Dustin Johnson held off Paul Casey to win the BMW Championship and enter the Tour Championship ahead in FedEx Cup points.
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Johnson shot a final round of 5-under 67 at Crooked Stick in Carmel, Ind., to finish at 23-under 265.
He carded a 68 to post an 18-under-par 198 total, while Englishman Casey also shot 68 to lurk in second place at 15-under, with American JB Holmes (68) another shot back.
Castro was five clear of five players, including the best-placed Australian Adam Scott (71), who all finished on 12-under in fourth place.
Now Johnson will try and replicate something else only Woods has done: Win the Tour Championship as the No. 1 player in the FedEx Cup points race going into the final event.
“I hit a lot of good shots, a couple of bad misses but other than that played really solid all week”, Johnson, 32, said in a greenside interview.
Johnson used his prodigious length off the tee to overpower the tough 7500 yard (6,858 metre) Crooked Stick layout which had been softened by rain but still presented a formidable challenge.
He had a tap-in birdie at the par-five 15th and then made it a hat-trick at the 16th, before capping off his day with a 15-foot birdie at the last. There’s quite a few things that I’m going to go home this week and work on.
Charl Schwartzel closed with a 64 and got the 30th spot to advance to the FedEx Cup finale at the Tour Championship.
I really thought last week’s win at the Deutsche Bank Championship was the start of a big time roll to close the season by McIlroy.
World number one Jason Day of Australia withdrew on Sunday (Sep 11) from the BMW Championship due to left back pain after hitting his ninth-hole tee shot at the penultimate US PGA playoff event. The back got better, and Day went on to win.
But he remains the No. 1 player in the world, albeit under threat from world No. 2 Dustin Johnson. “Even the putts that I’m missing still look like they’re going in”.
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. Day has been able to manage his back problems well in the past.
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Defending FedExCup champion Jordan Spieth signed for a three-under 69 to end the week inside the top-10, while Ryder Cup team-mates Brandt Snedeker and Jimmy Walker were part of the group on nine under. He was 10 shots behind, and his attention turned to a strong finish with hopes of getting one of the top five seeds at East Lake in the Tour Championship.
