Winner’s Bag: Dustin Johnson, TOUR Championship

KAPALUA, Hawaii – Cameron Smith watched World No. 1 Jon Rahm ram home a 28-foot birdie on the 17th hole that must have felt like the 500th haymaker to the face in a heavyweight title fight. It was Rahm’s 11th of the day to go with an eagle and lone bogey and saw the Spaniard join the Australian on top of the leaderboard that Smith had owned over the first two rounds and most of the third at the Sentry Tournament of Champions. It surely was a blow that might leave the plucky Aussie on the canvas as he lined up a 28-foot attempt of his own. Instead, the gritty competitor from the working-class suburbs of Brisbane nailed his ninth birdie of the round to continue an incredible contest. Rahm won the battle on Saturday as he closed with another birdie to post a course-record 12-under 61 and join Smith at the top of the board at 26-under for the week. But Smith (64) is not ready to surrender the war as both take a five-shot buffer over Daniel Berger (66) and sit six clear of FedExCup champion Patrick Cantlay (66), Australian Matt Jones (62) and South Korea’s Sungjae Im (65). Smith knows Rahm will start the favorite on Sunday but he’s far from intimidated. In fact, he revels in the underdog role. “I love to compete. Probably over the break there more so than missing golf I think I just missed competing,” Smith said. “I didn’t do a lot of stuff and it’s great to be out here and in the hunt on the weekend. “It was really good fun out there today. Obviously playing nice golf helps. But watching Jon was pretty intense there on that back nine, some of the best golf I think I’ve ever seen, definitely some of the best putting. “Now it’s one more day to go with him. Hopefully we can do much of the same tomorrow and we’ll see what happens.” After both players were even through four holes, they matched birdies on the fifth, seventh and ninth holes while only a missed five-foot birdie try from Smith on the eighth allowed Rahm to close the gap. Further matching birdies came at 10, 11 and 14 before Rahm needed eagle to best Smith’s birdie on the 15th. Matching birdies on 16 and 17 followed before Rahm pulled level with another on the last. With the second (67.816) and third (67.711) rounds setting new low scoring average records at the Plantation Course since 1999, Rahm and Smith stopped short of calling it a two-horse race on Sunday. But they know they have the chance to make it one. “We had a fun battle today and I’m guessing tomorrow’s going to be more of the same. We’re going to need a lot of birdies to get ahead and get the win,” Rahm said. “If we get a similar day someone can come and shoot 10, 11, 12-under… What I have to keep doing is just keep hitting it as well as I am tee to green. Keep putting it in the fairway and keep hitting good iron shots, give myself plenty of looks, and some of them will go in. You can get hot on this golf course and hopefully I can do the same thing tomorrow.” In Friday’s second round, Rahm struggled with the speed of the greens and made just 48 feet, 4 inches of putts. On Saturday he led the field in Strokes Gained: Putting on the way to 132-feet, 10 inches worth. He also dialed in his approach play, gaining over three strokes on the field. “I only left one short and I couldn’t believe it stayed short,” he said. “It all started on 2. I made that putt, I made that putt on 4, and it gave me a lot of confidence and I kept going, made a couple of those putts that yesterday I left short and it gave me so much confidence. “But a number of those birdie/eagles were very short putts so it also speaks to the ball striking I had today.” Smith is chasing the Hawaii double having won the Sony Open in Hawaii in 2020. He has now held the lead, or a share of it, over the first three rounds. He is also seeking to be the third Australian to win at Kapalua after Stuart Appleby won three straight in 2004-06 and Geoff Ogilvy went back-to-back in 2009-10. “Hawaii reminds me so much of where I grew up, it’s insane. The grass that we hit off, the greens being quite slow and grainy. Yeah, it’s awesome, I love it here,” he said. “I know it will be a challenge tomorrow but I’m looking forward to it. We all want to win and you have to beat the best to do that on the PGA TOUR so it’s nothing to shy away from.”

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How it works: Each week, our experts from PGATOUR.COM will make their selections in PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf presented by SERVPRO. Each lineup consists of four starters and two bench players that can be rotated after each round. Adding to the challenge is that every golfer can be used only three time per each of four Segments. The first fantasy golf game to utilize live ShotLink data, PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf presented by SERVPRO allows you to see scores update live during competition. Aside from the experts below, Fantasy Insider Rob Bolton breaks down the field at this year’s RBC Canadian Open in his edition of the Power Rankings. THINK YOU’RE BETTER THAN OUR EXPERTS? The PGA TOUR Experts league is once again open to the public. You can play our free fantasy game and see how you measure up against our experts below. Joining the league is simple. Just click here to sign up or log in. Once you create your team, click the “Leagues” tab and search for “PGA TOUR Experts.” After that? Pick your players and start talking smack. SEASON SEGMENT

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CROMWELL, Conn. – When you’re pretty much isolated in the zone – and we suspect that hitting all 14 fairways, 16 of 18 greens, and running your bogey-free streak to 50 holes, as Brendon Todd did in his 9-under 61 today at the Travelers Championship, constitutes being “in the zone” – then you don’t have time for history lessons. But, oh, how his playing competitors could have regaled him. “Let me tell you about 2014,” Kevin Streelman might have said. “Trailed by four to start the final round, birdied each of my last seven holes, shot 64, and won.” “Impressive,” Marc Leishman would have been able to counter with. “But my effort two years earlier wasn’t bad, mate. Left here Saturday in a tie for 20th, six back, shot bogey-free 62 Sunday, and won.” RELATED: Leaderboard | Tee times | Morikawa’s made cut streak comes to an end True, in Saturday morning’s solitude, with even the leaders on the course to help beat turbulent afternoon weather, it wasn’t the time to stroll down memory lane. Besides, Streelman was enjoying the ball-striking clinic put on by his competitor. “He putted just perfectly out there,” said Streelman, after watching Todd use just 25 putts to make birdies on half his holes. “Every putt inside of 15, 20 feet looks like it’s going to go in, and today most of them did go in. He’s always been an incredible putter. He’s swinging it great, and when he’s putting well, he’s tough to beat.” Properly stated and saturated in diplomacy, but here at TPC River Highlands, virtually every competitor knows that there has never been anything resembling a “safe lead,” that your rear-view mirror is always clogged with tailgaters, so you best keep your foot on the pedal. Streelman and Leishman are just two of 13 winners since 2000 who have come from behind on Sunday to win. For proof to the way you can speedboat here, consider that as brilliantly as Todd played – and he pushed to 18-under 192 to get into a two-shot lead – he only matched the low round of the day. A few groups earlier, the esteemed Dustin Johnson conceded his morning “was a pretty easy 61.” Hitting 12 of 14 fairways and 16 of 18 greens put Johnson in the passing lane, big time; five behind 36-hole leader Phil Mickelson, Johnson roared into second place, at 16-under 194. Not that it’s a two-man race. Not with this tournament’s history. That means Streelman, who shot 63 and is alone in third, is very much alive, three behind Todd, and so, too, is Mackenzie Hughes (68), who is four back. Those who are at five back – Bryson DeChambeau (65) and Kevin Na (65) – would even have to be considered in the hunt, given the fourth-round history at the Travelers. But Rory McIlroy (69 – 200, T-18, and eight back) puts up the stop sign. “Too far back and too many people,” said the world No. 1 after a day in which he could have used a lot of the ball-striking prowess displayed by Todd and Johnson. (McIlroy hit just eight fairways and 11 greens.) Even after you accept the deep history of comebacks here and pay due respect to those within five of the lead, it’s worth admiring the contrast in the final pairing, for it provides more proof that golf is flavorful. Todd, who will turn 35 next month, and Johnson, who turned 36 last Monday, hail from the same part of the country (Todd from Georgia, Johnson from South Carolina) and turned pro in 2007. But you might stop with the similarities there, given the routes they’ve been on. By the time Todd won his first PGA TOUR tournament, in 2014, Johnson owned eight victories and was a megastar. Seemingly oblivious to stress, Johnson can laugh at that perception and tell you he feels it “a lot more than you think, (but) I try not to show it.” What he can’t hide is a brilliant resume (20 PGA TOUR wins, a U.S. Open title, stints at No. 1 in the world) and a saunter that if you could bottle it and sell it would bring you millions. Whereas he appears incapable of playing poorly, Todd presents a different side of the equation and that makes him . . . well, someone to be admired, a guy overflowing with humanness. Take those dark years, for instance, 2016-19, a period during which Todd made 12 cuts in 55 starts. Talk about an easy out, a simple reason to quit. Yet Todd didn’t. If you look of perseverance and don’t see his picture, you’ve got an inferior dictionary and when he stands next to Johnson on the first tee Sunday afternoon, only one of them can say they’ve won a tournament in this 2019-20 season, disjointed season. That would be Todd, who prevailed back-to-back last fall, at the Bermuda Championship and Mayakoba Golf Classic in Mexico. Crazy, that pairing. The continuation of a vintage feel-good story and continuation of a career that has been consistently pure. Admire the storyline, but then take a deep breath and study your history of the Travelers Championship. Many other competitors have a chance Sunday.

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