Rahm finishes tied for fifth at the Olympics after disappointing closing stretch

Eight holes left and the gold medal in his grasp, Spain’s Jon Rahm saw his dreams of Olympic glory vanish Sunday afternoon in a disappointing and frustrating closing stretch at Le Golf National.

The Legion XIII captain played the final eight holes in 5 over to drop out of the medal position, shooting a 1-under 70 to finish tied for fifth at 15 under.

USA’s Scottie Scheffler won gold at 19 under, the UK’s Tommy Fleetwood took silver at 18 under and Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama claimed the bronze at 17 under.

Rahm was the top performer among the seven LIV Golf players competing in the Paris Olympics, but that’s little consolation for the 29-year-old who was hoping to secure just the second gold medal for Spain in any sport in these games.

“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,” Rahm said. 

“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. I'm getting a taste of how much it really mattered. I've been very honored to represent Spain in many, many different events, and to not get this one done stings quite a bit.”

With birdies in six of his first 10 holes, Rahm became the only player this week to reach 20 under as he took what appeared to be a commanding four-shot lead. Considering he had played the back nine in a collective 8 under during the first three rounds, the odds seemed heavily in his favor.

But a three-putt bogey at the par-3 11th and a Fleetwood birdie cut the advantage in half. Rahm then found the bunker with his tee shot on the par-4 12th and his approach landed in the thick greenside rough. When he failed to get up-and-down while Fleetwood birdied again, the two players were tied for the lead.

Rahm did well to save par at the 13th, but at the par-5 14th, he missed the fairway with his drive and could only hack out of the rough. His third shot again landed in heavy rough, and his chip came up short of the green and rolled back towards him. After chipping it close, he missed his bogey attempt. The double bogey was the only one recorded at the 14th by any player this week.

“The main mistake is the third shot on 14,” Rahm explained. “… I can't do what I did on the third shot. Can't go left. 8-iron, 162 meters, I believe. Trying to take long out of play and knowing that short right is fine. Yeah, can't go left of that green and ended up in a terrible lie. Ended up paying the price for compounding mistakes on that hole.”

At that point, Rahm was tied for fourth at 16 under. A par at 15 and a lengthy birdie putt at the par-3 16th moved him back into medal position. He still had an outside chance to catch Scheffler for a gold medal playoff at that point.

But he failed to get up-and-down at the 17th, with the bogey dropping him off the podium. He needed a birdie at the 18th to force a playoff for the bronze with Matsuyama but ran his lengthy attempt well past the hole.

“I know they look like mistakes on the board, but it just doesn't feel as bad as it looked on the last few holes, which is probably where I'm going to have to learn about what happened today,” Rahm said. “But make that putt, I'm at 17, who knows. I put that ball on 18, it 8-iron, it's a doable pin. I could have given myself a chance to tie Tommy for silver. … On 18, it's just unfortunate I couldn't really give myself a better chance to take Hideki into a playoff.”

Rahm was the best player in the field from tee-to-green the first three days. While he wasn’t as sharp on Sunday, ultimately it was his putter that let him down. 

“The three-putt situation has been an issue the whole week,” he said. “I think I three-putted pretty much every day and this is not something I'm used to. I think I had three, four, five, six 3-putts for the week and that's way too many.”

Despite the disappointment of the final eight holes, Rahm likes the way his game is trending. He comes off his first LIV Golf individual title at LIV Golf UK by JCB and will head into next month’s LIV Golf Greenbrier ranked second in the season-long points race behind Torque GC Captain Joaquin Niemann.

Two tournaments are left to decide the individual champion, and Rahm’s Legion XIII also is close to wrapping up one of the top three seeds for the Dallas Team Championship to end the season in September.

“At one point between Friday and the front nine today, probably about as good as I've played since early last year,” Rahm said. “So that's a massive positive to think about going towards the end of the season in LIV. I would have liked to play that good earlier in the year but it's nice to, on a fourth week in a row, to put up that performance. It's too bad I couldn't finish it off.”

As for the other six LIV Golf players at Le Golf National, Chile’s Niemann finished at 12 under and tied for ninth after a closing 68. Mexico’s Carlos Ortiz (Torque) tied for 26th at 5 under, and his countryman Abraham Ancer (Fireballs GC) tied for 35th at 2 under. Rahm’s Spanish teammate David Puig (Fireballs) tied for 40th at 1 under, Chile’s Mito Pereira (Torque) tied for 45th at 1 over, shooting a final-round 66. Poland’s Adrian Meronk (Cleeks GC) tied for 49th at 3 over.

OLYMPICS, FINAL RESULTS