🦁 “Jon Rahm: I Won Without Winning” – Emotional Press Conference 🎤

Jon Rahm opens up after clinching the 2025 LIV Golf season title without a single tournament win. In a raw and honest press conference, he reflects on his bittersweet finale, praises his rivals, and explains how consistency and grit got him to the top. A must-watch insight into the mindset of one of golf’s fiercest competitors.

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All right, let’s welcome our 2025 Live Golf League individual champion, John Rom, captain of Legion 13. John, 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 Hain, what does it mean to finish the season in the way that you did today? Still still slightly bittersweet, right? Like like I know I’m supposed to be happy. It’s it’s a great moment, but it um it just doesn’t feel great to finish the year losing two playoffs. uh have a great Sunday today and then hit the pin and unfortunate moment on on the playoff hole. So, it’s it um that part doesn’t feel great. So, I’m sure over time I’ll get over that and and I’ll really appreciate what I’ve done this year, right? To be able to win the the season without actually winning a tournament. Uh I know eventually I’ll be proud of that. right now it it’s slightly more something I’m going to suffer over a little bit more. Uh and that may may never be replicated. Right. It’s just is it’s you need a lot of coincidences to go on with with exactly with the year Hen is five times. has played incredible golf and you know, one could argue he was probably the more deserving guy to to win this, but we have the point system that we have and somehow I don’t know how I managed to to pull through and and uh and get it done. So, uh extremely proud of that. I mean, I did what I needed to do today. I went out there, shot 60, had one bad swing all day, was 14, caused me a bogey, but still um gave myself the best chance. And on 18 after hitting that close, I 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 is incredible. And then playing 18 the way he needed to twice in a row. It’s fantastic. So uh nothing to take away. It’s only fading to shoot 59 and win the tournament. So kudos to him. And uh I’m still I still can leave with my head held high knowing that I’ve given my all every single shot of the season. And uh well at the end I’m the one standing here or sitting here. So that’s backto-back individual championships for you. You see, as you said, you sealed it with your lowest round of the season included 10 birdies, one eagle out there. Did you know at the start of the day, did you have like a number in mind what you’d have to go and shoot to to catch up? I was trying not to worry too much about Hain. Uh, I was trying to keep my mind on on the individual title cuz 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. Um, and that was a task at hand. My thought was around 20 under was going to be a a good chance of of catching towards the end of the day. Uh, we had a rather easier golf course today after all the rain. The greens were softer, the fairways were softer, right? And the ball still going far enough in the heat. no win. So, uh, once I got going, you know, I made those three birdies early on, early on, bird 37, bird 39, I I knew I got close enough. So, knowing that I had two par fives and relatively a lot of scorable par4s in the back nine, I was thinking, well, it’s it’s at least I’m going to need to get to 20, right? And then once I got to that point, one more, one more, one more, because I saw that Sebastian was was not letting up. And uh and well, that was the that was the goal and I was able to get it done, right? I mean, it was uh rarely say in a round of golf they missed one shot all day and that was my case. Over to you, Mike. John, is this trophy reflective of the grind? Because 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 Is that kind of how you see it or will see it at some point? The way you’re mentioning it is make me think of a Call of Duty term for anybody that understands competitive Call of Duty. We’re going to call it scrap time. All right. Anybody who understands, somebody will. Uh 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 is 54 holes. So just because you had a rough first 36 doesn’t mean that it’s over. You can get it done right. The same way somebody shoots 10 under on the first day, you can do it on Sunday as well. So uh it’s always been in in my DNA to fight as as hard as one can towards the end of until the end of the tournament, right? I think I’ve said it many times. 32nd is better than 33rd. And I think with that mentality, I’ve been able to have a a lot of really good Sundays and put myself in a good position and and keep adding points, right? slow and steady, I guess, in this case. Won the race, four second places and only one one time outside of the top 10. Um, still really proud of myself when it comes to that and uh I wish I would have had the form I’ve had the last few weeks earlier on the season cuz I think had I 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 think I would like to think I would have had a win and uh and I still could have had it. It’s just unfortunate that I didn’t, but it’s just that mentality of fighting till the end, I guess, every single day, every shot is what kept me so high up every every tournament and and it adds up. Were you going were you going through the day realizing I mean, you obviously you don’t have a point thing in front of you, but it was so close. Every shot seemed to switch, you know. Did you realize just exactly how close it was? No, I had no idea. Uh and I wasn’t going to try to figure out or think about it. I like I said earlier my goal wasn’t winning the tournament and if I didn’t win hope, right? Uh but yeah, that was that was the only thing in my mind was was trying to win the tournament and I knew that if I did that again in finish second, that was enough. Uh in any other case, I was going to need some help, which luckily I did get. So you’ve got two of those rings now. What did you do with last year’s? Skip safe. It’s in a safe spot. That’s all I can say about it. Have you worn it? Uh, I never had it sized, so it it it only fits in one of my pinkies and it’s loose and I I would I get scared of wearing it out to be honest. I This one I could. This one actually fits nice. So, and my last question, which was the better approach into 18 Hard to say. They’re both incredible shots. I I think the one on the regular 18 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 and hitting that shot was great. On on the playoff 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. Uh, I guess at that point I really wish I would have known where that would have ended up, but I like to think it would have been really close. Uh, yeah, just unfortunate to not see how where such a good shot would have ended up, but no one on the regular team is a better shot. All right, thanks John. Hey John, congrats. Um, 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? Well, it’s unfortunate the they had harsh weather and they couldn’t get some of the new tea boxes set in properly for us to play them cuz it would change quite a bit, right? 17th would be a vastly different hole. Um trying the 18 would be a very different hole. We wouldn’t have wedges in. Um on five, there’s a new T. That would be a par five, a very long par five. So it it it would also change the way it plays. So there’s just a few holes that the length will make a massive factor. The only thing that I would say allowed us to shoot that low is the the combination of having really really firm fairways and soft greens. Right? With short irons in, you already have to expect all of us to shoot low. But if you add the soft greens in rolling good, it’s expected that somebody’s going to go crazy low. So, if there’s a if there’s a way to have some new T- boxes, add some length and then uh maybe make the fairways a little bit harder to hit cuz some of them are pretty generous, right? They It’s I think it would look awkward if they narrow them because the bunkers would be so far away from the edge, but it might be a necessity just to place a little bit tougher because some of the fairways, you know, coming down the stretch, you’re not necessarily too worried about missing like the fairway on six or on on four um on 18. It can happen, but it it won’t really happen very often. It’s they’re they’re pretty wide. Uh but yeah, I mean if it can maybe keep the fairways a little softer, a little narrower and those new T- boxes will make a big difference on the score. Go ahead, Mike. Who picked uh Terrell’s walkup song today? Me. We had a thing the whole week where the team picked the each other’s song. Uh, and it was mainly just me and Tero picking. Uh, cuz Tom Tom is happy with anything and and we love Caleb, but his knowledge outside of country music isn’t that vast. So, uh, I don’t think any of those songs would accomplish what we wanted. Um, yeah. And we just Ter 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. Uh, and I think he chose my two as well. Yeah, John, final one. We’re heading to the team championship next week in Michigan. Legion 13 are leading the team standings. What’s the what’s the mindset heading into next week now? Oh, obviously to win it all. Um, we’ve done well enough all year around and uh we’re all playing good golf. So, at this point, it’s actually just finishing it off, which is easier said than done, right? Because two rounds of match play is tricky, right? The our I think our strength comes over a longer period of time over 18 holes. anybody can have a better day than the next guy. So, uh looking forward to it and hopefully uh we can have a chance come the back nine on Sunday. Just ahead. John, the first time in Indianapolis here you guys are coming back. Uh just what was the atmosphere like? I know they said that uh Saturday and Sunday uh sold out. Uh just what made this weekend so special for being the first time here at Indianapolis? The the crowd can massively improve an event and they did. you know, uh, any come to 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, right? 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 to be in front of them and perform and have a good time and a good Sunday like I did today. So, I’m hoping uh I’m hoping we can keep coming back and somehow figuring out a way to allow more people in because it definitely they showed up in a really good way. Any more questions? All right, John, thank you for your time. Congratulations on a great year in CU in Michigan.