After an outstanding second round on the PGA Tour’s RBC Heritage on Friday, Jon Rahm was posed with a pretty unusual question.
After finishing yesterday’s shaky first 18 holes of this week’s RBC Heritage with a bogey-free 64, Jon Rahm was questioned about if he had thought about abandoning the second round.
Rahm traveled to South Carolina for this week’s RBC Heritage alongside the rest of the PGA Tour’s best players, barring Rory McIlroy and a few others, despite taking home The Masters title on Sunday.
Pros are only permitted to skip one of these new approved PGA Tour events all season. They might have PIP issues if they skip more than one, as McIlroy has currently done. According to reports, McIlroy has received a $3 million fine.
And when Rahm initially arrived at Hilton Head, fatigue may have set in following a week at Augusta marked by numerous delays and bad weather. After winning the green jacket, the Spaniard shot 1-over par with a bogey-filled round, and he might have missed the cut.
Instead, the World No. 1 demonstrated his status on Friday with a remarkable 7-under 64 that was bogey-free and catapulted him significantly up the leaderboard and back into contention.
Rahm appeared confused by the question, but he managed to formulate a nearly perfect answer:
My job, you understand? People, remember what I said during the press conference. People pay good money to see my performances. My duty is to carry out.They don’t care if I slept well or poorly or how I feel. It is irrelevant. I’m not ducking anything in that sense as a rival. I’m going to try to shoot low when I go out there.My objective is to try my hardest, as I stated on Tuesday or Wednesday, and that is all.
Rahm trailed Jimmy Walker, who started strong at Harbour Town Golf Links this week with back-to-back rounds of 65, by six strokes after the first round of the second round. After 36 holes, Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele, and Justin Rose were tied for second place at 9 under par, three strokes behind him. Scheffler shot a 6-under 65 on Friday, matching Rahm’s low score.
Patrick Cantlay, who has been in the news this week due to his supposed slow play at Augusta National, hurried up play as quickly as he could on Friday by making a hole-in-one from 200 yards on the par-3 seventh hole.
But it seems that not everyone could comprehend how the two-time major champion recovered on Friday. After his round, a reporter questioned Rahm and asked:
“You didn’t play well yesterday, and now you’re still exhausted when you play today. Why try hard?
The 31-year-old came in second place at the competition last year after falling to Jordan Spieth in a playoff. After two rounds this year, he stands at 8 under par and is only four shots behind Walker.
The defending winner, Spieth, was also in contention after shooting rounds of 68 and 67 for a 7-under par overall score.
