Jon Rahm Reveals Deaths of Family Members During COVID-19 Pandemic After Memorial Tournament Win

After an incredible victory at the Memorial Tournament on Sunday, professional golfer Jon Rahm reflected on his win and what it meant to him after losing two family members amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Speaking to reporters during a press conference after the event, Rahm, 25, revealed that two of his family members — his great-grandmother and his mother’s aunt — died not from the virus itself, but from what he believes was "the toll that it takes mentally for those people to be quarantined and just having to deal with the situation."

Speaking highly of his great-grandmother, who he says helped raise him alongside his parents, Rahm shared, "She taught me so many things and I have so many memories with her. She passed away actually Wednesday of [the Travelers Championship], and then yesterday is when they took her ashes to her family rest spot in Madrid. So emotional, you know?"

Rahm then mentioned his great aunt as someone he and his family were still close with before her death, while also noting that he did not want to give out their names in an effort to spare his family any unwanted attention.

The professional golfer told reporters that his win is nothing compared to the current health crisis however, sharing, "It goes to show there's more important things in life than me accomplishing what I accomplished today."

He added, "I hope we can get through this. I hope we can all be as safe as possible and get [back] to life as normal as possible as soon as possible."

"But through what we've gone [through], my brother had his first daughter, so [there's] new life in the family. Now I've accomplished this," Rahm told reporters. "I think we have a lot of reasons to enjoy the next few days."

Reacting to his win — which makes him the number one player in the world — Rahm remained coy and also revealed his reaction to the penalty he received during play.

"I stay on competition mode for longer than I would like sometimes, and I process things so much later," he revealed. "I'll probably wake up tomorrow morning and still won't have it processed. I can't really explain it."

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"So it was so easy to get caught up on arbitrary things like the penalty stroke," the athlete explained. "And all I can say is as minimal as it was, it moved; I accept it. It doesn't change the outcome of the tournament. It just puts a little bit of an asterisk in it in the sense of I wish I could just keep that birdie because it was one of the greatest shots of my life, right?"

He added, "I'm incredibly proud to sit here and be the Memorial Tournament champion, win an event on the PGA TOUR four years in a row, No. 1 in the world. There's a lot of accomplishments today that are hard to believe I've done so early in my career."

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