If golf victories were decided on points, Jon Rahm should already have more than one or two at LIV. However, in this blessed sport, you win by K.O. It’s about leaving the others lying on the canvas with no capacity to react. You have to do one less than the others and regularity is very good, but there are times when it is at odds with the trophies. For now, this is the case with Jon in the Saudi league.
We turn to the ‘expert’ test to prove that Jon really only needs to win at LIV, as his numbers to date are far above the rest. As you already know, he is the only golfer in Yasir Al Rumayyan‘s league who has finished in the top ten in the six tournaments that have been held this season. In each and every one. He has two thirds, a fourth, a fifth and two eighths. Behind him, with five top 10s, is only Joaquín Niemann, precisely the leader of the merit order ahead of Jon. On the other hand, there are several players who have not yet finished in the top 10 even once: Anthony Kim, Swafford, Westwood, Samooja, Kieran Vincent, Chacarra, Grace, Perez, Kaymer, Bubba, Varner III, Horsfield, Canter, Tringale, Puig, Herbert and Surratt. Almost a third.
But there’s more. Rahm is the golfer who has the most birdies in LIV Golf. He accumulates more than five per round, a total of 95 in 324 holes, close to one every three played. He has six more, which is not a little, than the second in this classification: Oosthuizen and Niemann.
We continue for bingo… Jon is the fourth longest hitter in the league with 313.2 yards, the thirteenth who takes the most streets, the second who presents the most greens in regulation, the tenth in recoveries around the green and the fourteenth in average putts. There is no other player who is fourteenth or better in all these statistical sections.
One more fact to continue tightening the noose. There are only five players in LIV whose rounds have always counted for their teams. Remember that the first two days of the tournament, only the three best results from the four team members count. Well, Jon’s has served in the 18 rounds played, as well as his teammate’s in Legion XIII, Tyrrell Hatton, Niemann, Talor Gooch and Richard Bland.
There are no more questions, your honour. Rahm is overall the best player in LIV Golf so far in 2024, even though he is in eighth position in earnings, due to the great difference between finishing first or second and the rest of the results. The only thing he lacks is to win a tournament. From that Friday he will have his seventh opportunity at the Sentosa Golf Club in Singapore.
