Jon Rahm Short Game Masterclass | LIV Golf

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Now, John, you’ve told me you can multitask. So, you’re going to hit balls while we have a discussion. Yes. Welcome back, defending champ. Thank you. How’s it to be on one uh winning soil? Feels good. Feels good. A lot of good memories, you know. A lot of lot of good on the golf course. And uh I’m standing so close, by the way. I’m going to move this. No. No. You’re good. You’re good. Now, you’re not a stats man, are you, John? Yes. And no. So when there’s time to when I’ve played enough events and there’s time to maybe do an assessment, I look at it after the season as well mid-season uh sometimes three four events is not enough to really this is enough not enough data to make a big enough adjustment. So no I won’t look at it mid-season too often. You might think that but I’ve got a very good stat for you today. Now I’m a stats skull. I think it helps you know talk about technique and everything like that. So we’re going to have a little look at some data to start with. You’re number one in greens and reggg, number two of the tea, and we want to really dial in now though. I’m actually surprised at that of the tea. Are you? What? I don’t feel like it’s been my best driving year. So, I know there’s a lot of things that go into it, but I’m I am surprised to see that one. You’re surprised? Well, that’s good. It’s good to know. Now, let’s talk about proximity specifically. You’re number one in hitting greens, but you’re 39th in the league with proximity. How do you feel about that data? Is there anything that surprises you there? third 50 to 75 m we’re talking about. I’m very surprised there. Which one? Third that close to the green. Yeah. Uh it is a number that I’m fairly comfort confident with. Not a distance that happens often. So I would say I would be a lot more focused on 100 to 150, which has been a thing over my career simply because the way I drive it, I’m going to hit that shot more often. But I definitely would like to be on the top half, not the bottom half, right? So that’s that’ll definitely be something to worry about. But it’s uh not now. Uh not now. And I certainly don’t think it’s the reason why I haven’t won events. So it’s So there’s a stat which I think you’re going to be very interested in. At the beginning of the season, you were 51st in proximity. You’re now 39th, but the last three events after you changed the ball in Korea, you are hitting at 7 ft on average closer on the greens. That I’m not surprised about. So talk to us about how that ball change and whether that was actively done to improve your proximity. So, no, it’s actually a going back to So, started with the same ball I had last year and, you know, with the with having a little bit more ball speed, I felt like I could maybe gain a little bit changing the golf ball, changing the ball flight, I was having some trouble in the wind. And in Miami, so Miami through Korea, I went to a different Callaway ball, which was slightly lower launch, more of a penetrating ball flight cuz I have no issue hitting it high. Uh, and you know, even though sometimes all the testing says it’s the same, then when you go on the course, it’s not the same. So, I was finding out that it was spinning a little bit less in some shots every once in a while. And it was definitely getting hurt a lot less by the wind and flying a lot more when it was downwind. So, that was a lot of my downfall. It was when it comes to those numbers. I was missing long very often. And golf, for the most part, long is not good for the most part, right? So, it was very unusual. There’s a lot of shots like I think it was the first or second round. Second round in Mexico on the sixth hole, the par five, sorry, the seventh hole now when we played. I hit it miles over the green. I mean 30, 40 yards uphill. Did you call Adam in on that or not? He called me out and all of these things. He He said it wasn’t the number. No, no, no. He called me out. He was the one that said, “Listen, John, I’ve noticed this the ball.” And he took me probably about a month and a half too long to realize. And it was in Korea after the first round when I there’s a couple shots where I was like it I remember I think it was second round on the fourth hole in the part three but I hit this nine iron down wind and he flew about 15 paces longer than I thought and I looked at him I said is that what were you talking about like yes I’m like that should have never flown that far right plenty of green plenty of green behind the bin I flew the entire green right so uh it took me a little bit but he definitely brought me around at some point now I think a lot of us as players, you you know, if you’re seeing proximity go down, you’d be doing loads of drills to play at targets and concentrate on, you know, how you can hit it closer. But you made a ball change. So, you know, you’re you’re a simple golfer. You like to keep things simple. How great is it to make a ball change and have such great gains? Well, I did make a lot of those [Music] changes in practice and trying to get my numbers down and trying to do this and it was just again again one thing’s on the range, one things in practice and a complete different thing when you’re on competition. And it’s not the first time I’ve gone away from that ball and then gone back and done really well after, right? So, uh, there’s nothing wrong with testing, nothing wrong with trying, but I know I can play a really high level with this ball. And I tried. It didn’t work out. I did the same thing last year. I went to a spinner ball, actually, and changed this week and won. Right. So, it’s uh, everyone look out this week. Well, I I changed it back at the PGA and almost won. So, it’s uh it’s a it’s a bit of a balance of what you want to improve. Is it something you want to change yourself or is something that the equipment can help you with, right? That’s an easy change that wasn’t helping me. So, that was an easy change back as well. Now, I think you’ve got one of the most repeatable swings in golf. So, I want to go into that. Like, what do you think it is about your swing technically that makes you be able to be so consistent? Well, my wife always, she was a tennis player and she always compared my swing to Andy Rodic’s serve. Yeah. I was like, it’s just shorter and quicker. It’s like there’s just not much that can go wrong. You don’t have the time for things to go wrong, right? So, it’s the same reason why growing up they try to teach us to bump and run it. When you’re making a swing this big, a lot less can go wrong. So, uh you watch everyone at home now with short swings trying to I don’t recommend it. It’s just it works for me. I I have the size and the weight, but it’s uh I think that’s that’s reason number one. Number two would be because of the boat wrist and the way I turn. Yeah. There’s very little face manipulation. So that face stays square very very often. So it makes my misses a little bit more predictable and a little bit more tight. Can you show us that at the top of the swing? I don’t know how to repeat it. Whenever I fake it, it always goes to this. So I can’t I feel like in an extension in a bunker shot. Okay. Maybe we can slow it down in the footage. You’re going to have to. There’s so many there’s so many times I’ve done videos or pictures for for magazines and I’ll do a back swing. like that. They’re like, “That’s not where you get to.” No, I can’t I can’t do it. I can’t fake it. I guess keeping I guess you’ll be there. But yeah, and for everyone at home, when you’re in that position, the club face is very strong, very square, and you can just turn through it. Just like that. And this club in particular always grabs my attention, the compressor. Yeah. Would you mind hitting a couple with this? Yeah. And you know, again, talking about that must help you simulate the impact you’re talking about. Yes. So, if you’re looking from camera, the whole idea of this club is the shaft right there, that line on the shaft, sorry, should be aiming at the middle of your body at impact. So, in theory, you’re doing it through rotation, right? So, if I just hold it there and you’re rotating through impact, yeah, right? Your hands will be ahead and I’ll be aiming at the center of your body. It was based on Ben Hogan theory to compress the ball. If you make a line, imaginary line from the ball to your left shoulder, your hand should be ahead of it at impact. That’s a theory. I swing like that naturally. So, it’s very, very simple for me to replicate. That was as pure as you like. And ideally, I hit my stock shot. Um, which is your fade. Yeah. Usually, if I’m not swinging well, the the shaft being bent will actually accentuate whatever I’m doing wrong. So, you’ll have more curvature. Yeah. I don’t hit more than three or four shots with this club at a time because I was start manipulating too much. [Music] Beautiful. And is that just purely because once you’ve hit a couple well, you know you’re swinging it good? Yeah. That’s like your go-to cue. It’s such an unusual club that I don’t want to hit too many. That’s that simple. It might Yeah, it might I don’t want to over overdo what I’m already doing, right? And would you say, John, you’re a complete Phil player? Like, how much do you actually work with your coach? Because whenever we’re at Liv, I just see you in your zone. Oh, with Dave? Yes. I So, I do work with Dave Phillips, but in tournament days, if he’s there, I I don’t need him. You’re good to go. Yeah. He’s just standing the back and that’s about it. I I I try to do the work before. I just feel like before the round is just a warm up. Get ready and go. And let’s talk about finally performance. So you get ready, you do your warm up, but how do you feel like you’re ready to perform? Do you pick out targets? Do you uh Not really. I just go through my my numbers. So you’re checking the data in terms of numbers and it’s not really numbers. I just go through the stock swings and the stock number like shots that I have. So with the wedges, it would be what is a half a shot, what I call a shoulder shot, which is somewhere in between half and 3/4 and 3/4 and full. Fate draw high and low. I just kind of hit the shots. Can I see you rip one more? I’m not really looking at the numbers all the time, but it’s it’s nice to know where you’re at sometimes. I love this. It’s just so simple, and that’s what makes John an unbelievable golfer. John, you know, it’s hard enough. Just keep it keep it simple. Don’t complicate it too much. Yeah, I think that’s the key. John, thank you so much for joining us. And you never know that ball change, we might be looking at another W this week. I hope so. Good luck. Play well. Thank you.