Johnson, Chappell tied for Tour lead
ATLANTA — Dustin Johnson had a reasonable lie in the rough and only a few pine tree branches blocking his path to the 17th green. Neither seemed like a problem until he played the wrong shot, clipped the tree and wound up with adouble bogey Saturday in the Tour Championship.
Itwas an example of how one hole can change everything at East Lake.
And it’s why the final round of the PGA Tour season suddenly has more scenarios than Johnson cares to consider.
Johnson recovered with a birdie from the bunker on the par-5 18th for a 1-under 69, giving him a share of the lead with Kevin Chappell (68) going into the last round that will determine who wins the Tour Championship and the FedEx Cup.
For the first time since 2009, there’s a chance it might not be the same player.
“There’s a lot of scenarios that could happen,” Johnson said. “But yeah, I’m still going to go out and try to shoot as low a score as possible.”
Johnson only has to win or finish second alone to claim the $10 million bonus as the FedEx Cup champion.
Rory McIlroy, who has gone 28 holes without a bogey at East Lake, had three birdies over his last six holes for a 66 and was two shots behind. If he were to win the Tour Championship and Johnson finished in a twoway tie for second or worse, McIlroy would claim the FedEx Cup.
“It would just be great to try to win the Tour Championship, and if the chips fall myway, then so be it,” McIlroy said.
The winner of the Tour Championship has won the FedEx Cup every year since 2009, when Phil Mickelson won the tournament and Tiger Woods won the FedEx Cup.
Johnson led by as many as four shots when he ran off three straight birdies on the front nine, and he really didn’t do much wrong to give up the size of that lead. He had a three-putt from 70 feet on No. 13, and missed the fairway by a few feet on the next hole, enough that his ball was buried so deep that even Johnson and his power couldn’t advance more than about135 yards.
It was the 17th hole that reshaped the tournament.
Johnson tried to play a fade from a flyer lie in the rough, and the ball came out high and hit a branch, leaving him in more rough about 60 yards short of the green. He put that in the bunker, blasted out to 6 feet and missed the putt to make double bogey.
Chappell rolled in a 10-foot birdie putt for a three-shot-swing on the hole and suddenly had the lead, only for Johnson to catch him with the final birdie.
They were at 8-under 202.
Web.com Tour
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Martin Flores birdied five of the last seven holes for a 5-under 66 and a threestroke lead Saturday in the Web.com Tour Finals’ Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship.
Already guaranteed a PGA Tour card with a fifthplace finish on theWeb.com Tour’s regular-season money list, the 34-year-old Flores rebounded from a bogey on No. 11 with birdies on the next four holes and closed with a birdie on18. He had a 13-under 20 total on Ohio State’s Scarlet Course.
Flores won the Lincoln Land Charity Championship in July for his first Web.comTour title.
Tag Ridings, tied with Flores for the second-round lead, was second after a 69. The 42-year-old Ridings was 52nd on the Web.com money list and entered the third of four series events 36th in the race for 25 PGA Tour cards with $9,493.
European Open
BAD GRIESBACH, Germany— France’s Alexander Levy completed an 8-under 63 and the delayed second round to take a four-stroke lead in the rain-shortened European Open.
Morning fog delayed the start of play for the third straight day, forcing organizers to cut the event to 54 holes. Levy played only one hole Saturday, making a par on the ninth. He opened with a course-record 62 and had a17-under125 total.