Johnson seals tough victory over Spieth
Print Edition
For a guy who can make golf look easy, Dustin Johnson can’t remember a victory more difficult.
He was five shots behind Jordan Spieth through five holes of the final round at The Northern Trust. He caught up to him in five holes, setting up a classic duel between two of the biggest names in golf that came down to the very end at Glen Oaks Club in Old Westbury, New York.
And then it became hard again for Johnson.
He turned away in disgust when his tee shot on the 18th hole peeled away to the right, up a slope and into thick grass. Johnson couldn’t figure out how to get it out of a nasty lie to an elevated green guarded by two deep bunkers, so he surprised even Spieth by laying up and trusting his wedge game. Only when he climbed the hill and saw his ball 18 feet from the hole did he wonder if this wouldn’t be his day.
“I knew I was going to have to make it when I walked up there,” Johnson said. “I thought I hit a better shot than that. I thought my par putt was going to be much closer. It ended up being the right distance, I guess. I mean, it went in.”
That was the moment when Johnson did to Spieth what Spieth seems to do to everybody. He made a big putt.
The ball swirled into the back of the cup, and the Americans were headed for a sudden-death playoff, a bonus hole for the fans who were treated to a great show in the FedEx Cup playoff opener that starts the chase for the US$10-million prize.
Spieth hit a 7-iron that looked great until it rolled out to the back collar, 25 feet away. Johnson hit a 60-degree wedge for the second time on the 18th hole, with one big difference. Moments earlier, it was his third shot in a desperate attempt to make par. This time, it was his second shot after the longest drive on the 18th all week. He stuffed that to just inside 4 feet, and when Spieth missed, Johnson calmly rapped in his short birdie putt.
He smiled. He lightly pumped his fist, as he does for just about every win. And then he breathed a heavy sigh of relief.
In his 16 victories on the PGA Tour, only one other time had he made a birdie on the final hole to win by one shot. That was at Pebble Beach in 2010 when a simple birdie from the bunker on the par-5 18th gave him a one-shot victory over David Duval and JB Holmes.
Sweeter still was the timing of the victory, his fourth of the year but the first since he injured his back from slipping down the stairs and having to withdraw from the Masters the following day.
Spieth carded 69 to Johnson’s 66 and they finished four shots clear of Jon Rahm (68) and Jhonattan Vegas (65).
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