Tour Championship: Dustin Johnson Claims Three-Shot Win to Win FedExCup | Golf news

Dustin Johnson is the 2020 FedExCup Champion

Dustin Johnson finally got his hands on the FedExCup after surviving a nervous final round to close out a three-shot victory in the Tour Championship.

The final day of the severely disrupted PGA Tour season wasn’t Johnson’s procession that many had predicted, his five-shot lead overnight narrowed to two shots on the East Lake stretch in Atlanta.

Xander Schauffele gave Johnson some scares on the final day

But the world number one stood his ground when it mattered most and made a few crucial putts to save par in the last nine, including one from outside 20 feet at 13, which seemed to galvanize the American, who has endured a series of almost failures. when you compete for one of the richest prizes in sport.

Johnson entered the final round with the lead for the fourth tournament in a row, and there was no sign of nervousness early on as he rattled off a 20-foot birdie in the third and took more shots in five and six to keep his rivals closer, Justin Thomas. and Xander Schauffele, a comfortable distance behind him.

However, Johnson faltered in seventh after a blocked drive left him unable to hit the green with his second, missed a six-foot putt for par in the next, and needed a good shot from a similar range in ninth to avoid a hit. third consecutive ghost.

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His playing partner Schauffele increased the pressure with birdies on the 11th and 12th which lifted him to 18 under and just two behind Johnson, and both encountered problems off the tee on the next and had to work to avoid bogeys as neither of the two could hit. green in regulation.

Schauffele dropped his first shot of the day, and Johnson looked ready to do the same when his fluffy chip simply slid across the surface of the putt, but his bold par putt hit the back of the hole and he fell to restore his three-shot lead.

The two traded pairs on dangerous holes 14 and 15, while Thomas, who had five birdies in the outer half but also two bogeys, re-entered the fray with a birdie at 16, only for the 2017 FedExCup champion he got his drive to the right of the fairway on the penultimate hole when he dropped to 17 under.

Justin Thomas twice came close to the lead twice only to bogey both times

Schauffele revived his hopes when he birdieed 20 feet at 16 when Johnson recovered from driving into a fairway bunker to make a safe pair, and his task was made a little easier when Schauffele found sand off the tee at on the 17th and was unable to reach the green from the trap.

He did well to pitch and kick to save par when Johnson settled for a conventional four, and the extra bounce off Johnson’s pass was evident on the final fairway after he threw a 337-yard drive straight down the middle when many in their position would have. He played the 580-yard par five as a three-shot hole.

Schauffele had to flip up after pulling his drive into a terrible lie in the rough, and the game ended when Johnson had the luxury of coming up short with his second and finding the forward bunker, before Schauffele threw 13 feet to give. himself a great opportunity to snatch the second.

Johnson stopped every hole in the last nine

He couldn’t take it, settling for a 66 and a part of the second with Thomas, who earlier had closed his adventurous 66 with his seventh birdie of the round, and the stage was clear for Johnson to close out the season in style. , splashing from five feet and turning the birdie putt into a 68 and a winning score of 21 under, having started the week with a 10 under.

Jon Rahm was never close enough to challenge on the final day, and a double bogey in the fourth did not help his cause, although he birdied the next before eagle in the sixth.

Rahm started behind with a bogey that effectively ended his chances, and three birdies added to 66 and a quarter on 17 under, three strokes ahead of current PGA Tour Rookie of the Year Scottie Scheffler.