BRIONY CARLYON: I'm delighted to welcome our 2026 Abu Dhabi Aldar Champion, Jon Rahm, back to the Media Centre.
Jon, a win here at Yas Links on debut, a sixth Rolex Series title. Just sum up what a day and a week it's been for you.
JON RAHM: It's been what has felt like a long week, obviously quite a long travel from the U.S. to come here but what a wonderful city. I keep thinking what has taken me so long to come here. Early in my career, it was a scheduling issue. But the last three years, I really don't have a good excuse to be honest. It's a fantastic golf course, in impeccable shape and a great city as well right. Very happy to be here and be the one that's here right now.
Played really good all week. Playing really solid. There was a bit of a question mark of how it was going to go for me on Tuesday and Wednesday, and just happy to pull through with a fantastic week overall.
Q. Huge congratulations. You're supposed to be rusty at the start of week. What happened there?
JON RAHM: I wish you would have seen me play on Tuesday and Wednesday to be honest. It is one of those things where I think it was the 2019 DP World Tour championship that I won. I think I took four or five weeks off, as well, before that.
I am not usually one to take time off. I'm a bit of a workhorse. I don't do well not having a golf club in my hands. But it does feel good sometimes. And once we start a tournament on a Thursday, it's not really in my head, right. I feel like I'm capable of hitting any shot that I've hit before, and I had a lovely start, right. I was 3-under through six, and obviously after playing that good, it never crossed my mind again.
Q. Your approach play throughout the week was pretty much flawless. Did you almost even surprise yourself with how impressive that was?
JON RAHM: Yes and no. It's been really, really solid, yeah. I think these conditions were some that would benefit me, especially as the greens got firmer, as the week went on, having the ability to spin it a little bit more and hit it higher plays to what I thought was my advantage.
It helped me a lot to I feel like I didn't have to push it down the fairway too much, knowing that with a 9-, 8-iron, I'm capable of stopping it as quick as anybody else.
But I will say, yeah, my mid-irons, it's been a fantastic week. Anything from 8-iron to 5-iron, I felt like very few times in my career I've been able to be this accurate.
Q. You told Tim just after you finished that you've had some battles mentally over the last few weeks, I guess. A lot going on and a lot on your mind. Can you take us into what's been going on inside your brain for the last eight weeks or so?
JON RAHM: It's nothing major besides the obvious, right. I think I said it earlier in the week, whether you like to admit it or not, it was a lot of extra noise going on in general, and that was still not the most important part of my life. Meaning in the sense of the impending birth of our daughter was something that was weighing heavily on me at Wentworth, I'm not going to lie, I didn't want to miss it.
It was a little bit more difficult to perhaps play and think throughout the golf course with -- let's just say, it felt a little bit cloudy in a sense, and I can't say the calmness I felt this week has been enjoyable all week, honestly. I felt incredible calm, even when things didn't go anyway. Not much seemed to bother me, and probably the main reason why I was able to perform the way I have.
Q. You seemed to have a very definite game plan all week. You pulled driver less often than three of the other guys on the leaderboard. You seemed to have it mapped out. Was that how it felt to you?
JON RAHM: Yeah, when I got to the first hole, okay, it's a driver today. I never saw it, right. I think with my length, I know I can cover that bunker in the fairway, drive the green, and I know I could do such a green. But I didn't see the shot.
I thought with a 5-iron in the fairway and a wedge, I could give myself a really good birdie chance and just start the tournament properly rather than getting myself in trouble. It was a lovely way to start knowing that I was in the fairway every day with a wedge in my hands.
I wouldn't say many, I think maybe would be the third hole where I hit 5-wood and most people were hitting drivers. That felt a little bit in between clubs where my driver was always going to go through the fairway and the 3-wood wasn't quite enough to cover the bunkers. Again, even the right half of the fairway would have been more than an 8- 9-iron, I felt perfectly comfortable.
Q. Was it an advantage watching what Rory was doing?
JON RAHM: The only time I know he did was 1 and 2. I know he drove the green on 1 and I heard the crowd cheer when he made his putt on 2. After that, I wasn't really aware of what he was doing. When we could see, I didn't happen to look at what was happening in front, so I had to rely on leaderboards.
Q. Toward the end, it was you and Tyrrell going head-to-head. We know how close you are. Were you trying to wind each other up or were there any mind games at all?
JON RAHM: No, no, no. I don't think either one of us are that kind of person. We have a great friendship. We spent a lot of the week together. Had a lot of dinners with both our teams together.
There's very few people I enjoy playing golf more than when I play with Tyrrell. He's such a fantastic player, and we were just laughing at each other, yeah. Because, like an example on 15, when I hit that shot, I know exactly what he was thinking and when he hit that shot and made the putt. He knows exactly what I was thinking because we tell each other, we actually did. And same thing on 18, right.
So I think the last two days, for as frustrated as us two can get, I think a lot of people miss how much we laugh, as well. There were a lot of smiles going on between the two of us. We were aware of what's going on.
Q. Can you recall the last time that you were able to play with the absence of noise and just be so clear-headed as you were this week?
JON RAHM: Yeah, many times. It's just been more of a recent development perhaps starting in April. Yeah, before that, I've been clear-minded many times, yeah. PGA was a great week as well. PGA was a great week. Too bad I fell short but I mean, Aaron played fantastic down the stretch but, that's the one that I can remember.
Q. Does it feel like a new chapter after LIV? Does it feel like a reset coming here, and has that set the tone perfectly, if that's the way you're seeing it?
JON RAHM: In a sense, yes. I mean, I don't know how else to say it. It's on to the next page, right. Luckily in golf, I've been fortunate to have a lot of opportunities and take advantage of them, and hopefully I can keep doing so.
Q. And you said on the TV interview you weren't expecting to have a chance to win The Race to Dubai.
JON RAHM: No, I did not.
Q. You have a very good record in Dubai.
JON RAHM: I need to win again, which is a tall task. I'm not the only one with a good record at Jumeirah. Hopefully I can do a lot of whatever I've done this week. If I keep hitting the irons and putting the way I have, I'll definitely have a chance.
Q. And Eugenio and obviously Rory, but Eugenio is the man in possession of the top spot at the moment. Obviously you guys have overlapped one season with LIV, but just your experiences of Eugenio; he's obviously a young talent coming through from your part of the world. Interested to hear what you think of him.
JON RAHM: For a Spanish player, since he's quite a bit younger, I haven't spent a lot of time with him. When I was still playing amateur events, he wasn't old enough to qualify, right. I think him and Puig are the same age. So as much time I spent in that league, he went to ASU, and we had the same trainer. I see him about as much as any other person in this world.
Eugenio, I haven't. We were paired twice, I think in LIV together, one early in my LIV career.
And obviously he's a fantastic player. The way I can explain his game, it's almost like a classical game. It's almost like a throwback style of golf, the way he hits the golf ball and the way he plays. You rarely see somebody with a bent leg through impact and afterwards, right. It seems like something you see in the old times. It allows him to hit the ball very, very solidly and I'm not surprised he's played as good as he has this year.
As good a ball-striker as he is, the putter gets rolling minimally, he's always going to have a chance. He's a fierce competitor, and when he smells a chance to win on Sunday, he has put himself in a position to win many more times. He's definitely a fantastic player.
BRIONY CARLYON: Congratulations, Jon, well done on this week.
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