The 62-year-old popular Golf Channel analyst, Brandel Chamblee, who has earned his fame due to his controversial comments, recently received criticism from the viewers after he criticized Jon Rahm’s performance at the Paris Olympics. The 29-year-old Spanish golfer, who was leading the tournament after 54 holes, had a disastrous last round. Chamblee’s 5-word description of Rahm’s performance as “one of the biggest collapses” triggered a backlash on social media.

The Golf Channel analyst was very blunt when it came to the final round of Rahm at the Paris Olympics. As quoted in a tweet by NUCLR GOLF, Chamblee said, “I’m going to put that down as one of the biggest collapses and chokes of the year. Right up there with Rory McIlroy at the U.S. Open.” This comparison elicited a lot of reactions from golf lovers and Rahm’s fans. At Pinehurst this year, the Northern Irishman lost to Bryson DeChambeau after he missed the 3-foot putt on the 18th and ended up bogeying the last hole. This was remarked as one of the biggest chokes of the year, but Chamblee now thinks otherwise.

Jon Rahm has been on a roll this year since his withdrawal from the US Open because of an unfortunate foot injury. He has been performing great on LIV, his worst performance being a T10 finish in Andalucia, and last week in the UK, he won. But his Olympic performance was not very impressive. He performed poorly on the back nine on the last day. Having a four-shot lead with eight holes remaining, Rahm shot a 4-over 39 on the back nine, including a double bogey on the par-5 14th hole, and thus out of medal contention. He remarked his third shot on 14 was the “main mistake.”

Olympic Golf is so much more than an individual competition, as the golfers play for their country here, not for themselves. Representing the same emotion, the Spaniard said, “I don’t remember the last time I played a tournament and I felt this — I don’t know what the word is because, you know, I not only feel like I let myself down but to just not get it done for the whole country of Spain, it’s a lot more painful than I would like it to be.” 

When this remark was bought out by Brandel Chamblee, people criticized the analyst for being arrogant and inconsiderate, stating that his analysis was not compassionate enough. But what were their exact words?

Fan reactions to Chamblee’s comments on Jon Rahm’s Olympics collapse

One fan had a different approach and said, “Mr Chamblee’s envy of the current stars of golf is unsettling to watch. I mute him to avoid the poison.” Chamblee has a well-known history for disliking LIV, and LIV golfers. People have often complained about his insensitive remarks, and this was even the case after he failed to praise DeChambeau’s US Open win. On a similar line, another fan wrote, “Chamblee is a🤡🤡🤡. I am surprised anyone pays attention to him at all when he spews his nonsense. He always has to trash someone else to garner attention”.

Another fan pointed out the issue with Chamblee’s comments saying “Its true (Choke), but Chamblee is taking a bit too much pleasure in a situation and is being inappropriately smug and insensitive. His “chadenfreude” is totally at odds with the Olympic spirit and undermines any credibility he might otherwise garner.”. This comment shows that while Rahm’s performance may be considered a choke, Chamblee’s enjoyment of it was not acceptable. The fan claims that Chamblee’s attitude is not appropriate for the Olympics which are associated with fair play and respect.

Another user questioned Chamblee’s golfing ability by saying, “Brandel Chamblee was never a good enough golfer to have a collapse or choke”. Chamblee has tried his career inside the ropes, but it did not quite turn out as well as he had hoped. All of his major finishes were quite poor, with the best one being T18 in the 1999 Masters. He was only able to win 1 PGA Tour event. Even LIV Golf’s Anthony Kim called out Chamblee for his skills and said that Chamblee is not well equipped to take digs at others. This comment by a fan echoed a similar sentiment.

There was also criticism of Chamblee’s analysis, one fan said, “Not a fan of Chamblee at all. His analysis of players is downright terrible. Scheffler was on fire which tends to affect the game-plans of a lot of players.” Rather than praising Scheffler for his stunning score of 62, Chamblee decided to take a dig at Rahm. The fan thinks that Scheffler’s brilliant performance exerted more pressure on Rahm, which led to his meltdown, and the analyst should have been a bit more considerate of it since an off-podium finish after coming so close surely hurts.

The opinions that Chamblee made about Rahm’s Olympic performance have caused a huge controversy in the golfing world. How do you feel about Chamblee’s remarks? Share your views in the comments below.