Jon Rahm speaks about the fan who whistled in his backswing at The Open and sparked angry reaction from him on course

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Jon Rahm has made a very positive start to The Open at Royal Portrush, carding a one-under 70 in round one.

But his Thursday at The Open wasn’t without controversy, with Rahm left angered by a fan who whistled during his backswing on his 11th tee shot.

Annoyed, the Spaniard turned towards the fans in general and said: “Really? Whistling? Great time. Right in my backswing. Very smart, whoever it was.”

Rahm is searching for his third major championship win at Royal Portrush, having previously won the US Open and The Masters.

Spanish ace Rahm is one of 19 LIV golfers at The Open this week, and can be considered among the favourites.

Jon Rahm addresses whistling fan during his first round at The Open

He occupies second place in the LIV Golf individual standings, and has enjoyed a hugely impressive major championship season so far.

But it wasn’t all smiles during his opening round this week, with Rahm questioned afterwards about his frustration at the whistling fan on the 11th tee.

“I mean, if I were to paint a picture, you have the hardest tee shot on the course, raining, into the wind off the left, it’s enough,” he said.

READ MORE: The Open Championship organisers have made a change to the bunkers to make them even more difficult at Royal Portrush

“I know they’re not doing it on purpose. It just seemed like somebody trying to get a hold of someone for whatever it is. It was bad timing.

“I think I just used the moment to let out any tension I had in me. Really that’s not… it is what it is. To be honest, it probably didn’t affect as much as I made it sound like.

“It was a bad swing as well. Just a difficult hole. I mean, it’s frustrating, but it is what it is. It’s an everyday thing in golf.”

Jon Rahm gives honest verdict on his first round at The Open

Rahm was understandably annoyed at the incident, which as he mentioned arrived on a very difficult part of the course in very difficult conditions.

But overall he can have few complaints about his impressive display, which involved three birdies, 13 pars and two bogeys.

READ MORE: European Ryder Cup player reacts to the conditions at Royal Portrush after finishing his first round at The Open

Analysing his performance, the two-time major winner said: “Yeah, yeah. Played good golf. If anything, I wish I could have played the easier holes, the first five with the wind today. 2 on were all downwind. Taken a little more advantage of that.

“I had a couple good looks. Too bad on that birdie on 1, but still, pars out here are never going to hurt you, and those holes starting on 8, 8 through 12 for the most part, all of them into the wind, are just difficult holes, a difficult stretch of the course where if you can somehow manage to make pars it’s great.

“But overall, yeah, I’m very happy with the round. I’ll take the score. I feel confident. Hopefully I can hit a few better shots off the tee.

“With the rain it’s always tough to say. I feel like I was making good swings. Water gets between the ball and the club and it can go anywhere.

“But I’d like those good swings to somehow produce the shot that I like to see. But besides that, a really good day.”

Jon Rahm says how winning The Open would compare to winning The Masters

Rahm has been one of the top LIV Golf performers in majors this season, recently finishing T7 at the US Open.

That impressive performance at Oakmont arrived after he finished T14 at The Masters and T8 at the PGA Championship.

It was at Augusta National that he clinched his most recent major win, when he saw off Brooks Koepka and Phil Mickelson by four shots.

Asked how winning The Open this week would compare to his 2023 Masters success, Rahm replied: “I don’t know.

“The Masters was quite epic in my mind somehow I felt. There’s just a few things that would make this one so special.

“Not only getting to three majors, being the second Spanish player after Seve [Ballesteros] to win an Open and being the only one to three different majors, that would be… yeah, makes it very, very special, on top of everything that already is. But that’s the theory of it. Hopefully on Sunday I can answer that question a little bit better.”