No one knows exactly when the professional golf season begins to feel like, well, the professional golf season! This week was as good as any. Tournaments on five major tours, including a World Golf Championship, and the suggestion by Mother Nature that spring might have finally arrived in the Northeast, trumpeted the complete return of golf to our our collective psyche.

In honor of Spain’s Jon Rahm, a match-play finalist, let’s mash up some patatas bravas and savor the flavor.

WGC-Dell Match Play: Johnson-Rahm Final Scripted From The Start

???? That’s a winner ????

Dustin Johnson defeats Jon Rahm 1UP to win the @DellMatchPlay for his third consecutive victory. pic.twitter.com/at1GgFeqkA

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) March 26, 2017

The nature of match play suggests that the top players aren’t likely to reach the final match. Organizers of this year’s Dell Match Play at Austin Country Club could not believe their good fortune. Despite semifinal heroics from Hideo Tanihara and Bill Haas, the two finalists were none other than No. 1-ranked golfer in the world, Dustin Johnson, and the best young gun around, Jon Rahm.

When the final match was barely six holes old, Johnson had already raced to a 4-up lead. He was making pars and birdies, and Rahm had yet to find the game that had won six previous matches. Things had to get interesting, right? And they did.

The back nine was a see-saw affair. Five holes were exchanged by the contestants, including three wins in four holes (all with birdies) by Rahm. With two holes to play, the lead was down to one and the notion of an upset became more real by the stroke. As is the case with champions, Johnson was able to continue his run of pars, while Rahm could not summon the needed birdie to square the match. The final hole was not without its drama, as a nearby door was slammed as Rahm attempted to chip close for a squaring birdie at the last.

WITBs

• Dustin Johnson’s Winning WITB
• Jon Rahm WITB 2017

Sum total: Johnson’s third-consecutive tournament victory moved him to the top of the FedEx Cup race and cemented his position as the game’s current best. Rahm’s stellar play moved him inside the top-15 in the world rankings and marked him as the star on the rise. In the third-place match, Bill Haas overcame a Hideto Tanihara ace at the the 7th hole for a 2-and-1 victory.

PGA Tour: Puerto Rico Open is Points’ 3rd Tour Triumph

Putt = ????

Celebration = ????

D.A. Points wins the @PuertoRicoOpen for his third win on TOUR. pic.twitter.com/lFCaKlTr1i

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) March 26, 2017

D.A. Points made nine birdies on Sunday at the Puerto Rico Open; overnight leader Chris Stroud did not. With the field going low (scores in the mid to low 60s were common) Stroud was overtaken handily. Retief Goosen established an early clubhouse lead at 18-under, but suspicion was that too many players remained on course for the lead to hold up.

After opening with birdies on his first five holes, Points closed with four more birds over his closing six and marched to a third-career triumph. He won by two over Goosen, 2nd-round leader Bryson DeChambeau and Bill Lunde. Stroud could only manage a 1-under 71 on Sunday, dropping back to T8 at 16-under.

Points might be the poster child for professional golf journeyman. Despite a 2013 win at the Houston Open, the Florida resident found himself on the Web.com Tour circuit last season. A 35th-place finish on that tour’s priority list returned him to the big leagues. This victory brings a two-year exemption and bit of relief to the 40-year-old.

LPGA Tour: Kia Classic goes to a dominant Mirim Lee

ICYMI: Highlights from the 2017 @LPGAKiaClassic with winner Mirim Lee.

Watch: https://t.co/0kAImVxmAi pic.twitter.com/zOtujRQNii

— #CMEFinalStretch ???? (@LPGA) March 27, 2017

Mirim Lee of Korea won twice in 2014, her first LPGA Tour season. In Carlsbad, Calif., this week, Lee improved round after round and closed with 65 for a six-shot victory over three chasers. The win brought her from 23rd to 4th in the season-long CME Chase.

Lee birdied every other hole (all the odds) of her outward half on Sunday, setting her lead at five with nine to play. Two more birdies on the inward half established her margin of a half-dozen strokes over the triumvirate of So Yeon Ryu (66), Austin Ernst (67) and Gerina Piller (68).

Shi Hyun Ahn had 10 birdies in her first 17 holes on Sunday before a bogey at the last brought her back. She shot 9-under (63) on Sunday, the low round of the day, and tied for 31st.

Web.com Tour: Casey Claims 2nd Chitimacha Louisiana Open

Casey Wittenberg hadn't finished inside the top 40 this season.

He won by three @LouisianaOpen

Golf is a funny game. ?? pic.twitter.com/LdlulLXbYj

— Web.com Tour (@WebDotComTour) March 27, 2017

After opening with 65-64-65 for a sizable lead, Casey Wittenberg knew that he could play his game and force someone to throw a 60 at him to have any chance. Adam Long’s 63, low round of the day, moved him to solo 4th. Aaron Wise eagled the last for 64 and solo 3rd, while China’s Xinjun Zhang had 65 to get to 18-under.

And all the while, Wittenberg kept making pars (12 in succession) with enough birdies (three on the day) to preserve a three-shot margin of victory. On the 17th hole, the low amateur at the 2004 Masters stuffed his approach to 10 feet and made the birdie for some added breathing room.

The win was his third on the Web.com Tour and his second at the Chitimacha. The triumph moved the 32-year old Memphis native from 87th to 5th on the season-long chase for a PGA Tour card. Zhang made some noise of his own, rising from 68th to 11th.

PGA Tour LA: Honduras Open to Newcomb in Extra Time

Watch #HondurasOpen Final Round Highlights from @InduraResort, where Patrick Newcomb @ThreeWiggle99 won a playoff for the title #pgatourla pic.twitter.com/ACbTXmRk1Z

— PGATOURLA (@PGATOUR_LA) March 27, 2017

After posting nine birdies and a closing eagle on Saturday, Patrick Newcomb could be forgiven for feeling in complete control of his game. On Sunday, the 2013 Murray State grad turned in an acceptable round of 3-under 69 to finish at 17-under par. Good enough for the win? Not quite. Hank Lebioda of Florida State’s class of 2016 ripped a page from the Newcomb manual and posted 10 birds of his own in a Sunday 63. With that, the two young professionals went off to extra holes after finishing two clear of Matthew Schall in 3rd place.

Both golfers birdied the par-five 18th in the first playoff go-round, so back to the closing tee they went. If someone had told Lebioda that he would birdie the hole three consecutive times and lose, would he have believed the news? And yet, that’s what happened. Newcomb went from par in regulation, then birdie, then eagle (he hit a hybrid to 12 feet) to claim his first PGA Tour Latinoamérica title.