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Rahm ready for Southern Hills intro

REUTERS

TULSA, Oklahoma - Jon Rahm has never played a competitive round at Southern Hills Country Club before but the Spanish world No. 2 said on Tuesday his ability to quickly adapt to any layout will serve him well at this week's PGA Championship.

The U.S. Open champion, who is a co-favourite this week along with world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, felt that sometimes getting too caught up in the intricacies of a course ahead of time can be a hindrance.

"I feel like I learn courses pretty quickly and my game kind of adapts to any golf course, and that's why I feel like I've had success where I haven't played before," Rahm said during his pre-tournament news conference.

"Sometimes less is more

... The main thing is I learn courses decently fast, and my game, the way I play golf, it adapts to pretty much anything."

Rahm spent two days at Southern Hills last week to get a sneak peak at the par70 layout which replaced a Donald Trump-owned course in New Jersey that was originally slated to host this week's PGA Championship.

The Spaniard said hitting into the rough at Southern Hills will make it hard to be aggressive toward the pins and that a stern test awaits the world's best golfers when play begins on Thursday.

The average winning score relative to par over the seven majors played at Southern Hills is minus 4.4 and Nick Price is the only champion to finish double-digits under par having reached 11 under at the 1994 PGA Championship.

"You can't hide. You have to do everything well. There's no surprise that the winning scores here have been as high as they have in the past and just a few people make it under par," said Rahm.

"Iron game needs to be good, short game, putting, driving, everything, otherwise something really will have to excel for something else to be lacking."

In his most recent start, Rahm won the Mexico Open two weeks ago for his seventh PGA Tour title and first since collecting his first major last year at Torrey Pines.

"I don't know if I needed more confidence, but it was definitely – a win is a win, obviously. It was a good one," said Rahm.

"Hadn't had my best year so far. I had a couple of really good finishes, but since Torrey, I wasn't really relevant on the leaderboard, so it was nice to be up there and get the win."

MICKELSON SHOULD BE HERE – MCILROY

Former world No. 1 Rory Mcilroy said it is both sad and unfortunate that Phil Mickelson will not be defending his title at this this week's PGA Championship after deciding to extend his hiatus from the sport.

Mickelson, who became golf's oldest major champion at last year's PGA Championship when he triumphed shortly before turning 51, stepped away from golf in February following the reaction to comments he made regarding the Saudi-backed golf league.

Four-time major champion Mcilroy felt the Hall of Fame golfer and long-time fan favourite deserved a sort of victory lap at the year's second major.

"This should be a celebration, right? He won a major championship at 50 years old. It was possibly his last big, big moment in the game of golf," said Mcilroy.

"He should be. I think he should be here this week and celebrating what a monumental achievement he made last year. It's unfortunate. It's sad. I don't know what else I can say."

Without six-times major winner Mickelson in the field, this will mark the first time the reigning PGA Championship winner did not defend his title since 2008 when Tiger Woods missed out while recovering from knee surgery.

Mickelson's public image took a hit when the author of an unauthorised biography said the American golfer told him he was willing to look past Saudi Arabia's human rights record to gain leverage with the PGA Tour.

Saudi Arabia's government has denied accusations of human rights abuses and Mickelson later apologised for the comments, which he claimed were off the record, and then said he planned to take time away from the sport.

Mickelson last appeared in a PGA Tour event in February and not has not stated when he plans to return to competition. A number of his sponsors have since cut ties with him.

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2022-05-18T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-05-18T07:00:00.0000000Z

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