The defending champion pulled out of the tournament after injuring his back on the 9th tee box, at that stage sitting at 2-over for the round and 3-udner for the tournament, languishing in mid-field.
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Johnson’s win was his third in his past eight tournaments, but this might have been his most complete performance. And he still matched Johnson’s score, even though he didn’t make up any ground.
“Really solid. To keep a clean sheet I was really happy”, Casey said. “You don’t always have your best game, and I was able to finish it off and get in the Tour Championship”.
The top 30 finishers in the season points race after this event will qualify for the Tour Championship at Atlanta, where the points victor will capture a $10 million bonus prize.
Although the focus for many will be on the back injury that forced Day out of the BMW Championship today, Scott moved past his fellow Queenslander with, remarkably, his third consecutive fourth-place finish in as many weeks.
“The more I practice, the more I’m in the situation, the more I know what to do and what to expect in the situations and kind of know what shots that I can hit and not to hit and I like it”, he said.
Johnson said he was “frustrated” by his poor start to the final round – bogeying the second and third holes – but was confident he was playing well enough to turn it around in his 200th start on tour. On Saturday, Johnson revealed the only reason he made the change to a black TaylorMade Spider was to avoid having the same putter as Jason Day.
The third round already was scheduled to start late because of morning storms in the forecast, which pounded Crooked Stick and delayed that time by 1ﾽ hours.
The 22-year-old former SMU player beat Andres Gonzales with a par on the first hole of a playoff at Canterbury Golf Club.
Overnight leader Zack Sucher was a stroke back after a 68, and D.A. Points also had a 68 to reach 6 under. After jumping 49 spots to 10th in the FedExCup standings with last week’s finish, he bumps another five to a coveted fifth-place ranking. “So I put it in play and been rolling it pretty good”.
The top 30 players in the standings advance.
He drilled it down the middle of the fairway, hit the green, lagged a 40-foot putt to 4 feet and made it for par for a 74. The other players are fighting for 25 cards based on series earnings.
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Matt Kuchar and 2013 Masters champ Adam Scott head a classy chasing pack but Johnson is undoubtedly the one to catch.
