Jon Rahm smashes mics, scolds cameramen during rough round at PGA Championship
Jon Rahm was the happiest of his golfing career last month. That’s when he put on the green jacket in Augusta. But the PGA, the second leg of the Grand Slam, hasn’t been so kind of the world’s No. 1.
On a cool, drippy day Saturday at Oak Hill Country Club in upstate New York, Jon Rahm had a meltdown. Or call it a tantrum as his game went by the wayside. He’s now 12 strokes behind PGA leader Brooks Koepka. Coincidentally, Koepka’s fade in the final round of The Masters helped fuel Rahm’s victory there.
Rahm’s 72 for Saturday, on the surface, didn’t seem all that bad. He was only 2 strokes over par for the round. However, Rahm bogeyed six of his first 10 holes.
How bad was his behavior? By the fifth hole, Rahm had slammed one of his clubs into a broadcast microphone on the course.
Three holes later, Jon Rahm called out the guy with the camera. His tee shot was somewhere in the rough and Rahm was desperately looking for his ball.
“Stop aiming at my face when I’m mad, it’s all you guys do,” Jon Rahm told the cameraman. The microphone picked up the dialogue so everyone watching from home could hear him.
But Jon Rahm isn’t the only golfer getting picked up by a hot mic. Golf Digest published a story with the headline Forgive the golfers: Sometimes, you’ve just got to swear. Others golfers who dropped some salty words also included Jordan Spieth and Rory McIlroy. Rahm apparently doesn’t like the 11th hole.
To his credit, Rahm did right his round. After his sixth bogey, which came at the 10th, Rahm posted three birdies on the back nine. So his day could’ve been far worse. He told reporters he was encouraged by the way he flipped his fortunes on the back nine.
“I make that mistake on 10,” he said his his post-round press conference. “I make that bogey and I’m looking at a stretch of holes that might not be the easiest. I’m hoping for dear life not to make anymore bogeys and find myself in a spot where I actually give myself quite a few birdie chances. … Converted them and gain a little bit of a boost of confidence.
“And yeah, finished amazing. Both Cam (Smith) and I, honestly, I told him, I think best-ball, very few groups would have beat us,” Rahm said. “But the fact that both of us played as a group the last three holes 2-under par is pretty remarkable in this weather.”
Coming into the PGA, Jon Rahm was hoping to make some history. The last golfer to win both The Masters and PGA in the same year was Jack Nicklaus. And he did so in 1975. Only three golfers have achieved this double. You can check the list of multiple slams here.