Boston Blowout: Dustin Johnson Buries The Field At Northern Trust

It was all Dustin Johnson, all day and almost into the night on Sunday at the Northern Trust.

Johnson absolutely demolished the field at TPC Boston and went 30-under par to win the first event of the FedEx Cup playoffs.  Johnson sent an early message that no one would touch him during the final 18 holes when he eagled the second hole then went on a run that took him to six-under par at the turn and left no doubt as to who would win.

The only thing that stopped Johnson’s march to victory was a weather delay that came just after he hit his tee shot at the 17th.  The delay lasted nearly an hour and D.J. along with playing partner Harris English, finished the final hole in near-darkness.

The light faded because Johnson basically went lights-out in this one.  After an opening 67 last Thursday, he worked on his putting and it paid off.  His last 54-holes went 60-64-63 and his 30-under winning total tied Jordan Spieth for the second lowest 18-hole score on the PGA Tour.  Spieth went 30-under at the 2016 Tournament of Champions.  The record of 31-under was set by Ernie Els at the TOC back in 2003.

D.J. got to 30-under with a five-footer for birdie to finish his week’s work.  Harris three-putted for bogey but it didn’t matter.  He finished at 19-under for solo second, a shot better than third place Daniel Berger.

For Johnson, it was his 22nd PGA Tour win and he’ll be atop the Official World Golf Rankings this week, displacing Jon Rahm.  D.J. is also the new points leader heading to the BMW at Olympia Fields this week.

“Obviously this was a real good week,” Johnson said, making the understatement of the week.  “Something clicked on Wednesday.  I hit it good on Thursday but didn’t putt that well.  I worked on my putting after the round and rolled it nicely on Friday, Saturday and today.  This week I played some really good golf.  I’m looking forward to the rest of the FedEx Cup playoffs.”

He should be looking forward.  His game is peaking at exactly the right time.  On Sunday, he hit all 18 greens and never came close to making a bogey.  He made only three bogeys all week and two of those came in his opening round.  After that, he was rock solid with the putter helping him find five eagles for the week.

If there was a downside to the week, it might have been the 60 he shot on Friday.  He was 11-under after 11 holes and 57 or 58 looked to be a distinct possibility.  He failed to birdie the 18th but that might have been his only shortcoming of the week.

This one was all Dustin Johnson from Friday on.

There was absolutely no drama the rest of the way with Johnson putting together a performance no one else in the field could match.

There was a bit of drama in front of D.J. at the finish.  Up ahead of him and English, Louie Oosthuizen needed birdie at the final hole to grab the 70th spot and a place in next’s week’s event.  Oosthuizen hit a smooth three-iron that found the middle of the green and he two-putted for that birdie and knocked Doc Redman out of the playoffs.

That was it.

The rest was D.J. and nothing but D.J. at his best for the final 54 holes.

This one was a wipe-out in the truest sense of the word.

The remaining 70 players can only hope that D.J. cools off a bit.

In fact, he’d need to cool off a lot.

Simple as that.

Northern Trust Scoreboard: