Jon Rahm delivers his verdict on the greens at the PGA Championship after three days of competition

Jon Rahm finds himself in contention to win the PGA Championship after a superb third round at Aronimink.

Rahm is very much flying the flag for LIV Golf in Pennsylvania, particularly after his fellow superstar Bryson DeChambeau missed the cut.

And he is certainly handling the pressure very well, with the Spaniard shooting a three-under 67 on Saturday to finish the day two shots off leader Alex Smalley.

Rahm is joined by four other players on four-under heading into Sunday, where he has a fantastic chance to claim his third career major win and first since joining LIV Golf.

And speaking after his third round of the PGA Championship, the Spanish star delivered an honest assessment of the tricky greens at Aronimink.

Jon Rahm delivers verdict on the greens at the PGA Championship

Having been ranked 122nd in Strokes Gained: Putting on Thursday compared to 35th on Saturday after his round, he said of the greens: “They’re hard.

“The best way I can describe it is you’re going to be… you’re going to see very few major championship golf courses where, if you’re in the middle of the green, you’re going to have as hard a time to two-putt as you can on some of the holes out here, especially with the pin locations.

“Usually being in the middle is a safe haven. This week you need to think about where you’re going to leave the ball because the middle isn’t always the best option with how sloped those greens are.

“I think a little bit is where I leave myself, what putts I’m leaving myself, for those statistics to change. I didn’t feel like I putted badly on the first day. They just didn’t go in. Obviously the next two days I made a few more. But they’re tricky.

“The amount of putts that you’re hitting from 15, 20 feet with 4 or 5, 6 feet of break with the elevation change being up and then down, it’s quite a few, and it’s not easy to give yourself makable putts and then make them as well. So it’s difficult greens.”

Jon Rahm praises the PGA of America on day three at Aronimink

Rahm has once again been the standout player on LIV Golf this season, with his ruthless displays sending him to the top of the individual standings.

He’s claimed two wins from his seven starts, with his T8 finish at LIV Golf Virginia representing his worst result this season.

But he’s failed to translate that form into major championships, most recently finishing T38 at The Masters last month.

A much better finish is, however, now on the cards at Aronimink, which Rahm also discussed in detail on Saturday.

When asked if he likes that players have been taken by surprise by the scoring this week, certainly on the first two days, he said: “I would like to know who came up with that, by the way.

“Honestly, when I heard people talking about 20-under par, it made me question my ability to read a golf course, because I was looking at the greens and where they could put pin locations and possible wind, I just… my mind was never… I actually got worried.

“I’m like if somebody shoots 20-under, the amount of records they’re going to break this week would be unheard of.

“You know why I think that can happen is also the fairways up here by the numbers are probably wide. They don’t play as wide as they really are.

“Holes like 7, 10, 15, with how much slope you have to the fairway, you have to hit a very accurate golf shot to be in it. Like that, you can add too 2, 4… maybe not on 6, but like I said, 10, 12, 15, 16, right?

“You need to hit… with the slope of the fairway and the wind going with the slope of the fairway, it plays a lot more difficult than I think a lot of people would have foreseen at first with how much they’re rolling out.

“And credit to the PGA for the setup. They found some incredibly hard pin locations out there.

“Usually when we’re practicing, we put our disks out, and there’s definitely quite a few that I would have told Adam [Hayes, his caddie], man, there’s no way they’re going to put a pin there, and they did.

“So we found a way to keep it all close together. As hard as it is to play, the challenge can also be kind of fun if you do well.

“That’s probably the reason why the leaderboard is so bunched up and it’s going to be such a good Sunday tomorrow. So in that sense, showmanship-wise, they’ve done a great job.”

The course setup has really come under the spotlight throughout the week, with the challenging hole locations particularly causing plenty of drama, along with the windy conditions.

They were certainly eased somewhat on Saturday, allowing many players to enjoy a low-scoring round, but many others continued to struggle.

It remains to be seen what approach the PGA will take for the final round, but one certainty is that the stacked leaderboard should provide a very entertaining watch on Sunday.

Read more:

Joaquin Niemann explains what Jon Rahm is like to be around on the LIV Golf tour

Scottie Scheffler predicts the outcome of the PGA Championship on Sunday if he putts well

Xander Schauffele outlines what he found ‘pretty diabolical’ about Aronimink over the first two days