RAHM & BLAST
Fury at penalty drives Jon to glory
JON RAHM admits a oneshot penalty for failing to lay down his poker chip led him to cash in at the BMW Championship.
The world No.2 copped the punishment five holes into Saturday’s second round for picking up his ball before putting down his marker.
But the Spaniard – who has had anger management issues during his career – kept his composure to tee up a playoff with world No.1 Dustin Johnson come Sunday night.
DJ rolled in a whopping downhill 43-foot birdie putt on the 72nd hole at Olympia Fields to force an extra hole.
However, Rahm sank a sensational birdie attempt from 66 feet when the pair went back up the 18th to take the second of three FedEx Cup events. The 25-year-old, who uses the poker chip as a ball marker, said: “Man, it was fun.
“But the penalty made me mad at myself. I just went on with my focus after that, was able to play amazing golf and stayed aggressive.
“I can tell you that after that I was like, ‘OK, that’s it. No more playing around, let’s go’. That’s kind of what mentally did it for me.
“When they told me DJ had hit it on the green on the 18th hole, I was like, ‘That extra shot cushion would be extremely nice right now’ – I’m not going to lie. But at the same time it happened.
“And I don’t know if I would have won had it not happened.”
Johnson, who had won the Northern Trust by 11 shots the previous Sunday, will still tee up in the season finale with a two-shot lead.
The 36-year-old tops the FedEx rankings and will start the Tour Championship this Friday on 10 under based on the bonus system now used to determine who walks away with the £11.2million prize.
But Tiger Woods, who won at East Lake in 2018, failed to make it into the field of 30 for a second year running.
He will next tee up in a Major on September 17 and said: “This was a great rampup for me for the US Open.”
Last year’s FedEx Cup winner Rory McIlroy could miss Atlanta as wife Erica is expecting their first child. He said: “I’m going to play in many more Tour Championships and it’s only going to be the birth of your first child once. That trumps anything else.”