He tossed his club. The club nearly struck a woman. He hit a shank. And he shot a two-under 70. When Jon Rahm said afterward his round was “odd,” it was not hyperbole.
After 36 holes at the Memorial, Rahm is a respectable two-under. But during a nine-hole stretch on Friday, he was all over Muirfield Village. Golf, right? You may argue the “o” in the word may as well stand for “odd.”
We’ll begin with the club toss, the club strike and an apology, which was captured by golf blogger Chris Chaney. On the 580-yard, par-5 11th, after a drive down the fairway, and a second shot that left him with about 100 yards to the pin, Rahm hit shot three 34 feet left of the hole. He wanted it closer. “Oh my, god, amazing line there, Jon,” he said. “That is incredible.”
Rahm then hurled his wedge to his right, toward his bag, where it bounced near it and nearly skipped into a woman holding a microphone nearby.
“Sorry, sorry,” Rahm said. He walked toward the woman and apologized again.
“It’s OK,” she said.
On to the shank. On the 470-yard, par-4 2nd hole, (Rahm started with the back nine on Friday), after another drive down the fairway, Rahm darted stroke two right, low and hot.
“Shanked it. Absolutely shanked,” an announcer on PGA Tour Live said.
“I mean that was a total shank,” a second announcer said.
“@JonRahmpga welcome to the club!!” Justin Thomas wrote on Twitter, a reference to his PGA Championship final-round shank — which he recovered from on his way to victory.
And then Rahm birdied twice from there and shot the 70. Odd. But what gives?
Rahm, of course, isn’t immune to misfires and shanks. But he also isn’t safe from occasionally feeling uncomfortable with his swing, either, so when he said he was on Friday, one bad thing just led to another.
Right, Jon?
“Absolutely,” he said.
“Absolutely.”