It was a back nine that Jon Rahm will regret for the rest of his life, and Brandel Chamblee wasn’t going to take it lightly.
The Spaniard led by four strokes after the back nine at Le Golf National on Sunday and was in sight of a gold medal at the Paris Olympics.
Rahm shot 39 strokes and not only missed out on the gold medal, he was eliminated from the medal pool too.
“This is one of the biggest mistakes of the year,” Chamblee said at NBC Studios after the tournament, “on par with Rory McIlroy at the U.S. Open.”
McIlroy bogeyed three of the final four holes of the U.S. Open and missed two short putts to lose by one stroke to Bryson DeChambeau.
Rahm’s shocking fall created an opportunity for others to take part, and Masters champion Scottie Scheffler rose to the occasion, firing 29 strokes to finish at 19 under par and overtaking Rahm and the others to win the gold medal.
Tommy Fleetwood (-18) won the silver medal and Hideki Matsuyama (-17) won the bronze medal.
“Jon Rahm was very consistent the first three and a half rounds, leading the league in fairways hit, driving distance and greens in regulation,” Chamblee said. “But the demon that’s plagued him for the last year or so has been that betrayal. We saw it briefly on the eighth hole, but it’s come back to bite him in some key moments, especially in the back nine.”
“And then, of course, sometimes you three-putt, so I lost the lead by four strokes, and by the way, I lost the medal by four strokes.”
Rahm left the PGA Tour in December for LIV Golf, but Chamblee has become one of the rebellious golf league’s most prominent critics.
The 29-year-old has not had much success in major tournaments, having missed the U.S. Open with a toe infection.
Rahm pulled away from a star-studded field on Sunday and was at 20 under with seven holes to go, but his performance began to unravel after a bogey on the 12th hole.
2024 Paris Olympics
Rahm also made a blunder with a double bogey on the par-5 14th hole.
“I missed the fairway once, which happens a lot because it’s a tough tee shot,” Rahm said. “But it was a good layup. It didn’t play like the third shot. I couldn’t go left. I think it was 600 feet with an 8-iron. I went for a long shot, knew I could go short right and be OK. You know, you can’t go left of the green, right? I ended up in a terrible lie. I ended up paying for all my mistakes on that hole.”
Rahm ended his miserable defeat with bogeys on the 17th and 18th holes.
“I can’t remember the last time I played in a tournament but this is how I felt. I can’t find the words. Not only the feeling of having let myself down but also not achieving results for the whole of Spain is much more painful than I would have liked,” Lahm told reporters after the match.
Rahm will no doubt be hoping to get this tournament back after being shocked out of the medal spot by Scheffler, who finished with a course-record-tying nine-under-par 62 to win gold.
“I was asked questions like, ‘Where do you think I’ll place in this tournament?’ and ‘How would you feel if you won?’ but I think losing today has given me a deeper understanding of what this tournament means to me than if I had won a medal,” Lahm said. “It really makes me realize how important it really was. It’s been such an honour to represent Spain in so many tournaments but I’m very disappointed that I didn’t win this one.”
