Winning golf tournaments is really difficult

WINNING golf tournaments is not easy. Just ask Andrew “Beef” Johnston and Jordan Smith.

After 36 holes, England’s Smith led the Charles Schwab Challenge on the PGA Tour. Victory would have sewn up his PGA Tour card for two full years.

Smith was one of 10 golfers who gained his card for 2026 as a result of his fine play on the DP World Tour last season.  He failed to record a victory but had seven top-10 finishes, including second places at the BMW International Open and Volvo China Open.

He won the European Open in 2017 and the Portugal Masters in 2022 with an astonishing total of 254, 30 under par.

At 33 years of age he is in his prime and is regarded as one of the best ball strikers on the planet.

It is fair to say that all hasn’t exactly gone to plan in America. In 15 starts he has missed five cuts but a third-place finish at the Valspar saw him in 66th place in the FedEx Cup standings going into the Charles Schwab. One more decent finish might be good enough to secure his card for 2027.

(Image Credit: Kevin Diss Photography)

So there was genuine excitement when he led after 36 holes at the Charles Schwab. But while everybody else was making hay in the third round, Smith stumbled to a 74, falling 18 places from first to tied 19th, his chance of victory gone.

And then there is “Beef” Johnston. On the face of it he is a larger-than-life character with a big personality but he has suffered well-documented problems with his mental health and has endured a miserable run of injuries.

He enjoyed success as an amateur, winning the Boys International in 2007 and representing the Great Britain and Ireland team in the Jacques Leglise Trophy against Team Europe.

Johnston turned professional in 2009 and began life as a pro on the Jamega Tour. His first pro victory arrived on the Jamega Tour in 2009 at an event called The Warwickshire. His second win was at The Vale Of Glamorgan in 2011.

His breakthrough season arrived in 2011 when he played in his first DP World Tour event and qualified for The Open at Royal St George’s. He struggled to hold down DP World Tour membership until 2014, flitting between the European Tour and the Challenge Tour during those years.

In 2014, Johnston won the Challenge Tour Order Of Merit via two triumphs in the season.

In 2016, Johnston secured his first DP World Tour victory at the Open de Espana. It remains his solitary triumph. His best finish at a major arrived in 2016 when he ended T8th at The Open Championship. This result had a major effect on his popularity among fans all over the world and saw him break into the world's top-100 for the first time.

He earned his PGA Tour card for the 2017-18 season after finishing fourth at the Albertsons Boise Open in the Web.com Tour Finals. He was an immediate hit with American golf fans, thousands of whom wanted to be photographed with him and spend time with him. He lost both his form and his PGA Tour card.

(Image Credit: Kevin Diss Photography)

Towards the end of 2021 he suffered a thumb injury that kept him out of the game for over a year. After returning in 2023, he underwent more surgery just a week after coming back.

He is now playing on a medical exemption and depends upon sponsors' invitations but remains one of the most popular players on the DP World Tour.

And when he shot a second-round 62 to climb to the top of the leaderboard at the Austrian Open there wasn’t a golf fan anywhere who wasn’t rooting for him to keep going. A third round 70 kept him on the fringes of contention but he was unable to finish the job off. However, there were plenty of encouraging signs and, hopefully, he will be able to take some positives from this performance and will be able to keep his playing privileges.

Smith and Johnston are very different characters at very different stages of their careers. One is trying to establish himself on the PGA Tour, the other is attempting to rebuild a career interrupted by injury and illness. But their recent experiences serve as another reminder that in professional golf, putting yourself in contention is one thing. Finishing the job is something else entirely.