Jon Rahm hopes to build on his top three finish last year and mount another challenge for the WGC-Mexico Championship – and aid good causes in doing so.
The Spaniard enjoyed an impressive World Golf Championships debut at Chapultepec Golf Club, and has since won two European Tour events as part of a meteoric rise to World Number Two.
Rahm has also pledged to donate money to charity after Mexico was hit by a powerful earthquake earlier this month.
“For people that don't know, there was a bad earthquake that hit Mexico City and I think a couple days ago last week there was another earthquake that hit Mexico and they were both pretty hard and pretty high on the scale,” Rahm said.
“So I thought we're doing great things with playing this great event in Mexico, helping out the golf community, but why stop there?
“I decided this week, much like I did last year, I'm going to donate for every birdie that I make and every eagle that I make, it will be $1,000 for the birdies, $3,000 for every eagle that I make. It's all going to go towards the Mexican Red Cross to help out these people in need. Hopefully I get a lot of birdies and a lot of eagles to help out as much as possible.
“Top three last year obviously brings me a lot of positive memories. The Mexican people here, the Hispanic culture, Latin fans are so engaging, you know?”
Rahm practised with current World Number One Dustin Johnson on Wednesday, but the 23 year old believes he still needs to improve in order to challenge for top spot in the Official World Golf Ranking.
“To be honest, I don't know,” Rahm said when asked what it would take to overtake Johnson. “That's the best way I can say that because I haven't achieved that yet.
“I can tell you what I'm going to maybe do. I'm going to practice hard, I'm going to work out hard, I'm going to try my hardest, but I don't know what I need to do to stay there. I hope it happens, but dethroning Dustin Johnson isn't going to be easy. He's a great player so I'm going to have to play really high quality golf to even get close to him.
“To get to number one, you have to win golf tournaments. I can't think of anyone that has made it to number one without winning golf tournaments. Jason Day had to win a golf tournament, Dustin Johnson had to win Genesis, Jordan Spieth had to win, Tiger had to win. But then there are players like Phil Mickelson, who has won 42 times on the PGA Tour and never made it to number one. [Jose Maria] Olazabal didn't make it. Sergio [Garcia] hasn't made it. It's not easy. You have to have the chance, and I hope to one day have the chance. But I don't plan on changing anything, just improving.”
Johnson comes into the week as defending champion, and feels he is closing in on his best form again.
“I feel like the golf game is starting to come around being really good again,” he said. “Last year coming here obviously I was playing some of the best golf of my career leading into this event and continuing on for the Match Play, too.
“I feel like the game's in really good form coming in here this week and I'm excited about this tournament.”
