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As a youngster Jon Rahm wanted to be Athletic Bilbao\u2019s goalkeeper when he was older. Still a devoted supporter today, he keeps the football club\u2019s distinctive red and white banner in the midst of the growing number of trophies in his Arizona home, \u201cbecause it\u2019s the most important\u201d. <\/p>\n
At 13 years of age, however, having started to play golf seriously, he wanted to become a golf professional instead.<\/p>\n
As it turned out\u2026 a pretty savvy decision. Now ranked fourth in the world after barely a year in the paid ranks, he returned home to the Basque Country as the U.S. PGA Tour took its customary break for winter and the European Tour moved into its end-of-year international sojourn in Hong Kong, Australia, Mauritius and South Africa, where he was interviewed by the local Getxo press. <\/p>\n
He assured the 30 or so journalists present that he had not changed since leaving his home town to study, and play golf, at the University of Arizona, and was still \u201ca local lad, from Barrika close to here\u201d.<\/p>\n
He said he loved being in pressure situations because it motivated him and made him play his best golf. \u201cI see it as being like a penalty shot in the last few minutes of a football game\u2026 In those decisive moments all I see is the ball and the hole.\u201d <\/p>\n
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Expressing his appreciation for the support he receives in Spain, he said, \u201cThe fact that this room is full is a matter of pride for me. It makes me proud to have such an impact on golf in Spain. That means there are expectations, and if you believe in me how am I not going to believe in myself as well?\u201d He recalled that he had spent a month at home before the last season and hoped a similar plan would prove just as beneficial for the start of 2018. <\/p>\n
While acknowledging that he had enjoyed a good season, he admitted that \u201cthe worst\u201d part of it was his play in the four majors. \u201cI arrived at the Masters tired, and I turned up for all the majors after achieving something important, and I didn\u2019t follow that up as well as I could have done. With more experience I hope to do better.\u201d <\/p>\n
Nevertheless, in a sporting sense, he said 2017 had been the best of his life. \u201cI achieved a lot more than I expected\u2026 If you had told me a few years ago that I would achieve this I would have said you were crazy.\u201d <\/p>\n
As for his next objectives, he said in the medium term it was to be number one in the world, \u201csomething I see a lot closer than 10 years ago\u201d when he first dreamed about it. However, he appreciates that it will be difficult, \u201cas great players such as Phil Mickelson and Sergio Garcia have never reached the top position. I currently have three top-caliber players ahead of me, and also many coming up behind. The good thing is I\u2019ve just started, but it\u2019s a goal.\u201d <\/p>\n
He also hopes to make Europe\u2019s Ryder Cup team in 2018, especially as it is in Paris. He recalled playing in the French capital in 2009 in the European under-16 championship and, seeing posters promoting the event, thought, \u201cI\u2019m going to be playing there. If it does happen it will be very special for me.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As a youngster Jon Rahm wanted to be Athletic Bilbao\u2019s goalkeeper when he was older. Still a devoted supporter today, he keeps the football club\u2019s distinctive red and white banner in the midst of the growing number of trophies in his Arizona home, \u201cbecause it\u2019s the most important\u201d. At 13 years of age, however, having […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":6698,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[125],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21759"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21759\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}