It’s fitting in a week when a fresh PGA Tour video game was released that Dustin Johnson played The Northern Trust as he held a controller instead of a golf club at TPC Boston. Every number is more ridiculous than it looks when you look at Johnson’s victory, but the only thing that really matters is that he shot a 30-under 254 over the first four rounds of this season’s playoffs and Harris English with 11 (!) Stumbles.
Johnson’s score was just one of the all-time high PGA Tour record of 253 set by Justin Thomas at the 2017 Sony Open, and his margin of victory was the largest in a PGA Tour event since 2006.
These are not typos. DJ beat the runner up at this event 11 stumbled. He beat the finisher of third place by 12. He beat those in eighth place by 15. He beat poor Patrick Rodgers, who made it to the weekend but finished last, with 37 penalties. And everything can be believed just how dominant he was all week.
Johnson jumped up early Thursday when he came out in 30 before closing with a 37 on his back nine after what I think you could call a disappointing 67. Then he shot the lowest low 60 in the history of professional golf when he par on the last seven holes and failed to break in the 50s. The weekend was more the same. A 64 who sealed the deal on Saturday in principle. Dan he went on 30 on the first nine on Sunday just for good measure before closing it out with a 33 over the last 18 holes.
Here’s a list of things DJ has completed this week at TPC Boston.
- Lead the field in strokes won on approach shots and from tee to green
- Made only three bogeys all week
- Earn 23.5 strokes, most by everyone since the 2016 Open
- Become the first player since 2006 to win by 11 or more
- Jordan Spieth tied for the second-best score-on-par number of 30 under since 1950
- Shot 18 down on the front nine on the course (but one other player was better general for the week)
- Becomes the second golfer to win five FedEx Cup Playoffs (Rory McIlroy)
- Become the 30th golfer to win 22 or more times on the PGA Tour
There are numerous takeaways from Johnson’s dominant tones, but here are the two most prominent.
First, this is someone who shot 80-80-78 in consecutive rounds five weeks ago. Three straight rounds of 78 or higher! And he goes 254 in the first round of the playoffs ?! It’s a testament to DJ’s greatest weapon, that his ability – for better or worse – leaves nothing to be desired.
The second is that in mid-2020 we did not need an 11-stroke Dustin Johnson win to tell us what we already knew: He is one of the great talents to ever play this sport. Only significant gains can change his legacy at this point. However, we tend to underestimate some of his victories (and perhaps all victories outside of major championships). DJ took the 125 best golfers on the best tour in the world and decimated them all week. There is a lot of other evidence of his superpowers (namely the US Open in Oakmont), but this is certainly one great example.
Now he goes to Olympia Fields as the No. 1 player in the world (again) and the leader in the FedEx Cup standings. He will in principle attempt the only non-significant championship performance he needs to reach and win the FedEx Cup and $ 15 million here in two weeks time. If his game is half as good as at TPC Boston, that will almost certainly happen. Quality: A ++
Here are the rest of our degrees for The Northern Trust.
Daniel Berger (3rd): Look no further, Daniel Berger is one of the top five players on the PGA Tour since the resumption in early June. Here is a look at his finish since then: 1st, T3, MC, T2, T13, 3rd. There are simply no holes in his game at the moment, and if he struggles statistically in one area, he makes it up somewhere else. He is a nice dark horse seller to win the FedEx Cup with several bigger names with shorter odds ahead that he goes through in the last eight rounds of the season. Quality: A
Rickie Fowler (T49): Fowler needed a big performance this week to advance to the next FedEx Cup Playoffs event, but he did not get it. Fowler shot 7 during this week, but hit the ball badly and was only buoyed by some sharp work around the greens. Normally a staple in the final 30 at East Lake, he will sit out for the next two weeks if a disappointing season comes to an end for him. Quality: C
Rory McIlroy (T65): McIlroy may not have done much on the golf course, but he won the press on Sunday after his final round. Following a funny reaction about the difference between a trilogy and bird, he discussed why his game and its atmosphere are a bit broken at the moment.
“Yeah, this sounds really bad, but I’ve been feeling the last few weeks. I’m just been through the motions,” McIlroy said. “I want to get an intensity and some kind of fire, but I just could not. And look, that has to do partly with the atmosphere and partly with how I play. I do not inspire myself and I try to get inspiration from outside sources to go through something. ”
It’s hard to imagine how that change will be transferred to the US Open at some point next month, although if anyone can find something in Olympia Fields again next week, Rory is in the small handful of people who t can do it. Class: C-
Phil Mickelson (MC) – For the first time in FedEx Cup Playoffs history, Lefty will not be in the final 70 playing the penultimate event and trying to make it to the Tour Championship. After a bad 74 in Round 1, his second round 68 was not enough to get him to the weekend and keep his chances alive. Mickelson will follow the new week, but it will be at PGA Tour Champions event instead of at Olympia Fields at the BMW Championship. We will probably see him again in three weeks at the Safeway Open as four weeks at the US Open, in which he received a late exemption. Class: F
CBS Sports was with you the whole way in updating this story with the latest scores, updates and highlights below. View a more detailed Leaderboard.
