CHARLOTTE, N.C. — After being tied for the PGA Championship lead with only nine holes to play and coming up seven shots short of eventual winner Scottie Scheffler, two-time major winner Jon Rahm said Sunday that he’s taking a lot of positives from being in contention at a major again.
“God, it’s been a while since I had that much fun on a golf course, 15 holes” Rahm said. “Pretty fresh wound right now. But there’s been a lot of good happening this week and a lot of positive feelings to take for the rest of the year.”
Rahm’s chance at securing his first PGA Championship fell apart on the par-3 17th hole as he sent his tee shot left of the tucked pin and could only watch in dismay as it bounced into the water. But the missed opportunities began with the 13th hole, where a makeable birdie putt lipped out.
On the drivable 14th hole, Rahm hit what he thought was the perfect drive with his 5-wood. He called it his best shot of the week, but it bounced right and into a bunker instead of left and onto the green. He couldn’t get up and down for birdie and had to settle for a par.
The Spaniard played the par-5 15th perfectly, giving himself a putt off the green for eagle. Yet Rahm’s stroke was too strong, and he couldn’t make the comebacker for birdie. As Scheffler made birdies on 14 and 15 that he couldn’t, Quail Hollow’s tough Green Mile stretch did not let Rahm back in it. He bogeyed 16 and carded double bogeys on both 17 and 18.
“The last three holes, it’s a tough pill to swallow right now,” Rahm said. “If there was ever a time where it felt like it was slipping away to an extent, it was not birdieing 14 and 15; that was definitely the mistake, before, obviously, finishing poorly.”
Rahm, a member of LIV Golf’s Legion XII team, has been racking up top 10s on the LIV tour with ease. But until this week, he had yet to find himself in contention at a major since he won the 2023 Masters. His best finish before this was a non-competitive tie for 7th at last year’s Open Championship. Sunday’s 8th place finish did not properly characterize Rahm’s day; with nine holes left, he had a real shot to win.
“I think it’s the first time I’ve been in position to win a major that close and haven’t done it,” Rahm said. “The only times I think I’ve been in the lead in a major on a Sunday, I’ve been able to close it out, and this is a very different situation.”
All week, Rahm’s driver and his putter were working well. He finished inside the top 20 in strokes gained for both categories. His approach game was inside the top 30 in the field, but he lost strokes on his short game as was evident when he couldn’t get up and down on the final five holes.
“If there’s ever somebody that’s sitting right here that tells you nerves weren’t a part of it, they’re clearly lying. It’s the main thing we do as a professional sport; it’s controlling what goes through your mind,” Rahm said of what led to the bad swings. “I think it was a bit of nerves. Can’t pinpoint exactly right now. I’ll go back to what happened. I didn’t feel like I rushed anything. I didn’t feel like the process was bad.”
As someone who typically wears his emotions on his sleeve, Rahm appeared to be processing the result in real time, but he tried to keep it all in perspective.
“I always like to go back a little bit on something that Charles Barkley likes to remind basketball players all the time. Like, I play golf for a living. It’s incredible,” Rahm said. “Am I embarrassed a little bit about how I finished today? Yeah. But I just need to get over it, get over myself. It’s not the end of the world. Again, there’s a lot more positive than negative to think about this week. I’m really happy I put myself in position and hopefully learn from this and give it another go in the U.S. Open.”
Source: espn.com