2021 Masters: Top 10 power rankings for Augusta National
Jon Rahm is hoping three straight top-10s at the Masters will turn into a win this time around.
The Spaniard debuted at Augusta National in 2016 with a T-27th (73-70-73-75) finish. He posted his career best of fourth (75-68-65-69) two years later followed by T-9th (69-70-71-68) in 2019 and T-7th (69-66-72-71) last November.
Rahm was part of a five-way tie atop the 36-hole leaderboard before Dustin Johnson left Rahm and the rest in the dust.
“Even Tiger, when he shot 18‑under in 1997, he made mistakes. You know, he missed greens,” Rahm was transcribed by ASAP Sports prior to the 2019 Masters. “He missed putts. He missed fairways like everybody else. So just knowing that everybody is going to make mistakes and almost everybody is going to three‑putt and everybody is going to miss a green and have a tough up‑and‑down. It’s just going to happen to all of us. You just need to minimize those mistakes and be smart and think your way through Augusta.”
Rahm has played very steady golf in 2021. The former Arizona State Sun Devil in seven starts has six top-13 finishes with the other a respectable T-32nd at the WGC-Workday Championship.
In 17 starts at the majors, Rahm owns five top-10s highlighted by T-3rd at the 2020 U.S. Open. He’s made seven of the last eight cuts, all of which resulted in T-23rd or better.
The drama with Rahm was if he was going to have a Phil Mickelson scenario unfold this week. Not winning his first major at the Masters a la Phil, although he’d like that, too. But for his newborn son, Kepa, who arrived over the weekend. Rahm said he’d leave the tournament if he had to when the birth occurred.
Not sure if he could have carried a beeper around with him like Phil at the 1999 U.S. Open, but someone in a green jacket would have passed along the message that it was time for Rahm to go be with his family.
I assume Rahm will get his fair share of late nights with the kid coming up, but if he’s allowed to focus mostly on golf for this week and not get too inundated with diaper duty, I like his chances to contend.
The 26-year-old ranks third on the PGA Tour in strokes gained off the tee (.774) and was 14th in SG approach (.698). One of the few weaknesses in his stat profile this season is approaches from the rough. That will be something to worry about come U.S. Open time, but it will be mitigated this week.