A final round fans deserved to pour their emotions into

CROMWELL — Dustin Johnson had gotten wet a few minutes earlier. His tee shot with a 3hybrid at the 15th hole had bent toward the disaster of the fouracre lake with the giant Travelers umbrella in the middle.

The ball landed, plop, in the thick grass inches from the water. The ball didn’t bounce. It didn’t skid. It stuck there. Stuck there like a perfect gymnast landing.

“Lucky,” he said. Johnson pulled off his shoes and his socks. He pulled up one leg of his trousers. He pulled up the other leg of his trousers and he stepped into the lake 73 feet from the flag at the 15th. His chip lacked requisite gusto, the ball rolled up the hill and back down toward him. Still, Johnson had avoided the penalty stroke he had taken off the 13th tee, and his brilliant second chip within four feet of the hole, not only saved par, it essentially preserved his first PGA Tour victory since the WGC-Mexico Open in February 2019.

That’s when the TPC River Highlands got wet along with Johnson. The course, which had been drenched Saturday, took on

a few more sprinkles late Sunday afternoon.

A nasty summer storm that had hung south and west of Cromwell and brought hail as big as whatever lodged in Brendon Todd’s throat on the 13th hole close enough for the siren to sound and stop play at 5:17 p.m. The skies had grown ominously dark. The lightning had drawn too close. The final three pairings were brought in off the course.

One last hurdle in a week of hurdles in a year of hurdles.

The 58-minute wait, Johnson later admitted, got to him some. Nothing is easy in 2020. Nothing. When play resumed at 6:15 p.m. Johnson would need that giant par-save at 15 to survive a bogey on 16 and outlast Kevin Streelman by one stroke for his 21st PGA Tour title.

“It has been an interesting year, hasn’t it?” said my new buddy Nick Demetriades as we sat together in his backyard nestling the eighth green a few hours earlier.

That’s one way to put it, Nick.

When Johnson, who shot a 67 to finish 19-under, unleashed the longest drive of the day at 18 — 351 yards — he was met with a handful

of claps and hoots from a home above the last fairway. There were maybe 50 people around the 18th hole as his putt dropped. There was a smattering of applause.

Johnson was happy. Heck, he won $1.33 million. The golf aficionados watching at home around the country got their Sunday fill of golf. They were satisfied.

But if you were there, and you were honest, you felt sad. Great sports are meant for the fans. Connecticut’s premier sporting event is every bit about the huge galleries as the golf itself. And with a big name like Johnson winning, man, what could have been earsplitting loud was a whisper.

It made me sad. It made me hate COVID-19 more, if that is possible.

Demetriades, who has lived adjacent to the par-3 eighth hole for the past 11 years, was nice to invite me over to watch some of the action Sunday. And with more than 75 folks in all surrounding No. 8, it certainly had the best fan action at TPC Rivers Highlands.

When 50-year old Phil Mickelson, whose secondround lead had frazzled with two final rounds of 71, passed by, the folks showered him with affection. “We love you, Phil!” “Thanks for coming,

Phil!”

Mickelson gave his Lefty wave. Mickelson gave his Lefty smile.

The folks sitting at Nick’s house gave Lefty the wave.

“When the last group goes by, we’ve got nowhere to go,” Nick said. “So we go inside and watch on television.”

We sat there as Bryson DeChambeau passed and folks marveled at his new super-buffed body.

“We can go over to the sixth to watch them tee off,” Nick said. “You’re really close. Watching DeChambeau swing is wild. He’s like an animal. Holy cow. I’ve never seen anything like it. Man, you could hear the wind.”

We watched DeChambeau putt from 16 feet, two inches, at eight and you could hear Nick yell, “Get in the hole!” It did for a birdie. DeChambeau doffed his hat to the cheering fans. Twenty minutes later, Johnson would sink a 27foot birdie putt at eight. It’s funny. Seventy-five people can make a lot of noise.

And with that, Nick and the folks at the eighth hole went into watch on television. They saw Streelman rally for a second-place finish at minus-18, but nothing like his amazing string of seven birdies on the back nine to win the 2014 Travelers.

They saw a cool story in

Brendon Todd, who had dropped to 2,043rd in the World Golf Ranking and nearly quit to open a pizza parlor two years ago, challenge to become the first to win three tournaments this season. Instead, he lost it all with a triple-bogey on the par-four 12 when he put a shot from the bunker 62 feet behind the hole and proceeded to putt like a drunken sailor who couldn’t get it through the clown’s mouth at the local miniature golf course. It was tough to watch.

Yes, this was a TV reality show.

Viewers saw 23-year-old Will Gordon, on a sponsor’s exemption, rebound from a shaky third-round to regain his form Sunday, and use a tie for third place at minus-17 with Canadian Mackenzie Hughes to gain special temporary status on the PGA Tour and unlimited sponsor’s exemptions for the rest of the year. He even got to meet Mickelson when he played with him on Saturday. Very cool for the kid who used to play golf with Steph Curry when Curry played hoops near his home at Davidson.

Thanks to a roll on a cart path they saw a 428-yard drive from DeChambeau in this tournament. They saw an ace from Abraham Ancer. The golf world was tickled for a moment on Friday by some throw back to Mickelson’s glory days.

They saw it all on TV. So it must be real.

This was golf by many of the world’s greatest golfers. And, yes, even without any fans, the competitors can get tense, play tight. We saw it Sunday. No one turned in the lights-out kind of day that would have led a record fourround Travelers score of minus-22.

“It was definitely strange playing with no fans,” Johnson said. “But you still can feel the pressure, you still can feel how important a golf tournament it is, and you’re coming down the stretch, to me it felt the same, whether it was a million fans or zero.

“The rain delay didn’t help very much. I had time to actually think about everything. I was kind of in the groove. Then I had to sit and wait for an hour to play the last three holes. I went out and just hit an awful shot on 16. It was lucky at 15, but I still had to make a really good up and down for par.”

Johnson didn’t have a great day off the tee. Those lucky inches he had at 15? They were unlucky inches at 13 when he pulled his drive a hair, carried the bunker, rolled across the cart path toward the railroad tracks and stopped barely out of bounds. He bounced back from that bogey with birdie on 14. And after the stoppage, he hit his shot a little thin on the par-3 16th that landed in the right bunker. He survived that bogey, too.

The victory would give Johnson at least one title in 13 consecutive seasons. You know who has longer streaks? Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus at 17, Billy Casper at 16 and Lee Trevino and Tiger Woods at 14.

That’s heady company. That’s how good Dustin Johnson is. He should have more than one major.

“Winning the U.S. Open at Oakmont is my biggest win for sure,” Johnson said. “But winning 13 years straight on the Tour is a pretty big accomplishment. Anytime you’re mentioned with those guys, with Tiger, Jack, Arnie, you’ve got to feel good about that because they’re the best that’s ever played this game.”

My new buddy Nick is on the Planning and Zoning Commission in Cromwell and he says the TPC is great about taking care of everything.

“This is a great tournament,” Nick said. “It’s great for the town.”

It’s great for Connecticut. It will be great again next year. But, man, when Dustin Johnson sank that putt to win, I felt sad. The fans mean so much.