The big move came from world No.2 Dustin Johnson, whose 3-shot victory over England’s Paul Casey put him atop the points standings – and maybe ahead now of Day in the race to become the US PGA Tour’s player of the year.
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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.
With his third win of the season under his belt, Johnson will now head into the Tour Championship at East Lake atop the FedEx Cup standings.
World number one Jason Day withdrew from the final round of the BMW Championship on Sunday due to a back injury.
Regardless of result, both Day and Scott are through to the 30-man Tour Championship where someone will earn the season’s FedEx Cup and US$10 million bonus.
Dustin Johnson poses with the BMW Championship trophies.
“I had the same one that Jason was using, it was the red one”, said Johnson. “I’m going to go out there and play good golf and see what happens”.
Schwartzel shot the day’s best round of 64 to knock out Fowler, who shot a 72 to finish 59th.
There were three holes left for Johnson to try and snag his third win of the season in addition to his U.S. Open and Bridgestone Invitational titles.
“I hit a couple squirrelly shots there”, Johnson said.
Four players played their way into the Tour Championship from outside the top 30 heading into this tournament.
Johnson will be one of captain Davis Love III’s players in three weeks when the USA meets Europe in the Ryder Cup at Hazeltine National Golf Club in Minnesota.
Eagles on Championship Sunday are always fun.
After a second successive runner-up finish, Casey said he “ran into a buzz saw” against Johnson, who made six birdies and an eagle in his final round. Johnson finished 11 strokes clear of fourth place. American J.B. Holmes parred the last hole to lock up the last spots for himself and South African Charl Schwartzel with U.S. star Rickie Fowler missing out.
Casey is three shots back and the consistent Englishman is likely to lead the chase, but DJ – who has not carded worse than 70 in seven rounds at Crooked Stick – should once again take advantage of the four par-fives and it will take something special to catch him.
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The defending champion was three-under for the tournament and two-over for the day at the 7,516-yard Crooked Stick layout in suburban Indianapolis.
