Record-breaking DJ turns on style in Masters cruise

Dustin Johnson felt he was still dreaming after being presented with his Green Jacket for winning the Masters by defending champion Tiger Woods.

Johnson recovered from a somewhat shaky start to card a final round of 68 at Augusta National and win his second major title by five shots from Cameron Smith and Sungjae Im.

The world number one’s winning total of 20 under par set a new tournament record , beating the previous best of 18 under set by Woods in 1997 and equalled by Jordan Spieth in 2015.

“Honestly it still feels like a dream,” said Johnson, who grew up in South Carolina, around an hour away from Augusta National in Georgia.

“As a kid, dreaming about winning the Masters, having Tiger put the green jacket on you, it still seems like it’s a dream but I’m here and what a great feeling it is and I couldn’t be more excited.”

Johnson took a four-shot lead into the final round but saw that reduced to a single stroke after playing the first five holes in one over par while Smith and Im picked up two early birdies.

However, he responded well to birdie the sixth and eighth and a hat-trick of birdies from the 13th sealed a commanding victory to go with his 2016 US Open success.

“I bogeyed four and five but I didn’t let it bother me too much and hit a great shot into six and made a birdie,” Johnson added. “That settled me down a little and then after that I really drove the ball well from there to the house.

“It’s always tough to get it done in a major. No matter how good you’re playing it’s hard. I was nervous all day.

“The Masters to me is the biggest tournament. It’s the one I wanted to win the most. I’m just very proud of the way I handled myself and the way I finished off the golf tournament.”

Johnson shared the triumph with his brother and caddie Austin, adding: “It’s an unbelievable feeling to experience all this with my brother.

“I love him being on my bag and I wouldn’t want anyone else there. To share all these memories and moments with him is incredible.

“I had to jab him a little on 18 because he was tearing up, made me tear up. I’ve still got to finish this off, I can’t be crying. It was a lot of fun, I will remember this for the rest of my life.”

Asked about holding the scoring record in the Masters, Johnson added: “It’s incredible. I played unbelievable golf all week.

“The condition of the course definitely helped the scoring a little bit, but it still played really well today. I thought it played really difficult, the wind was very tricky, so to have the scoring record is a great honour and I’m so excited that it’s hard to even talk.”

Rory McIlroy was left to rue nine poor holes in his opening round as his bid to complete the career Grand Slam with a Masters victory was put on hold for at least five more months.

T he four- time major winner finished in a tie for fifth place, a distant nine shots behind Johnson, despite a final-round 69.

Unfortunate ly the damage was done in the first round when, resuming on Friday after a delayed start to the opening day, he carded four bogeys and just one birdie in his remaining nine holes to shoot 75,his worst first round in 12 starts at Augusta.

Since 2015 the Northern Irishman is a combined 28 over par in the first round of majors and 61 under in rounds two, three and four and he was all too aware of the problem this week.

“I look back on this week and obviously rue what happened maybe not on Thursday because I felt I played OK but that Friday morning coming back and finishing that first round,” he told Sky Sports.

“But after that I played well, I hung in there, just had to shoot a good score to be here for the weekend and played a really solid weekend.

“I wasn’t really thinking about trying to win the tournament (on Sunday). When I got to 11 under after the eighth hole I saw DJ had gone to 15 under and I thought maybe there might be a chance but then the wind got up and it was just hard to make birdies on that back nine.

“I am pleased with my performance, especially over the last three rounds.”

Dustin Johnson is all smiles after receiving his Green Jacket from outgoing champion Tiger Woods.