Jon Rahm has never won a major championship, but it seems like he won a pair after the season on the PGA Tour. Rahm won the 2020 BMW championship in Olympia Fields on Sunday in a surreal playoff against Dustin Johnson, finishing the weekend with 66-64 on one of the toughest tracks of the year.
The last 30 minutes of the tournament were completely insane. Rahm ended under at 4am and it looked like DJ was missing out a beat or two. Instead, Johnson pounded 15th and made 3rd of the year 18th by sinking an impossible 43-foot putt over a ridge and down a hill. He even offered a fist pump. That wasn’t nearly the best putt of the day, however.
Cream poured a 66-foot on him About 20 minutes later on the same hole to end the playoff between the top two players in the world before we could even settle in and enjoy it. A 66-footer (his longest putt of the season) to win a playoff event and nearly $ 2 million! Sixty! Six! Feet!
Rahm also won one of the other toughest courses of the year, the Memorial Tournament in Muirfield Village. He played the two events in 13 under combined. Nobody who took part in both events (most of the best players in the world) got cream within seven points. It is a testament to his incredible ability to hit a ball, but also his ability to win on major courses that are firm, fast and put every aspect of a professional game to the test.
“I think the two best setups this year were the Memorial and by far here,” said Rory McIlroy earlier in the week. “They were the two best setups of the year. Maybe you could throw Harding Park in, but that’s right golf. That’s, you really have to think about things, you have to land. When it comes to your numbers, you have to put it in Bring the game. Those five or six foot pars to keep the swing going are huge. It’s nice to play another round of golf like that. “
Rahm met a lot of these 5 and 6 footers, especially on the weekend. His only bogey over the final 36 holes came on Saturday on Round 3 when he picked up his ball before marking it and received a one-shot penalty. Other than that, he had a clean card for the past two days, which was nearly impossible on a course like Olympia Fields, where only five out of 69 players were below par.
There are few who can compete with Rahms all-round game. He finished the top 15 in this field from the tee with his approach shots around the greens, and with his putter. Many golfers can hit bombs like him, but so rarely can anyone combine that with the skillful touch that cream has from 100 meters away. When it comes to that skill, combined with everything else he does at the level he does, maybe just Johnson – the man he beat on Sunday – or Justin Thomas or Rory McIlroy can claim the same class level .
Unfortunately for Rahm, he doesn’t get major recognition for this win or the Memorial, even though both felt they were playing at that level. He will do six runs on one of these over the next 11 months and one game that will continue to lead to every course on the planet. It is a necessity to bring the DJ out of the body to the state he is in right now.
This weekend at Olympia Fields, Rahm didn’t prove anything that we weren’t aware of. He only confirmed with his performance at Muirfield Village (and several other venues worldwide). Although the “Best Player in Golf” label continues to trade hands, Rahm will not end the conversation at any time in the near future. Grade: A +
Here are the remaining grades for the 2020 BMW Championship.
Dustin Johnson (2nd) – He has won an average of four strokes per round (!) Since the PGA Championship started after shooting 4 under 276, which was 11 strokes better than the field for the week. It’s not the biggest hole on his resume, but winning the FedEx Cup next week (where he starts under 10) would be a nice addition to his career in the Hall of Fame. The DJ closed like a boss on Sunday, but Rahm didn’t make any mistakes and what can you do with a 66-foot boat to win? The margins on top are incredibly small. Note: A.
Joaquin Niemann (T4) – Get him at 100-1 to win the US Open while you still can. Some of the trajectories he hits off the tee and makes with his irons are utterly absurd. When he went out on Sunday in the year 31, it felt like he was walking in and stealing this thing from some of the biggest names in the world. If he had, he would have become that fourth youngest to two PGA Tour wins in the past 30 years (Tiger Woods, Jordan Spieth and Sergio Garcia). Is that a good list? Grade: A +
Tony Finau (5th) – The last nine 30 to stay in the top 30 and scare the top of the leaderboard was absolutely filthy. It set off a week of week 65 on Sunday. It’s incredible to me that Finau (seven top 10) didn’t win this season while Tiger Woods (two top 10) got one win. During the week Finau hit – somewhat unbelievably – only 18 of 56 fairways, but cleaned up all around and on the greens. One day, he’ll trade those top 6 finishes on events that are really important to a runaway freight train win. Maybe. Note: A.
Billy Horschel (T33) – He slipped as the 30th player in the FedEx Cup standings with four even pars. May not sound like a big deal, but he’s going to be playing for $ 15 million at East Lake next week (where he won!), And the difference in FedEx Cup bonus between the 31st and 30th (even if it was last week finished) is $ 195,000. Note: A.
Tiger Woods (T51) – Big Cat never came under par at Olympia Fields this week as its 2019-20 PGA Tour season came to an awkward end early Sunday with its fourth straight over par. Statistics say Tiger’s putting – and some of his deceleration speeds would confirm this – but Tiger suggested after his round that he wasn’t missing all the right spots either, which adds to his inability to hold onto a score. “I would say I’m trying to clean up my rounds and miss the golf ball in all the right places [is what I need to work on for the U.S. Open]”said Tiger.” As I said, I didn’t do that. ” Note: C.
