SOUTHPORT, England — You may not have seen Jon Rahm play much because he plays most of his tournaments on LIV Golf, but he insisted Tuesday that his “confidence is always high.’’

“I think as a player you have to have that belief in yourself, that things are always going to be good,’’ Rahm said in advance of this week’s British Open at Royal Birkdale.

Rahm has two wins and three runner-up finishes on LIV this year and finished runner-up at the PGA Championship in May before missing the U.S. Open cut at Shinnecock last month.

After a rough start in the opening round of the Scottish Open last week with a 73, he fought to make the cut with a 65 in the second round and finished tied for 36th.

“Concerning?’’ Rahm said, repeating a reporter’s question about his performance last week. “No. Just a bad 11 holes. I just didn’t put it in the fairway enough at the start. I think when I counted, I hit three greens in 11 holes.

“This is a recipe for bad things to happen on that golf course. It was windy. It was firm. It’s tricky to put it in a place where I’m going to be able to save par, and that was the problem. I think from then on, I played fairly good.’

Asked if he has any “growing impatience’’ in trying to win a major championship for the first time since his 2023 Masters win, Rahm would have no part of it.

“It’s not easy to win a major, and it’s a tough task for anybody in the field,’’ he said. “The only growing impatience I would have is to give myself more chances. I’ve been able to do it once in the last two years so far. Hopefully I get another chance.’’

Rory McIlroy on Tuesday addressed the clip that went viral of him scolding himself at the Scottish Open last week, saying after a poor shot, “Oh my God, I’m so bad at golf.’’

“It’s funny, I felt really good the first two days in Scotland and then felt like my game just sort of deteriorated as the week went on,’’ McIlroy said. “Even though I shot a good score on Sunday, it didn’t feel very good. I’ve done a good bit of work the past couple days … just trying to match up the feels of my swing with what I’m seeing.’’

McIlroy, who played 30 holes Sunday, completing the weather-delayed third round and playing the fourth, didn’t play Monday.

“Felt good out on the course today, definitely trending in the right direction,’’ he said.

McIlroy produced some laughs when answering a question about how concerned he is about his “legacy,’’ a similar question that had been asked of Scottie Scheffler a short time earlier.

“I don’t really care,’’ he said. “I would like to think that the people that love and care about me think a certain way of me, but I’ll be long gone. I’ll be dead. I don’t think I’ll be seeing what people say about me. I’ll be six feet under. I don’t think I’ll be a ghost.’’

With that, R&A moderator Mike Woodcock said, “It’s been a theme of this afternoon’s press conferences, I think,’’ referring to Scheffler delivering a similar answer.

Aaron Rai, the winner of the PGA at Aronimink, got the surprise of a lifetime after the greatest triumph of his career.

“After the PGA, I received a handwritten letter from Jack Nicklaus, which was kind of surreal when we opened the mail,’’ Rai said Tuesday. “For someone like that to take the time to write to me after the PGA, it definitely shows the class of what Jack is about.’’

There are several marquee groups to watch once the Open begins with Thursday’s opening round. Among them, in Eastern time, are Scheffler, Tyrrell Hatton, Bryson DeChambeau at 4:48 a.m., Jordan Spieth, Tommy Fleetwood, Rahm at 5:09 a.m., Chris Gotterup, Sam Burns, Adam Scott at 9:31 a.m., McIlroy, Xander Schauffele, Matt Fitzpatrick at 10:15 a.m., Cameron Young, Wyndham Clark, Ludvig Åberg at 10:04 a.m.