A prime Jon Rahm would have a ludicrous handicap – and the statistics prove it

Back at the start of 2023, a ludicrous stat revealed what handicap Jon Rahm would have as a result of his superb form.

In the year before Rahm signed for the LIV Golf League, he won the Sentry and the American Express at the start of the season and this led to a dominant win at the Masters in April. He became a two-time major champion and propelled himself to a new level of stardom.

Rham is no longer a player on the PGA Tour after he joined Legion XIII as captain in the new Saudi-funded league that has made a controversial splash in the men’s professional game.

Jon Rahm handicap

So, after shooting 63 on day four at the Sentry, which he won, overcoming a seven-shot deficit from Collin Morikawa, Twitter user @MichaelVerity decided to determine his handicap using the current WHS handicapping system. And the results are staggering…

According to Vertity’s calculations, the Ryder Cup star would be playing off a mind-blowing +13 if he were to still be an amateur at that time.

At the CJ Cup at the end of 2022, but at the start of that wrap-around season, Rahm shot a 62 on his way to a tied-fourth finish. At the Sentry and the American Express, he shot rounds of 64. At that time in his career, Rahm showed a similar level of dominance to that of Scottie Scheffler in the last couple of PGA Tour seasons.

In 2023, Rahm also won the Genesis Invitational at Riviera Country Club and went on to come tied for second behind Brian Harman at the Open Championship at Royal Liverpool.

To put this crazy handicap mark into perspective, if it wasn’t already bonkers enough, statistician Lou Stagner produced a similar calculation to determine what Tiger Woods’ handicap would have been during one of his peak periods of dominance in 2008.

Tiger Woods handicap index

2008 was just one year of Tiger’s career in which he was the best player by a stretch. He won four times in 2008 – the Arnold Palmer Invitational, the World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship and the Buick Invitational.

But he also won nine times in the 2000 season and eight times in 1999 and 2006. He will have stumped up some remarkable handicaps in these seasons too.

Here, Stagner has Woods’ handicap index at +9.4, meaning the then 14-time major-winning champion and best player in the world would be getting a nice chunk of shots off 2023 Rahmbo!

Incredible. No wonder the Spaniard feels he’s currently the best player in the world.

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