In the interest of full disclosure, I’m a Jordan Spieth fan. I only needed to hear one interview of him after the Masters to start rooting for him because he has the three things I like most in professional athletes (and people): emotional maturity, graciousness, and humility. I’m not saying I have those attributes! But I really respect them in others.

And his humility seems to be real. An interviewer recently asked him to talk about how he became so humble.  He said, if I talk about being humble, that’s not so humble. Now that’s humble!

But even though I was rooting for Jordan to win, I just couldn’t root for Dustin Johnson to lose.  I try not to root against anyone – it’s just too negative.  And I believe part of sportsmanship means not wishing bad things on others (my two exceptions are Bubba Watson and Patrick Reed – they’re just so arrogant and brash I can’t help myself!)

So while I loved watching Jordan win yesterday, watching Dustin Johnson lose was downright painful.  I tried to be ambivalent on his first putt which was for the win.  But when he left the 4-foot come-backer for the tie, I found myself rooting for him.  I just didn’t want him to miss it and lose in such a painful way.  And 3-putting from 12’ 6”, on the final hole of the US Open, with possibly winning, then possibly tying, then ultimately losing, is about as tough as sports get.  For him, of course, but for us, too.