The Open Championship: Jon Rahm hit with a warning, not penalized for launching club after errant tee shot at Royal Birkdale

Sean M. Haffey via Getty Images

Jon Rahm's outburst at Royal Birkdale didn't cost him any strokes.

Rahm was hit with an official code of conduct warning during his second round of the British Open on Friday. He was not given a two-shot penalty, though that conduct warning will remain with Rahm throughout the rest of The Open Championship.

Rahm teed off on the par-3 15th on Friday afternoon, but sent his shot well left of the green. Immediately, Rahm launched his club down hard out in front of him with just his left hand, and started walking slowly toward the green.

The replay the NBC crew showed was incredible and, as they noted, Rahm is lucky the club didn't break.

Rahm ended up making a bogey on the hole, which dropped him to 2-under on the week at the time. R&A officials approached Rahm at the 17th tee to inform him that he had received the official warning.

Rahm ended up making back-to-back birdies after that, and just barely missed a birdie look at the 18th, to finish out his 3-under 67. He's at 4-under, four shots back of leader Lucas Herbert.

The moment was similar to what happened to Joaquín Niemann at the U.S. Open last month. Niemann threw his club on the sixth hole in the opening round after hitting two drives out of bounds, and reportedly tossed the club about 50 yards before finishing with a quintuple-bogey. That led to a two-shot penalty. Niemann ended up finishing the week T7, though he would have finished in a tie for third had it not been for the penalty.

Rahm has won multiple times on LIV Golf this season, and he finished in second at the PGA Championship earlier this season before missing the cut at the U.S. Open. He entered this week at No. 11 in the Official World Golf Rankings and was one of the biggest names from LIV Golf in the field this week alongside Bryson DeChambeau. 

Rahm is safely into the weekend, and his mistake didn't end up costing him any strokes — which could be huge, depending on how the final two rounds go. If that had knocked him back, he'd have even further to climb on Moving Day to get into contention for the Claret Jug.

But for now, that's just a four-shot hole for him. That feels much more doable than a six-shot deficit.