Jon Rahm Press Conference | 2025 PGA Championship Pre-Tournament

Watch Jon Rahm’s pre-tournament press conference ahead of the 2025 PGA Championship at Quail Hollow Club.

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Contested each May, the PGA Championship is the second major championship in golf’s annual rotation and perennially features the strongest field in the men’s game based on the Official World Golf Rankings. Known for dramatic finishes and notable champions, the Wanamaker Trophy—which has been awarded to the winner since 1916—is inscribed with names such as Rory McIlroy, Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Jack Nicklaus, and Gary Player. 
 
The 2025 PGA Championship is set to take place between 8-11 May at Quail Hollow Club. The reigning champion is Xander Schauffele. 

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John Rom is with us now at the 107th PGA Championship. John, welcome to Quail Hollow. And what is your ninth PJ Championship? How how you feeling about your game coming into this week? Kind of I can’t believe I’m almost at a decade in majors. Uh goes by fast. That’s all I can say. Uh feeling good. Feeling very good. Uh been playing good all year. Um maybe not as as great as I would like. I feel like uh you know there’s some avoidable mistakes out there, but you know if you keep rocking at top 10 not having your best I think still pretty good. And uh uh I can see my game going towards those improvements. So uh very hopeful uh very happy to be here. This this property is absolutely amazing. This golf course is amazing. Even though we’ve had some rain, uh the green somehow stayed firm. I’m sure they’ll get him lightning fast for the week. Uh so exciting for it. It’s uh it’s it’s a great test of golf and a really fun one as well. That’s great. We’ll open up for questions starting up here with Jay. You mentioned it’s been a decade of majors almost. What do you know now that you didn’t know when you started out? Hard to just give you one thing, right? I feel like this the main thing is I think you hear people say this somewhat often but until you actually see it or or experience it it doesn’t really make a lot of sense but you always feel like to play the to win the major you have to play perfect which is not true right I remember uh the RNA did this this 20minute little documentaries with Open champions and Patrick Harrington said I think it was in Mirfield in O2 when he played about as good as he could play and didn’t win and he got to the point where we thought he had to get lucky to win a major championship. I think that’s a little bit of part of it but at the end of the day it’s just a lot of it is you know keep playing good golf, keep playing solen golf and take advantage of the of the good stretches you’re going to have throughout the week. Uh but by any means you don’t have to play perfect. It’s funny, a few times I’ve gone back and seen reruns of some of my rounds, like both Sundays, and especially the one at the US Open, I thought I played so good and I didn’t realize how many fairways I missed and how many shots that I considered that weren’t good and but did all the things right to minimize the damage, right? So, it’s funny. I think nine, 10 years ago, I was thinking I had to play my absolute best in every aspect of the game. And I think if anything, you just have to have full faith in all aspects of your game and and just learn how to manage the golf course that week. We’ll go to Alex on two followed by Mike’s 20 and then one. John, so obviously you’ve had a good year as you said a lot of top 10s, but you haven’t won. So is that more towards something in regards to your swing or is that more a mental issue? Yeah, those can be both of them can be so combined in so many different scenarios, right? Uh I think it’s a bit of both. I think sometimes it’s been bad swings and I think sometimes could be um bad process or maybe just bad decisions, right? So I can’t I can’t say overall it’s been one or the other. just mistakes that either way can be avoided because at the end of the day any bad swing essentially comes from possibly a bad mindset at the moment. Right? So it’s it’s a hard question to answer definitively. So So just to just to get into coming here then what is it if you were working on anything? What would it be that you’re working on to try to be successful this week? I think a lot of it is so circumstantial, right? Based on on the course, the shot conditions. If I had to say what I’m working on more, I think I’m slightly trying to get some bad habits out of the swing. Uh but again, I can I’m still I’m seeing the progress on it and how much better it’s feeling every day. So if I have to put more thought in one right now, it would be more on on the swing. Not that as much though. I mean Dave always likes to say that he has to find about 40 different ways to tell me the same three things about my swing because uh it’s usually fairly consistent. So just sometimes a different way of hearing and feeling something to accomplish the same thing. Uh John back here. Looking at the four major parts of the game, the drive approach around the green putting. If you were forced to switch out one of those with any current player, which part of the game would it be and who would be the player that you chose to switch it out for? That would absolutely depend on the golf course and conditions we’re having. How about this week? Oh my god. Based on the success he’s had here, you almost have to go with some part of Rory’s game, right? He he’s done incredible here and it’s because he’s good at everything obviously. Uh I I mean I think the obvious answer for a lot of people probably say he’s driving on this golf course. Uh, but I think as a pretty good driver myself, I’m going to choose how well he’s been able to putt in those greens. Uh, I would also say if I have to go with with somebody else that may be a statistically a better putter, it’s hard to go with somebody other than Xander, especially in recent years. I mean, I can rifle off about 10 different players as Scotty’s Iron Game or Yeah. you know quite a few guys have other wedge game but if I have to go pick one just because he’s done so well here I’m gonna say that how well Rory has done here uh maybe on the greens and around the greens if I can follow up and say what if that scenario was for your career so even though it changes course of course you just pick one and you ride with it every tournament my career no I’m saying if if you had to answer that question for everything yeah you just have to take it everywhere It’s such a hard there’s just too many players that come to mind. Uh fair enough at this point obviously you have to go with all time grades right you got to think of Jack Venhogan Tiger and for me it’s hard to go away from Tiger. So if it’s not somebody like Phil or Sevy short game and shot creation, it would be not the Tigers short in that category. It has to be Tigers putting it. Especially clutch putting. Thank you, Mike. John, you’ve only had a couple of looks at Cole Hollow, I think, in your career. Uh Terrell finished T3 two years ago here. Just curious if you guys chatted at all about the course. Do you do you guys chat much about these kind of things, especially in majors? Uh, no, not not about this one. We we haven’t uh actually haven’t talked a lot to to a lot of people. Um, I’ve watched some some highlights, but the course has changed so much, right? If you go back a decade, it’s a completely different golf course, right? So, um, they’ve also added some new TE’s the last few years. I’ve heard there’s a new T on nine as well. So, that changes things a little bit. I thought I was going to sneeze. Um uh so it’s always hard to get an idea. Um but no, I haven’t spoken to to Gerald about it. Plus, as difficult as they can set it up for the Wells Fargo Championship in the past, for majors, it’s a whole different story, right? So, uh I would suspect that it’ll be a more difficult setup this week. Thanks. We’ll go next to mics nine, eight, and 15. Uh, you mentioned the Padrick Harrington like open championship video. Have you watched all of those? Yeah, I think. Do you have a favorite one or a favorite? I haven’t recently, so I don’t know. If they’ve added a few, I haven’t. Uh, I just think it’s really cool to hear the stories from, you know, from the older generations. because a few of the of the more active ones I’ve been able to speak to about it like Phil a lot of what he says on that video I’ve actually spoken to him about it right and I got direct from him uh I think it’s really cool to to watch Lee Trovinos his storytelling ability is is up there so it makes it really entertaining I was curious if you had like a favorite takeaway that you’ve taken from that kind of studying I mean what I mentioned about Podrick right is you get an insight into this player’s minds. It’s not always going to be applicable to what you have in mind, but you get to see how they thought. And there’s always certain things that say in certain moments that it’s quite interesting. I forget, I think it might have been the 05 opening scenarios where Tigers said, “Oh, whoever played seven through 12 the best was going to win that major, right?” And I thought it was quite interesting to hear something like that when you still had 13 through 18, which with the wrong win are actually the harder holes, right? So, I it’s uh it was interesting to hear something like that. Um, one of the years, I forget the year that Lee Lee speaks about him getting ready for the opening Texas and it was so windy in the dust. He was wearing goggles and then they get to the to the tournament side and it was dead cal for four days, right? Just things that you can’t really prepare for. One of the best ones that’s helped me was Jack when he won Mirfield. uh how he says I think he was one back or I forget the actual details on that but he says how had three holes left and he thought to himself if I finish four three four which would have been birdie par uh so you win the open finishes 4 34 wins the open right so uh thought that was quite interesting to to thought and I’ve thought about something like that in the past as well for myself you know going down the stretch or whatever it may you know, if we get this, we win. I think I told Tero I think I told Terl that on the Ryder Cup, right? Uh I think we’re playing uh Xander and Patrick and we were all square on on 16 and I told him 334, we don’t lose. Luckily, we went 3-2 and we ended up winning. But, uh I’ve definitely used that in the past. just kind of setting a target out there in your mind and and it has helped which is not something that I thought anything of when I heard it but is then when I was on the course it was it was a nice memory to have and to remember. John, John, can you explain to us why Spaniards so often seem to be the heartbeat of the European team, Sevy, Ollie, and so on and you? And secondly, has Luke said to you, you’re in my team anyway. That’s a question for Luke. Uh, it’s his team. So, uh, hopefully I can qualify and we don’t have to question it. But uh I would like to personally think that I am. But it’s not it’s not up to me, is it? Uh now when it comes to being the core of the team or the heartbeat of the team, I it all starts it all starts with Sebie. We owe to to to him, right? I think he was s such a unique charisma in the world of golf and sports that I think he set that baseline to that then Ollie and Sergio and others have followed right uh I wouldn’t know exactly why because we’re all extremely different in character but if I had to take a guess is possibly the the passion we play this game with and and the emotion that we bring into it right So, not that we’re the only ones, but again, I think it’s just kind of we all get that uh from what Sevy did. Can I just pick up on the the first answer? You said that’s a question for Luke, but my question was to you as he said to you. Don’t worry, you’re in in effect. And you’re going to have to ask Luke that same question. It’s not up to me to say. But you won’t tell me whether he has. I’m not going to say anything about that. No. Again, that’s a question for Luke, the captain. Thank you. Keep trying, John. Almost up to Dan up here over here. Uh there’s a lot of talk about career grand slams with with Rory having done it. Jordan’s got a chance this week in your 20s. You got halfway there. Uh is that something that you think about? Is that a goal that you have? Yeah, of course. I mean, only what is it, six people now in history that have been able to do it. Yeah. I mean, I would love to do it. Uh obviously it’s not easy and I think obviously it would be a lot more in my mind if I were to win a third different one uh kind of like Jordan has been able to do but as in right now if I ever had a thought I would focus more on quantity of majors rather than which ones right obviously um in a sense of let’s say I never achieve it I rather have a situation like like sern for Nick File where he has six of two of them instead of having maybe three different ones, right? If that make any sense. So, uh, now if you get all four of them, even if you won each one once, I think it’s so significant that you might take that over six, right? So, uh, but as in right now, I rather just think more about number three. And if he happens to be the open or the PGA, then I’ll focus on on a possible grand slam. But as in right now, I don’t want to think about it too much. But yeah, of course it’s I think it’s a goal of all of us who who play the game. And then you spent so much time around Rory on tour in Rder Cups. Did you ever doubt that he was going to do it? No. To be honest, if that Masters in 11 had gone his way, I think he would have achieved so much more than he has already. I think it’s been a very difficult hurdle to overcome. And you could see his emotion towards the end just because his real first chance to win a major how it went down. I I understand he won the US Open shortly after by a record margin. But that was every time he went to Augusta, that was in his mind. Uh and it’s funny to me when you see Rory’s game, every time I went down to Augusta National, I’m like, if there’s ever a golf course that is perfect for this man who can hit a high draw on command better than anybody else, has great hands and great touch, it’s him, right? It’s uh and he’s had so many chances. is just it’s never easy. It’s never difficult. And I would not be one bit surprised if this lifted a weight over his shoulder that could get him going on on another run, right? A bit like Xander did last year, wins one and gets another one, gets in contention many times like Scotty and many other players have done, right? So, a player of his caliber, you never know. Doug, John, given the given the high skill set you have in this game, this is the one major that you really haven’t, you know, given yourself a a good chance within the last like back nine. Uh is that just do you think coincidence? And and secondly, does this major require or or ask anything of you differently than the other three? I’m aware it’s been probably the one I’ve been haven’t been my best at. I think my best finish was was Bel Reef. I think uh and I think it’s possibly because of the versatility and and variability of this event. Like when you go to Augusta, you know what you’re getting. Same course every year too. The US Open, nine out of 10 times you know what you’re getting depending on weather. And same at the Open, right? It’ll be firmer or less, but you know what you’re getting. is is this championship that would change venues and drastically change the way they set it up like the way a Southern Hills might play to the way this week might play to the way a Beth Page might play. They’re all drastically different, right? So, it’s possibly the the the difference which is more about okay, it just your game needs to be a very high level as opposed to uh possibly the other three that you can adjust a little bit more knowing what’s coming. Uh at that point that’s just a bit speculation. I think it’s just more coincidence that I haven’t played good. So in a way the fact that this major doesn’t really have an identity is its identity. Yeah. I mean you get you get different things every time you come, right? It’s uh it’s very difficult to say that two of them were the same. You can have some where you go into a playoff at five under and then last year where 21 under wins it, right? And then a Wness straits 20 was it? What did he shoot? 19 18 under, right? Uh, no, he got 20. He got to 20. Yeah, he got to 20. Jason did. Yeah, because Jordan was 17. So Jason got the 20 at Whistling Straits, which even in Rita Cup setup, I wouldn’t in a million years think anybody would get the 20 under there. So, um, it’s it’s quite interesting. And then you have a page where it’s single digits again, right? So, is is that change? US Opens for the most part, you know what you’re getting, right? And and so on. So, uh, it definitely has a a character of having that different character each time you come. We’ll wrap things up right here with one. Okay. Oakmont. Major foreign. So, Okay. The Carlos Major Thanks for your time, John. We appreciate it. Thank you.