Johnson overturned a three-shot final-round deficit to post a second successive 66 and claim a one-shot victory over Scott Piercy at Firestone, as the man now topping the world rankings, Jason Day, faltered late in his round.
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Dustin Johnson won his second tournament this year at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational on Sunday.
Scott Piercy, runner-up at the U.S. Open, ultimately finished second after birdieing the final hole to get to five under.
It was also his third win in a World Golf Championships events.
If winning the U.S. Open champion wasn’t enough, Johnson added his third World Golf Championship on Sunday, the first time he has won back to back.
Needing to finish birdie-birdie to force a playoff Day’s effort from the fringe on the 17th came up short and then a wild drive on 18 ended any hopes of a miracle hole out.
And there was one other connection to Woods – they now are the only two players to win three of the four World Golf Championships. “But [Tatum] is most important, and whether I shoot a good score or a bad score, when I see him, it doesn’t matter”.
“I feel like every part of my game is good; I’ve been driving it really well, feel like I’m wedging it good and I feel like I’m finally starting to roll some putts in”.
While he is disappointed not to have recorded his fourth win of the year, Day is looking at the positives ahead of The Open next week.
Johnson entered the day 3 strokes off Jason Day and Scott Piercy’s 54-hole lead, which seems to be his preferred method of attack.
On the tee at 16, Day smacked a tee shot into the trees left of the fairway, then blasted out from under a limb across the fairway and into trees on the right side. It rolled into the side of the water, leading to double bogey.
“I thought I was in trouble”, Chalmers said. “But I mean, it still comes down to you’ve got to hit the shots so you can have those putts”. Sometimes you take those risks and it doesn’t pay off.
Day rushed over to Johnson before signing his card to congratulate him. Another three birdies on the back nine had saw him claim the lead, until a closing bogey looked to have dented his chances.
Johnson took a week off after his U.S. Open triumph at Oakmont and he started slowly at Firestone – a couple over through 36-holes.
“But 18 was pretty sweet”, Piercy said.
The 42-year-old Australian scored a six-point victory in his 386th Tour start when he closed with an eagle in the modified Stableford tournament.
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While he’s been working extremely hard on his wedge play and putter this year, he won’t change his mindset heading into the British Open in two weeks or the PGA Championship two weeks after that. Johnson completed the tournament in 6-under 274 at Firestone Country Club. Bubba Watson is the only player of those eligible who has said for certain he will go to Rio. He came through for his 11th PGA Tour title and moved to second place on the Official World Golf Ranking.
