LIV GOLF INDIANAPOLIS

August 17, 2025

Jon Rahm

The Club at Chatham Hills

Legion XIII

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Let's welcome our 2025 LIV Golf league individual champion Jon Rahm, captain of Legion XIII. What a performance today, 11-under par round of 60 to finish 22-under par for the week and close out the season race. With everything on the line today, playing alongside Joaquín, what does it mean to finish the season in the way that you did today?

JON RAHM: Still slightly bittersweet. Like I know I'm supposed to be happy. It's a great moment. But it just doesn't feel great to finish the year losing two playoffs. Have a great Sunday today and then hit the pin and unfortunate moment on the playoff hole.

That part doesn't feel great, so I'm sure over time I'll get over that, and I really appreciate what I've done this year. To be able to win the season without actually winning a tournament, I know eventually I'll be proud of that. Right now it's slightly more something I'm going to suffer over a little bit more, and it may never be replicated.

You need a lot of coincidences to go on exactly with the year Joaquín had. He's won five times; he's played incredible golf. One could argue he was probably the more deserving guy to win this.

But we have the points system that we have, and somehow, I don't know how, I managed to pull through and get it done.

Extremely proud of that. I did what I needed to do today. I went out there, shot 60. Had one bad swing all day on 14 which cost me a bogey, but gave myself the best chance. On 18 after hitting that close I definitely thought it was going to be a really good chance.

And kudos to Sebastian for finishing the way he did. That up-and-down on 17 was incredible and then playing 18 the way he needed to twice in a row is fantastic.

Nothing to take away. It's only fitting to shoot 59 and win the tournament. Kudos to him. I still can live with my head held high knowing that I've given it my all every single shot of the season. At the end, I'm the one standing here, or sitting here.

Q. That's back-to-back individual championships for you. As you said, you sealed it with your lowest round of the season, including 10 birdies, one eagle out there. At the start of the day did you have a number in mind, what you'd have to go and shoot to catch up with Joaquín?

JON RAHM: I was trying not to worry too much about Joaquín. I was trying to keep my mind on the individual title because I knew if I won it and he didn't finish second, I was going to get it done, so I was trying to catch the leaders and just focus on that, and that was the task at hand.

My thought was around 20-under was going to be a good chance of catching towards the end of the day. We had a rather easier golf course today after all the rain. The greens were softer. The fairways were softer and the ball is still going far enough in the heat, no wind.

Once I got going, made those three birdies early on, birdied 7, birdied 9, I knew I got close enough. Knowing I had two par-5s and relatively a lot of scorable par-4s on the back nine, I was thinking, well, at least I'm going to need to get to 20.

Once I got to that point, one more, one more, one more, because I saw that Sebastian was not letting up. Well, that was the goal, and I was able to get it done.

It was rarely, say, in a round of golf I missed one shot all day, and that was my case.

Q. Is this trophy reflective of the grind? There were so many times during the course of this season where you rallied on the final day, moved up the leaderboard, got into the top 10, got those points that -- kind of hidden points that maybe people don't appreciate at the time. Maybe they can appreciate it right now. You got the trophy. Is that kind of how you see it or will see it at some point?

JON RAHM: The way you mention it, it makes me think of a Call of Duty term. For anybody that understands competitive Call of Duty, we're going to call it scrap time. Anybody who understands. Somebody will.

It's really about -- not really directly thinking about a moment like this, but it's truly what I would say is my MO as a competitor. It's 54 holes. So just because you had a rough first 36, it doesn't mean that it's over. You can get it done. The same way somebody shoots 10-under on the first day, you can do it on Sunday as well.

It's always been in my DNA to fight as hard as one can until the end of the tournament. I think I've said it many times: 32nd is better than 33rd. I think with that mentality, I've been able to have a lot of really good Sundays and put myself in a good position and keep adding points. Slow and steady in this case won the race, four second places and only time out of the top 10.

Still really proud of myself when it comes to that, and I wish I would have had the form I've had the last few weeks earlier in the season because I think I'd have played a longer period of time as good as I did the last two weeks. I definitely would have had -- not definitely, but I would like to think that I would have had a win, and I still could have had it. It's just unfortunate that I didn't.

It's just that mentality of fighting until the end, I guess, every single day, every shot is what's kept me so high up every tournament, and it adds up.

Q. Were you going through the day realizing -- obviously you don't have a point thing in front of you, but it was so close. Every shot seemed to switch. Did you realize just exactly how close it was?

JON RAHM: No. I had no idea. And I wasn't going to try to figure out or think about it. Like I said earlier, my goal was winning the tournament, and if I didn't win, hope. That was the only thing in my mind was trying to win the tournament, and I knew if I did that and if Joaquín didn't finish second, that was enough. In any other case, I was going to need some help, which luckily I did get.

Q. So you've got two of those rings now. What did you do with last year's?

JON RAHM: It's kept safe. It's in a safe spot. That's all I can say about it.

Q. Have you worn it?

JON RAHM: I never had it sized, so it only fits on one of my pinkies and it's loose and I'd be scared wearing it out, to be honest. This one I could. This one fits nice.

Q. Which was the better approach into 18?

JON RAHM: Hard to say. They were both incredible shots. I think the one on the regular team was still a better shot because I had to hit a draw with a wedge, which is not what I do the most often, and hitting that shot was great.

On the playoff hole it was more of a stock number, so I was more comfortable with it. It was more of a stock shot, not really having to turn it over.

At that point I wish I would have known where that would have ended up but I would like to think it would have been really close. Yeah, it's just unfortunate to not see where such a good shot would have ended up. But the one on the regular 18 was a better shot.

Q. LIV announced they're coming back here next year. How does this course compare to others on the schedule, and is there anything you would like to see done differently in the setup for next year?

JON RAHM: Well, it's unfortunate they had harsh weather and they couldn't get some of the new tee boxes set in properly for us to play them because it would change quite a bit. 17th would be a vastly different hole. 18 would be a very different hole. We wouldn't have wedges in.

On 5, there's a new tee that would be a very long par-5, so it would also change the way it plays.

There's just a few holes that the length would make a massive factor.

The only thing I would say that allowed us to shoot that low would be the combination of having really firm fairways and soft greens. With short irons in, you really have to expect all of us to shoot low, but if you add the soft greens and rolling good, it's expected that somebody is going to go crazy low.

If there's a way to have some new tee boxes, add some length and then maybe make the fairways a little bit harder to hit because some of them are pretty generous -- I think it would look awkward if they narrowed them because the bunkers would be so far away from the edge, but it might be a necessity just so it plays a little bit tougher because some of the fairways coming down the stretch -- you're not necessarily too worried about missing the fairway on 6 or on 4 or on 18. It can happen, but it won't really happen very often. They're pretty wide.

But yeah, if they can maybe keep the fairways a little softer and a little narrower, the new tee boxes will make a big difference on the score.

Q. Who picked Tyrrell's walk-up song?

JON RAHM: Today? Me. We had a thing the whole week where the team picked each other's song. And it was mainly just me and Tyrrell picking because Tom is happy with anything, and we love Caleb, but his knowledge outside of country music isn't that vast. I don't think any of those songs would accomplish what we wanted. Tyrrell didn't like his, the first day wasn't good enough. Second day also wasn't good enough. So we decided to have a little bit of fun with it, and the fact that it was his last hole, it was perfect.

I think he chose mine, too, as well.

Q. We head into the Team Championship next week in Michigan. Legion XIII are leading the team standings. What's the mindset heading into next week now?

JON RAHM: Well, obviously to win it all. We've done well enough all year long and we're playing good golf, so at this point it's actually just finishing it off, which is easier said than done because two rounds of match play is tricky.

I think our strength comes over a longer period of time, over 18 holes. Anybody can have a better day than the next guy. Looking forward to it, and hopefully we can have a chance come the back nine on Sunday.

Q. The first time in Indianapolis here you guys are coming back. What was the atmosphere like? They said Saturday and Sunday sold out. What made this weekend so special for being the first time here at Indianapolis?

JON RAHM: The crowd can massively improve an event, and they did. Anytime we go to anywhere close to the Midwest, the fans seem to understand sports and live sports in a way that's a little bit more intense, and it's really fun to see. It's really, really fun to see. The crowd was amazing, not only today, all week long. They were fantastic. They showed up. They were loud. They were cheering. It was a lot of fun to be in front of them and perform and have a good time and a good Sunday like I did today.

I'm hoping we can keep come back and somehow figure out a way to allow more people in because they showed up in a really good way.