New world No. 1 Jon Rahm hopes to hold onto the top spot at the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational in Memphis.
When Jon Rahm planted his 5-iron at the Jack Nicklaus Summit two weeks ago, he looked for another mountain.
Yes, Rahm celebrated a bit after winning the Golden Bear’s star-studded Memorial Tournament to join Seve Ballesteros as the only Spaniards to become No. 1 in the world, but there was no way he was going to kick up his 25-year-old feet or pop champagne bottles for days on end.
Not that kind of guy. And not with a nine-week stretch of momentous events coming up on the calendar, starting with this week’s World Golf Championships-FedEx St. Jude Invitational at TPC Southwind in Memphis, Tennessee.
“It’s something I set out to accomplish a long time ago and it’s a true honor and it’s humbling to be here, knowing how hard I’ve worked to get to this point,” said Rahm, who is the fifth youngest to become No. 1, trailing only Tiger Woods, Jordan Spieth, Rory McIlroy and Justin Thomas. “At the same time, getting here, it’s great. I played great golf the last four years, but I can only help but think I can keep playing that good or better to hopefully stay here for a long time.
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“It’s kind of what I’ve set out to be in that sense. It’s not only to get here, but to stay here. That’s the goal for a lot of us, trying to be consistently good at playing golf throughout our career and hopefully win as much as possible when we play.”
When Rahm wasn’t able to play, he put more thought in what he wanted to accomplish when he did play. During COVID-induced quarantine this year, he ripped up his list of goals he wrote at the beginning of the year and penned some new ones.
“It was the first time when I stopped kidding myself and I acknowledged that I wanted to be No. 1 in the world and I wrote it as a goal,” Rahm said Tuesday at TPC Southwind.
His list of goals included a few other serious aims – to win his first major championship, to win the FedEx Cup, to win a WGC event. He could achieve all of that in the next nine weeks as the schedule includes the WGC in Memphis, next week’s PGA Championship, the FedEx Cup Playoffs and the U.S. Open.
“I’m still not sure if I know how to deal with (being No. 1). I’ve accomplished that, but I’m still thinking WGCs, majors, FedEx Cup, there’s a lot of good things to come that I want to accomplish as well,” said Rahm, who has four PGA Tour titles and 11 worldwide wins on his resume. “So I’m more focused on just following my process each and every day and my routines every single day, just what’s helped me get to here, to just keep improving, becoming a better golfer.
“The process is to be a little bit better today than I was yesterday.”
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Rahm knows his No. 1 reign could be short lived. Various scenarios exist for world No. 2 McIlroy and No. 3 Thomas to supplant Rahm as No. 1 this week. But if he gets knocked off the top of the mountain, Rahm will just start hiking back up.
“Like I said, you need to play really good golf continuously for a long time. If I don’t play good golf this week and somebody takes No. 1 from me, it’s because I deserve it. It’s as simple as that,” Rahm said.
But he thinks he’s in a good place to stay atop the rankings considering his current form and where he’s residing this week. In his lone start in Memphis, he finished seventh last year and loves the course.
“Good golf to be played, I hope,” Rahm said. “It’s one of those situations where somebody could get hot and possibly run away with the World Golf Championship, majors, possibly the FedExCup. It will be a good time to start playing good golf.
“We’ll have to stay mentally fresh, rest, and be able to relax after rounds, too, to play our best golf when you need it as well and towards the end. It all starts with this week, though. So focusing on this tournament and hopefully have a chance to win on Sunday.”
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