By James Corrigan
After three wins in his past four starts, Jon Rahm believes he is “the best player in the world” so is baffled that he remains fifth in the rankings. The Spaniard has demanded to know “what is going on” with the new system.
Rahm shot a remarkable 10-under 63 in the Tournament of Champions in Hawaii on Sunday, clawing back a seven-shot deficit on Collin Morikawa.
The 28-year-old, who started off 2023 like he finished the old year, having won his last official event of 2022 at the DP World Tour Championship, felt sure that he would finally leapfrog Patrick Cantlay into fourth. But when the rankings were updated he had not moved at all, causing confusion throughout the game.
Rahm had been highly critical of the formula on his way to victory in Dubai in November, breaking ranks with Rory McIlroy, who is a staunch defender of the overhaul, by calling it “laughable”.
His mood will not be lifted by this latest news, especially as experts said he would supplant Cantlay following his two-shot, 27-under triumph at the Plantation Course.
“Will I pass Patrick Cantlay?” he said. “Because since the play-offs… I’ve won three times, and I don’t even get close to him. So I’m trying to understand what’s going on.”
Jon Rahm hasn’t finished worse than fourth in his past five tournaments, a run which has included three wins.Credit:Getty
Rahm’s incredible five-tournament run in the five-month spell since the FedEx Series has featured not only that hat-trick of titles but also a second and a fourth. And, unbelievably, his ranking has not altered after this purple patch.
He is hardly big-headed when saying he feels like the best player in the world at the moment.
“Had they not changed the world ranking points [system] I would have been pretty damn close [to being world No.1] right now,” he said. “But in my mind, I feel like since August I’ve been the best player in the world.
“Earlier in the year clearly Scottie [Scheffler] was that player, then Rory was that player, and I feel like right now it’s been me. Anybody any given year can get a hot three, four months and get to that spot. It’s the level of golf we’re at nowadays. It is what it is. It’s very difficult to stay up there and it requires a lot of golf.”
Rahm after winning the Tournament of Champions in Hawaii.Credit:AP
Rahm has let his feelings be known to officials, with Keith Pelley, chief executive of the DP World Tour — formerly the European Tour — vowing to bring up the anomalies at the next meeting of the world rankings panel.
In layman’s terms, the alterations, which came into effect in August, work against limited-field events such as the year-opener in Maui featuring 38 players, including 17 of the world’s top 20 (McIlroy, the No.1, skipped it).
That is because the “strength of field” calculations in this updated system are based on the quantity of ranked players in the tournament rather than the quality. So last year, Cameron Smith — who has since joined LIV — picked up 62 points, while Rahm was granted only 37. That is a huge difference.
But this complex picture becomes yet more unfathomable, with the rankings being affected by the nullification of “a leap week”. This weird kink left the statisticians hammering away at their calculators in the early hours of Monday.
The players’ go-to boffin for the rankings is an Irishman on Twitter who posts under the pseudonym “Nosferatu”. He explained the vagary: “Due to calendar issues, every five-six years there will be 53 weeks in a year [because a year has in fact a bit more than 52 weeks],” he said.
“OWGR [the old system] always accounted for this, but now they basically ignored completely that the week between Dec 26 to Jan 1 existed. During that week, the points for every player would have continued to slowly decay and that would have caused a slightly different ranking.
“Not only is Rahm deprived of a move but Morikawa remains at 11th, instead of being back up in the top 10. So the two top performers last week are missing out big time. You couldn’t find a worse time to do this.”
Indeed, these are pressurised times for the rankings board, chaired by former R&A chief executive Peter Dawson. They also have LIV Golf on their case, in their contentious attempt to get official status. Rahm’s consolation is not only the silverware, but a cheque for £2.25 million ($4m).
Telegraph, London
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