ROCHESTER, New York (Reuters) – Jon Rahm came into the PGA Championship looking to extend a brilliant start to the year that included a Masters triumph but instead struggled just to make the cut and walked away from Oak Hill on Sunday searching for positives.
Rahm closed with a one-over-par 71 that left him at seven over on the week and well off the lead and while he is certain there are positives to take from his latest outing he is not yet sure what they were.
“It’s too early to ask me that right now. I just finished. It’s too early to be thinking about it,” said Rahm.
“There’s always a positive though. There’s always a positive, but I’ll think about it tonight or tomorrow and kind of reflect on the tournament. There’s always something to learn though.”
The Spaniard arrived at Oak Hill as the world’s number one ranked golfer and in the midst of a dominant season during which he had already racked up four wins and eight top-10 finishes.
It was beyond a frustrating week for Rahm, who for most of the year has looked unbeatable while flashing a complete game wherever he teed it up.
In the end, the task of securing the second leg of the calendar year Grand Slam of golf’s four majors proved too much for Rahm, as it has for many before him,
Over the last 70 years, Ben Hogan (1953), Arnold Palmer (1960), Jack Nicklaus (1972), Tiger Woods (2002) and Jordan Spieth (2015) are the only players to win the first two major championships of the year.
Rahm’s final round began in ideal fashion with a pair of birdies but it was all he could muster as the Spaniard made a bogey out of the turn and then closed on two consecutive bogeys.
After his final round, Rahm said that while it was not his best week it was not terrible either and he was simply a victim of a challenging course set-up that exposes weaknesses.
“It’s golf. When you think, oh, I got this, it kicks you in the mouth, and you have to start over again. It happens to everybody,” said Rahm. “Again, it wasn’t my best week, but I don’t think it was terrible either.”
(Reporting by Frank Pingue in Toronto; Editing by Ken Ferris)
