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This is not how it's supposed to happen. When 22-year-olds are supposed to be plying their craft on tours sponsored by websites and insurance companies, Jon Rahm can't stop finishing in the top five of PGA Tour events and ascending into the top 10 in the Official World Golf Rankings (he's No. 9 as of Monday). 

He can't get off the preposterous trajectory he's been on since the beginning of his career in the United States.

Until about a year ago, Arizona State student Rahm was best known for rocking a Pat Tillman jersey at the Waste Management Phoenix Open on the famed 16th hole and nearly winning that tournament as an amateur in 2015. It was a heck of a thing to be known for accomplishing. And he's since blown it out of the water.

Rahm, who holds the all-time record for most weeks spent at No. 1 in the World Amateur Golf Rankings (60), has nine top 10s and a win since turning pro 11 months ago at the Quicken Loans National. In six of those top 10s, he had a real chance to win the tournament on Sunday, including the most recent one at the Dean & DeLuca Invitational where he finished T2, one stroke behind winner Kevin Kisner.

In six of his last 10 tournaments, he's finished inside the top five. These numbers don't seem real for anyone, much less a 22-year-old not even one year removed from college.

Not all top-10 finishes are created equal, and Rahm's backdoor top 10s have been few and far between. Instead, he is fighting for wins and settling for thirds and fifths. 

With Rahm, it's not so much about finishes or money earned, though. The joy in watching his three-quarters take back that doubles as a launching pad for surface-to-air missiles combined with the velvety hands of a veteran magician is where the delight lies.

He is an oak tree with the hands of a shortstop. His ass and his legs are thick as his resume which leads to repeatable distance that doesn't seem to torque his back like many others on the PGA Tour. His is, oddly enough, a tremendous golf body even if it doesn't always look that way.

On Sunday at Colonial, Rahm pummeled drive after drive down the stretch as he tried to run down Kisner and Jordan Spieth. His final five legitimate drives on Sunday consisted of the following yardages:

  • 302 yards 
  • 328 yards 
  • 363 yards 
  • 311 yards 
  • 302 yards

That's an average of 321 yards off the tee. When you do that, you're not also supposed to be able to do this. 

It's what makes Rahm immensely watchable and uniquely gifted to become the No. 1 golfer in the world someday. He plays golf not like he was recently released from a factory of robots, as so many on Tour do, but as if he grew up in a sand trap and spent his summer evenings as a kid chasing many a setting sun on the fairways of Barrika, Spain. 

He is endlessly creative in an era where power has snuffed creativity, and it was the ball-striker's playground of Colonial that proved as much.

"I've heard a lot of people didn't have much faith in my game here, and clearly I proved that I can [win at Colonial]," said Rahm on Sunday. "Gave myself another chance. Like I keep saying, 22-year-old, first year on tour, I'm not supposed to have this many options to win. Hopefully I can get another one before the year is over."

There are many aspects of his game to work on, for sure. Rahm is currently No. 3 in strokes gained off the tee and approaching the green but just average in putting and well below average in his shots around the green. But the structure is there for an all-time career, and anybody that denies that either hasn't been watching or isn't in touch with where the PGA Tour is headed.

It's an odd thing to call a one-time winner a superstar, but Rahm is an oddity in a world of homogeneity. He is part old world (touch) and part new world (power), and because of this there are no limits on his destiny. 

Five majors, 20 PGA Tour wins, No. 1 player in the world -- all of it is in play.

Rahm has proven in the last year that he is a horse for every course, and that his force will be reckoned with on an international level for many years to come.