Rahm’s average finish position for 13 starts this season was 5.3. Niemann’s was 13.08. Nearly 90% of Niemann’s points were packed into his five wins. He had just one other top 10 in his other starts – the T4 in Indy. Niemann had seven finishes that were below Rahm’s worst result.
Rahm’s stroke average this season was 68.2, which led the league. Niemann was second, a half-stroke higher at 68.7. Another way to look at it: Rahm was 122 under for 39 rounds this season; Niemann was 102 under. That 20-stroke difference was huge. And remember – it’s a true apples-to-apples comparison. Same course. Same condition.
In other words, if you think of the Individual Championship as a 39-round tournament, Rahm wins handily.
Rahm practically carried Legion XIII to the top seed, with four team victories this season. In 13 starts, he led his team in scoring 11 times. He was second in the team order once and third another team. Niemann, meanwhile, led his Torque GC team in scoring five times, was second four times, third three times and last once.
None of this is to belittle Niemann’s achievements. Certainly, winning is the primary objective for every golfer, especially the elite ones who value hardware above all else. Niemann had a season everyone else would envy.
Would Rahm trade places with Niemann this season? The freshness of the outcome Sunday didn’t seem like the appropriate time to provoke such a response. Certainly Niemann himself was disheartened and disappointed not to hold the single-season Individual Championship.
Maybe the question should be, would Niemann trade places with Rahm?
“It’s kind of hard to swallow,” Niemann said of the outcome. “At the end of the day, it is what it is.”
At the end of the final day in Indianapolis, Rahm shot an 11-under 60 to overtake Niemann. It was a brilliant, clutch performance. He had to produce near-perfection to have any shot, and he had to hope Niemann couldn’t match him. Had Niemann shot 63 on Sunday, the Torque captain would’ve clinched the title. Instead, he shot 66. A terrific score – but not enough.
Small margins. That’s to be expected in a season-long race with two great competitors taking completely different paths to the same objective. The tortoise, as it so often does, finds a way to beat the hare. In this instant-gratification, short-attention span existence that permeates our culture, the steady producer often goes unrewarded. But Jon Rahm didn’t. He delivered every day that he teed off this season.
That’s something worth rewarding. Worth celebrating. It may take time, but we’ll all eventually appreciate his remarkable season.
