He's Human After All: Jon Rahm Shoots Worst Score in Nine Months at Arnold Palmer Invitational

Rahm entered the week with three wins in his last five starts, but blew up on Friday at Bay Hill to plummet off the leaderboard.

ORLANDO, Fla. – It was bound to happen at some point, but Jon Rahm kept making you wonder.

Rahm shot his highest score in nine months on Friday during the second round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational, a 4-over-par 76 at the Bay Hill Club.

It was his highest score on the PGA Tour since a third-round 76 at the PGA Championship last May.

“Excuse my language, but it’s f------ hard,’’ Rahm said, laughing. “It’s firm, it’s fast and it’s blowing 30 miles an hour. It’s a very difficult golf course. For most of the day I managed it.

“It’s just the last five holes, even though I didn’t feel like I was making bad swings, I just couldn’t quite get it going and finished poorly the last stretch.’’

Rahm led after a first-round 65 that was a continuation of his strong play of late. He’s won three times in five starts this year and was coming off a win at the Genesis Invitational.

But after playing the back nine in even-par 36 and maintaining that for another four holes on the front, Rahm ran into a tough closing stretch, going bogey-double-birdie-bogey-bogey.

It meant a back-nine 40 that dropped him down the leaderboard out of the top 10. When Rahm finished, he was six strokes behind leader Kurt Kitayama, who shot 68 to finish at 135, 9 under par.

“Main thing is, two swings that didn’t feel back, both of them end up in the water,’’ Rahm said. “That’s costing me two shots right there. Luckily, I shot 7-under yesterday and I’m not too far off.’’

Rahm has not had a finish outside of the top 10 since he was 16^th in August at the Tour Championship. In 10 worldwide starts since, he has five victories and is now No. 1 in the world.

“You have to deal with it,’’ said Rahm, who hit just six fairways and 12 of 18 greens. He also needed 33 putts after taking 24 on Thursday. “Clearly, I never had it on the greens. Never had it off the tee. Didn't make any putts, really. Hit very little fairways. That's a very bad combination to shoot any scores out here. So you just try to minimize the damage. Obviously some people are going to shoot under par, but it's just really tough.’’