BMW is a match race now

Writing from Owings Mills, Maryland

Saturday, August 16, 2025

Devotees of the sport of kings may remember a day when match racing was on a par with a big stakes race. Swaps vs. Nashua at Washington Park in 1955 was a famous duel.

Those went out of favor after Ruffian broke down in her match race with Foolish Pleasure in 1975, but, not too many miles from under-reconstruction Pimlico, there will be a similar duel on the morrow at Caves Valley Golf Club between thoroughbreds that the proprietors of Old Hilltop might not mind as the feature performers in the Preakness Stakes.

Introducing the left-hander from Scotland, Robert MacIntyre, who punches above his weight, and the right-hander from Texas, Scottie Scheffler, who just plain punches.

That duo will be paired together once again, going 18 rounds for the BMW Championship, the opportunity to pose with the J.K. Wadley Trophy, and a bonus of $4 million sent their way via direct deposit.

MacIntyre carved a 2-under 68 out of the Caves Valley acreage on Saturday to finish 54 holes at 16-under 196, four strokes ahead of Scheffler, whose 3-under 67 trimmed a stroke off the margin MacIntyre enjoyed at dawn’s early light.

It would have been merely a three-stroke lead, which could have brought others into the immediate conversation, but MacIntyre sank a 41-foot uphill-sidehill putt at the last, a bonus birdie that also silenced some ugly Americans who had sent a catcall or three the lad’s way.

Not that he really minded the barking. First, he’s used to it, Ryder Cup year or not, and second, it lights a fire within.

“One hundred percent,” MacIntyre said. “Look, I grew up all my days in amateur golf on the outside looking in. I grew up fighting to be in this position.”

As exemplified by his fist pump and “shush” to the crowd after a par save on the 14th.

“We’re in America,” MacIntrye said, having no problem with the majority of the gallery pulling for Scheffler. “I expected it. You give me crap, I’ll give you crap back. I’m inside the ropes with security around me, so I’m safe.”

MacIntyre’s round was hardly routine. He made a miraculous par save from the jungle on the fifth hole, denying Scheffler an opportunity to close the gap. Scheffler, despite a four-birdie performance and a card sullied by only one bogey, could never get closer than three strokes. Expect a similarly stout performance from MacIntyre on Sunday.

“It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog,” said MacIntyre, invoking an adage from that 3-handicapper, Arthur G. Lewis, who penned it in 1911.

Scheffler has similar moxie, so figure on a friendly battle across the hills and dales, and for that pair to play well enough keep the scrap to themselves. It’s a comparatively long way back to Ludvig Aberg, whose 68 for 10-under 200 places him six in arrears. Sam Burns and Harry Hall are at 8-under 202, and will need heroic rounds plus a MacIntyre fainting spell to have a chance.

MacIntyre’s putt on 18, which traveled through downtown Owing Mills before turning right and settling in the cup, is a great example. The greens, 48 hours after Thursday’s downpour, are drying out. With that comes the need for more precision. MacIntyre can provide it.

“There’s more bite on the golf course,” MacIntyre said. “Obviously 18, final hole of the day, holing that putt is a massive boost going into tomorrow. That one shot is everything out there.”

The other “one shot” was his escape on the fifth hole, which at 336 yards is drivable for this crowd. Mere mortals would have taken a penalty stroke and played their third shot from the rough. Not MacIntyre, who grabbed a wedge and took a whack from the underbrush. The ball ended up on the back of the green and from there, 66 feet away, he two-putted, sinking the par putt from eight feet. As good as the play was Scheffler’s “you’ve got to be kidding me” look when MacIntyre’s wedge stayed on the green.

The determination to go for it also took time, and by the ninth hole, they were on the clock.

“It's frustrating,” said Scheffler. “I didn't really feel like I did anything to put us behind on time. Bob and I got warned on No. 9, and I felt like we did some pretty good stuff on 9, 10 and 11 and we somehow didn't gain a single second on pace of play. I'm not really sure how that's possible.

“It's just one of those things where all of a sudden now I'm punished for a rules decision I did not totally agree with, and then I can feel it gusting on 12, I can feel it gusting on 13, and there was nothing I can do about it; you've got to get up there and hit the shot. Overall I did what I could to keep us on pace, and hopefully we don't run into that situation tomorrow.”

Gusting might be too strong a word for the baby’s breath of humid wind that floated across the landscape.  It got up to 3 miles-per-hour at one point.

As a world No. 1 with four majors in his pocket, Scheffler likes his position.

“Overall, for how I was hitting it, not a terrible score,” Scheffler said of his 67. “The greens are still pretty soft. I felt like I hit a lot of fairways on the front nine, just wasn't able to make as many birdies as I would have hoped. Overall keep putting myself in position like that, I'm sure the results will improve tomorrow.”

Scheffler played dumb when asked about the catcalls directed toward MacIntyre, but said, “I played with Bob when we were in Scotland. I heard some fairly choice words when I was leading the tournament in Ireland. I think it's part of it.

“People have a tendency to say things that are dumb. I can think of a few things that were said to me in the final round in Ireland that were very far over the line. If you're a fan, it's only going to fire the guy up more, and I think just do your best to behave out there. It can be a little bit silly sometimes.”

Especially on a hot day with cold beer available and the Ryder Cup six weeks away. Those who venture to Caves Valley for Sunday’s spectacle – MacIntyre and Scheffler prance into the starting gate at 12:40 p.m. Chicago time – are advised to bring sunscreen and earplugs.

Around Caves Valley

Ashkay Bhatia aced the par-3 17th, using a 5-iron to cover the 227-yard distance perfectly. Two hops, a four-foot roll and it disappeared. “I didn’t know what to think,” Bhatia said to NBC. “I couldn’t feel my body the rest of the hole.” The 47th hole-in-one in Western Open / BMW history earned Bhatia a new BMW and earned the Evans Scholars Foundation a bonus scholarship from BMW, worth about $100,000. It was the first ace in the tournament in three years (Viktor Hovland made one at Wilmington Country Club in Delaware three years ago). Bhatia scored 4-under 66, making another eagle with a pitch-in earlier. … Cameron Young scored 5-under 65, the round of the day, and is tied for 11th at 5-under 205. … The field averaged 70.754 strokes across the 7,447-yard, par-70 setup. … It was relatively pleasant by Baltimore area standards, the heat index only climbing to 99 by the time leaders MacIntyre and Scheffler teed off, and the wind gusting to all of 3 mph. Cloud cover helped for much of the day, but Sunday is promised to be scalding.

– Tim Cronin

Code Red at Caves Valley

Writing from Owings Mills, Maryland

Friday, August 15, 2025

Hideki Matsuyama had to feel like the opening act for Taylor Swift on Friday.

He scored a sparkling, bogey-free 6-under-par 64 at Caves Valley Golf Club, but next to nobody was there to see golf’s version of Sabrina Carpenter. Gallery members were all trekking up and down the hills of this picturesque property to see his playing partner, Robert MacIntyre.

The Scottish left-hander also scored 64, also went 'round the circuit with nary a bogey. The difference between MacIntyre and Matsuyama? Bashing Bob opened with a jaw-dropping 62, and thus extended his lead over the field in the BMW Championship – a.k.a. the 122nd Western Open – to a healthy five strokes over no less than world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler by the time the shouting stopped.

Scheffler concocted a bogey-free 5-under 65, including a 75-foot two-putt par at the last down a canted slope that was harder than trigonometry.

A first-grader can tell you MacIntyre’s 62 and 64 adds up to 126, which is two strokes lower than the 36-hole aggregate posted by Bryson DeChambeau here four years ago, before golf’s civil war commenced, before DeChambeau went off to LIV elsewhere, and before Caves Valley decided to tweak the course to make it more testing.

How’s that working out, Cavers?

At the time, DeChambeau’s opening 68-60 was considered heretical by the membership, and the swooning continued when the final tab – 27-under 261 co-authored by DeChambeau and playoff winner Patrick Cantlay – was turned in. This happens at country clubs, even clubs with a U.S. Amateur champion like George “Buddy” Marucci on the roster. There are fits of apoplexy followed by pledges to toughen the course, protect par, save the joint’s sainted reputation, and so yawn. At Caves Valley, checks totaling around $10 million were written, with one of the major expenses PrecisionAire systems to keep the greens firm.

So far from 2021 to now, the biggest difference turns out to be the scorecard. It reads 70 as par this week instead of 72. That part of the change probably cost a couple hundred bucks in printing costs, ink being expensive these days.

While .70 of rain in Thursday’s storm softened the greens, there’s more to the continuing assault than that. MacIntyre, who collected 12 birdies in a span of 22 holes, revealed part of it after Friday’s excursion.

“You've just got to be on the right (correct) side of the holes,” MacIntyre said. “If you're on the wrong side of the holes it's going to be carnage out here. I feel like this week I've really done a good job of getting it underneath the hole to be able to be aggressive with an uphill putt.

“The hardest putts are the ones probably five, six, seven, eight feet down the hill where you're just breathing on it, touching it to get it going and you just stand there and watch it bob and weave its way down the hill and fearing where it's going to end. But yeah, I don't mind quick greens.”

That’s been the strategy in golf since Old Tom Morris first set the pin positions at the Old Course. Keep the ball below the hole, keep it in play, and you defeat the bulldozer brigade.

The same thing goes for tee shots. It’s just not a matter of bombing it down the middle.

“The target we’re picking probably isn't the middle of the fairway,” MacIntyre said. “The targets we're picking might be right half of the fairway, knowing if I'm going to miss it, hit it short, it's going to miss on the right side.”

MacIntyre, while five laps in front of Scheffler, is not alone in his ability to make the scoreboard turn red. Along with Matsuyama, Ludvig Aberg and Maverick McNealy also fired 64s on Friday. Michael Kim, John Deere Classic champion of yore, tooled about with a 66. So did Jacob Bridgeman and Cameron Young, along with a guy by the name of Rory McIlroy.

As for Scheffler, he knew from his later start that MacIntyre would set a target score.

“I knew kind of going into today that I was going to be fighting a little bit of an uphill battle, and did a good job of hanging in there and staying in the tournament,” Scheffler said. “Bogey-free is always nice. I would have liked to get to have gotten a couple better looks down the stretch, but didn't hit as many fairways the last few holes, and out here with the way the holes are shaped, you've got to be in play, and did a good job of saving pars when I needed to on the back.”

You get the idea. Smart golf yielded smart scores. There were blow-ups to be sure – Ryan Gerard took 76 blows, Sam Stevens 77 punctuated by a triple-bogey on the par-4 12th – but by and large, the 49 players in this elite field have figured Caves Valley out. The second-round field average of 69.510 surpasses the 69.913 in the second round – when the ball was played up after downpours as opposed to Friday’s proper golf – four years ago.

It begs the question, then. Can MacIntyre or an even faster-closing player beat 261? 

Maybe the question should be, by how many?

Around Caves Valley

Illinois alum Brian Campbell, who vaulted in the rankings thanks to his victory in the John Deere Classic, atto a 1-over 71 to his opening 77 and has climbed from last to a tie for 45th at 8-over 148. … Defending champion Keegan Bradley is at 2-over 142 after an even par 70. … Twelve holes played under par, including the 18th.

– Tim Cronin

MacIntyre weathers the storm

Writing from Owings Mills, Md.

Thursday, August 14, 2025 

Many of the 16,000 or so fans who populated Caves Valley Golf Club on Thursday didn’t return after a mid-afternoon thunderstorm stopped play.

Oh, what they missed.

The remodeled Tom Fazio course had been playing tough before that. Fast fairways saw off-line tee shots skittering into the rough. Greens held only a little better than BMW car hoods. 

Then came .7 inches of rain in a half-hour drenching, and after a 133-minute delay, the fairways were easier to hit and the greens were like dartboards.

Pre-tournament favorite Scottie Scheffler said he preferred the former conditions, but nobody took better advantage of the latter than Robert MacIntyre. The 29-year-old Scot who finished second to J.J. Spaun at the U.S. Open, then tied for seventh at the British Open, ran down 162 feet of putts in a six-birdie binge to close out his round and score 8-under-par 62 to take the lead in the BMW Championship and race past Scheffler, who was already in with a handsome 4-under total. Tommy Fleetwood, still seeking a first victory on the American tour, also passed Scheffler with a bogey-free 5-under 65.

“The last six holes is probably as good as I’ve ever putted in a stretch of holes,” MacIntyre said. “Just so consistent.”

Just so amazing, really. He holed a cross-country 66-footer for a deuce on the par-3 13th, a 40-footer for a three on the par-4 14th, a 17-footer for a three on the par-4 15th, a 12-footer for a four on the par-5 16th, a 22-footer for a deuce on the par-3 17th and finally, after a great kick off a slope with a 190-yard approach, a ho-hum 5-footer for a three at the last.

One’s mind would tend to reel as the birdies – 10 in toto – mounted up, but MacIntyre kept his wits about him.

“It’s so tough out there,” MacIntyre said. “There's so many shots that you can't not think about. You can't just stand up there and swing at it because there's so much trouble.

“For me, it was literally just tick off each shot, and it's something that – the tougher the test for me, the better I can accept things like the tee shot on 12 (which led to bogey). Terrible tee shot, but I know a bogey is not horrendous, and I can accept a bogey when it's such a tough hole. So a bogey is not going to kill you.

“The tougher the test for me, I stay switched on, and I feel like the way I play golf is better suited for the tougher tests, where you're rewarded for hitting a fairway, you're rewarded for hitting a green, and then take your chances with the putter.”

Thus, he liked how he was playing before the storm, even though rewards were few. He was 2-under at the turn with three birdies and a bogey.

“I was playing great. I hadn’t holed any putts, to be honest,” MacIntyre said. “I had a few chances, but the greens were really slick early on when they were dry.”

Then he was slick.

As for Scheffler, standing 1-under at the break, the world No. 1 birdied three of the last four holes in this 122nd edition of the Western Open.

It was vintage Scheffler. A 16-foot birdie putt on the par-4 15th. An 84-yard wedge to five feet to set up a birdie on the par-5 16th. Finally, a 26-foot birdie putt to finish off the round at 4-under-par 66.

“If you look at a pin, like the pin on 16, the par-5, with how firm it was earlier, it can be a tough pin to get to, as well as the pin on 15,” Scheffler said. “There's a lot of slope there, and I hit a cut and it landed right of the pin and it stays on the green, whereas if I played that hole before the rain delay, it may have landed there and kicked off into the first cut, maybe even the rough. Golf course definitely got a bit easier.”

As fine a finish as that was, MacIntyre’s was better, and rather unexpected. The 29-year-old Scot jumped into the spotlight with his finishes in the two opens, but otherwise has no finishes better than 17th since May.

Maybe the change of coaches to Mike Kanski and a change of putter he made halfway through the PGA is finally taking effect.

“I do the same stuff, it’s just in a different way potentially,” MacIntyre said. “The priority is getting that putter face as square as I can at impact, which it's not rocket science but it's difficult to do. For me, that's the priority now, just to go and do that. Then when you get in a certain range, it's all pace putting and touch, and my touch is normally pretty good.”

MacIntyre and Scheffler were not alone in taking advantage of the kinder, gentler Caves Valley. Viktor Hovland, who won this par demolition derby at Olympia Fields two years ago, fired a 67 featuring an inward 3-under 32. Rickie Fowler bounced back from a slow start to score the same. Ben Griffin also carded a 67.

By twilight’s last gleaming, as 2-handicapper Francis Scott Key wrote a few miles away a couple of centuries ago, 14 players were under the testing par of 70, and 30 were under the old standard of 72. Play was suspended at 8:26 p.m. because of darkness with only Bud Cauley left to finish, 68 feet away from a possible birdie on the 18th green. … The course average of 70.719 wasn’t far from the 69.217 – created under lift-clean-place rules – when 70 players cavorted about in the first round here four years ago.

The head games of golf

Bob Jones once said the most important six inches in golf is between the ears. That remains true today, and for an example, take Michael Kim. He won the John Deere Classic in 2018, then retreated to golf’s wilderness. He might still be there but for a dinner encounter with instructor Sean Foley, one of Tiger Woods’ former coaches, about four years ago.

“As much as he's helped me on the swing, he's helped me mentally, life, everything,” Kim explained. “He's been a full-on life coach for me. It's been awesome. One of Sean's tag lines I think was ‘grateful but not satisfied.’ That's kind of the approach I'm taking this week.”

Kim had a good start to the season, including a tie for second in Phoenix and a solo fourth at Bay Hill – that’s a shade over $1.8 million right there – but a tweak in his back in May set Kim back. His best finish since is a tie for 16th, but he had enough mid-pack finishes, and only two missed cuts since then, to roll into Caves Valley 42nd in the standings. A high finish this week will get him to the top 30 and to the Tour Championship at East Lake for the first time.

“Tour Championship I feel like is the No. 1 goal on everyone's mind at the start of the year, along with top 50 here, Kim said. “To be completely honest, I was probably – if you had told me I'd be top 50, I would have just signed right there and just watched everyone else play. But once I had a really good stretch in that beginning to the middle part of the season, I really wanted to make the push for the Tour Championship.”

Which brings us back to Foley. Kim’s his only client here this week, so they’ve been on the phone for what Kim calls “the full Sean Foley experience.”

The dinner was with Ben An, and Kim, a pal of An, was invited along.

“We're golf nerds, so we started talking about golf and golf swing,” Kim said. “Because of some of the guys he had worked with in the past, I thought the philosophy that he had wouldn't match with how I thought I should swing the golf club, and I realized I had a misunderstanding of what he thought about the golf swing.

“After that dinner I decided to go see him about four years ago to this day, pretty close, and it's been great ever since.”

Around Caves Valley

Defending champion Keegan Bradley turned in a 2-over 72 and is tied for 30th. … Fleetwood and Hideki Matsuyama (1-under 69) had the only bogey-free rounds. … The storm broke the heat and humidity, which was 91 degrees and 100 percent respectively, perfect for growing orchids, just before it whipped through. During the delay, one caddie said he saw a couple of people take ill because of the heat on the hilly layout. … There’s a 35-percent chance of more rain tomorrow, but the weekend is promised to be dry.

– Tim Cronin

BMW Preview: Is par still a thing?

Writing from Owings Mills, Md.

Wednesday, August 13, 2025

Four years ago, when Patrick Cantlay and his pals tooled around Caves Valley Golf Club in about a half-million under par, there was much clucking among the tony membership of this posh suburban Baltimore club about the red numbers painted on the scorecard.

Cantlay and Bryson DeChambeau finished at 27-under par, totaling 261 on the par-72 Tom Fazio layout, after which Cantlay won on the sixth hole of sudden death, in which five more birdies were scored. The biggest blow against par was a 12-under 60 by DeChambeau in the second round.

After the club’s moneyed men and dowagers were revived, the decision was made to toughen the layout. Greens were rebuilt, bunkers were shifted and, at least for this week, when the BMW Championship – the 122nd edition of what commenced as the Western Open, with roots planted in 1899 –  finds itself on the layout once again, par reduced to 70 on the 7,601-yard trail, and $20 million in boodle ($3.6 million to the winner) on offer.

And 261, now 21-under, could well be posted again by Sunday evening.

There is no stopping excellent golfers these days. Rory McIlroy, whose 22-under 266 earned him fourth place in 2021, said Wednesday, “It should be more of a test,” citing several of the above changes. World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler called it “significantly harder, so should be a good challenge for us this week.”

But, the 18th hole is still driver-wedge if you carry the last bunker, and driver-7 iron if you choose not to, McIlroy said. A 7-iron is a precision instrument to anyone in the 49-man field.

Defending champion and U.S. Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley sees the 18th as formidable.

“It’s very long, there’s water on the right, it’s uphill and you have to hit two perfect shots to hit the green,” Bradley said.

Cantlay is eager to repeat on a course he tore apart like a kid unwrapping Christmas presents.

“It's much different and it's in very good shape,” Cantlay said. “(The 18th), it's a hole where you have to put the ball in the fairway. I think they made the fairway a little narrower from the last time we were here. It's long and straight uphill. If you hit two good shots, you can have a birdie look. Anything other than that, you're probably scrambling for a par.”

Caves Valley will probably show well this week, but even 15-under 265 would have been 23 under last time. And this course, egos of the members who have to play it the rest of the year aside, isn’t the first course to toughen itself, perhaps unnecessarily.

Another example is Medinah Country Club. After Justin Thomas brought the house down with a third-round 61 on No. 3 in the 2019 BMW, members knew the bulldozers would be coming. The result of that low score was a $30 million renovation that features six new finishing holes.

A tough test compared to “The Monster,” as members called No. 3 a generation ago? Not to member and North Carolina team member Grant Roscich, whose 61 on the new layout – from the member tees, but still – showed how far $30 million goes these days.

“Lucky we’re playing match play,” co-redesigner Geoff Ogilvy reportedly said.

Caves Valley doesn’t have that to hide behind this week.

Run-up to the Ryder Cup

U.S. Ryder Cup captain Bradley’s biggest question remains what many observers seem is a foregone conclusion. As the 10th-ranked player in the Ryder Cup point standings, shouldn’t he pick himself for the team?

“I’ve said all along that you can’t expect to be on the team unless you’re in the top six,” Bradley said Wednesday. “I’m 10th right now, not sixth.”

It’s a 12-man team, so Bradley has six selections and logically should pick himself. He won at Hartford this summer, is the defender this week via his victory last year at Castle Pines, has a victory in each of the last four years, is ranked 12th in the world, and stands eighth among American players in the world rankings. And he has the bulldog mentality perfect for match play. What’s not to like?

“My goal is, whether I’m Ryder Cup captain or not this week, play well and play well next week at the Tour Championship,” Bradley said.

He may just be coy, but someone else would pick him. Even a McIlroy.

“I definitely think he's one of the best 12 American players right now,” McIlroy said. “That’s why everyone is so interested and it's such a compelling case, and it's going to be – I'm just as interested as everyone else to see how it all plays out.”

The point of the playoffs is?

The PGA Tour’s postseason consists of three tournaments, but participation is not mandatory. Thus, three-time FedEx Cup winner McIlroy, with a heavy autumn schedule, skipped last week’s first leg in Memphis, but arrives at Caves Valley sitting second in the standings.

That’s because, as has been the case since when the playoffs began in 2007, regular-season play is factored into the standings. One year, Vijay Singh didn’t play the final week, the Tour Championship, and still won the playoffs. All the tweaks since then have eliminated that possibility, but McIlroy’s conspicuous absence last week shows work is left to be done.

Asked if he feels the playoffs really determine a season-long champion, McIlroy said, “Who knows at this point?”

The Northern Ireland native noted that in most European sports, the full-season determines the champion, and that sometimes, as in Liverpool’s case in the Premier League last season, the champion can be determined weeks in advance.

That can’t happen with the PGA Tour now.

Justin Rose, who captured the FedEx Cup in 2018 without winning a playoff tournament, was pleased by the elimination of the “starting strokes” concept, which gave the top players under-par scores before the first ball was struck in anger. The thumb on the scoring scale made the tournament look like a scramble.

“It’s nice to have 72 holes mean something again,” Rose said. “Before you could shoot the lowest score and get the most world ranking points and not win the tournament. This is a really clean way to finish the season.

“I don’t know if you’d call it the ‘season-long race to the FedEx Cup, but it is the most elite tournament and the one to get into.”

McIlroy concurred.

“I see it more as a one-off rather than a culmination of a season,” McIlroy said.

Besides, the season has a bonus prize system of its own. Scottie Scheffler, the world No. 1, copped $8 million a fortnight ago for leading the regular-season standings. And, shades of Singh back in the day, he didn’t even have to play in the Wyndham, the last regular-season tournament.

Around Caves Valley

The Evans Scholars Foundation should benefit to the tune of about $8 million this week, which will help both the caddie program in general and in paying off the new Evans House at the University of Maryland, dedicated a few days ago. Last year’s tournament at Castle Pines near Denver brought in $10.2 million, the 2023 edition at Olympia Fields $5.5 million.  … Even big-time golfers waste money. McIlroy said he bought a “horrific” watch with his first paycheck, spending $20,000. “It had diamonds around it. The worst purchase ever,” he laughed. He wouldn’t divulge the manufacturer, but he said it wasn’t his current sponsor, which is Omega. … Online coverage starts on ESPN+ at 8:15 a.m. CT, in time to watch J.T. Poston play as a single, and expands to four feeds by 9:15 a.m. Golf Channel’s four-hour telecast begins at 1 p.m., when the final twosome of Tom Hoge and Bud Cauley tee off.

– Tim Cronin

Burmester prevails against the greats

Writing from Bolingbrook, Illinois

Sunday, August 10, 2025

Your name is Dean Burmester. You are a champion golfer, but can go through airports unnoticed. In fact, until Sunday, you could go through rounds of golf unnoticed as well.

Maybe that changes now. Sunday at Bolingbrook Golf Club, Burmester won his second tournament in as many years on the LIV circuit, and for a second time did so in sudden death.

He ran in a 5-foot birdie putt on the first hole of unscheduled golf – Bolingbrook’s 18th for the tournament, the ninth in everyday play – to knock off a pair of fellows who need private jets to travel in peace: Jon Rahm, the defending champion who is recognizable on six continents, and Josele Ballester, the rookie pro sensation who will soon be similarly swamped by attention.

Or maybe it doesn’t. Burmester is a balding 36-year-old South African, with a less imposing resume than Rahm, Bryson DChambeau and many of the other LIVers on the trail. But on this day, Burmester was the top dog, after starting his round like he wanted to go home early.

Bogey, bogey, bogey, his trek began, and he tumbled from 9-under and two strokes ahead to 6-under in a pack. He played flawlessly after that, got back to 9-under with a 5-foot birdie putt at the 16th hole, and watched Rahm and Ballester join him after he failied to score another birdie at the last to avoid sudden-death. (They made birdies of four and three feet, respectively, at the 18th to gain the right to keep playing.)

On that 55th hole, it was Burmester who hit a better approach, a splendid wedge out of light rough to the right of the fairway to the aforementioned five feet to set up the winning putt – after he watched Ballester miss from 15 feet and Rahm was errant from a dozen feet.

“This rough is no joke,” Burmester said. “The grass was with me, which helped. There’s a bit of luck, but I pitched it exactly where I wanted to.”

Perhaps Burmester doesn’t win, perhaps doesn’t contend, if his wife Mel doesn’t participate in an ultra-marathon in West Virginia recently. He praised her to the skies after winning.

“That Sunday I was on my phone watching her, and that truly gave me an inspiration to kind of – if she can do that, she can run 90 whatever kilometers in a day, nine and a half hours or whatever it was, then I can do anything,” Burmester said.

Golf is less arduous, but Burmester has also been dealing with a personal issue he did not divulge, and if there’s one thing golf does in four hours-plus, it gives someone time to think. Burmester managed to keep his mind on his game.

“I've just been grinding and trying to get better,” he said. “Today was not easy.”

But it was eventually successful, and profitable. Burmester collected $4 million for the individual win and another $750,000 for being a part of the winning team, Stinger. Since he was occupied in the playoff, captain Louis Oosthuizen picked the other team members, Charl Schwarzel and Branden Grace, for the two-on-two sudden-death playoff against Torque. Both birdied to take care of business.

“We may all be looking at houses,” joked Oosthuizen.

All four stayed in the same house this week.

Don’t feel bad for Rahm and Ballester, who each pocket $1.875 million in individual earnings for finishing second, nor for Carlos Ortiz, whose fourth-place finish a stroke out of the playoff at 8-under 205 earned him a cool million.

“I had a good opportunity the last few holes to maybe close it, but I couldn't do it, and yeah, I'll learn from it,” Ballester said. “When you lose in a playoff to a birdie, there's not much you can do. I think I hit a great second shot. I executed a great putt. It could have gone in. Hopefully next time it does.”

Ballester has improved every start since joining LIV at Virginia. A tie for 50th there, solo 48th in Dallas, tied for 23rd in Andalucia, Spain, tied for seventh in London and now a playoff loss here. Indianapolis is next week, and he may see the checkered flag first.

But Sunday, it was Burmester and his Stinger teammates making like Dan Gurney and spraying the Champagne.

Around Bolingbrook 

A brief shower scattered the gallery of about 10,000 spectators around noon. … Anthony Kim, the butt of too many jokes in his comeback, scored 5-under 66 in the final round, his second straight under-par round after an opening 82. … Joaquin Niemann (tied for 17th) still leads the LIV standings, but Jon Rahm closed the gap to a little over 12 points. Niemann still leads the money race with $21,447,381 in earnings. Dean Burmester increased his season haul to $9,673,333.

– Tim Cronin