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Anyone who stops on the golf course from time to time knows that nothing is predictable in this game. Even professional golfers suddenly hit balls out of bounds or lose their bearings on the greens. The vagaries of the game. The good thing about this: Although the momentum sometimes wears off, it also returns quickly.
The Spanish Jon Rahm (25) lives all the facets of this sport in the BMW Championship as part of the playoffs of the Fedex Cup. At first nothing works, then it works like clockwork. He received a penalty for a silly mistake and was already the winner of the tournament on Sunday when everything changed again.
Lay greens as parquet floors
On the difficult-to-play field at Olympia Fields near Chicago, after four rounds, only 5 of 59 players remain on a level playing field as at a US Open. Long narrow streets. Surrounded by thick roughness that reaches to the ankles. Treacherous flag positions and putting surfaces as hard and fast as parquet floors.
On Saturday, Rahm achieved the best result yet in this field: the Spaniard from the Basque Country remained four strokes below par after two mixed rounds on Thursday and Friday. Although he did score an incredible penalty on Saturday on the fifth green – he picked up his ball before going into the pits without marking it beforehand. He hopes not to lose the tournament by a hit, he says later, half jokingly. “Otherwise, it would be my fault.”
Dramatic duel with Dustin Johnson
In Sunday’s final round, Rahm is the lead actor in a dramatic duel with world number one Dustin Johnson (USA). Rahm plays like a single source and has a round note of 64. Johnson hits the tee shot into tall grass on the 18th hole and then hits the green. To force a playoff, you have to make a hole from 13 meters. Almost impossible on these greens. Johnson finds the only correct line and sinks the putt. Play off. Back to the 18th tee.
One putt for the endless loop of reflexes
The hardest fairway on this course, on average, players in this par 4 lost almost half a hit this week. Rahm moves his tee shot into the tall grass. Johnson aims far to the left, but hits a branch there and finds his ball in the fairway. Then he puts his approach shot in the middle of the green, Rahm does not get any turn on his ball and loses the position of the flag by 20 meters.
Now it’s time for the endless loop of reflections: very smoothly, Rahm sends his ball on the long journey over the steep, winding green. The ball rolls towards the center from 20 meters. Spanish can no longer be held back, but has to be contained. Still. Johnson only loses a span of about 10 meters. That is the victory of the cream. 1.5 million Swiss francs in prizes and a lot of prestige: As he did in his triumph at the Memorial Tournament in mid-July, Rahm shows his best game on the defensive field.
Next weekend, 15 million await the outright winner in the Fedex Cup final. And then the next big tournament is on the program: the US Open on the difficult Winged Foot course. Good prospects for the cream.
