BIG PAYDAY
Johnson wins PGA Tour Championship
World No 1 Dustin Johnson capped a two-under-par 68 with a birdie at the last to seal a three-stroke victory in the US PGA Tour Championship and earn the $15m (R252m) FedExCup play-off title on Monday.
Johnson finished with a 21under-par total at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta — three shots clear of Americans Xander Schauffele and Justin Thomas.
“I hit the fairways when I needed to,” said Johnson, who started the day with a five-shot lead.
But bogeys at the seventh and eighth — where he was in a fairway bunker — opened the door just a crack for Thomas and Schauffele.
Neither could do enough, never getting the deficit below two strokes as Johnson parred nine holes straight.
Johnson said: “Obviously it’ sa very tough trophy to win. This time I did control my own destiny.
“But I still had to go out and play well today. I had a lot of great players right behind me.”
He was in the fairway at the par-five 18th, but his approach hit the bank in front of the green and bounced back into the greenside bunker. He blasted out to five feet and made the putt for a closing birdie.
The 36-year-old claimed his 23rd US PGA Tour title and his third since the tour resumed in
June after the shutdown.
He is the first overall points leader since 2009 to win the season-ending showdown for the play-off prize.
Johnson had a head start coming into Eastlake. Thanks to his season points edge, he began the tournament already on 10under. Spain’s second-ranked Jon Rahm was next on 8-under with third Thomas on 7-under and others up to 10 shots adrift in the staggered start system for the 30 competitors.
Rahm, who edged Johnson in a play-off at the BMW Championship a week earlier, finished alone in third on 17under after closing with his second straight 66.
Schauffele actually had the week’s lowest 72-hole total of 15-under 265, (Johnson finished on 11-under) but under the staggered start format he started the week seven adrift of Johnson.
Before his dramatic near miss at the BMW Championship, Johnson won the Northern Trust by 11 strokes to seize the world No 1 ranking.
In June, he won the Travelers Championship — his first title since February 2019.
“I’m definitely playing the best I’ve ever played,” the 2016 US Open champion said.
The Tour Championship marked the official end of the US tour’s pandemic-disrupted 2019/2020 season.
The 2020/2021 season starts this week with the Safeway Open and, while Johnson won’t be there, he and the world’s other top golfers will be teeing off at the rescheduled US Open at Winged Foot from September 17-20. —