Jon Rahm: Europe VR headsets weren’t creative enough to match American fan abuse

Jon Rahm says the virtual reality headsets Europe used to prepare for a raucous Ryder Cup crowd will not cut the mustard after he received a jibe about his recent weight loss.

Rahm was heckled during Tuesday’s practice round by an American who asked where his weight-loss drug Ozempic was.

The Spaniard, who has recently shed the pounds, took the comment in good spirits and says the interactions with the crowd so far have been “funny”.

That could change on Friday when the competition gets under way, with captain Luke Donald having sent each European player a virtual headset programmed with American supporters abusing them to acclimatise themselves to the environment.

But Rahm said: “I don’t think that we’re creative enough in those VR goggles to what we’re going to hear this week, so far what we’ve heard in practice rounds.

“The first shot in the practice rounds, I don’t know exactly what he said, but I think what he said was, ‘Hey, Rahm, where is the Ozempic?’.

“It was funny.

“So far, the humour that’s been there, it’s really funny. I would imagine tomorrow things might turn a little bit but there’s always funny ones, and not only towards me, towards everybody.

“I’m not going to say what they said, but yesterday on 17, me and Shane Lowry had a good laugh at something someone said in the crowd. Again, people can be really creative nowadays.”

Rahm will be one of the key players if Europe are to retain the title they won in Rome two years ago.

The 30-year-old has struck up a good relationship with team-mate Tyrrell Hatton since the pair moved to the LIV scene and he gave his version of events when they went out drinking after a tournament in Indianapolis.

Rahm won it and Hatton’s qualification for the Ryder Cup team was secured so the pair went out, with the Englishman recently telling the story of how their night of drinking ended up with him waking up in a pool of his own vomit on his hotel bed.

Rahm said: “I don’t drink a lot, but luckily I have a bigger tank to put it in.

“The main thing is obviously he had just found out he was qualified for the Ryder Cup, which being in LIV is extremely difficult.

“What he did is outstanding. I understand the pride he felt, why he wanted to celebrate. And plus being the end of the season for us.

“But the problem was the amount of things we mixed. I’m not going to get into amounts. I’m sure he did.

“But between wine, gin and tonic, Amaretto sours, one margarita for some reason, and then this strawberry lemonade vodka thing that we don’t know what it was…

“The bartender was very creative. That was just a little bit too much.

“None of us were feeling good on Monday, but he was definitely feeling the worst.”