Jon Rahm struck a volunteer in the face with a flying clump of grass during the first round of the PGA Championship on Thursday at Aronimink Golf Club in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania, just outside Philadelphia, according to Fox News.
The incident occurred on the seventh hole after Rahm pulled his drive into the left rough and then hit a flier lie on his second shot, sending the ball long into the right rough. Frustrated with the result, Rahm swung his club at the tall grass nearby. The swing sent a divot flying directly into the face of a volunteer standing close by.
Gabby Herzig of The Athletic described the moment in a post on X: "A frustrated Jon Rahm just took a swing at the rough after his approach on No. 7. It caused a clump of grass to fly into a volunteer's face." Herzig added that Rahm appeared to feel bad immediately and that he went over and apologized to the volunteer right away.
Rahm addressed the incident at his post-round news conference. "I got a flier on my second shot that went long. It's not a good spot. Just out of frustration, I tried to make an air swing, just over the grass, and I wasn't looking, took a divot, and unfortunately, I hit a volunteer," he said. He added: "Yeah, it hit him, and unfortunately it hit him in the shoulder and then the face. Which I couldn't feel any worse. That's why I was there apologizing. I need to somehow track him down to give him a present because that's inexcusable and for something that could be completely avoidable. Whether it was my intention or not, it was just not good."
The PGA Championship at Aronimink has played significantly harder than many anticipated heading into the week. With a par 70 layout, the leaders through the first round hovered mostly around three under par. Rahm noted in his news conference that there had been pre-tournament expectations of much lower scoring. "There was somebody earlier in the week where there was some chatter where people thought 15- to 20-under was going to win," he said. "And I think that got to somebody in the PGA, and they did something about it. Because if the golf course stays like this and it keeps firming up, yeah, obviously it's not going to be anything like that."
Some viewers caught the swing on ESPN's Featured Groups coverage during the round. Rahm was unable to recover on the hole and finished with a bogey.
