Rahm keen to make history at Winged Foot

Jon Rahm has set his sights on becoming the first Spaniard to win the U.S. Open Championship.

The World Number Two arrives at Winged Foot Golf Club in fine form, having won the Memorial Tournament and BMW Championship on the US PGA Tour since golf's resumption.

Those victories at Muirfield Village and Olympia Fields came on the two toughest tracks on the US circuit so far this season, but conditions in New York this week are expected to be even more demanding. Geoff Ogilvy won with a five over par total the last time the U.S. Open was staged at Winged Foot in 2006.

“I think I've always thought U.S. Open is the type of golf course I can win on,” said Rahm.

“I know my game can win on any golf course, but when you're playing good, again, it becomes a mental challenge, right, so I welcome those.

“Plus, I'm not going to lie to say this; there's always something extra special to be possibly the first Spanish player to win a U.S. Open. That would be amazing. So it's a bit of an extra motivation there to play good this week and do what I have to do.”

At 25, Rahm was only 11 the last time Winged Foot staged a Major Championship and has limited experience of the venue.

“Just besides having a strategy, it's playing good golf,” he added. “It's sort of like in boxing where Mike Tyson said everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face. It's the same thing here. We all have a plan, but if you hit it sideways, you got to figure it out.

“I haven't played it yet. I'm playing this afternoon. But I did come and play that Monday of the week of East Lake since we started on Friday, and it was playing very different to what it is now. It was kind of raining, soft and slow.

“It pretty much played like the longest golf course I've ever played. I was hitting extremely long clubs into a lot of holes. I remember hitting five, eight and 16, 17 and a couple other holes, four-iron to the green. So I know it's playing different. From what I've heard, fairways are firmer, they're rolling out.

“I'm just excited. It's one of those golf courses that's just good. It's right in front of you. There's no real trick to it off the tee. You see what you have, really difficult greens, and that's when the difficulty comes in, the length of the rough plus those tricky greens. There's no surprise after coming here that some of the winning scores in the past have been so high.

“I would say in the past maybe this type of golf wasn't my bread and butter, but again, based on the two events I've won this year, I'm pretty much ready. I've been able to dial it back when I needed to, and I've been able to play it properly when I needed to.”