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Portstewart - Former US Open champion Justin Rose handed out sobering advice to Jon Rahm and other young stars ahead of the Irish Open starting on Thursday, suggesting the sometimes fiery young Spaniard needed to control his demeanour.
Rahm, 22 and one of the most exciting young talents in world golf, drew much criticism over his unsporting manners ahead of missing the cut at the US Open at Erin Hills.
Rahm, with a maiden PGA Tour victory, a second place to world number one Dustin Johnson in Texas, and a third in Mexico already this year, let his temper get the better of him over two rounds in rural Wisconsin in the company of Rickie Fowler and Hideki Matsuyama.
The actions of the now US-based Rahm sent many fans onto social media documenting his hot-tempered ways before he crashed out of the US Open with scores of 76 and 73 to miss the cut by five strokes.
And ahead of teeing up at this week's Irish Open Rahm revealed he had apologised to both Matsuyama, who finished runner-up at the US Open, and Fowler.
"What happened at Erin Hills cannot happen again," he said.
"I mean, I'm deeply embarrassed about what happened. I apologised to Rickie and Hideki about what I did."
Rahm revealed that he has waged a long battle for self-control on the golf course and sometimes he loses spectacularly.
"It really frustrates me to think about it, because the person that you see on TV doing that, that's not the person who I am. I'm nothing like that," he said.
Asked about the Spaniard's conduct, Rose, who captured the 2013 US Open and is also the reigning Olympic champion, said it looked like Rahm and other young bucks had some growing up to do and needed to calm down.
"But it's good to see passion. It's good to see fire. It's good to see it in the young players to a certain point," he said.
"And all of the talent in the world is great and all of these young guys have it, but the difference in terms of winning the biggest event is the mental side.
"When I had great weeks, US Open, the Olympics, even the Masters, they are all weeks that I felt incredibly calm and when I have been challenged during those weeks I've kind of dealt with that moment in the week very well.
"So, the mental side is very important."
