Jon Rahm: What we can learn from his dispute with his caddie
Jon Rahm, in the lead on the back nine at The Players Championship, reached a crossroads at the Par-5 11th hole. Play it safe and stay in, or one shot back of, the lead. Or just go for it and see what happens. We can all learn a lesson from his decision.
By now, you’ve seen “The Discussion”. That voyeuristic inside-the-ropes moment when Jon Rahm and caddie Adam Hayes discussed strategy from a fairway bunker on the par-5 11th.
To recap, Rahm drove into the left fairway bunker leaving him blocked-out from the fairway and green on the opposite side of the water. To reach, he would’ve needed to hit a significant hook around the trees.
Or he could’ve punched out and had a short approach – still giving himself a good shot at a birdie.
This brings us to another aspect of “The Discussion”. Can we all agree that there are no more par-5s on the PGA Tour? There just aren’t. Yes, the scorecard says there are. Yes, par is still 72 most of the time. But let’s be honest. The Par-5 doesn’t really exist anymore.
Look at the stats. Rod Pampling (Sorry, Rod) is dead last on Tour in scoring average on Par-5s. His average? 4.78 strokes. He averages .22 under par. Now you and I would take that all day, every day, but it puts Rod almost a half a stoke per Par-5 behind the category leader, Gary Woodland. His average is 4.42. Doing the math, Woodland averages almost two shots per round better than Rod based solely on a typical 18-hole layout featuring four Par-5s.
It won’t surprise you to learn that Woodland averages 309 yards off the tee and Rod averages a paltry 285. (I can’t hit it 285 without bouncing off two sprinkler heads and a cart path, so I’m not making fun here.) And that’s just their averages.
This year alone, there have been over 190 drives by Tour players during competitive rounds that have traveled 380 yards or more. Forty-eight (48!) of those went 400+ yards.
Jon Rahm himself uncorked a 421-yarder at the Sentry Tournament of Champions earlier this year. And that was his second 400+ yard drive of the day!
That’s insane. In. Sane. There is not a golf course in the world where the architect intended or expected a person to drive over 400 yards. On the Tour today, Par-4s have become pitch and putts. Some are even driveable. Par-5s are just Par-4s on creatine. Par for 18 holes on Tour should actually be somewhere in the mid-60s.
It all leads us back to that bunker on the Par-5 11th at Sawgrass. The Pros know you have to make birdie just to tread water. That’s what led to the whole debacle.
You can watch the exchange here (Note: Most of the official video has been well-scrubbed from firsthand sources). It was a tense but respectful back and forth even if Hayes gave a bit of a “Whatever, Dude.” look at the end. I certainly got a chuckle from that.
Golf Digest reported, “(Rahm) said he felt confident over the shot until Hayes introduced a morsel of doubt in his head.” How dare the guy whose job it is to talk sense to you … you know … TALK SENSE TO YOU!
Rahm has a reputation for his spicy Spanish anger (Hi, Sergio!), but that comment showed him to be crabbier than a Valencian paella. You just don’t blame the caddy when you override him. Hayes didn’t lobby for a 200+-yard 8-iron with a boomerang-shaped hook over water. You did. And you hit it where everyone in the world thought you would.
It reinforced what many equally love and hate about the game of golf. It’s all on you. Unlike other individual sports where you have an opponent or are judged by a panel of experts, golf is all about you. The result is entirely on your shoulders.
Next. Jon Rahm ignoring his caddie may have cost him THE PLAYERS. dark
You make every decision. No one can make you do anything. If you want to Tin Cup-it and hit 7-irons the entire round, go for it. Texas wedge from 35 yards off the green? Why not. It’s your call.
And at the end of the round, when you are cursing at the GHIN computer, know that every stroke you hit was of your doing. Your score is exactly what you deserved. Nothing more, nothing less.
On the 11th hole at TPC Sawgrass, Jon Rahm got exactly what he deserved. He has no one to blame but himself.