Jon Rahm gets paired with LIV Golf teammate for the first time, dubs it a 'weird scenario'
Jon Rahm was paired with fellow teammate Tyrrell Hatton for the first round of the LIV Golf UK event. Rahm and Hatton share a good bond. Soon after Rahm joined LIV Golf, the English golfer also switched and started playing on the Saudi Circuit.
Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton recently paired up for the LIV Golf UK event opening round, and they had a decent start. However, the Spanish golfer called it a "weird" experience as he believed it's difficult to play with friends who are also competitors. Rahm stated that in such situations, one wants their friends to play well, but as a competitor, they also want to surpass each other in the game.
"It’s a weird scenario because, as good friends as you are, you want each other to do good, but you also want to beat each other. I could tell one of us was making a birdie, we first look at each other like, seriously? Don’t get too far away or don’t make many of those, but obviously we want to see each other make birdies," Rahm said (via Golf Week).
"My funniest one was his reaction to my chip shot on 6. Being low left, I hit a good shot, and he just froze and looked at me like this. I didn’t know what to do with that reaction, so I was just a little confused down there on the left," he added.
Following the first round of the LIV Golf UK event, Jon Rahm took the lead with a score of 8-under. Tyrrell Hatton tied for fourth place with Cameron Smith at 5-under. The three-day event is scheduled to conclude on Sunday, July 28.
A quick recap of Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton's performances at the LIV Golf UK event
In the first round of the LIV Golf UK event, Jon Rahm started his game on the second hole with a birdie. He played a bogey-free round, scoring an 8-under 63.
Rahm made a birdie on the eighth hole, followed by a pair of birdies on the 11th and 12th, and three in a row on the 15th, 16th, and 17th. He concluded the round with a birdie on the first hole, his 18th of the round.
Heading into the second round on Saturday, July 27, Jon Rahm will tee off two strokes ahead of Andy Ogletree and Abraham Ancer.
Tyrrell Hatton, on the other hand, started his game with a double bogey on the second hole. However, he soon made a birdie on the next hole.
Hatton added another birdie on the fifth and then on the tenth. He shot two back-to-back birdies on the 12th and 13th and two more on the 18th and first hole. He finished with a 5-under 66 after the first round, tying for fourth place.