Game Of Sorrows

Every Sunday we watch someone – multiple someones depending on how active we are with the remote control – win a golf tournament. Or at least try to win.

The champions always smile (something that’s surprisingly difficult for many PGA Tour players), recount a key moment or two in their final round and usually say something about how they’re going to celebrate this one for a while, the relief on their faces almost contagious.

Winning is hard. Harder than we realize. Much harder.

Just look at last Sunday in the RBC Heritage at Harbour Town. It’s a wonderful tournament, as comfortable as a good beach chair, and for the longest time in the final round it seemed as if no one might win.

C.T. Pan, who managed to finish 35th on the FedEx Cup points list last season with almost no one outside his immediate family realizing that, managed to win the red tartan jacket but only after multiple players with better résumés kicked away chances to win.

Let’s start with the obvious: world No. 1 Dustin Johnson.

Johnson spent the first t...