Jon Rahm was called a ‘child’ by Brooks Koepka. He responded like an adult

ROME — Jon Rahm was stunned to study the Ryder Cup’s latest rivalry existed late on Friday night.

So you possibly can think about his shock when he realized he made up half of it.

“I’ve never had an issue with Brooks [Koepka], to be fair,” Rahm stated Saturday of his latest sparring companion. “I don’t know now, but up until yesterday afternoon, I thought we had a pretty good relationship.”

Indeed, it was a shock for Rahm to find out about Koepka’s shot throughout the bow within the aftermath of their slugfest four-ball match on Saturday afternoon. Rahm had figured he’d left Koepka sad, notably after he’d drained two eagles within the ultimate three holes to power an not possible halve, dunking the final one off the again rim of the 18th gap. But for Brooks to return after him like this? It felt unusual.

“I mean, I want to hit a board and pout just like Jon Rahm did,” Koepka had stated of his afternoon four-ball companion. “But, you know, it is what it is. Act like a child. But we’re adults. We move on.”

Rahm admits he discovered in regards to the quote the best way virtually everybody else did: from social media. There hadn’t been a lot of an inkling of the turmoil dwelling under Koepka’s floor throughout their match, not to mention after it. The two golfers had dapped respectfully, exchanging a few phrases of reward, within the aftermath of Rahm’s eagle. It had been a dogfight, and it had ended with the gesture their battles all the time had.

“We’re both pretty much straight-up people that don’t like the BS — excuse my language — in between,” Rahm stated. “There’s always been that mutual respect. And he’s always been an incredible player, and he’s always done amazing things.”

This is how issues have been between Koepka and Rahm for years now, even after Rahm bested Koepka on Masters Sunday, and even after Koepka bested Rahm the following month on the PGA. So what made Friday totally different?

“Listen, had I seen somebody make the putt on 18 the way I did, I would not have been the happiest of people, either,” Rahm stated with a snort. “It’s match play. I think we saw plenty of the opposite when we were at Whistling Straits two years ago.”

Big match-play moments convey massive emotion, and Rahm isn’t any stranger. They are what has introduced a technology of American followers to know Rahm as a screaming, fist-pump-throwing heel for the Europeans. Koepka noticed a few of that facet on Friday afternoon, when Rahm clung to he and Scheffler like a barnacle, refusing to present both American competitor room to breathe. The Americans noticed it once more on Saturday morning, when Rahm practically jarred an ace on the seventeenth to stroll off his match with Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele.

“The 17th today is going to come very close [to being my favorite match play moment ever],” Rahm stated, earlier than deciding on a totally different, barely extra memorable reply. “That putt on 17 against Tiger to win the match and get my first Ryder Cup point [in 2018] is always going to be up there. That one was very, very special. It’s probably the biggest overreaction you’ll see to a 4-footer in your life, but it’s what I felt like I needed to do at the moment to let it out.”

The media noticed none of that facet on Saturday afternoon, when Rahm confronted the press for the primary time all event week. He was confronted with an alternative to show his spat with Koepka into a spectacle, to twist the knife into the facet of the Americans. But then one thing humorous occurred: he didn’t.

“I think it could be attributed to it being a long day and seeing what happened on the last three holes that we did,” Rahm stated in an uncommon show of mid-Ryder Cup empathy. “I really don’t know what else to say about it. It was a heck of a match. I think they played 10 under par, and Nicolai and I had a great day. It was really, really fun to be a part of it and experience that.”

It was a hanging reply from Rahm, whose popularity as an on-course hothead hasn’t usually lent itself to perspective like this. As he spoke from the press room at Marco Simone on Saturday, he appeared to grasp that. In reality, it was a few of his on-course frustration — a board he’d hit adjoining to the 18th tee field after lacking a makeable birdie putt on the seventeenth — that led to Koepka’s “pouting” feedback within the first place.

“I’m not going to stand here and say I’m a perfect example on what to do on a golf course,” he stated. “I don’t think either of us two are. But I play and compete.”

This, it appears, is the attitude added by a Ryder Cup villain who has change into a Ryder Cup adult. The huge lead helps issues, to make sure, as does the present gravitational pull of Rahm’s golf sport, which has made him simply the European facet’s most terrifying competitor at 2-0-1. But it will have been simply as simple for Rahm to cover his empathy from the sunshine of day; to let Koepka drown within the wake of clearly ill-spoken feedback.

It will not be a stretch to say that it’s the type of perspective the Jon Rahm of six years in the past — or possibly even six months in the past — won’t have had the wherewithal to disclose.

“I’m very comfortable with who I am and what I do,” he stated with a chuckle. “I’ve done much worse on a golf course than that. That doesn’t even register to a low level of Jon anger on the golf course. Is it right or wrong, childish or not? I don’t know, but that’s what I needed at the moment.”

Rahm wanted a totally different gear on Saturday afternoon, and he discovered it. Not that of the screaming, fist-pump-throwing apex predator we’ve seen on the course — however that of the human being we don’t usually see off of it.

We love the Ryder Cup as a result of it has a means of unveiling the soul.

Sometimes these classes are available shouts, however rather more usually they arrive in silence.

James Colgan

Golf.com Editor

James Colgan is a information and options editor at GOLF, writing tales for the web site and journal. He manages the Hot Mic, GOLF’s media vertical, and makes use of his on-camera expertise throughout the model’s platforms. Prior to becoming a member of GOLF, James graduated from Syracuse University, throughout which era he was a caddie scholarship recipient (and astute looper) on Long Island, the place he’s from. He may be reached at james.colgan@golf.com.