Jon Rahm told Olympic collapse 'biggest choke of the year'

Former world number one Jon Rahm says he felt like he let himself and his country down after he surrendered a superb opportunity to claim an Olympic gold medal. 

Rahm began the final round with a one-stroke lead and stretched that to four on Sunday afternoon. 

The Spaniard played his first 10 holes at Le Golf National in 6-under par and it looked as though the gold medal was his and everyone else was playing for silver and bronze. 

But Rahm came unstuck with back-to-back bogeys at 11 and 12 before he added a double-bogey at the par-5 14th. 

Rahm made a birdie at the par-3 16th, holing a putt from 28 feet to keep alive his hopes of a bronze or silver medal. 

But LIV Golf's marquee signing of 2024 finished with back-to-back bogeys and finished in a tie for fifth alongside Rory McIlroy. 

Golf Channel analyst and prominent LIV critic Brandel Chamblee labelled Rahm's collapse 'the biggest choke of the year'. 

"I don't remember the last time I played a tournament and I felt this," Rahm told reporters in the immediate aftermath of finishing four strokes behind the champion Scottie Scheffler. 

"I don't know what the word is because, you know, I not only feel like I let myself down but to just not get it done for the whole country of Spain, it's a lot more painful than I would like it to be."

He added: "I've gotten the question, where this tournament would rank in my opinion or what I would think it would feel like to win, and I think by losing today, I'm getting a much deeper appreciation of what this tournament means to me than if I had won any medal, right.

"I'm getting a taste of how much it really mattered. 

"I've been very honoured to represent Spain in many, many different events, and to not get this one done stings quite a bit."

Asked what went wrong, Rahm said it was ultimately 'things that can happen in golf'. 

Although he was particularly surprised that he three-putted as often as he did. 

Across the week, at times Rahm was very poor on the greens. 

"I think I three-putted pretty much every day and this is not something I'm used to," he said.  

"I think I had three, four, five, six three-putts for the week and that's way too many."

Rahm was clear that his main mistake came on the third shot into the par-5 14th hole. 

He was forced to lay up after finding the rough with his tee shot, then hooked his approach left. 

Rahm ended up missing a short putt for bogey. 

"[You] can't go left of that green, right, and [it] ended up in a terrible lie," he said,  

"Ended up paying the price for compounding mistakes on that hole."

Scheffler finished four strokes clear of Rahm to continue his remarkable year. 

Rahm said he wasn't surprised to see Scheffler finish like he did. 

"Everybody was going low," he said. 

"With the wind conditions we had, it was very blowy, you can do it. 

"But the second you miss a golf shot, this golf course is going to make you pay the tries."

Rahm was asked if he ever envisioned playing a tournament for no money would mean as much as this.

"A hundred per cent," he said.

"Two of the most meaningful weeks in my career is two events where we make no money. 

"And I've said that a million times, and I'll say it again because the Ryder Cup and this one are up there."

What does Rahm take away from this week?

Rahm said it was too early to reflect on what transpired. 

"At one point between Friday and the front nine today, probably about as good as I've played since early last year," he said. 

"So that's a massive positive to think about going towards the end of the season in LIV. 

"I would have liked it play that good earlier in the year but it's nice to on a fourth week in a row to putt up that performance. 

"It's too bad I couldn't finish it off."

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