Rahm rams it home

Sunday, August 30, 2020

Yes, Jon Rahm really made that putt.

Yes, he did so after Dustin Johnson made that other putt.

And when Johnson, whose 43-foot 3-inch putt snaked into the 18th hole on the final hole of regulation, tying Rahm at 4-under-par 276, couldn’t make a 33-footer to equal Rahm’s unfathomable 66-foot 5-inch birdie putt on the first hole of sudden death, the world’s No. 2 player had defeated the world’s No. 1 player to capture the 117th Western Open / BMW Championship on Olympia Fields Country Club’s North Course.

That’s what it came down to after a final round in which the wind laid down, the course was marginally more yielding to scoring – and still played over par as a whole – and five players, the only five to finish under par, had an opportunity to win the title.

Tony Finau had a shot, closing in 5-under 30 to post a 5-under 65, the second-best score of the week, but needed others to falter and ended up solo fifth at 1-under 279.

Hideki Matsuyama was right there, opening the final round tied with Johnson for the lead and hanging around until the end, finishing tied for third at 2-under 278.

Joaquin Niemann was there as well, climbing into a share of the lead with four birdies on the front nine, but managing no birdies, plus adding a bogey, in the final 10 holes. He matched Matsuyama at 278 and jumped into the top 30 to qualify for next week’s Tour Championship.

That left Rahm, from Spain by way of Arizona State, and Johnson, from South Carolina by way of Coastal Carolina, to duel down the stretch. They just happened to be the top two players in the world ranking, Johnson marginally ahead, and bubbled up to the top of the scoreboard by virtue of equal measures of talent and tenacity.

Rahm was two groups ahead of Johnson, and was in the clubhouse first after a bogey-free 64 that allowed him a few moments to contemplate victory before Johnson forced him back to the range and then back to the first tee.

Johnson, seeking a third title in the BMW, had birdied three of the first four holes to take a commanding lead, then faltered with bogeys on the eighth and 10th before rallying with a two-putt birdie from 32 feet on the par-5 15th and his left-to-right-to-left downhill putt at the last that Olympia members will be trying and failing to recreate, along with Rahm’s, for the next century or so. That center-cut anaconda for 3-under 67 was witnessed by millions on NBC and maybe three dozen volunteers hanging around the 18th green on the final day of the no-spectator spectacle.

Back to the 18th tee he and Rahm went, and both made the 498-yard par-4 green in two, Johnson, at 33 feet distant and about pin-high, seemingly having the upper hand on Rahm, whose drive went into the right rough. The approach, with little spin on it, hit the green and rolled to the back left, cater-corner from the cup on the front right.

Rahm looked at it from every angle. Sane people thought just two-putting from 66 feet, down and across a two-tier slope that dropped two feet, would be an achievement.

No. That would have been failure in comparison to the reality of Rahm’s perfectly-paced sweeping putt that swung right and disappeared, taking with it Johnson’s heart.

“That stretch of waiting for DJ, him making the putt, going in the playoff, me making the putt, then trying to stay mentally in it just in case he made the last putt, it's been a roller coaster but so much fun,” Rahm said. “I certainly don't want the stress that goes along with seeing DJ's ball in the fairway and then my ball in the rough and he hits it to 30 feet, I hit it to 60 and what's going on in my mind, but if you're going to tell me I'm going to make a 66 footer to win a tournament I'll take that any day.”

How he made it while just trying to set up a short uphill par putt was a story in itself, the way Rahm tells it.

“I grew up on golf courses with a lot of slope, so putts with slope is something I enjoy, I like and I'm comfortable reading and putting,” he said. “It fell right in my alley. It was at least 66 feet, so making it, it's a whole different story.

“You can always break it into different parts. When I first stood behind the ball I could see the first two-thirds or three-fourths more or less of the putt were pretty much steady left to right break, and then you get to the big slope, to the top of that hill and it's going to start quick right and then at the end it's going to start turning left towards the pin.

“That's what I saw, and when I'm walking around the hole I'm basically going to the apex or the highest peak of break that I'm going to play and kind of see the ball track from there and try to find a spot, and then when I go back to the ball, I laser on that spot and really make sure I'm putting there and track the ball the way I'm supposed to.

“For people that have seen the movie ‘The Legend of Bagger Vance,' that 18th putt, you can kind of see the light of how the putt is supposed to go. It is somewhat like that. That's how I feel. I kind of visualize the ball rolling like that. So if you had to ask me, yes, the putt was 60 feet but I was trying to hit a spot maybe 30 feet away at most, 30, 40 feet away.”

This is where the smart golf writer would note that if you took a script like this to a Hollywood studio, they would throw you out on your ear, but, why bother?

Now Johnson had to make his to go back to the tee. A fine roll it was, but came up about four inches short and right.

“I thought I made it when it was coming down the hill,” Johnson said. “It just kind of ran out of a little bit of speed and missed just low.”

No. 2 had beaten No. 1 in most dramatic fashion. In the history of the Western Open / BMW, there have been many playoffs, but Rahm’s putt is the longest one to win in the history of the championship on the 72nd hole or beyond. Johnson called it “an even more ridiculous putt” than the 43-footer he made to force the playoff, and nobody argued the point.

Rahm was the steadier player of the two on Sunday, hitting 11 of 14 fairways and 17 greens. Johnson hit nine fairways and 12 greens, two wayward shots leading to his only bogeys.

Once upon a time – say, when he was finishing ninth in the 2015 Fighting Illini Invitational or advancing to the quarterfinals of that year’s U.S. Amateur, both times on Olympia North – Rahm had a deserved reputation as a hothead. Not now. He was cool from start to finish at Olympia, even when shooting 5-over 75 on Thursday, in annexing his second win of the year, following a triumph at The Memorial in July. (That 75 is the highest opening score for a winner in a Western / BMW since 1926, when Walter Hagen scored 75 and went on to win at Highland Golf and Country Club in Indianapolis.)

Rahm said Sunday the fiasco of forgetting to mark a putt on Saturday’s fifth hole served as accidental inspiration to play better.

“I don't know if I would have won had it not happened,” Rahm said. “It kind of made me mad at myself, and I just went on with my focus after that and was able to play amazing golf and stayed aggressive. Maybe if I hadn't I would have two-putted and maybe stayed complacent.”

The penalty created a bogey. It was the 10th and last of his week. He played the final 31 holes of regulation in 9-under. Then came the 66-footer for a final birdie, and a finish that will be remembered forever. 

Around Olympia

Mackenzie Hughes made the top 30 and earned a trip to East Lake next week along with Niemann. They knocked out Adam Long and Winfield’s Kevin Streelman. … The final round scoring average of 70.319, making every round one that played over par, with the four-day average 71.815 strokes. Eight holes were under-par on Sunday, including both par 5s. The third hole was hardest for the day, while the 18th was the toughest test across the week. Don’t tell that to Rahm, whose birdie in the playoff made him even on the hole in five attempts, or Johnson, who was 2-under on it. … Rahm’s 51 greens hit in regulation for the week ranked second for the week, behind only Niemann’s 53. … Matthew Fitzpatrick, who spent a semester at Northwestern before turning pro, was a pair of double-bogeys (one Thursday, one Friday) from tying for the lead. … Next year, the tournament goes out of town again, to Caves Valley Golf Club near Baltimore, Md. It’s the second trip to mid-Atlantic area in four years, following the jaunt to Aronimink near Philadelphia in 2018.

– Tim Cronin