Jon Rahm appeared to be in a typical Jon Rahm mood before teeing it up in the WGC Match Play.
Maybe the 28-year-old Spaniard is still feeling a bit under the weather after being forced to withdraw from the Players at TPC Sawgrass.
Rahm explained to the media on Tuesday that he was so poorly he couldn't drink anything without feeling nauseous. Not even water.
"There's a virus going around," Rahm said.
Still, how is he feeling since then? "I'm good," Rahm said. He was asked to elaborate. "No," came the response. And has his short illness affected his preparation for the 2023 Masters? "No," he said.
Brilliant. Thanks Jon. The 2021 U.S. Open champ is a man of few words at times.
Related: Rahm fires F-bomb at reporter
That being said, he had plenty to offer on the hot topic in professional golf. No, not the LIV Golf League, we know how Rahm feels about that.
We're talking about the proposals by the R&A, USGA to rollback the golf ball in elite competition from 2026.
In a departure from his peers' opinions, Rory McIlroy has explained why he is in favour of the roll back.
But what about Rahm? He said: "God, I thought I was going to avoid this question."
Then he went off on a rant not too dissimilar to Justin Thomas before the Valspar Championship.
On the topic of Thomas, maybe his wife will be ranting at him after he was filmed signing the chest of this social media sensation.
But back to Rahm, and as far as he is concerned, the game's popularity went into overdrive during and after the pandemic.
Plus, a lot of eyes are on the game because of LIV, so why change what is working?
He told the media:
"I truly -- I haven't talked to anybody in the USGA to understand why they're so focused on testing all our equipment, whether it's the driver, the ball, whatever it is.
"They're hyper focused on making professional golf a little bit more difficult than it already is. I don't know why. Do I think it's the right choice?
"As it comes to me, I don't think it's going to matter that much. I think if you were to roll the ball back, you're going to -- it's going to be more damaging to the shorter hitters on tour than it is for people that have distance, because if you're giving me a 7-iron as opposed to a 9- or an 8-iron, that means you're giving somebody a 4- or 5- as opposed to a 7- or a 6.
"I'm still going to be able to stop it in most places with a 7-iron when some people might not. Especially we're talking about missing fairways right now. You're putting those players in a tougher situation.
"With that said, all this 520-yard par-4 tee boxes they love to do nowadays are not going to be able to be used. So at the end of the day they're still going to be playing the same game."
Watch some of his comments here:
What is Rahm's biggest question for golf's governing bodies?
He added:
"My biggest question for them to be we're in a golden era of golf where it's exploded since COVID, a lot of people are watching, you have a completely different tour, all these things are happening for the game and it's growing. Why change what's working?
"Try to make it better by making it better, not -- there's plenty of things you can do to make it more difficult for us, golf course design, course setup, all these great things.
"Courses like last week at Innisbrook, it's not long, and the score still held up. Colonial for the most part, unless it's a very benign week with the wind, scores are always higher than the average. Hilton Head, same thing. Valderrama, same thing. You can neglect a lot of nowadays' distance with different golf course design.
"If they keep making -- I think you can go with, as it comes to the USGA, Oakmont, Erin Hills, Shinnecock, Winged Foot, and Torrey Pines, probably the five longest U.S. Opens you've seen.
"Who do you think is going to win? And all of them were under par.
"You think about Merion, which is one of the shortest, and it was won with 1-over par.
"I think there's other things that can be done than changing the technology of the game to make it more challenging for us. That would be my suggestion to them.
"But we'll see, I guess, in three years what happens. I don't think we're going to get to a point to where we only play both Opens with a different golf ball. That would be a little bit silly.
"It's going to be an all-out change or no change at all. That would be my guess, but who knows."
Jon Rahm, ladies and gentleman.
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