How Jon Rahm stopped his negative momentum Friday in Mexico

Jon Rahm called it a “negative momentum stopper.”

Poor iron shot.

Even poorer chip.

But Rahm salvaged birdied on the closing par-5 at Vidanta by holing a 12-footer.

“To make the putt was important,” said Rahm, who shot 3-under 68 Friday to remain in contention through two rounds of his title defense at the Mexico Open. “I've been rolling it good all two days so far. To have the exclamation point on the end was good.”

Rahm lamented “two to three swings that were bad,” unforced errors that led to a double bogey at the par-3 ninth (after a water ball off the tee), and bogeys at Nos. 10 and 16. One could argue that the dropped shots were forced, as winds picked up around the time Rahm reached the…