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Ways to Win: How Jon Rahm survived a tough Memorial

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There’s a new Number One in the Official World Golf Rankings. Jon Rahm survived difficult conditions on Sunday to clinch the Memorial Tournament and become the first Spanish number one since Seve Ballesteros. High winds combined with fast and firm conditions decimated the field on Sunday where the golf became more of a game of survival than scoring.

Winning on the PGA Tour is hard, but it helps if you start with a four-shot lead with one round to play. Rahm really separated himself from the field on Saturday with a round he called one of the best of his career, especially given how the tough conditions forced some mistakes down the stretch.

Let’s take a look at his final day scorecard using the Scorecard Heatmap from V1 Game.

Rahm looked to be cruising through his opening nine on Sunday, putting on a solid display of golf and taming the par 5s as he had done throughout the week. However, things turned south on the back nine. Some wild drives around the turn, a missed short putt on 14, and then the debacle of the 16th (more on that later) almost undid the cushion he had built over 63 holes. However, clutch short-game play and putting kept the bleeding to a minimum.

Rahm is more of what you’d expect in a typical winner on the PGA Tour. He bashes the driver and dominates the par 5s, which can be seen below. Each day, he scored several strokes under par on the par 5s, with the exception of Sunday, where a double wiped out two front-nine birdies. All in all, Rahm birdied 11 of 16 par 5s. More than 61 percent of his birdies came on par 5s. For reference, par 5s are only 22 percent of the holes played.

Rahm has been a good closer in his young career, but it’s hard not to feel tight with the number 1 ranking in your sights. From the Strokes Gained Stacked chart, Rahm’s performance definitely took a hit on Sunday in a seven-shot swing from the day prior. The majority of that came on the back nine where he lost over FIVE STROKES to an average Tour Pro performance (on an average week). A portion of those five strokes lost were on number 16, where a late ruling added two strokes two his momentum-saving chip in.

In real-time, the chip-in birdie added some much-needed help to his score and his psyche, despite later becoming a bogey. It would seem like a two-stroke penalty would be quite harmful from a strokes gained perspective, however, without the penalty, the chip-in gained almost 1.5 strokes. Thus, with the two stroke penalty, Rahm only lost 0.6 strokes on the shot. The momentum boost it gave him would have been eliminated and added significant pressure had he known about the penalty during the round.

T2G gets the green

There is a saying that you “drive for show and putt for dough.” However, the reality on the tour is that Strokes Gained: Tee to Green (SG: T2G) is the dominant factor in scoring. SGT2G accounts for all shots not on a putting green. Basically strokes gained without putting. If you correlate strokes gained performance to score, you’ll almost always find that tee-to-green performance dominates. In Jon Rahm’s case, tee-to-green performance was responsible for almost all of his scoring. In statistical terms, tee-to-green performance accounts for 98 percent of the variation in his scoring. Driving had the second biggest impact, followed by approach.

What can the average player learn from that? If you really want to improve your scores, your potential will be mostly determined by your tee-to-green play. Most players are much closer to a tour pro on putting green than off the tee box.

This week, the main takeaway is that sometimes golf turns into a game of survival. Get the ball in the hole any way you can. It is not always pretty.

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Opinion & Analysis

AVL: My U.S. Amateur local qualifying experience

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This past Monday, I played in the U.S. Amateur local qualifier at Rock Creek Country Club in Portland, Oregon. A full tee sheet from 7:30 a.m. to 1:55 p.m., the top 11 scores would make it to the U.S. Amateur final qualifying.

I teed off at 10:48 a.m.. With the 7:30 am tee time, you can get a feel for the leaders’ pace, and they were off and running on the challenging setup at Rock Creek.

 

 

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Getting to the highlight of the round on the par five 17th, a drive up the left side and 212 yards left to the front hole location. I took out a 5-iron with plans of middle of the green. The ball ended up 8 feet left of the hole, pin high. A slight downhill putt dropped in for an eagle 3 on the 17th. With the cut line looking to be anywhere from -2 to even par. This was the boost I had been waiting for all day.

With making par from the trees on 18, it was time to wait for a potential playoff with a posted score of one under par 71.

Three hours later, it was playoff time. 8 players for 6 spots. I made par on the playoff hole, which was good enough to advance to the U.S. Amateur final qualifying in July. USGA qualifiers sure deliver on all of the emotions in golf!

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Club Junkie

Building my 2026 gamer WITB: Ranking the contenders and new putter projects – Club Junkie Podcast

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The annual What’s In The Bag build is underway, and on this episode of Club Junkie, Brian breaks down the clubs currently leading the race for a spot in his 2026 gamer setup. From drivers and fairway woods to irons, wedges, and shafts, he ranks the equipment that’s performing best and explains what’s separating the front runners from the rest of the field.

Brian also heads into the workshop to discuss several putter projects currently on the bench. From head options and shaft choices to build ideas and testing plans, he shares what he’s working on and which putters could become serious contenders for the bag this season.

If you’re a gear junkie who loves equipment testing, club building, and the never-ending pursuit of the perfect setup, this episode is for you.

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Club Junkie

Tour Edge Exotics mini driver review + TaylorMade Spider ZT Max first look – Club Junkie

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On this episode of Club Junkie, I put the new Tour Edge Exotics Mini Driver to the test and break down the performance, forgiveness, distance, and where it fits compared to a traditional driver or strong fairway wood. If you have been curious about adding a mini driver to the bag, this one is worth a look.

I also dive into the new TaylorMade Spider ZT Max putter that was recently spotted and discuss the growing zero torque putter trend. Plus, there is a closer look at the new Project X Titan Yellow shaft showing up on the PGA Tour and what makes it different from other profiles currently out there.

 

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