Johnson no longer intimidating as a closer
SHANGHAI — No one ever can tell what’s going through Dustin Johnson’s head by looking at him. His expression was the same at the HSBC Champions when he was building a six-shot lead on Saturday and when he was losing it on Sunday.
Leave the emotions of the surreal moment to Henrik Stenson.
Suddenly one shot behind, Stenson drilled his 4-wood just short of the green at the par-4 16th and as he stood by his golf bag, he turned to the right and widened his eyes as far as they would go. It was a look that suggested, “What’s going on here?”
Johnson sure didn’t have many answers.
He left the 18th green with the same stoic expression that he had on the first tee when he began the final round with a six-shot lead. Instead of going to the trophy presentation on the third-floor balcony of the HSBC suite above the 18th green at Sheshan International, Johnson went into the scoring room to sign for a 77.
Even more surprising is that Johnson is No. 1 in the world with four victories this year. He is such an imposing figure that a trio of major champions behind him — Stenson, Justin Rose and Brooks Koepka — figured they were playing for second.
“Try and win the other golf tournament,” said Rose, who shot 67 and won the real thing.
As great as Johnson is — he is No. 1 in the world for a reason — this is happening far too often.
Even so, for someone who has piled up 16 victories, one major and five World Golf Championships in 10 years on the PGA Tour, Johnson has not established himself as a great closer. Not even close. Johnson spoke just long enough Sunday to acknowledge some of the mistakes that led to his downfall, mainly chunking a short iron for his second shot on the par-5 14th that caused him to scramble for par, and chunking another one on the 15th that led to a plugged lie in a bunker and a bogey.
“That cost me two shots there,” he said.
And then he made bogey on the 16th — he made eagle there when he won the HSBC Champions in 2013 — by hitting his tee shot to the left into a buried lie in Bermuda rough and leaving himself such a bad angle that he could only ask for perfection on the next shot. He missed by a yard.
“So I gave a few away,” he said. “But tough conditions. I mean, it is what it is.”
Johnson is not the first No. 1 player to lose a six-shot lead. Greg Norman had what remains the most famous collapse because of the stage, Augusta National in 1996, when he shot 78 and finished five shots behind Nick Faldo.
If there is cause for concern with Johnson, it’s his putter. He switched models when he won the BMW Championship last year and used that putter through three straight victories in the spring that took him to No. 1. He switched back to the putter that he used in 12 previous victories, including the U.S. Open. He brought a different putter with a mallet head to China, and that lasted one round.
Will this collapse scar Johnson? Probably not. Johnson has a short memory, one of his many strengths.
Just don’t expect anyone chasing him on Sunday to think they’re playing for second, no matter how large the lead.