Jon Rahm may have chosen his words more carefully had he known he was being recorded criticizing the setup at last week’s American Express, but the sentiment would have been the same.
Walking off a green in the second round on the Nicklaus Course at PGA West, Rahm was heard to say, “Piece of (blank) (blank) setup. Putting-contest week.”
The video went viral and has generated nearly 800,000 views.
Rahm was asked Tuesday for his reaction on the eve of the Farmers Insurance Open. The world’s top-ranked player and 2017 Farmers champion didn’t back down. In fact, he doubled down.
“The video’s pretty self-explanatory,” Rahm said. “I mean, we’re the PGA Tour, we’re the best golfers on the planet and we’re playing a golf course where missing the fairway means absolutely nothing.
“There was times where missing the fairway by an inch was worse than missing the fairway by 20 yards; that to me is a mistake. I don’t know what else to say.
“I also understand we’re in the desert, you can’t overseed the entire golf course and things like that can’t happen, but yeah, we played a lot of golf with zero rough. It’s just, I don’t know.”
Rahm would have omitted the expletives if he had it to do over again, but that’s about all he would change.
“If I knew somebody was recording, I wouldn’t say it the way I did,” the Spaniard said, “but I was just thinking out loud and letting some frustration out because that’s what I felt, right?
“No matter where you hit it, you’re going to be able to hit it on the green and it becomes a putting contest, who can make the putts. That’s about it; there’s no for anything else.”
Rahm used the 14th hole as an example, saying it usually places a on driving accuracy because it’s a difficult green to hit from the rough and get birdie.
“This time we were hitting driver to 20 yards of the green — because there was no rough, right?” said Rahm, who tied for 14th in the tournament.
Concluded the golfer: “I just think it was a bit too easy for the best players in the world.”
The test this week should be decidedly more challenging, though not as difficult as last summer when Rahm won the 2021 U.S. Open at Torrey Pines.
Torrey had a +1.34 scoring average last year, which was hardest among non-major courses.
Rahm, playing the first two rounds with Dustin Johnson and Justin Thomas, tees off in Wednesday’s first round at 10:40 a.m. on No. 1 South.
