Across the field we observed a lot of mediocre ball striking on a very tough golf course under very tough conditions.
There were a lot of bad misses to the wrong side of the green leaving players with precious little room to work with from deep wet rough. There were also a lot of putts left short and many misses to the low side.
Seeing such errors from elite players should make all of us a little less rough on ourselves when we hit similar such shots.
Jon Rahm’s misses, however, fit with the spirit of Ben Hogan’s quote, “Golf is a game of good misses.” And like his fellow Spaniard Seve Ballesteros, he got up and down time and again like it was child’s play.
Jon Rahm won the top prize of $1.7 million, while Ryan Palmer placed second and took home for $1 million and Matthew Fizpatrick placed third and pocketed $650,000. Tony Finau was fun to watch, taking 9th place and $290,000.
Like Ballesteros, Rahm became the only other Spaniard to hold the World No. 1 ranking – but not without a Ballesteros type of back nine which included 4 holes at bogey or worse [notable because he only had 7 holes in 4 rounds at bogey or worse].
Rahm’s back nine also included 2 penalty strokes and holing a brilliant sand wedge shot out of thick rough which was on some level reminiscent of when Tom Watson holed out for birdie on the 17th hole at Pebble Beach in the final round of the 1982 US Open to clinch a victory over Jack Nicklaus.
I wonder, did anyone else make that vague connection? Not quite as epic, yes, but nonetheless very exciting stuff.
Speaking of Jack Nicklaus, he had some insightful things to say to Rahm right after his final putt on the 18th; Jack pointed out that he was able to pull off the tough shots that the Nicklaus-designed Muirfield Village Golf Course demands of the world’s best players.
I don’t know about you, but I’m slowly getting used to watching golf without the galleries; honestly, is there anyone who doesn’t cringe at the guy yelling, “GET IN THE HOLE!” upon seemingly nearly every shot the instant if flies off of the club face?!
Ted Williams here signing off for now.
Questions…comments…ideas for future articles and videos? Email me at Twilliams@MyGolfingStore.com
