WHERE POSITIVITY LEADS...

When he bested the 2010 Open champion Oosthuizen by a stroke with spectacular finishing back-to-back birdies to become the U.S. Open champion, Jon Rahm achieved what no other golfing Spaniard has before him, not even the greatest of them all.

As the first of his countrymen to win a U.S. Open, Rahm is also the fourth to capture a major title after Sergio Garcia, Jose Maria Olazabal and the late Seve Ballesteros.

There was much to celebrate, for on a personal note, he won on his first Father's Day as a dad at Torrey Pines, which was where he also proposed to wife Kelley, who gave birth in April to their first child, Kepa.

Yet two weeks prior, it all seemed bleak when Rahm tested positive for the Covid virus and was forced to withdraw from the Memorial. Leading by 6 strokes going into the final day, he abandoned a near certain victory in tears.

After his U.S. Open win, Rahm revealed, "I believed from the biggest setbacks we can get some of the biggest breakthroughs, and that's why I stay so positive. I never lost hope for a second."

Brilliant! Yet let that not inspire us to Tin Cup moments and unleash a full-blooded 3 wood from under the trees and over water onto the green. There's positivity, and then there's reality.

And the reality is that it's been an unbelievable year of firsts for golf, and events aren't letting up just yet even though the final major of the year, the Open at Royal St George's is just around the corner. There's still golf at the Tokyo Olympics, the season-ending Fedex Cup, and the Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits, which I wager, will see the waters run red.

Be still my beating heart.