Johnson polishes off dominant BMW win
CARMEL, Ind. — Dustin Johnson knows as well as anyone that no matter how good he is and how well he plays, something can always go wrong in golf.
Just not this week at the BMW Championship. Not this year, really.
An awesome talent, Johnson is starting to pile up the victories to prove it. He ran off four birdies in a five-hole stretch to regain control Sunday, left Paul Casey feeling helpless by matching his eagle putt late in the round and sailed home to a 5-under-par 67 for a three-shot victory at Crooked Stick.
“Ran into a buzz saw,” Casey said after a 67 to finish runner-up in a FedEx Cup playoff event for the second straight week. “That was something special the last two days, and I did everything I could. So I’m holding my head up very high.”
Roberto Castro holed out for eagle from the seventh fairway on his way to a 67 to finish alone in third, sending the Georgia Tech grad and Atlanta resident home to play in the Tour Championship for the second time.
Johnson is at another level right now. Known for so many years as the guy who couldn’t catch a break in the biggest events, he won for the third time in eight starts dating to his first major at the U.S. Open. And this might have been his most complete performance. Powerful off the tee, relentless with the putter, dialed in with his wedges, there was no stopping him.
“I’ve got a lot of confidence in every part of my game,” Johnson said.
He just doesn’t have much to say about it, mainly because he doesn’t need to.
Casey’s last hope came on the par-5 15th when he rolled in a 25-foot eagle putt to get within one shot. That lasted as long as it took Johnson to line up his 18-foot eagle putt and pour it in to restore his three-shot margin.
He finished at 23-under 265 and went over $9 million in earnings for the year, along with taking the No. 1 seed in the FedEx Cup to the finale in two weeks at East Lake for the Tour Championship.
The consolation for Casey, along with $1,836,000 for his two runner-up finishes, was the No. 5 seed at the Tour Championship in two weeks. That means he only has to win at East Lake to capture the $10 million bonus.
Rickie Fowler won’t have any chance at all. Fowler, who started the week at No. 22 in the FedEx Cup, closed with a 71 and finished 59th at Crooked Stick. He was bumped out of the top 10 by the smallest margin in the 10-year history of the FedEx Cup — 0.57 points behind Charl Schwartzel, who closed with a 64.
The timing is particularly bad for Fowler because Davis Love III makes three of his captain’s picks for the Ryder Cup today, with another one right after the Tour Championship. Fowler won’t have another chance to audition, though he might get picked anyway.
Baylor School alum Harris English closed with a 71 to finish at 286 and tie for 47th.
Web.com victory has bonus
BEACHWOOD, Ohio — Bryson DeChambeau won the Web.com Tour Finals-opening DAP Championship to wrap up a PGA Tour card for next season.
The 22-year-old former SMU player beat Andres Gonzales with a 5-foot par putt on the second hole of a playoff at Canterbury Golf Club. DeChambeau and Gonzales each birdied the 18th on the first extra trip down the par-4 hole, eliminating Nicholas Lindheim and Argentina’s Julian Etulain.
DeChambeau shot a 1-over 71 to match Gonzales (68), Lindheim (66) and Etulain (67) at 7-under 273.
Former Baylor School and University of Tennessee at Chattanooga golfer Stephan Jaeger closed with a 72 and finished tied for 39th at 282. Also sharing that spot was former Athens, Tenn., resident Eric Axley, who shot a 71 Sunday.