The Oklahoman

No. 1 Johnson trying not to look too far ahead

- By Doug Ferguson

ATLANTA — Dustin Johnson is the No. 1 seed and starts with a twoshot lead at the Tour Championsh­ip, not nearly enough to tempt him into looking too far ahead at a FedEx Cup title that already has slipped away from him once before.

“It's not like I've got a two-shot lead going into the final round,” Johnson said, who speaks from experience of once losing a six-shot lead in the final round of a World Golf Championsh­ip.

“I'm still going to have to play some really good golf for four days if I want to be a FedEx Cup champion.”

And then there are players like Billy Horschel and Mackenzie Hughes, who will be 10 shots behind Johnson before they even hit their opening drives at East Lake. They have to

play their absolute best golf and get some help.

“I know I'm going to have to do something special,” Horschel said.

The strangest season in golf — no tournament­s for three months because of the COVID-19 pandemic, only one major championsh­ip in the last 14 months — ends on Labor Day with the second year of a format that gives players a head start depending on how they played up to this point.

Johnson, also the No. 1 player in the world, starts at 10-under par and is two shots ahead of Jon Rahm, who beat him last week at Olympia Fields with a 65-foot birdie putt.

Rory McIlroy won last year from the No. 5 seed, meaning he started five behind. He posted an actual score of 13-under 267 and still needed the top two seeds — Justin

Thomas and Patrick Cantlay — to falter. McIlroy was 10 shots better than Thomas, 22 shots better than Cantlay. That did the trick.

Is it possible for someone to start 10 shots behind and still win the $15 million bonus?

“It's going to happen one year,” Marc Leishman said. “I just don't know if it'll be this year, next year or the year after. If the top three guys get off to a slow start ... 5 (under) could potentiall­y be leading after one round.”

It all starts to unfold Friday, and there is plenty on the line for everyone, mostly money. The $15 million payout — $14 million in cash, $1 million deferred — is only part of the $45.6 million in bonus money being paid out this week.

 ?? [AP PHOTO/CHARLES REX ARBOGAST] ?? Dustin Johnson is ranked No. 1 going into the Tour Championsh­ip at East Lake in Atlanta.
[AP PHOTO/CHARLES REX ARBOGAST] Dustin Johnson is ranked No. 1 going into the Tour Championsh­ip at East Lake in Atlanta.

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