Jon Rahm gives away the real reason why he struggled on the back nine at the PGA Championship after being in contention to win

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The PGA Championship ended in disappointment for Jon Rahm, but that’s not to say that it wasn’t a successful week overall for the Spaniard.

Rahm ended up in a tie for eighth at Quail Hollow, but at one point on Sunday it looked like he had the momentum on his side to go on and pip Scottie Scheffler to the PGA Championship trophy.

The 30-year-old LIV Golf star dropped five shots over his final three holes, and he was undoubtedly the player who put the most pressure on Scheffler throughout the day.

Scheffler praised Rahm to the hilt after his PGA Championship win, describing him as a ‘great player and a great champion’.

After his final round at Quail Hollow ended, Rahm suggested that he hasn’t had that much fun in a long time.

His adrenaline was rushing throughout his first 15 holes of the day, but when that disappeared after his bogey on the 16th hole, his race was well and truly run.

Once the dust settles, Rahm will surely look back at the PGA Championship as a big stepping stone for him to become competitive in the majors once again.

Jon Rahm gives away real reason why he struggled on the back nine at the PGA Championship

The two-time major champion is one of the most exciting golfers to watch when he’s in full flow.

It’s just such a shame that his move to LIV Golf has meant that we as fans only get to watch him compete against the best players in the world four times per year.

After his final round came to an end at Quail Hollow, the 30-year-old from Spain spoke openly about his poor finish.

Rahm responded when asked whether nerves down the stretch contributed to his collapse during the final three holes.

He said, “It’s a couple of things. 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.

“But it’s a bit of — it’s a couple of things. I think it’s linked to some of the things I’ve been working on in the swing. It was the trend today, right. The tee shot on 3, 5, 7 and then 16. They are not bad swings. It’s just a ball that starts left, and it’s not quite cutting.

“In fact, I would say 5, 7, and 16, if it’s zero wind, all the three balls are in the fairway. But with the wind being off the right, it’s not a swing that I can afford to make, right. So it’s kind of what happened there.
I’ve been hitting my draws fairly well, and the only reason why I didn’t choose to do it on the hole was I didn’t think I could cover that bunker, and I would have left the ball probably too close to the edge to have a chance to go for it. So that’s why I thought the stock fade was better because if I over-fade it, it would be in the front of the bunker and have a chance to go for it. Maybe that was the time to aim at that bunker and unload as hard as I possibly could on that swing and hope for the best, but that has its risks as well.

“So, yeah, 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. So that’s something that I can’t quite tell you right now. I might need to think about it for a little bit.“

Those comments from Rahm were refreshingly honest. He spoke very well, and despite his poor finish, it was clearly evident that he was happy with his week’s work overall.

Jon Rahm is trending in the right direction in majors

As you can see from the table below, Rahm’s best major finishes since joining have all come in his last three starts.

Rahm will definitely win many more majors before his golf career ends.

The Spaniard is far too talented not be featuring regularly at the top of leaderboards in the very biggest events of the year.

However, I still firmly believe that he regrets leaving the PGA Tour to join LIV Golf, although he would never admit that publicly.

Rahm will undoubtedly play a key role in the two remaining major championships this year at Oakmont and Royal Portrush.

However, whether he has enough in the locker to get over the finishing line and add to his tally of two majors remains to be seen.