Jon Rahm fires testy response to perplexing reporter's question at RBC Heritage

Jon Rahm was asked a rather unique question following a stellar second round at the PGA Tour's RBC Heritage on Friday.

14 Apr 2023

Jon Rahm was asked if he'd considered throwing the second round of this week's RBC Heritage after he followed up yesterday's off-colour opening 18 holes with a bogey-free 64.

Despite winning The Masters on Sunday, Rahm made the trip to South Carolina with the rest of the PGA Tour's top stars - minus Rory McIlroy and a few others - for this week's RBC Heritage.

Being one of the PGA Tour's new designated events, pros are only allowed to miss one all season. If they miss more than one, like McIlroy now has, they may run into some PIP trouble. For McIlroy, it's being reported that he's been fined $3 million.

And after a week at Augusta with constant delays and poor weather, exhaustion might have taken its toll on Rahm when he first arrived at Hilton Head. The Spaniard followed up his green jacket performance with a bogey-filled 1-over par 72 and was potentially looking at a missed cut.

Instead, the World No. 1 proved his status with an incredible bogey-free 7-under 64 on Friday that propelled him well up the leaderboard and back into contention.

However, it seems not everyone was able to wrap their head around the two-time major champion bouncing back on Friday. Following his round, Rahm was asked by a reporter:

"You played poorly yesterday, and then you come out today and you're still tired. Why play good?"

Despite seeming perplexed by the question, Rahm was eventually able to put together a near-perfect response:

"It's my job, right? I mean, people -- it's like I said in the press conference. People pay their hard earned money to watch me perform. It's my job to perform.

"They don't care if I slept good or bad, I feel good or bad. It doesn't matter. As a competitor, I'm not ducking anything in that sense. I'm going to go out and try to shoot low.

"Like I said Tuesday or Wednesday, my intention is to try my hardest, and that was it."

Rahm was six strokes back of early second-round leader Jimmy Walker who came out firing at Harbour Town Golf Links this week with back-to-back rounds of 65. He was three strokes clear of three power houses in Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele and Justin Rose who were tied for second in at 9-under par after their 36 holes. Like Rahm, Scheffler also went low Friday, carding a 6-under 65.

Patrick Cantlay, who's been in the headlines this week following his alleged slow play at Augusta National, sped things up as quickly as possible on the par-3 7th Friday with a hole-in-one from 200 yards.

He had his own fun with the situation on Twitter following his round, too:

Playing faster! @RBC_Heritage @PGATOUR pic.twitter.com/mDxo2yarAB
— Patrick Cantlay (@patrick_cantlay) April 14, 2023

The 31-year-old finished runner-up at last year's tournament after losing in a playoff to Jordan Spieth. He's 8-under par and just four back of Walker after two rounds this year.

Spieth, the defending champion, was also in the mix after carding rounds of 68 and 67 for a tournament total of 7-under par.

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