PGA Tour: world No 1 Jon Rahm talks goals, golf, fatherhood and why success is not just about how many titles you win
- After a 10-week break, the Spaniard is back into the swing of things for the PGA Tour event in Hawaii
- He tells the Post about his hopes for the year ahead, and why he really enjoyed waking up in the middle of the night to take care of his son
After a 10-week break, world No 1 Jon Rahm was back into the swing of things early on the PGA Tour, shooting an opening round 66 at the Sentry Tournament of Champions in Hawaii.
The Spaniard’s 7-under par start on Friday (Hong Kong time) left him in a tie for second, alongside Daniel Berger and Patrick Cantlay, and came despite his failure to capitalise on two of the par 5s.
In this blog, Rahm talks about his 2020-21 season, his first major title, finishing second in the FedEx Cup rankings, fatherhood, and what he is looking forward to this year.
“After last season’s success, my goal is to beat it. My goal is always to do better each year. It’s hard to say because I’ve had such a consistent year (15 top-10s) and had one win, but I can tell you right now I would gladly take a bit more inconsistency and have more than one win. It all depends on how you categorise it. In the sport that we play, it’s hard to only count wins as successes. You can’t just think about a second place as a loss, right? Obviously, the goal in my mind is for me to have a better year.
“Being World No. 1 is something you’ve got to earn. I’m No. 1 because of how I have played in the past, so if I want to stay here, I’ve got to keep playing at the level and keep trying to get better. At the end of the day, I can only focus on myself. I will try to improve my game and improve my level of golf. If I can do that and play the way I know I can play, everything else should take care of itself.
I was prepared for the first few months to be a bit of a struggle but all the hard work I put in paid off
“I’m not thinking constantly of ‘Oh, he’s No 2 or he’s coming for me or I need to do this or that.’ I’m trying to play the best that I can and hopefully win a tournament. I’m hoping I can have another quality year and win multiple times.
“From June of 2020 on, we played a lot of golf and I ended up getting two wins and played really good golf in the majors. And then right away, when everybody has time off, I changed manufacturers and worked harder than I’ve ever worked. I did not want changing clubs to be an excuse, so I did a lot of work and ended up playing great during the year.