Jon Rahm hits back at Brooks Koepka for Ryder Cup whinge as Spaniard admits he doesn't like the 'bulls***'

Jon Rahm hit back at Brooks Koepka for branding him a child after the humiliated Yank ended up the one taken to school in Rome.

The Spanish superstar’s near hole-in-one at the 17th ensured he and partner Tyrrell Hatton grabbed a morning point from Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay to boost Europe’s Ryder Cup bid at Marco Simone. That came after Rahm’s fabulous Friday when his magical final-green eagle thwarted Koepka and Scottie Scheffler. Afterwards, the American accused his rival of acting like a kid for whacking a board during the round.

But it was Scheffler who was bubbling like a baby after he and Koepka suffered an embarrassing and record-breaking 9&7 defeat by Viktor Hovland and Ludvig Aberg. Once that was done, Rahm gave him another five of the belt as he slammed back at his rival’s petulant words. He said: “I’m very comfortable with who I am and what I do. I’ve done much worse. That doesn’t even register to a low level of Jon anger on the course.

“I play and compete the way I think I need to play and compete. I wasn’t happy I left a 10-footer short on the 17th to possibly tie the hole, and going up to the next tee, I let off some frustration hitting the board sideways.

“I kept walking, never stopped. That was it. If Brooks thinks that’s childish, he’s entitled to think what he thinks.

“I’m very happy with who I am and I needed to do that to let off some steam and play the next hole as I wanted to do. Clearly it worked out. I played two great shots and got a little lucky on the putt, but I needed to do what I needed to do to perform under those circumstances.

“Is it right, wrong, childish or not, I don’t know, but that’s what I needed at the moment. I’m not going to stand here and say I’m a perfect example on