Jon Rahm has finished runner-up at four of the eight majors he has played since joining LIV Golf, and the Spaniard added another to the collection at Aronimink, falling three shots short of Aaron Rai despite playing all four rounds at par or better.
Rahm's hopes flickered through the back nine but never quite caught fire, with the speed of the greens leaving long birdie efforts continuously short. By the time Rai rolled in a 30-footer on the 17th, the gap was beyond reach.
"I played really good golf," Rahm said. "That's the only way to look at it. Just wish I had better with the speed of the greens. Just couldn't seem to get it to the hole and that was the only reason why I didn't hole any more putts. Even though, even so, what Aaron did today catching him could have been very difficult. Obviously it would have been, but I would have liked to at least have a better chance playing the last two holes."
The Spaniard pointed to a wind change at the par-three seventh as the day's most damaging swing, sending what he believed should have been a straight tee shot well right of the green and into the bunker. A subsequent missed putt at the third where he gave the breeze "too much credit" compounded the early damage.
"It was a wind change on seven," Rahm said. "It was supposed to be pretty straight in, especially how we played five and six. And when I hit it, it switched to quite a bit more left to right. So that's why that tee shot ended up so far right. It wasn't my best swing, but still shouldn't have been that far there. That's just unlucky."
Rahm reserved generous words for the champion, having previously been told repeatedly by professionals how warmly Rai is regarded inside the locker room. The detail he singled out, the head covers Rai still uses on his irons, was not coincidental.
"I have heard consistently that there is very few people that are nicer and kinder human beings than Aaron Rai," Rahm said. "Anybody that wears or uses head covers in his irons because he covered his irons when he was a kid so much that he wanted to respect the equipment so much, and is still doing it, shows a lot about a person. And I have heard absolutely nothing but good or great things about Aaron Rai."
"Most of Monday and Tuesday, I spent thinking what was wrong with me cuz everybody was saying we were going to shoot 15 to 20 under here, and I didn't see any chance in the world of that happening," Rahm said. "I just when the pressure is the highest in majors, some of those things you're working on can damage the foundation."
Rahm conceded that fine margins continued to define his major resume, with two missed four-footers on Saturday alone equating to half the final gap to Rai.
"I did miss two putts from about 4 ft yesterday, so that's two shots right there," Rahm said. "It's easy to focus on today, but I'm sure I can find three shots at the length of the week that could have been better. I still need to kind of assess the entire week to then be able to pick and choose what I need to change or what I need to improve on."
The Spaniard now turns his attention to the U.S. Open, where the gap between contender and champion has continued to live in his putter.