Jon Rahm: "You guys always try to look for something that's just not there"

Jon Rahm has teed up a golden opportunity to claim his fourth win in six worldwide starts at The American Express on the PGA Tour.

Ben Smith

22 Jan 2023

Jon Rahm: "You guys always try to look for something that's just not there"

Jon Rahm say he believes the media are always looking for "something that's not there" in his game as he teed up a golden opportunity to claim four wins in six worldwide starts.

Spaniard Rahm was in superb form once again as he raced to 23-under par at The American Express on the PGA Tour following a third round 65 in which he hit 17 out of 18 greens in regulation.

The Spanish World No. 3, who previously carded a pair of 64s, lit up the front nine at the Stadium Course on Saturday.

That was highlighted by a superb eagle at No. 5 alongside four other birdies to make the turn in 6-under.

On the home stretch Rahm made birdie at 10 and 12 before dropping a shot on his penultimate hole of the day.

Rahm previously won this tournament in 2018 and it was here last year that he turned heads after his expletive-laden rant about the course was caught on film.

He said he wanted to put that behind him at the start of the week.

Asked about his round, Rahm said he had nothing but positive things to say, adding:

"Ball striking felt amazing. Hit a lot of great shots out there off the tee. Giving myself a lot of opportunities with the irons. Took advantage of quite a few of them.

"So [I am] very confident going into tomorrow and knowing that I'm going to have to shoot another low score if I want to have a chance to win."

Rahm could've had more birdies on his back nine but despite being pin high frequently some of his efforts failed to drop.

The 2020 U.S. Open champion said:

"I feel like you guys always try to look for something that's just not there. On 13 it was a great roll, 14 great roll, 15 great roll, 16 misread, 17 misread. That's it. Very simple. All of them good strokes.

"I can tell you there were earlier putts that weren't as good as some of those and went in dead centre. That's just golf. I mean, if that isn't a description of golf, I don't know what is. Felt really good on a lot of 'em. It is what it is.

"Listen, I've enjoyed two and a half days of making pretty much everything I looked at. I'm glad that if I'm going to have a cold stretch of putts it was today not tomorrow. Hopefully tomorrow I can just keep doing what I've been doing."

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He added:

"On TV they love to say, Oh, he mishit it. He pulled it. He pushed it. It's not always that. Sometimes we misread the breaks and that's what happened to me."

Rahm was also full of praise for the rookie Davis Thompson, who has been impressive this week.

He said:

"I mean, I have the experience of being there, if it goes down to the wire. But he's no slouch, obviously. He's done what he's done. At the end of the day it's you against you. You can only control what you're doing."

Next page: Rahm believes LIV Ryder Cup decision has been made