THE MODERATOR: Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us here at LIV Golf UK by JCB. We're thrilled to welcome the defending team champions Legion XIII, captained by Jon Rahm, who also captured the individual title here last year at JCB. We're also joined by Tom McKibbin, Caleb Surratt and Tyrrell Hatton.
Jon, welcome back to JCB. Your win here last year was your first individual LIV Golf title. What memories stand out from that week for you, and how motivated are you to defend that title this time around?
JON RAHM: In a weird way, it's always going to be a bittersweet memory because I don't know if there's been many cases where two teammates have gone at each other to win the individual title and then go on to win the team title as well, and you never want to see a teammate and a friend make a mistake on the last to win.
Again, in a weird way, as much as I like that I won here, it's not something that I can celebrate in that sense, just because it was such an unusual circumstance. It's one of those things that happen in LIV, and as we get better, as the league gets better, I think it's something that's going to happen more and more often.
But as first-timers having to deal with that, it was certainly no fun, I can say that, because then I get the individual win, we're on the podium together, and we're celebrating the team, and obviously he's going to be upset that he didn't get it done as well individually. I think it would have been slightly awkward either way for one of us.
As wonderful as it was and as well as I played, still, not something that I remember in the same light as other victories.
THE MODERATOR: Tyrrell, this is a home fixture for you. You were the runner-up last year. How was the fan support last year, and how much are you looking forward to feeding off that energy this year?
TYRRELL HATTON: Yeah, the crowds were brilliant last year. I think certainly all the players enjoyed having that atmosphere to play in, and I'm sure this year will be no different. There will be a lot of support out there, and for me personally, I've got friends and family coming, so you're looking forward to playing in front of them, and hoping that I can play well. It would be nice to go one spot better than last year.
Yeah, that would be a tough ask, but hopefully, as I said, I can play well.
Q. Tom, you're one of the new stars to join the league this season. After your first season, you've had three team wins, been on the podium six times. How would you rate your season as a whole being part of this Legion XIII team?
TOM McKIBBIN: Yeah, the season has been great. Sort of going into the start of it, I didn't really know too much what to expect. I'd obviously watched a lot of it. But to be part of a team environment and something that was different to me has been a lot of fun, and to be able to play with these guys and play with some other amazing players has been really cool this year.
It's been great to be a part of it, and sort of a little bit sad that the season is ending season.
Q. Caleb, Legion XIII is coming off a huge team win at LIV Golf Andalucía and you're now topping the team standings. How much momentum did that win give you heading into this final stretch of events of the season?
CALEB SURRATT: Yeah, it definitely does. I think we're a team that when all four players play their best, I don't think there's many teams that can beat us. I don't think we've had a week that all four of us have played our best.
I think from a team perspective, I think if we just keep all doing the right things, trying to peak for the Team Championship in Michigan would be ideal.
Individually, yeah, I think I've been getting a lot better. I finished very strong at the last event on the last few holes, so I was pretty proud of that. Just got to continue to do the right things, and I'll get where I need to be.
Q. Jon, the Ryder Cup confirmed it's going to be in Spain in 2031. I wondered your thoughts on that and the possibility of following José Maria Olazábal, Seve was the captain in '97, and how exciting it is to be part of a Ryder Cup in Spain?
JON RAHM: I certainly hope I'm not captain in '31.
Q. No, but being part of a Ryder Cup --
JON RAHM: I'd probably be the captain ever of the European team.
Yeah, it would be absolutely incredible not only to continue Ryder Cups but to be a part of one and play in one at home. I don't think I can describe it. Both Paris and Rome were so incredibly special that to think of playing one in Spain, I really couldn't put it into words.
Knowing that some things smoothed over in the world of golf, that Sergio could possibly be the captain of the Ryder Cup team, that also adds to it. I really don't know what to -- I wouldn't know how to feel.
There's certainly some pressure that comes with it, but it truly would be a dream come true.
I think there was only, that I can remember, four Spanish people that were involved in that Ryder Cup with Seve, Miguel was a vice captain, Ollie playing and then Nacho Garrido playing as well. So only four people can say they have done that. I don't know how many players can ever say they've played a Ryder Cup in their home countries. Not many, besides the U.S. Team, obviously. But it would be unbelievable. I'm very happy that it's happening. I'm hoping that somehow or another I can be a part of it.
Q. Just going back to the Open last weekend, Tom, obviously missing the cut was disappointing, but just wondering did you get to see the crowds that were following Rory, particularly on the Sunday? It was just feverish like a Ryder Cup. With the Opens that may be coming to Portmarnock or Portrush again, you would be in your prime at that stage when it comes around. How much would you love to experience something like that and be the main event at a home Open?
TOM McKIBBIN: Yeah, no, I didn't see the stuff on Sunday. I obviously seen it the first couple days, on the Friday. I think he was finishing up when we were on the 12th or 13th, so you could obviously see them from very far away, and the crowds were incredible last week.
It was something I hadn't seen before, and it was really good, the support that they showed everyone.
I think Portmarnock is a great links course, probably one of the best in the country, and again, it's a very sort of special, special place, special golf club with a lot of history. It's a very pure form of golf. As all the rumors are, the Open there would be pretty cool, and to sort of have two Open venues on the island would be pretty cool.
Q. On the Ryder Cup going to Spain in 2031, is it on your radar to have made a team by that time?
TOM McKIBBIN: I mean, yeah, I'd love to be a part of Ryder Cups and things like that. But again, it just depends just how everything is and how my golf game is by then or before then. Obviously you've got the one in Adare Manor in 2027, so I'd love to try to be a part of that, and yeah, just keep trying to play the best I can to work towards those.
Q. Tyrrell, you've had a strong year in the majors this year. With Ryder Cup points up for grabs, was there an added incentive to maybe to go up a level in the majors this year?
TYRRELL HATTON: Well, you always want to play well in the majors, but I guess this year they had even more of an importance for me. It's part of why I think Sunday's round for me was so disappointing. It would have been nice to finish as high as possible to try and lock up being an automatic pick. Whereas now, the guys that are playing the FedEx, they've got three events to overtake me and the points are all pretty close between second and seventh.
The U.S. Open was a standout in terms of performance-wise, but it was nice to be a little bit higher up on the leaderboards this year. But I haven't done anything different to achieve that. You still go out there and try your best.
Yeah, this year was marginally better. Hopefully next year will be even better.
Q. We seen a couple of weeks ago that the league had gone for an application to the world rankings again. With the majors and things like that, how important is that for you and the rest of the guys?
TYRRELL HATTON: Yeah, I mean, I think there's a lot of guys out here that you certainly want to be playing in majors. If there's a better pathway for that for us, then that's brilliant.
There's a lot of guys out here, their current world ranking doesn't really reflect the type of golfer that they are, and I think everyone would like to think everyone sitting here would agree with that statement.
I guess the sooner the world rankings can become a little bit more realistic again, the better it is for golf.
Q. I actually have a follow-up to that because in a world in which you guys haven't been getting points, how have you measured yourself? Are there other ranking systems you've looked at? Is it stats? Is it Data Golf? Where have you looked to see the progress you're making?
JON RAHM: I'm going to start off this by saying that I have my disagreements with the world ranking system before I ever joined LIV. I already thought it was flawed before I ever came, and I was vocal about it. So I think the last few years, even the world ranking itself and both Data Golf do a strokes gained ranking, and I think that much more reflects who truly is playing the best because the actual points being a two-year ranking, you can have a poor week or a poor three weeks, and that will hold you down for two whole years.
It's crazy how you can actually finesse a little bit of the system by playing certain weeks and not playing certain weeks and things like that. It's always going to be somewhat accurate but not the most, and I think strokes gained usually is going to be the better representation of how truly everybody is playing.
In Data Golf and world ranking, they both have their own version. I think they're somewhat similar for the most part, give and take certain players. But if you're top 10 in one, you're most likely going to be top 10 in the other one. The order might change a little bit, but I think it's a fair representation of where everybody is at.
Q. For the younger guys, how have you measured yourself? In a world five years ago you could have been like, man, I am moving up the world rankings. Has there been a mechanism you've looked at to say I feel like I'm progressing here or this is where I want to be?
TOM McKIBBIN: I guess for me, I haven't really dropped, like, significantly so much because it's only my first year, and I've been lucky to play events as well that have had points. I haven't really looked at too many other things yet.
I think it was maybe hard for me anyway because the points that I was getting when I was playing, it was hard to move anyway. So I haven't seen too much -- obviously I've dropped a bit, but nothing too crazy, and haven't really looked again. As Jon said, I've looked at Data Golf and things like that, but I haven't really stressed over it too much yet.
CALEB SURRATT: Yeah, I've been monitoring. I've set kind of little goals for myself. I'm a bit of a different boat. I've only played six or seven events as a professional that count towards world golf ranking and gone up over 2,000 spots.
Yeah, a big goal for the end of the last year, world golf ranking-wise, was to get inside the 200, and I played well and finished top 3 in three International Series events and got to like 250. Moved up a lot, especially on Data Golf, too.
Moving forward, especially as I start looking into Ryder Cups and majors in my future career, it's definitely going to be important. But I think the next step for me is qualifying for the majors, performing well in them, and yeah, continuing to travel the world and take advantage of the opportunities that I'm given.
Q. Jon, I'm curious about YouTube golf for you. Bryson mentioned that at one point you went to talk to him to try to get a grasp of should I make my own YouTube channel. I'm curious if you can remember that moment and what you were trying to find out and maybe what Bryson told you and how you decided, maybe not for me right now?
JON RAHM: I've talked to quite a few people, Bryson being one of them, at that point as the first and only player to have gone that route. I talked to him in Nashville last year, and he gave a little bit of his ideas.
I've talked to Phil since then. I've talked to Grant Horvat. I've talked to Wesley Bryan. It's mainly come through the support when I've done videos with them and people saying how good they think I would be, and I do love it, and I think it's a lot of fun, and I do enjoy putting different parts of myself out there.
The main argument, and I can't stress this enough, against doing it is that I just don't think I would have the time to balance family, golf and YouTube. I have three young kids; at some point I just don't think I would have the time to do it. It would be too much of a sacrifice of either me practicing or family time. As of right now, that's not something I'm willing to do.
In Bryson's case, no kids, he has all the time in the world to do what he needs to do. Phil, his kids are all graduated from college, they're all living their own lives, he has the time to do what he needs to do. Me being in the middle, I feel like I would have to choose two of the three, and there's two I'm not willing to give up, so that's the main reason I haven't done it.
As of right now I'm perfectly happy appearing on channels. I'm perfectly happy playing with those guys and in a way getting exposed to their audience. But I don't know if I would yet find the energy in me to try to find the time to do a channel myself.
But that's something that's on my mind because I enjoy it.
Q. Jon, you were talking about how difficult it was last year with Tyrrell, and I'm just curious, how has your relationship changed or maybe matured with Tyrrell since being teammates here these last two years?
JON RAHM: Has it changed at all?
Q. Grown?
JON RAHM: I'll tell you the one thing we've learned about each other we've I've gotten to know a lot more our taste on wine. At first it was like, I like it; I like it too. But then you get to know, okay, what do you like. So that's been a bit more profound. You get to know each other a little bit more.
One thing about both of us is that as much as we may act on the golf course, we're not afraid to make fun of each other or make fun of ourselves. We've shared a few laughs about things we may have done on the course. They get to laugh as well because they don't do that. It's a good time for everybody.
I think, like any other friendship, in general, you just get to know each other a little bit better.
It's a balance, right, because we spend a lot of great time together but we also want to beat each other, and when we're playing together it's glaringly obvious that we want to beat each other, but we don't say it. But it is what it is. It's a friendly competition as well within things, and I think that's why it works so well as well.
Q. Tyrrell, kind of the same question. You talked about the three-Guinness rule last week. I know you tried to get Jon into more Guinness drinking --
TYRRELL HATTON: He said he doesn't like beer --
JON RAHM: I tried it last week. I just don't like it. I wish I did. I truly wish. I feel left out. Like when you finish playing and somebody can just relax and have a beer, it's just -- I don't know, I feel like you can't always go to a pub and be like, I need my glass of wine. I just feel left out.
TYRRELL HATTON: It was probably not the place to say you don't like Guinness there last week. You're not going to get a better pint than there, to be honest.
I've lost track of the question, thinking of beer now.
Q. Just describe how the relationship with Jon has grown or changed at all in these last two years as teammates.
TYRRELL HATTON: Pretty much the same as what he said. I think just from naturally spending a lot more time together, before we joined LIV, we played a couple of Ryder Cups together, but if it was a regular tournament week, it wasn't like we were sort of doing practice rounds and going out for dinner and stuff. It's a bit more hectic. You've got your own team that you travel with on those weeks and stuff.
Yeah, just spending more time together, obviously playing around the world in practice rounds and everything like that. Yeah, naturally you just get closer, and it's been fun.
Q. Caleb, how would you describe the dynamic between Jon and Tyrrell? You've been there since day one as teammates.
CALEB SURRATT: Yeah, it's interesting because they're two people that are different in a lot of ways. I always forget that Tyrrell is older than Jon, as much as he's joking around.
I think the first time I was with Jon, I thought he was 40 years old before I really knew much. I asked him how old he was.
JON RAHM: I was 29, by the way.
CALEB SURRATT: Yeah, it's good. It's good to see two great players being such great friends. Tom and I have become really good friends as well, kind of under them. Yeah, it's great.
But when you see them on the golf course competing against each other, you know they're not friends; they're eagerly trying to beat each other. I think having that balance between friends and foes is really impressive, especially seeing what they've done on the Ryder Cup together and then how they bring it together on those weeks, and hopefully this year as well, it's pretty impressive.
Q. Tom, you obviously won at a really young age on the DP World Tour. How would you compare trying to win on that Tour versus trying to win out here?
TOM McKIBBIN: Yeah, a lot different. It's so hard to say. It's hard to win anywhere you play. I think the standard sort of everywhere is very good.
I think the thing over here that's hard is having one less day. You really have to get off to a good first round. If you don't quite have it the first day, it's quite a lot of grind to make up for it the last two, and then obviously the fields are strong here. There's some incredible players, major champions, and I feel for me personally, I feel like the golf courses have been a little harder.
But overall, I think the main thing for me what I find is trying to get off to a good start so you don't have to chase as much the last couple of days. I haven't been able to win on the European Tour since then, so I think it's hard to win anywhere.
Q. Back-to-back top 5s, do you feel like you're rounding into form here in the closing stretch?
TOM McKIBBIN: Yeah, I mean, I think I started the year off quite nicely and then sort of fell a little bit in the middle of the season, which was a little bit disappointing, and then the last couple of events have been really nice. I've seemed to play some lovely golf on quite difficult golf courses, which gives me a lot of confidence going forward, and just sort of knowing that I can post those finishes is really nice.
Q. Just to rewind back to the Ryder Cup question earlier, you raised Sergio's name as a possible captain. Do you think that is a job and a venue made for each other?
JON RAHM: Meaning in '31? Wow, I played the golf course -- if we're talking just about the golf course --
Q. Sorry, I didn't phrase it very well. Is Sergio made for that job in '31?
JON RAHM: In Spain? Yeah. Sorry, I thought you meant the course. I played it so long ago I don't remember. I remember the opening tee shot and that's it.
Yeah, I think so. I think there's something to say about possibly having, obviously, a local captain. I think it would do wonders for the crowd. If history shows us anything, and it's very hard to compare anybody to Seve, but I've only heard stories about what that Ryder Cup was like. I would say, if possible, I think that's a very obvious good choice to have Sergio be a part of that one.
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