Rahm is the European Tour Rookie of the Year – get over it

Jon Rahm has been named the European Tour’s Rookie of the Year and it has caused outrage among his peers.

Eddie Pepperell, Richard Bland, Matt Fitzpatrick and Thomas Pieters were among those backing Jordan Smith for the title.

But there is no real argument. The award is based on the Race to Dubai standings. This is a great Twitter thread on the subject.

Jon Rahm went into the DP World Tour Championship 4th in the Race to Dubai.  Jordan Smith went into the DP World Tour Championship 26th in the Race to Dubai

Jon Rahm has played 11 tournaments and earned €2.92 million. Jordan Smith has played in 30 and earned just over a million.

Even if you take out the majors and WGCs, Rahm is still a few grand ahead of him.

Look, take nothing away from Smith, he has had a wonderful year and he’s got big things ahead. but

arguing against statistics is, ultimately, pointless.

I was equally surprised at how many people actually care. The players want majors, not silver plates that say they had a good year.

I’ll be interested to see if people get as wound up if Justin Rose (12 events) beats Tommy Fleetwood (25 events) to the Race to Dubai and Player of the Year titles come Sunday…

Elsewhere, who’s excited about Tiger Woods’ return? Not me, I barely even talk about it.

Well, it is now less than two weeks away, but while the golfing world gets giddier and giddier at the thought, Sergio Garcia is keeping his feet firmly on the ground.

“Obviously having him is great for golf, we all know that and whoever doesn’t agree is not telling the truth,” the World No. 11 said.

“It’s going to be interesting to see. I think at the end of the day, anything that can help the game of golf is good for us and hopefully he can make it, but we’ll just have to wait and see.

“I think that’s a big question mark that we all have, he’s going to play in a couple of weeks and we’ll see how he feels.

“Nobody knows how he’s going to physically react to playing and competing again, nobody knows how he’s going to be mentally,” added Garcia.

“I guess it’s going to be a test for him to see how he feels… in a couple of weeks, we’ll see how he does, and then we’ll see if he can come back next year and start playing a little bit more regularly.”

I know they’re not great pals, but talk about underplaying it.

Apropos, Rickie Fowler said this week that Tiger is hitting it “way by” him on the range. Oh be still my beating heart. Well, Tiger did say he “couldn’t believe” how far he is hitting it.

And finally, it was announced this week that the late Arnold Palmer has earned $40m dollars this year, despite passing away in September 2016.

And that puts him behind only Michael Jackson in Forbes’ highest-paid dead celebrity list.

Yes. That is an actual real thing.

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