I’m sure I wasn’t the only one amazed by the fantastic finish at last week’s PGA tour stop, the BMW Championship.

Watching Dustin Johnson sink a winding 40-foot birdie putt on the 72nd hole to force a playoff was unbelievable. That incredible feat, however, was quickly topped when Spain’s Jon Rahm holed his own 66-footer just minutes later to win in sudden-death.

What an exciting finish.

All of this, though, overshadowed a crazy mental blunder that eventual-winner Rahm committed during the previous day.

Playing the fifth hole on Saturday, Rahm inexplicably walked onto the green and picked up his ball without marking it. The infraction cost Rahm a one-shot penalty. After replacing his ball, Rahm two-putted and notched his only bogey of the entire weekend.

To his credit, the fiasco seemed to spur Rahm. His main thought the rest of the event was: Just don’t let me lose by one shot.

“It kind of made me mad at myself, and I just went on with my focus after that and was able to play amazing golf and stayed aggressive,” Rahm said.

I must admit, several years ago I remember doing exactly the same thing during a local Tuesday night league match at Iron Masters. Noticing I had a golf ball in my hand and no marker on the green created a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach.

After taking a one-shot penalty, I can’t remember if I won or lost the match, but I’m sure I didn’t show as much composure as Rahm did this past weekend.

By the way, Rahm was playing for a mere $1.7 million first place prize.

Local champions

The five local Greater Altoona clubs finished crowning their respective club champions last week. The winners for 2020 are as follows:

n Summit Country Club: Quintin Dziabo and Anita Jo Petrusky.

n Iron Masters: Wes Elder and Gwen Paden.

n Park Hills: Artie Fink Jr. and Crosby Denis.

n Sinking Valley: Andrew Ferguson and Cassidy Miksich.

n Scotch Valley: Anthony DeGol and Michelle Day.

Of the 10 champions, seven are familiar names that added to their already impressive resumes. As for Park Hills’ Denis and Sinking Valley’s (Andrew) Ferguson and Miksich, look for their first-time win to be the first of many more to come.

Each club champion will be eligible to compete in next weekend’s 43rd annual Greater Altoona Tournament. They’ll be joined by three additional teammates to round out the final field of 20 men and 20 women.

Very tough day

Golfers on the PGA Tour perform at such a high level that it’s sometimes hard relating to them.

That wasn’t the case, however, with Mark Leishman during last week’s BMW Championship. After an opening round 80, things didn’t get much better for the Australian golfer.

Leishman’s poor play continued, finishing the four-day tournament at 30-over par, 11 shots worse than the next closest competitor. After the final round, the veteran PGA tour player tried to keep things in perspective.

“It’s a tough game. we all know that,” Leishman said. “Take the good with the bad. This is why you celebrate your wins so hard, because you’re going to have times like this.”

With all that said, I really give Leishman a tremendous amount of credit. The vast majority of professional golfers would have withdrawn after a similar opening-round performance, but Leishman toughed it out for all four rounds.

Kudos to him for being a true professional.

Ken Love covers local golf for the Mirror. He can reached at gltr777@atlanticbb.net.