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PGA Tour pro Dylan Frittelli has labelled people saying that Jon Rahm won the Memorial Tournament last weekend as “clowns”.

Jon Rahm led the Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village on Saturday by six shots, before having to withdraw due to a positive COVID-19 test.

That opened the door for Patrick Cantlay and Collin Morikawa who both assumed the 54-hole lead. Cantlay capitalised and sealed his fourth PGA Tour title, defeating Morikawa on the first hole of a playoff.

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Despite Cantlay’s success, the bizarre scenario that saw Rahm relinquish control of his near unassailable lead, had fans up in arms, some of them suggesting that Rahm should have been awarded the title.

Numerous bookmakers, such as Ladbrokes, Bet365 and Paddy Power, paid out on Jon Rahm winning the tournament, but PGA Tour pro Dylan Frittelli has fired back at those not acknowledging Cantlay as the winner.

“I described some people as clowns, talking about how Jon Rahm actually won this tournament, and it’s simply not true,” said 31-year-old Frittelli. “Patrick Cantlay is the winner of the tournament. End of story.”

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“I think it’s quite silly for people to go out there and think you can do something, whether it’s play professional golf, play another sport or work in business and not follow the rules. We’ve signed up to play by the rules. If Jon Rahm picked his ball up, walked over the hole and dropped it next to it and tapped it in, I think a lot of people would be unhappy that he broke a rule.”

The South African, who has one PGA Tour win, went on to state that he believes more players will take heed of the Rahm incident and get vaccinated against COVID-19 as a result.

“I think the Jon Rahm issue may also push a lot more guys to have the vaccine, because you have the vaccine, you’re safe, you’re protected; you won’t be tested and you then can’t run afoul of that rule of testing positive and being automatically taken out of the tournament.”