Jon Rahm has won five times in his last nine worldwide starts, including wins on the PGA Tour at the Sentry Tournament of Champions, American Express and Genesis Invitational in 2023; Rahm replaces Scottie Scheffler at top of the world rankings
Monday 20 February 2023 15:39, UK
Jon Rahm started 2023 questioning why he was not ranked as the best player in the world. Now, the Spaniard has cemented his place at No 1 after continuing his career-best winning streak.
Rahm came through a final-round tussle with Max Homa to enjoy a two-stroke victory at the Genesis Invitational on Sunday, securing a landmark 10th PGA Tour title and fifth victory in his last nine worldwide starts.
The Spaniard becomes the first player since Johnny Miller in 1975 to win three times in a calendar year on the PGA Tour before the start of the March, with the latest success also seeing him overtake the win tally on the US-based circuit of his compatriot and childhood hero Seve Ballesteros.
Victory extends a remarkably consistent run for Rahm, who has finished no worse than eighth in 12 of his last 13 worldwide starts and believes hard work has helped him become a dominant force on both sides of the Atlantic.
"Obviously I've been extremely disciplined my whole career, but right now I'm seeing the dividends of a lot of the hard work over the years," Rahm told the media after his victory in California. "So just keep doing the small things and keep enjoying it, having fun.
"When you're playing good it's really fun and when you're winning tournaments, extremely fun, but got to enjoy the tough moments as well. Try to take it all in and, like I said, keep doing the little things properly every day and hopefully I can keep putting myself in position to win."
Rahm described the revamped world rankings system as "laughable" last November when priority was placed on field depth rather than the ranking of the players involved, with the Spaniard criticising the fact that PGA Tour events had more points on offer the same weeks as the BMW PGA Championship and the DP World Tour Championship.
He joined the-then world No 1 Rory McIlroy in tied-second at Wentworth in September, a month before winning the Open de Espana for a record third time, with Rahm then following a tied-fourth finish on the PGA Tour at the CJ Cup by winning the DP World Tour's season finale in Dubai.
Rahm started his 2023 with victory at the Sentry Tournament of Champions in Hawaii, although three wins in five worldwide starts only saw him move up one place in the world rankings to fifth place.
A one-shot victory at the American Express a fortnight later took Rahm into third, although he was unable to overtake McIlroy and Scheffler despite following a tied-seventh finish at the Farmers Insurance Open by claiming third spot at the WM Phoenix Open.
The 28-year-old's Riviera glory ended Scheffler's one-week stay at No 1 and secured Rahm a fifth stint at the top of the men's game, although he said that achieving the top world ranking was not his focus.
"If I don't get to No. 1 at this point, I don't really care," Rahm admitted. "I've won five out of my last nine starts. I don't need a ranking to tell me -- to validate anything, right? I'm having the best season of my life and hopefully I can keep it going."
Rahm held the world No 1 ranking last March and has had a total of 43 weeks in his career to-date, with the two-time Ryder Cup player the third player in as many weeks to be top of the men's game.
Tournament host and 15-time major champion Tiger Woods presented him with his latest trophy on Sunday, with Rahm proud to be on the kind of dominant run that the American regularly achieved in his career.
"I'm very thankful to be doing this for the first time," Rahm said about winning three times in a PGA Tour season. "How many times had he done this at the age of 28? It's absolutely incredible. I think he was able to win three in a row 14 times if I'm correct.
"I've been able to match a very small aspect of it [Tiger's career] and hopefully I can keep doing a lot of great things this year to put my name up there to one of his years. The fact that he was able to do it year after year after year including swing changes and golf style changes, it's pretty remarkable.
"Again, I've been able to appreciate Tiger for a very long time and admire him, but it's taken me six years as a professional to get to this point to see that he did it so quickly and so many times."
Rahm takes a week off before returning for the Arnold Palmer Invitational from March 2-5, another of the PGA Tour's elevated events in 2023, before the Spaniard makes the short trip from Bay Hill to TPC Sawgrass to tee it up at The Players a week later.
The recent run of results from Rahm could almost be regarded as Superhero-like, with Riviera runner-up Max Homa having an Avengers comparison to describe the most in-form man in world golf.
"He's probably Thanos," Homa said after finishing second to Rahm. "He has a lot of the stones in his toolbox. He's a tremendous golfer, he has zero weaknesses. He's been this dude for a long time.
"I think he's got the highest win percentage in the last X amount of years, he's got the highest top-10s by a mile. The guy's incredible. I think Rory (McIlroy), Jon (Rahm) and Scottie (Scheffler) are kind of in a league of their own at times and it's just our job to go catch them."
The battle for world No 1 will continue over the months ahead, although it is a place where Rahm will be determined to stay.
