"Jon Rahm made a bad business decision."

Holy cow have I heard some ridiculous whining about Jon Rahm’s forced WD from the Memorial after testing positive for COVID-19. I realize that people think they will curry favor with players by telling them what they want to hear, but that may also be at the core of Rahm’s decision not to get vaccinated to protect his family and career.

Thankfully, Rob Oller did a nice job summing it all up with Jack Nicklaus’s assessments to support his case.

In a nutshell, Rahm assessed a risk/reward situation. He went for the green in two—passing on vaccination until last week—and drop-kicked it into the water. Maybe he was unlucky. Who knows. The virus is cruel that way. As a multi-million dollar business operation with a new family and having lost family members during the pandemic, he had plenty of reasons to lay-up, take the vax route and likely remain upright with just a small microchip whispering AOC’s deepest thoughts in his ear. Oh well.

Oller writes:

So let’s speak the language of corporate attorneys and CEO consultants: Jon Rahm made a bad business decision.

If Rahm had been vaccinated ASAP after his home state of Arizona opened eligibility to all adults on March 24, the 26-year-old Spaniard almost certainly would have avoided testing positive for COVID-19 Saturday at the Memorial Tournament.

And had he not tested positive, he would not have withdrawn from the Memorial, which he led by six shots with 18 left to play.

Nicklaus the tournament host did not sound particularly torn:

“Jon is a big boy and understands we have rules, and unfortunately rules are something you may not like but they are the rules we have right now and you have to abide by them,” Nicklaus said, adding that tour commissioner Jay Monahan feels the same way. “Whether he would have shot 64 (Saturday) or 74, the same result would have come out for him.”