AUGUSTA, Ga. — Jon Rahm is like a lot of diehard golf fans, at least the subset of fans who wake up of their own volition before sunrise to watch tournaments. And it’s not live play that he’s getting up for, mind you.
“I’m the guy who, you know, if the kids don’t wake me up, and even before we had kids, I’m up at 5:30, 6 in the morning looking at reruns of tournaments on YouTube and videos and looking at things players have done because I like it,” said Rahm, who, when he’s not nerding out on 1983 Ryder Cup highlights is arguably the preeminent golfer in the world. “I love the game, and I love learning about it.”
An appreciation of the game’s history is not at all a prerequisite to carve out a profitable living making birdies, an endeavor he is pursuing this week at the Masters.
“I love playing golf,” said Seamus Power of Ireland, in the top 10 on the tour’s FedEx Cup standings. “I’ve always really enjoyed it, but I kind of get away from it, too.”
But it’s one of the ways in which Rahm, the 28-year-old Spaniard, stands out among his peers. Speaking Tuesday, he half-joked that he has annoyed fellow players by regaling them with his recollections of their best shots. At the 2021 Ryder Cup, he said he was talking with teammate Shane Lowry about a shot he had made “and Rory (McIlroy) kind of stopped me and he said, ‘By the way, he’s going to do this with the 15 next shots that you’ve done in your career that you can remember.’”
The rare listicle generator with a major championship and 10 PGA Tour wins to his credit, Rahm is well-positioned to put into perspective his own astounding play this season. In nine tour events, Rahm has won three (including two starts in a row) and had an additional three top-10 finishes.
“It’s been amazing,” said Power, his tour colleague less interested in waking up early to watch golf videos. “There’s been times, it’s just incredible.”
Rahm has established himself among the game’s widely acknowledged top three of Scottie Scheffler, McIlroy and himself. By the accounting of the Official World Golf Ranking, the world’s No. 4 going into this week — American Patrick Cantlay — is closer to ninth than he is to the third-place Rahm.
Rahm declined to trumpet any separation.
“Point difference might be a lot larger than what the actual game difference might be between the three of us (and the rest of the players), if that makes any sense,” Rahm said. “If we are talking about half a shot a round, that’s just absolutely nothing. That’s one good bounce and there’s the difference, right?”
Whatever the appropriate measure of the gap between Scheffler, McIlroy, Rahm and everyone else, Rahm is on the side of Masters entrants most favored to win. Rahm leads the tour in strokes gained, eagles, birdie average and scoring average and is second in putting average.
Rahm’s play has given him greater appreciation for what Tiger Woods accomplished in his career.
“I mean, I’m thankful to be doing this for the first time,” Rahm told media after his third win of the season — at the Genesis Invitational, hosted by Woods, in February. “How many times had he done this by the age of 28? It’s absolutely incredible. I think he was able to win three times in a row 14 times, if I’m correct. He had how many seasons with five-plus wins? Between ‘99 and 2000, he had — what? — I think it was 17 wins, four majors?”
The person you want when Woods is a category on Jeopardy was correct on all counts — Woods has won three consecutive starts 14 times and he won 17 PGA Tour events in 1999-2000, including four majors.
“It’s pretty incredible, and I’ve been able to match a very small piece of it, and hopefully I can keep doing a lot of great things this year to put my name up there to one of his years,” Rahm said. “But the fact that he was able to do it year after year, including swing changes and golf style changes is pretty remarkable.”
(Before the Arnold Palmer Invitational in March, Rahm shared with a reporter about a conversation he’d had with Woods about the tournaments when Woods was firing on all cylinders for all four rounds. Woods said it was at most three. Rahm knew two of them, the landmark wins at the 2000 U.S. Open and British Open. When the reporter suggested that the third might be Woods’ 1997 Masters title, won by a tournament-record 12 strokes, Rahm quickly shot down the possibility “because on the front nine (of the first round), he shot 4-over,” he said, accurately.)
As for Rahm’s pursuit of his first Masters title and second major, Rahm is relying on, naturally, knowledge. At his news conference Tuesday, he shared that he had been told that Masters winners typically don’t hit a high percentages of fairways and greens. The difference maker is typically limiting mistakes around the greens.
“I’ve talked to Phil (Mickelson) many times about this, and he’s told me the reason he’s comfortable here is because, with his short game, he feels like he can be more aggressive than anyone and still get pars and birdies out of it,” Rahm said.
In six Masters, Rahm has made the cut each time, made the top 10 four times and top five twice. He tied for 27th a year ago, undone by a third-round 77. The benefit of experience on the course, he said, is learning how each hole under a variety of weather and wind conditions.
Knowledge helps, “but at the end of the day, It’s a golf course where you have to come out here and play good golf, right?” Rahm said. “It’s plain and simple. There’s no trick to it. The best player wins, and that’s what you’ve got to do.”
That player this week could well be Rahm.
