2020’s unusual (but compelling) Masters included tears of joy from Dustin Johnson

Two words — “different” and “compelling” — define the 84th Masters that completed its venture into November on Sunday at Augusta National Golf Club without the usual drama and with tears from an unexpected source.

The history books will show that Columbia native Dustin Johnson won with a record score, 20-under-par 268, by five strokes. That’s both different from the usual Masters drama and an example of a compelling performance.

Look around and see what else:

▪ Different: The date, obviously, shift from April to November due to the coronavirus outbreak.

▪ Compellng: DJ’s all-around game. Really, only four bogeys over 72 holes? No wonder he’s the No. 1 player in the world with his combination of power and precision.

▪ Different: The challenge of playing in autumn on the overseeded grasses still in the developmental stage competing with summer’s bermuda.

▪ Compelling: The tournament’s popularity, which required a meeting of the minds to satisfy TV audiences and contracts. Those football heavyweights, the NFL and the SEC, adjusted schedules and Augusta National changed tee times to create an early finish in order to give golf the stage on CBS.

▪ Different: No fans meant no roars of appreciation for good shots or groans of disappointment for misses — integral parts of the Augusta experience.

▪ Compelling: The performance by Cameron Smith, who became the first player to post four rounds in the 60s in the same Masters.

▪ Different: Heavy rain early in the week soaked the golf course and, despite the SubAir system, the greens never regained their full firmness. Players could fire at pins with assurance the shots would hold the putting surfaces.

▪ Different and compelling: The scene without the springtime beauty of azaleas, dogwoods and other plants framing the golf course created questions of what the background would look like, but the oranges and yellows of fall foliage worked just fine.

▪ Different and Compelling: Seeing another side — emotional tears of joy — from the usual stoic, laid-back and unflappable Dustin Johnson.

Anything more?

▪ His triumph quieted the critics who always had questions about Johnson’s lack of major championship and indirectly passed those inquiries to much younger rivals Jon Rahm, still looking for his first major, and Justin Thomas, who has one.

▪ In his record-setting performance en route to his second major title, Johnson became the first native South Carolinian to win the Masters. Previously, Palmetto State ties to the Green Jacket had been limited to Henry Picard, the 1938 Masters winner who served as head professional at the Country Club of Charleston for many years and retired in the Charleston area. He died in 1997.

▪ South Carolina’s junior golf program, which one publication has ranked the nation’s best, received another boost. Players who got their start in the program now have won a Masters, two U.S. Opens (Johnson and Lucas Glover) and two FedEx Cups (Johnson and Bill Haas) as well as 50 PGA or LPGA Tour tournaments.

What’s next?

Looking ahead, will the status of the pandemic allow the Masters to return to its usual April dates in 2021? And, if so, will restrictions on spectators be lifted?

Here’s hoping that the PGA Tour’s allowing a limited number of fans to his Houston event the week before the Masters is the first step back toward normalcy and roars return to Augusta National in the spring.

Meanwhile, we have a both different and compelling November Masters to embrace and a Dustin Johnson performance to admire.