JOHANNESBURG — Tuesday’s assignment was simple: find out what Jon Rahm really thinks of his all-world form. At the moment, he’s the closest thing in pro golf to Scottie Scheffler, but does he feel that way?
He said he feels closest to his late 2021 form, or 2022-into-2023 form, which happened to lead to a Masters win. Bettors take note. One way of contextualizing it isn’t always about wins, or his ceiling, but rather about his floor, which is — like Scheffler’s — higher than anyone else. In the last 12 months, Rahm has finished top 10 in 14 of 15 LIV events — his T11 in Dallas just barely ruining the perfect standard — added three major top 15s and finished 2-for-2 in DP World Tour top 15s. He just doesn’t have bad weeks.
So, I asked, When was the last time you had one? A actual bad week?
“I’ve had bad weeks,” he began, smiling. “I’ve just — I have done really well in somehow managing what I have [those weeks].”
In other words, throttling down on his aggression because he can’t hit certain shots reliably. But if you really made him pick one — actually waited for him to highlight his last BAD week — it was May 2025, in Korea. He opened with a ho-hum 72, closed with a ho-hum 70, surprised himself in the middle with a 66 amid struggles with the putter and finished … tied for seventh.
He didn’t feel great at the Royal Portrush Open Championship two months later, where he tied for 34th. He felt … fine about his top 15s in all the other majors. Proud of the way he fought. But that T7 in Korea? That was a “low, very low” week, and it was 10 months ago.
So, what does that say about your game? I asked, readying for a stock answer about consistency, which he started to live up to:
“I’ve prided myself in consistency and playing ’til the end, right?” he said. “No matter what. I think I probably can be quoted in a lot of interviews saying if you can finish 32nd instead of 33rd, it is your duty as a competitor — at least that’s how I see it.”
This “duty” as a competitor is interesting, like an assignment from a commander. It doesn’t necessarily exist in every pro. Some will spend the late holes in an event firing at flags for fun, thinking about their post-golf burrito, or even trying some new swing thoughts in action. Rahm’s competitive call to duty is, very literally, about Call of Duty. The shoot-em-up video game.
“So it’s definitely something that’s in my mind,” he continued. “I compared it last year for all the people that know Call of Duty — especially competitive Call of Duty — to Scrap Time.”
In competitive Call of Duty, as Rahm puts it, online players work as teams to hold (and defend) a specific (but rotating) position on the game map for as long as possible while other teams try and remove them from that position. The position in demand moves around throughout a game, but whichever team can find, hold and defend for longer than any other squad wins. Those final five to 10 seconds before the position changes location become some sort of free-for-all as players sprint away and others try to grab some precious seconds “in position,” which is called Scrap Time.
In golf, that’s the end of a tournament, when it’s really a 2-, 3-, or 4-player race with just a few holes left. If you’re not one of those players, it becomes about what can you do during that tiny amount of time remaining to hoover up some space on a leaderboard. To slide into the top 10. To finish 32nd rather than 33rd.
“So Scrap Time would mean … those last five to 10 seconds, when they give up, are you fighting for those last 10 seconds or not?” Rahm explained. “It can be the difference; it can not be the difference. It’s a strategic decision.”
Last weekend, six time zones away from where we chatted in South Africa, Rahm closed with two birdies on the 71st and 72nd holes of LIV Singapore. Had he made two pars, he would have finished tied for 7th. Succeeding during Scrap Time earned him a jump into solo fifth and, in the mega-bucks world of LIV Golf, an extra $275,000.
As it turns out, Rahm thinks about this stuff often. He rattled off two different instances from the previous two years in Singapore alone where his late finishes — one-putting vs. three-putting, or getting up and down from a penalty drop — kept him in the top 10 during Scrap Time. Clearly this is a mindset that works for him. Just don’t expect him to be great at Scrap Time on the joysticks. Rahm says since he’s become a father, the “great setup” he has for video games at home in Scottsdale is just collecting dust. But he still scratches that itch, if it counts, by watching others play Call of Duty online. And by back-dooring top 5s.
