Jon Rahm played spectacularly well Saturday and yesterday at the BMW Championship at Olympia Fields Country Club in Olympia Fields, Illinois, a tough track that made a Fed Ex Tournament look almost like a U.S. Open, at least for the first three days. Rahm was 6 shots back of HIdeki Matsuyama who was -1 heading into Saturday’s round. He shot a 66 on Saturday to get to +2 and 3 back of Dustin Johnson, who was at -1, entering the final round yesterday.

Dustin looked to be pulling away after 4 holes getting to -4 and a 4 shot lead. But Rahm kept chipping away. He shot a 6 under 64, and took a one shot lead with Dustin 1 back on 17. DJ parred 17 and moved to 18 in a must birdie situation. He hit a drive in the right rough, and NBC on course reporter Roger Maltbie said Dustin’s chances of getting the ball close on his second shot were slim to none. Dustin was blocked by trees in his attempt to get it close. With the pin on his right side, he would have to hit a terrific shot just to give himself a 25 to 30 footer for birdie and a shot at a playoff. He hit a super shot, it landed right at the front of the green, took a major hop and rolled 45 feet past the hole but on the green. Spike had picked Dustin and I had picked Rahm and I remember we got into this competition in 2015 at the Valspar Championship at Tampa Bay when Jordan Spieth and Patrick Reed werd in a playoff. I had Spieth and Spike had Reed and we had a back and forth battle by text. Spieth miraculously made an 18 footer to win it on the 3rd playoff hole after Reed kept coming after him. Spike always makes it tough as he’s a guy who always makes the tough 10 footer for birdie or par or the 25 foot birdie putt in the clutch.

He may not have been thinking about it yesterday, but I was. So Dustin really took his time over the 45 foot downhill putt. The putt was over a ridge, so he had to have the perfect speed. After surveying for a long time, and just tapping the ball, my wife said when he struck it, it was short. I didn’t say anything knowing there was some osmosis going on with Spike and DJ through the TV. Sure enough the ball tracked perfectly and landed in the hole with the pin in and we were heading into a playoff. Rahm must have been sick. I know I was. He had picked his ball up the day before on the 5th green on a birdie putt without marking it and was assessed a 1 shot penalty. That penalty had cost him winning the tournament outright. So, I was thinking, wow, the guy must be totally deflated.

On the first playoff hole, No.18, Rahm’s drive was similar to DJ’s from DJ’s 72nd hole as it landed on the right side in the rough. Dustin hit his way left, but it hit a tree and came out into the fairway about 182 yards away. Dustin hit first and coaxed it about 25 feet away hole high. Rahm was 155 out and blocked from hitting it at the pin by the trees. He hit a good shot, but it bounded on the green 66 feet away from the hole. NBC’s Paul Azinger said this was going to be the toughest 2 putt Rahm had ever had in his life. One person referred to the 55 footer he had sunk for eagle at Torrey Pines in 2017 to win the Farmers. Maybe he could recall that memory. He lined it up. There was about 20 feet of break, and when he stroked it, it looked like a good stroke. The ball was tracking slowly then hit the ridge and looked, as NBC’s Gary Koch would say, “Better than most.” It started falling down and turning right towards the hole with the flag in. Rahm was kind of walking to his left because he liked the putt, but looked as if he was happy it was going to be close for a tap in par, and then hope that DJ would miss his birdie putt to send it to 10 for a second playoff hole. Then it got to 5 feet and it was heading straight for the pin. Rahm started staring it down with intensity. It then tracked right down into the hole, center cut. He canned it. His reaction was totally electric. The fist emphatic fist pump with the hop and roar. The moment was electric. DJ made a good run at his 25’er, but it just came up short and Rahm had overcome an unthinkable error on Saturday, kept his head on straight, finally, and claimed a massive Fed Ex Playoffs victory. He earned a $1.7 million check and took over the No.2 spot in the Fed Ex Rankings ahead of Justin Thomas with the victory.

Now, in this interesting Tour Championship format, that is in its second year, DJ, the leader in the Fed Ex Rankings, will start the tournament at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta at -10 and with a 2 shot lead over Rahm, who will be at -8. JT will be third at -7. There are others that will go all the way to the 30th place person at even par. So, some riveting stuff on the PGA Tour. Quite a thrill yesterday. There will be, as Snoop, says,”a lot of change” on the line this week with the winner getting $15 million change by winning the Fed Ex Cup.

The BMW was one for the ages. The Tour Championship should be too and the the 120th U.S. Open is 2 weeks from Thursday at the historic and highly difficult Winged Foot Golf Club in New York.

So a lot of riveting stuff in the professional golf world. Will have complete preview and predictions for the Tour Championship on Thursday.

College Football

The season is set to start on Thursday. UAB plays Central Arkansas at 7 PM CT @ Legion Field with ESPN3 broadcasting. South Alabama plays @ Southern Miss at 8 PM CT on CBS Sports Network. Should be interesting to see the Blazers compete. Central Arkansas defeated Austin Peay on Saturday, 24-17, so they must have some talent. UAB is pretty excited about their team. They have quarterback Tyler Johnston back and running back Spencer Brown and some stellar key skill players along with an abundance of offensive linemen. Bill Clark will always have a good defense, so this could be a very good year on the Southside. South Alabama should be improved. There are some pretty good games in the American Conference on Saturday with Memphis hosting Arkansas State and SMU at Texas State, not great, but SMU was a bowl team last year. Army hosts Middle Tennessee Saturday as well. There is a solid game Monday at 7 PM CT on ESPN with BYU @ the Naval Academy. The Midshipmen finished 11-2 last season and 7-1 in the American Conference, and did what they had to do, defeating Army, 31-7, after losing to them the 3 prior years. They also won the Liberty Bowl, 20-17, over Kansas State. They lost their phenomenal quarterback, Malcolm Perry, who graduated and is now serving in the Marines, that’s pretty awesome, but have some talent back, including stellar Enterprise, Alabama sophomore wide receiver Chance Warren. BYU is always competitive and tough. So should be a very good matchup Monday Night. Hopefully, we can pull this college football season off.

Auburn has 16 players with COVID, so they’ll have to recover but those guys will have 2 weeks to get ready for the opener against Kentucky at Jordan-Hare Saturday, Sept. 26th. Talented team with a potentially excellent quarterback in Bo Nix, if they can get healthy. Tank Bigsby is a promising 5 star freshman running back. D.J. Williams and Shaun Shivers are back as well in the backfield and Marc Antony Richards is another stellar young running back. Certainly, some excellent skilled players on the perimeter led by all world wide receivers Seth Williams and Anthony Schwartz. Offensive line will have to produce, but there is size and physicality. The defense will always be good under defensive coordinator Kevin Steele. So I expect the Tigers to have a good season. The schedule is tough, especially since it’s all SEC. @Georgia on Saturday, October 3rd. LSU @ Jordan-Hare on Saturday, Oct.31st, S’s birthday. Tennessee @home on Saturday, Nov.21st. Then at the Crimson Tide on Saturday, Nov. 28th. Then finishing up with Texas A&M @ home on Saturday, Dec. 5th. I have no problem with the Iron Bowl being the next to last game of the season. I just want to see football and I’ll take whatever I can get. I’m sure Walter, Bama G, Brownie, Spike and Little Omaha would say the same thing.

The No.3 Crimson Tide travels to Missouri on Saturday, Sept. 26h. The Tide is once again loaded with some key players coming back for their senior seasons. I’ve read where 5 star freshman quarterback Bryce Young is having some issues. Not sure if it’s sickness or what it is, but Mac Jones will have to be the man it sounds like. He’s certainly capable. With Najee Harris, DeVonta Smith, Jaylen Waddle and company, the weapons are around him to have a big season. Like Mac a lot. I thought he excelled for the most part when Tua got hurt last season. Believe in him. The offensive line is outstanding led by 6’5”, 313 pound left tackle Alex Leatherwood. If that’s not a football name, I don’t know what is. Defense looks solid as well with inside linebacker and senior, Dylan Moses leading the charges. The secondary will have some new faces, but they’re all highly rated players from high school. Christian Harris and Shane Lee will be a year older at linebacker, and former 5 star Ben Davis, famous former Tide linebacker Wayne Davis’s son, looks like he could finally be coming into his own. That would help. Some key games are Georgia @ Bryant-Denny on Saturday, October 17th, @ Tennessee the following week, Saturday, October 24th, @LSU, huge, Saturday, Nov.14th, and of course @home versus the Auburn Tigers, Saturday, November 28th. LSU Biletnikoff winner wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase is opting out this season to get ready for the NFL Draft. Don’t like that decision, but he did catch 84 passes for 1,780 yards and 20 touchdowns last season and won a national championship, so he accomplished a lot. I used to get upset about this, but understand it’s the landscape now and you just have to live with it. With COVID, it’s hard to begrudge any players for not playing. You definitely want them to play to get the best competitors in college football on the field, but you just have to live with the young guy’s decision. Still think LSU will have a solid squad. O has recruited exceptionally well for the last 4 years and he has some talent returning at receiver.

The Tide and Auburn Tigers will field excellent teams. Georgia, Florida are the key teams in the East and LSU is the other major contender in the West for the right to go to Atlanta and play in the SEC Championship Game Saturday, December 19th, and then for the right to go to the College Football Playoff if we can get that far. Tennessee is a darkhorse in the East and Texas A&M is a darkhorse in the West.

In the AP Preseason Rankings, Clemson is No.1, Ohio State is No.2, they aren’t playing though, the Crimson Tide is No.3, Georgia is No.4, Oklahoma is No.5 and LSU is No.6. Florida is No.8 and Auburn is No.11. A&M is No.13 and Tennessee is No.25.

Should be an amazing season if we can have it.

Predictions for the 140th US Open Tennis Tourney

Played at Flushing Meadows in New York City.

ESPN will televise. Coverage has just started with 11 AM-5 PM CT coverage today on ESPN and ESPN2 will cover tonight from 5-11 CT. The Men’s Final is Sunday, September 13th at 3 PM CT on ESPN and the Women’s Final is Saturday, September 12th at 3 PM CT on ESPN.

Women’s

I’m going to take the 31 year old Russian, who has 2 majors to her credit and just won the Western and Southern Open played at Flushing Meadows due to travel concerns, it’s usually in Cincinnati. Trying to keep the players in a bubble for the next 2 weeks. She did win as Japanese player Naomi Osaka withdrew due to a hamstring issue. Osaka will play in the Open though. This Russian won the 2012 and 2013 Australian Open and made the finals of the U.S. Open in 2012 and 2013. And I like the hot player. Give me the Bolshevilk young lady.

Victoria Azarenka over Naomi Osaka 7-5, 4-6, 6-4

Men’s

I want to make this a little more interesting than just going by the prohibitive chalk favorite.I’m going to take the the 31 year old Croatian in a major upset. He won the US in 2014 and always plays well in Flushing Meadows. He’ll be taking on the undeniable favorite, the 33 year old Serb Novak Djokovic, who is seeking his 18th Slam, which would be 2 majors back of Roger Federer and would tie him with the great Rafa Nadal, who also has 18 and is 2 Slams back of Federer’s 20. Fed is out for the US and French Opens and the start of the 2021 season which could include the Australian Open, as he is recovering from arthroscopic knee surgery. Fed is 39 and not getting any younger, but still want to see if he can get 1 or 2 more. Never want him or Rafa to retire. Rafa is 34 and has more time. Rafa is not playing in the US due to COVID concerns but playing at Roland Garros in the 124th French Open to try and win his 13th French and 19th Slam. The French Open starts Sunday, September 21st. The US ends September 13th, so it’ll be interesting to see if any of the US Open players play in the French this year.

I’m going to go with the upset. Gotta make this somewhat fun.

Marin Cilic over Joke 4-6, 6-4, 5-7, 6-

3, 7-6 (8-6 in tiebreaker).