Johnson pulls off a stunner over Spieth
OLD WESTBURY, N.Y. — Dustin Johnson faced long odds all day against Jordan Spieth until the longest drive led to an unlikely playoff victory Sunday in The Northern Trust golf tournament.
Johnson rallied from a fiveshot deficit on the front nine.
And on the final hole in regulation, after one of the most powerful players in golf chose to lay up from the rough, his 18-foot par putt swirled around the cup and fell in the back side for a 4-under 66 to force a sudden-death playoff.
Returning to the 18th hole, Johnson felt the wind switch and took on the lake with a 341-yard tee shot — the longest of the week on that hole — that left him a lob wedge that he hit to four feet.
Spieth, who already made his share of big putts along the back nine at Glen Oaks, hit 7-iron to the back collar and missed his 25-foot birdie putt. Johnson rolled in his short birdie putt for his fourth victory of the year.
Spieth, who closed with a 69, lost for the first time in six tries when leading by at least two shots. There wasn’t much he could do except take back that tee shot into the water on the par-3 sixth hole after building a five-shot lead. Johnson played bogey-free in the final round, and played his final 29 holes at par or better.
“I didn’t lose the tournament,” Spieth said. “He won it.”
The opening FedEx Cup playoff event featured two of the biggest names in golf who put on an amazing show on Long Island.
“I thought that was a fun show,” Spieth said. “I was hoping it wasn’t going to be that much fun.”
Johnson made up a fiveshot deficit in five holes, and they battled along the back nine with big shots and big moments. They were tied on the par-3 17th when both hit into a bunker, and Johnson blasted out to four feet with an easier shot and angle to the hole. Spieth had 18 feet for par and knocked it in, like he always seems to do.
On the closing hole, Johnson showed the kind of golf I.Q. that belies his simple outlook on life. After he sliced his drive up the hill and into a nasty lie in the rough, he chose to lay up instead of trying to hammer a shot to an elevated green.
But he made it pay off with a par, that got him into the playoff after Spieth lagged a 75-foot putt perfectly to get his par.
They finished at 13-under 267.
Johnson won for the first time since he wrenched his back during a spill down the stairs that knocked him out of the Masters and derailed his dominance in golf. He had won three straight tournaments against strong fields until that injury.
“I feel like the game is finally back in form like it was before the Masters,” Johnson said.
Of his 16 victories, this was the first time Johnson faced a must-make putt on the final hole, and he delivered a par putt that even Spieth thought was going to miss on the high side of the hole.
The Northern Trust never looked as though it would contain so much drama.
Spieth began with a threeshot lead. He two-putted from long range for birdie on the par-5 third hole when Johnson, from closer range but putting from off the green, took three to get down for a par. And then the fifth hole felt like a dagger — Spieth poured in a 30-foot birdie putt, and Johnson missed his birdie from eight feet.
That gave Spieth a five-shot lead — no one else was closer than seven — and it seemed even larger because Johnson wasn’t making any putts.
Five holes later, they were tied.