How Jon Rahm made a mistake and still won the BMW Championship

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CROMWELL, Conn. – They have been woven into the fabric of golf since the days of spoons and niblicks, these words about the swing. Heck, even Old Tom is purported to have said to Young Tom before their first round together: “Rhythm and tempo, son. Rhythm and tempo.” Sound stuff, always. But should you endeavor to take on the challenge of professional golf, here is another piece of advice. Timing is everything. For the latest proof, meet Will Gordon. RELATED: Leaderboard | Tee times | Morikawa’s made cut streak comes to an end The likelihood that you may not have heard of him is a tribute to bad timing. The chance that you are possibly going to hear a lot about him is a testament to good timing. Timing, you see, is like luck. It comes in two flavors – good and bad – and the trick is to roll with the bad and run with the good. Which returns us to Gordon who has thus far followed the blueprint beautifully here at the Travelers Championship. When he backed up a first-round 4-under 66 with a sparkling 62 in Friday’s second round, Gordon sat atop the leaderboard at 12-under 128. One could suggest he’s halfway through authoring a dramatic story, but some true heavyweights were about to play afternoon rounds (Rory McIlroy, Phil Mickelson, Bryson DeChambeau) and Gordon is golf savvy. “I mean, half the field hasn’t played (today), so I’m not really worried about it,” said Gordon. “There’s a lot of golf left, so I could end up a couple of different places.” Ah, the perfect segue into the good timing flavor. The place this week is TPC River Highlands and indirectly Gordon is here because of the pandemic, for had tournament cancellations never been made, he was going to get spots into the Valero Texas Open and Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship. Had he not played well, who knows how things would have unfolded. Perhaps Gordon might have gone back to play some events on the Mackenzie Tour-PGA TOUR Canada, where he has status. We’ll never know, because the insidious virus struck and the world turned upside down. In mid-March when the PGA TOUR canceled a flurry of tournaments, plus the entire Mackenzie Tour season, Gordon was at home in Davidson, North Carolina. Like so many other pro golfers with minimal status, he tried to assess his predicament. Worse than the Mackenzie Tour being canceled and losing his spots into the Valero and Puntacana, Gordon could not count starts in the Korn Ferry Tour Finals, which he’d earned with his play this PGA TOUR season, because that has been canceled, too. Gordon was a lock for those events that dole out PGA TOUR card after a 10th-place finish at The RSM Classic and top-25s at both the Farmers Insurance Open and Puerto Rico Open. “My initial reaction was, ‘Just kind of roll with the punches and take it in stride,’” said Gordon. “Just try to make the most of any opportunity I do get.” That opportunity arrived a few weeks ago when Nathan Grube, the tournament director, phoned to extend a sponsor’s invite and one could say that Gordon is in position to definite what “make the most” means, given that he’s made 15 birdies against just three bogeys. But if you paint his sponsor’s exemption with the “good timing” brush, and certainly you should, it behooves you to study this man’s story and appreciate the sense of “bad timing” that followed him all of last summer. It was as unique a PGA TOUR year as we’ve ever seen, with a group of brilliant collegians getting plenty of spotlight and most of the exemptions. Let the record show, Collin Morikawa, Viktor Hovland, and Matthew Wolff have proven that the hype and hoopla was well-deserved. Each has won on the PGA TOUR, each has proven to be immensely worthy of membership. No complaints from any lobby. There was a wrinkle, though. Gordon, the 2019 SEC Player of the Year, was just a notch below. You could dispute how small the notch was, but William Kane is convinced of this: “He was the next-best in that class, but kind of flew under the radar. Most other years, he would have been a big name.” Kane has credentials, having grown up with Webb Simpson and caddied for him on the PGA TOUR for a few years. Now associated with the College Golf Fellowship, Kane could be called a mentor or team chaplain at Vanderbilt. “He’s been a really good friend, so supportive and helpful,” said Gordon. A year ago, when all the sponsor invites were going to Morikawa, Hovland, Wolff and Justin Suh, Gordon did what he does well. He rolled with the punches. He won the Mackenzie-Tour Qualifying Tournament and on the week of the Travelers Championship – where Hovland and Wolff made their pro debuts, and both Morikawa and Suh played – Gordon shot a course-record 60 to take the lead in the Lethbridge Paradise Canyon Open in Alberta. In nine tournaments in Canada, Gordon missed just one cut and finished 21st on the money list. Not bad. Small progress. But Morikawa, Hovland and Wolff all earned their PGA TOUR cards in short time. Bad timing? You can suggest that, but Gordon is immersed in polish and character, and never did he belabor what didn’t come his way. “Golf is unique,” he reasoned. “You always have the chance to hit the re-start button.” He did that late last fall with an opportunity to play the RSM Classic on Sea Island. Important as it was to close with a 66 to finish tied for 10th, the greater benefit was the good fortune he had to earn a third-round pairing with Simpson. “Webb has been super nice to me,” said Gordon. “But it’s been important for me to see how he has perfected what he does – how he takes ownership of his game, ownership of his life and that has showed me how I need to grow.” When the pandemic put pro golf tournaments on the sidelines and Gordon needed to stay in game shape, it was Simpson who reached out. Games were set up and when Harold Varner III took part in a few of them, “it was good to be around those guys – and with Webb winning last week, it just furthers my belief in myself that I can hang with those guys.” The fact that he didn’t get the Travelers chance last year was bad timing. But when you have the dignity to roll with the punches, you can prove that good timing trumps bad timing.

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AUGUSTA, Ga. - Dustin Johnson suffers a few shaky moments with a chunked pitch shot and back-to-back front-nine bogeys, but settles down to author a final-round 68 for a five-shot victory over Presidents Cup teammates Cameron Smith and Sungjae Im, who each carded 69s. Smith became the first player in Masters history to record four rounds in the 60s. Here are five stories you might have missed from the 2020 Masters. 1. This one came from the heart Johnson grew up in Columbia, South Carolina, just over an hour away from Augusta. He thought about the Masters whilst honing his game at the now defunct Weed Hill driving range, where he was often the last player practicing under the lights. When he'd actually won the green jacket, there was no mistaking how much this one meant to him. He began to tear up when his brother/caddie Austin did as they embraced on the 18th green. Then came the ceremony with CBS's Amanda Balionis as the usually stoic Johnson was overcome with emotion. "I had a tough time there speaking with Amanda on the putting green," he said. "Just because like I said, it means so much to me. It means so much to my family, Paulina, the kids. They know it’s something that I’ve always been dreaming about and it’s why I work so hard." That hard work, and the athlete in him, has put him over the top. Tiger Woods, who put the green jacket on Johnson Sunday, cited the winner's raw athleticism, plus his seemingly imperturbable nature. Johnson, who is 6 feet, 4 inches tall, could palm a basketball in the seventh grade and doesn't get too bent out of shape on the course. And he doesn't linger over losses. "As we've all seen, he’s an amazing athlete," Woods said. "He’s one of the first guys to ever bring athleticism to our sport. DJ has just an amazing ability to stay calm in tough moments ... and we all know as past champions how hard it is, the emotions we have to deal with out there. "There’s no one more suited to that, I think, than DJ." For more on Johnson's victory, click here. 2. It's been a rollercoaster One of the biggest pre-tournament concerns for the players was not to get the coronavirus. Paul Casey, who opened with 65 but closed with 77 to finish T38, was only half joking when he said he was so worried about getting it and missing Augusta he didn't let his kids have play dates. Johnson tested positive for the virus in Las Vegas on Oct. 11, and after withdrawing from THE CJ CUP @ SHADOW CREEK, spent 11 days holed up in his hotel room. It had a little outside area where he would sometimes go sit, and he would get up to shower, but otherwise that was it. He watched a whole lot of TV, especially the series "Yellowstone." The silver lining was he figured now that he'd had it, he would be OK for the Masters. "I know 2020 has been a really strange year, but it’s been good to me," he said after his fourth win of the year. "I’ve played some good golf. You know, I can’t thank Augusta enough for just having the Masters. Obviously when it canceled in April, none of us knew if we were going to be able to play in it. I was just happy to be here playing, and it worked out OK for me." 3. DeChambeau wasn't himself The biggest pre-tournament storyline, whether the newly beefy, ultra-long-hitting DeChambeau would tear apart Augusta National, never materialized. If anything, Augusta tore him apart, exposing the runaway U.S. Open champion's susceptibility to the blowup hole. DeChambeau double-bogeyed the 13th hole in the first round, and triple-bogeyed the par-4 third hole (with a lost ball) in the second. Ironically, the third and 13th holes are two of the shortest on the course. He closed with a 1-over 73 (T34) that featured a double-bogey at the par-4 fifth hole. He also complained of dizziness and brain fog. "At the beginning of the week I felt like I could have a great chance to win the tournament if I just played my game," DeChambeau said. "... I made way too many mistakes that I’ve got to talk about with my caddie and go, ‘Hey, how do we not make these mistakes anymore? How can we work better as a team to have that not happen?' At Winged Foot we did a great job of it. This week we didn’t." 4. Tiger and Phil flashed form Phil Mickelson was 5 under through two rounds and "driving it like a stallion." If he could just shore up his faulty putting, he said, he could potentially make a run at his fourth Masters title. It didn't happen, as he shot 79-73 to finish T55. Defending champion Woods had a crazier week. He, too, was 5 under through two rounds, but went 72-76 to finish T38. His final round was especially topsy-turvy as he hit three balls in the water and made a 10 - the highest score of his PGA TOUR career - at the par-3 12th hole. He then birdied five of his last six holes, including the last four in a row, to finish the round. "I committed to the wrong wind," he said of his misadventure on 12. "This sport is awfully lonely sometimes," he added. "You have to fight it. No one is going to bring you off the mound or call in a sub. You have to fight through it. That’s what makes this game so unique and so difficult mentally. We’ve all been there, unfortunately." For more on Woods' wild 12th hole, click here. 5. McIlroy still knocking on the door Rory McIlroy, 31, keeps flirting with winning Masters, the one major that eludes him for the career Grand Slam. With his opening-round 75, he spotted the winner 10 strokes, but beat Johnson by one the rest of the way to lose by nine and finish T5 with Dylan Frittelli (72). "You know, when I birdied the 8th hole and I got to 11 (under), I saw DJ had dropped to 15, and I thought, maybe there’s a chance," said McIlroy, who hasn't won in over a year. In retrospect, there wasn't a chance, and he played his last 10 holes in even par with a bogey at 10 and a birdie at the par-5 13th, which had vexed him all week. He signed for a 3-under 69, his third straight sub-70 round, and now has six top-10 finishes in his last seven Masters. "The wind sort of got up as we hit the turn," he said, "and it just was hard to make birdies." TOUR TOP 10 The PGA TOUR Regular Season top 10 will receive bonuses for their efforts.

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