Defending champion and world number one Jason Day withdrew after eighth holes with a back injury.
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Johnson’s win was clearly the biggest story of the tournament, but there were plenty of other developments as the players headed for home.
What it means: Johnson opened the day with a three-shot lead, but two bogeys over his first three holes allowed Casey to catch up.
Roberto Castro (74), who shared the 36-hole lead with Johnson, fell to fourth on 204, one stroke ahead of United States compatriot Matt Kuchar and Australia’s Adam Scott.
In addition, a victory would put Johnson atop the US PGA playoff season points standings in quest of the $10 million bonus paid out after the Tour Championship in two weeks at Atlanta. “I’m going to go out there and play good golf and see what happens”. “The par-5s played tougher”. He was bumped out of the top 10 by the smallest margin in the 10-year history of the FedEx Cup – 0.57 points behind Charl Schwartzel, who closed with a 64.
CASEY’S BACK: Paul Casey is trending in the right direction.
“I’m looking forward to the Tour Championship”, Johnson said. Palmer had a chance to get into the top 30 except for missing a 12-foot par putt on the 16th hole and a 15-foot birdie putt on the final hole.
Johnson answered his consecutive bogeys with a 20-foot birdie putt at the fourth, a seven-foot birdie putt at the par-5 fifth and four-foot birdie putts at seven and eight to reach 21-under, restoring his four-stroke lead over Casey.
DeChambeau shot a 1-over 71 to match Gonzales (68), Lindheim (66) and Etulain (67) at 7-under 273. When he gets on his game, maybe the best ball-striker in golf. Adam Scott finally got some putts to drop and with birdies on the last two holes, he shot a 67 and joined Matt Kuchar (68) at 11-under 205.
Other Ryder Cup hopefuls didn’t shine.
Day was leading for the Vardon Trophy as the season low scorer but is now ineligible due to the withdrawal.
He is likely to be challenged by Scott and the Aussie will want to move as far up the FedEx standings as possible before the Tour Championship kicks off at East Lake on September 22. I’m just not totally sure that’s going to happen like it did a year ago.
Four players played their way into the Tour Championship from outside the top 30 heading into this tournament.
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LUITEN’S RECORD: Dutchman Joost Luiten won his national open for the second time, matching the course record with an 8-under 63 for a three-stroke victory in the KLM Open held in Spijk, Netherlands.
