Jon Rahm on Olympics choke: “More painful than I would like it to be”

Jon Rahm held a four shot lead and looked well on his way to winning gold, but he did not even post a podium finish.

When Jon Rahm made the turn to Le Golf National’s back nine on Sunday, he looked well on his way to bringing a gold medal home to his native Spain.

He shot a front-nine 31, a five-under par score that helped him separate himself from the rest of the field. Another birdie followed at the par-4 10th, and suddenly, Rahm sat at 20-under par, holding a four-shot lead and in full command of the Olympics.

And then he three-putted, missing a five-footer for par on the par-3 11th. He went on to completely unravel from there. Rahm bogeyed the 12th and then made a mess of things on the par-5 14th, making a double bogey to drop all the way back to 16-under and well out of the lead. He salvaged those blunders somewhat with a long birdie make on the par-3 16th, which restored some hope for at least a medal, but back-to-back bogies on the final two holes sealed his fate. Rahm finished in a tie for fifth, a result that seemed impossible for him when he stood on the 11th tee.

“I don’t remember the last time I played a tournament, and I felt this—I don’t know what the word is—because, you know, I not only feel like I let myself down but not getting it done for the whole country of Spain is a lot more painful than I would like it to be,” Rahm said after.

“I’ve gotten the question of ‘Where this tournament would rank in my opinion?’ or ‘What I would think it would feel like to win,’ and I think by losing today, I’m getting a much deeper appreciation of what this tournament means to me than if I had won any medal, right? I’m getting a taste of how much it really mattered. I’ve been very honored to represent Spain in many, many different events, and not to get this one done stings quite a bit.”

Photo by Andrew Redington/Getty Images

Rahm then added that a “little bit” of everything went wrong for him down the stretch.

“Eleven and 12, to be honest, the more I think about it is just things that can happen in golf. It’s not like it was terrible,” Rahm said.

“It was a lot more wind than we can feel on 11; that’s why it went long. Played five long and ended up being 10 long. Hit a good putt but misread it. The three-putt situation has been an issue the whole week. I think I three-putted pretty much every day, and this is not something I’m used to. I think I had three, four, five, six 3-putts for the week, and that’s way too many.”

But Rahm said the biggest mistake of the day came on the 14th, where he made a seven.

“The main mistake is the third shot on 14,” Rahm explained.

“Once I missed the fairway, which can happen because it’s a tough tee shot to hit. But it was a good layup, then I can’t do what I did on the third shot. Can’t go left. 8-iron, 162 meters, I believe. Trying to take long out of play and knowing that short right is fine. Yeah, can’t go left of that green, right? I ended up in a terrible lie. Ended up paying the price for compounding mistakes on that hole.”

He then tried to get back into attack mode, knowing that he needed to make a few threes over his final four holes to tie Scottie Scheffler, who lapped Rahm and others to seize the lead and ultimately win gold.

“It doesn’t feel like I made that bad of swings. It’s just that hard of a golf course. It’s just that simple,” Rahm added.

“On 18, it’s just unfortunate I couldn’t really give myself a better chance to take Hideki [Matsuyama] into a playoff. The mistake was done early. I was 20 yards away on 11 tee and let it slip away. I did it myself. What it represents and what it could have been for Spain is what makes it more painful.”

Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough for more golf coverage. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko as well.