AUSTIN, Texas — When asked by media members prior to the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play if he’s even the least bit worried about his less-than-stellar putting statistics, World No. 1 Jon Rahm rolled his eyes in disgust, insisting the math simply doesn’t work when it comes to his Strokes Gained: Putting — which ranks 139th on the PGA Tour this season.
“I’m kind of getting tired of answering the same question every single week. When you’re No. 1 off the tee and top 10 in strokes gained approach, my putting stats are not going to be top 20. It’s absolutely impossible unless I’m winning every single week by eight. Kind of how it goes,” Rahm said on Tuesday. “Is it as good as it could be? No, but I think it shows in the stats worse than it actually feels just because I’m hitting so many greens and hitting it so good.
“Again, I feel like I’ve said it a few times. It’s not as bad as it looks. It feels a lot better than it looks. Maybe I haven’t gotten the results yet, but I’m not worried about it.”
While Rahm might be correct in insisting the math doesn’t perfectly align, he didn’t do much to help himself during the Round of 16 at Austin Country Club on Saturday morning.
The Arizona State product clawed his way back into a match with Brooks Koepka, using a birdie on No. 16 and a par on the following hole to get back even after being 2 down late in the round.
But after Koepka left a birdie putt on the 18th green just short, Rahm was left with a pressure putt of just inside nine feet to win the match and advance.
Instead, he missed the putt to the left, leaving the door open for Koepka, who then sank a spectacular birdie putt on the first extra hole to capture the win.
Koepka, who advanced into an afternoon match against 2017 champ Dustin Johnson, said it was a fitting way to end the round.
“The putter has either been making it dead in the center or leave it short and just hit a terrible putt, so just go try to figure that out right now,” Koepka said. “It feels good. I don’t think we both played that great, so it’s one of those things, just go out and figure it out now.”