Jon Rahm hits a shot last month during the WGC-Match Play.
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You, the putting stats reader, may be worried. But he, the owner of a somewhat ghastly putting stat, is not.
“I’m kind of getting tired of answering the same question every single week,” Jon Rahm said recently. “When you’re No. 1 off the tee and top 10 in strokes gained approach, my putting stats are not going to be top 20. It’s absolutely impossible unless I’m winning every single week by eight. Kind of how it goes.
“Is it as good as it could be? No, but I think it shows in the stats worse than it actually feels just because I’m hitting so many greens and hitting it so good.”
Heading into this week’s Masters, Rahm is the favorite, and you, the reader of nearly every other stat, know why. Strokes Gained: Tee to Green? Rahm was fourth heading into last week’s Texas Open. SG: Off the Tee? Rahm was first. SG: Approach? Rahm was 15th. SG: Total? Rahm was fifth.
Rahm checks other ‘favorite’ boxes, too. Course form? He’s finished no lower than 27th in five appearances at Augusta — and 27th came in his first visit. Since then, he’s gone fourth, ninth, fifth and seventh. Recent form? In eight events this year, Rahm has finished no worse than a tie for 55th — and that was under the funny conditions at the Players Championship. Major championship form? Last year, he finished fifth at the Masters, tied for eighth at the PGA Championship, tied for third at the Open Championship — and won the U.S. Open.
So yeah, he’s not too concerned about being ranked 138th in SG: Putting.
“Again, I feel like I’ve said it a few times. It’s not as bad as it looks. It feels a lot better than it looks. Maybe I haven’t gotten the results yet, but I’m not worried about it.”
Jon Rahm, +1100 Justin Thomas, +1200 Cameron Smith, +1400 Dustin Johnson, +1600 Scottie Scheffler, +1600 Jordan Spieth, +1800 Rory McIlroy, +1800 Viktor Hovland, +1800 Brooks Koepka, +2000 Collin Morikawa, +2000 Patrick Cantlay, +2000 Xander Schauffele, +2000 Will Zalatoris, +3300 Bryson DeChambeau, +4000 Daniel Berger, +4000 Hideki Matsuyama, +4000 Sam Burns, +4000 Louis Oosthuizen, +4000 Shane Lowry, +4000 Adam Scott, +5000
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Nick Piastowski is a Senior Editor at Golf.com and Golf Magazine. In his role, he is responsible for editing, writing and developing stories across the golf space. And when he’s not writing about ways to hit the golf ball farther and straighter, the Milwaukee native is probably playing the game, hitting the ball left, right and short, and drinking a cold beer to wash away his score. You can reach out to him about any of these topics — his stories, his game or his beers — at nick.piastowski@golf.com.