Jon Rahm says he's 'best player in world' right now after stunning Hawaii win

Jon Rahm reckons he’s golf’s current “best player in the world” after coming from seven shots behind in the final round to start 2023 with a stunning victory in the PGA Tour’s Sentry Tournament of Champions in Hawaii.

Jon Rahm celebrates with the trophy after winning the Sentry Tournament of Champions at Plantation Course at Kapalua Golf Club in Lahaina, Hawaii. Picture: Harry How/Getty Images.

The Spaniard reckoned he’d pulled off a “miracle” after recovering from an opening bogey on the final day on the Plantation Course at Kapalua to reel in Collin Morikawa, who’d started out with a six-shot lead following polished efforts of 64-66-65.

It was Rahm’s eighth PGA Tour victory, where he’s also now won for the seventh consecutive season. This success also came on the back of him landing both the Acciona Open de Espana and DP World Tour Championship on the DP World Tour towards the end of last year.

Despite this latest victory, the 28-year-old still sits fifth in the Official World Golf Ranking, but his sights are set on jumping above Rory McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler, Cameron Smith and Patrick Cantlay to reclaim the top spot this year.

“Oh, I definitely do, yeah,” declared Rahm, who signed off with a 63 that contained an eagle and nine birdies to finish with a 27-under-par total as he went one better than 12 months earlier losing out to Australian Cameron Smith in a last-day title battle.

“And had they not changed the world ranking points, I would have been pretty damn close right now. Because, since the Play-Offs, I have not missed a top seven. I've won three times, and I don't even get close to him. So I'm trying to understand what's going on.

“But, in my mind, I feel like since August I've been the best player in the world. Earlier in the year clearly Scottie was that player, then Rory was that player, and I feel like right now it's been me.

“Anybody any given year can get a hot three, four months and get to that spot. It's the level of golf we're at nowadays. It is what it is. It's very difficult to stay up there and it requires a lot of golf.

“But we're all working hard. I know everybody's putting in a lot of effort to try to stay there as long as possible. But I want to be back up there because it's something you want to do, obviously. But you need to play good and win tournaments, nobody's going to give it to you.”

A closing 72 left Morikawa having to settle for second spot, two behind the winner, as his bid to land a first success since the 2021 Open Championship at Royal St George’s ended in disappointment.

“It's going to hurt,” he said of losing the biggest lead in the event since 1978. “You work so hard and you give yourself these opportunities, but I’ve got to get over it because we're still in the very early parts of the season.”

Morikawa also blew a last-day lead in the 2021 Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas, closing with a 76 on that occasion. “Hero is different,” insisted the two-time major winner. “Hero started off bad, never found it, never felt good. Today it felt fine.”

American duo Tom Hoge (64) and Max Homa (66) shared third spot on 23-under, with Englishman Matt Fitzpatrick ending up joint-seventh on 21-under after a closing 70,