The world’s No. 1 player barely made it through the opening round when his back locked up on him and he considered pulling out.
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It’s also the second time that the Englishman has finished runner-up to Johnson at this event, dating to the 2010 edition at Cog Hill G&CC.
Dustin Johnson, 32, won this year’s BMW Championship with a 23-under par 265, three strokes ahead of Paul Casey and six strokes ahead of Roberto Castro.
US Open champion Dustin Johnson birdied four of the final five holes to open up a three-shot lead over Paul Casey after the third round at the BMW Championship in IN on Saturday.
Quote of the day: “I’ve got a lot of confidence in every part of my game, especially all the work I’ve put into my wedges, it’s really paid off this year”.
The final round at Crooked Stick became a race in two as the final pairing of Johnson and Casey went head-to-head.
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. Couple of bad misses, but other than that I played really solid all week.
Jason Day has been struck down by an injury that threatens to derail his pitch for the Fedex Cup in the United States.
Casey’s last hope came on the par-5 15th when he rolled in a 25-foot eagle putt to get within one shot.
“With all the rain we got last night I struggled with the speed (on the greens) early in the round, kept leaving everything a little bit short but got a handle on it the back nine and finished off really nicely”, the world number two told Golf Channel.
The Tour Championship takes place from September 22-25, with the FedEx Cup trophy and it’s $10m prize to be awarded after the tournament. He could still win the Tour Championship to salvage what has been a mildly disappointing year (for him), but that got slightly more hard with the T42 finish at Crooked Stick.
Asked if this summer is the best he has ever played, once again Johnson did not overthink it.
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Best of the rest: It wasn’t the lowest score, but Castro’s 5-under 67 made the biggest difference since it clinched his spot at the Tour Championship. To pile on, Johnson was also No. 1 in the field in strokes gained off the tee and set the BMW Championship scoring record (the BMW Championship has been around since the 1800s).
