and Obelix. I don’t know if anyone knows what it is. But it’s a city somewhere in Europe that the Romans couldn’t conquer because they had a wizard who had a magic potion, and the legion in charge of trying to conquer that city over and over again is the Legion XIII, which was also a real legion that was always loyal to Julius Caesar, both when he was, I think, the consul of the republic and then as emperor, also, like he helped him return to Rome and not to take power, but yes, to take power. There were a lot of stories throughout it, and that’s why we liked it so much”.
And the lion?… “I’m a fan of Athletic Bilbao and they’re called the Lions. It’s an unofficial name, there’s no logo, but it’s the unofficial name of the team. I wanted to follow that path. This style of the lion and the letters is basically an attempt to use my ancestry and my ties to the Basque Country, where I’m from, and they use a lot of the writing you see there to create the logo. So yes, they did a good job. I’m happy with the result. We had many options with 13 and lions and different things, but I’m happy with the final result”.
