The Mexico Open will be a big challenge for Jon Rahm, given the fact that he has such lofty ambitions this year as well. Rahm was able to achieve great success by winning this tournament last year, and now he wishes to defend his title.
During the press conference, Rahm spoke about the importance of this tournament and how much it means to him personally. It is a unique feeling to be able to play in front of a Mexican crowd that has accepted him as one of their own.
“It’s meaningful, it’s meaningful. Obviously I would love for this to be something I’m doing in Spain right now this close to the Masters, but this is the next closest thing. The Mexican crowd, the Mexican people have all accepted me not as one of their own but like you just mentioned, as an Hispanic playing golf as the champion at the Masters, they’ve taken me in very, very well.
If I can be an inspiration to anyone, it’s great. If I can be an inspiration to somebody who maybe didn’t have the means to play golf early on, it’s even better, so I’ll take whatever it comes. ”- Rahm said, as quoted by golfmonthly.com
Jon Rahm and last year’s victory
Rahm had a great triumph in last year’s Mexico Open, and he looked as motivated as ever as he pursued his goal of winning.
This year he wants the same thing to happen. “To be able to come here and go wire to wire, take the lead on Thursday and never give it up and never really be trailing from that point on was big,” Rahm said. “To get it done in any Spanish-speaking country makes it a lot more special, there’s always a little bit of extra pressure, extra motivation for me to want to win. So, it was big, it was big”.
