Johnson leaves no doubt en route to Masters glory
Masters champion Dustin Johnson tries on the Green Jacket after his 20-under-par victory during Round 4 of the Masters at Augusta National Golf Club, Sunday, November 15, 2020.
Dustin Johnson consigned past calamities to the history books when he produced one of the great Masters performances to bury his rivals and claim his second major title by five shots at Augusta National.
Four-shots clear with a round to play, the world No 1 had lost all four of his previous 54-hole major leads but there was to be no mistake this time as he combined power, touch and glorious course management to close with a four-under 68 and win by five shots from Australia’s Cameron Smith and the South Korea debutant Sungjae Im.
He did it in style too, winning with a record aggregate of 20-under par 268, clipping two strokes off the tournament record set by Tiger Woods in 1997 and matched by Jordan Spieth in 2015.
“Honestly, it still feels like a dream,” Johnson said in the Butler Cabin as he waited for Tiger Woods to help him into the green jacket. “As a kid, dreaming about winning the Masters, having Tiger put the green jacket on you, it still seems like it's a dream. But I'm here, and what a great feeling it is. I couldn't be more excited.
“It's an incredible feeling. Obviously I played unbelievable golf all week. The conditions of the course definitely helped the scoring a little bit, but I still played really well today. I thought it played really difficult. The wind was very tricky. To have the scoring record, shooting 20 under this week, it's a great honour, I don't even know what to say anymore. I'm so excited that it's hard to even talk.”
The laconic South Carolinian (36) plays with the swagger of a gunslinger and when he saw his lead reduced to just one stroke over Im after following a birdie at the third with bogeys at the fourth and fifth, he drew on all the Major experience that comes with a US Open win, five runner-up finishes and a string of other close calls.
“I proved to myself that I do have it. ”
Displaying remarkable poise, he produced three key moments in a row to turn for home two ahead of Smith, sandwiching a deft sand save at the seventh between birdies at the sixth (eight iron to six feet) and the par-five eighth (two putts) to lead by two at the turn.
Amen Corner has the last say in every Masters but Johnson allowed himself a fist pump as he got up and down for par at the 11th before emerging from a blustery Amen Corner holding a four-shot lead following a two-putt birdie at the 13th.
He then fired a wedge to six feet at the 14th and another to seven feet at the 15th and converted both putts to reach 20-under par and stretch the lead to five shots.
Up head, Rory McIlroy’s attempt to mount the joint biggest final round comeback since Jack Burke Jnr in 1956 came up short in silence.
The Co Down man birdied the third, sixth and eighth to briefly halve his eight-shot overnight deficit and dare to dream, later admitting: “It was probably wishful thinking on my part on the 8th green.”
But his three wood down the 10th left him and awkward stance for his approach and a bogey there, coupled with Johnson’s play around the turn, soon left him running out of holes.
He needed to play the last six in six-under and post 16-under just to have any chance but saw his 17 footer for eagle at the 13th miss on the high side and a six footer for birdie dribble right and low at the next, eventually signing for a 69 that left him to rue that opening 75.
“I will look back in this week and obviously rue what happened, may not on Thursday because I felt I played okay, but on Friday morning coming back and finishing that first round,” McIlroy said.
“But after that I played well, I hung in there, shot a great score to be here for the weekend, and played a really solid weekend.
“I wasn’t really thinking about winning the tournament. When I got to 11-under after the eighth hole, I saw DJ was only 15 and thought maybe there might be a chance. But then the wind got up and it was just hard to make birdies on that back nine. I’m pleased with my performance, especially over the last three rounds.”
Johnson is clearly no intellectual and plays up the stereotype, telling the press that his favourite Masters tradition was “the sandwiches”. But he has the golfing brain of a genius and the game to match, as McIlroy generously conceded afterwards.
“He's smarter than you think,” McIlroy said. “He's switched on, more so than he lets on, more so than everyone in the media thinks. I'll just put it that way.”
As for his game, it was perfectly suited to an Augusta National softened by torrential rain on Thursday and given his form — he went T2, 1st, 2nd, T3, T6, T2 in his last six starts before the Masters — his win was no surprise.
“He's been knocking on the door so long, and I think, again, since coming back out in June after the lockdown, he has been by far the best player in the world,” McIlroy said.
“It validates what he did at Oakmont a few years ago and he's had so many chances and hasn't quite been able to close the deal, but his resume speaks for itself, how many times he's won on the PGA Tour, how consistent he's been. I played with him the first two days here. He's got the ball on a string. It was really impressive.”
When he duffed his third into a bunker at the second, three-putted the fourth or drove into that fairway bunker at the fifth and dropped another shot, there were no ghosts of the closing 82 he shot to throw away the 2010 US Open, no repeat of the club-grounding error that cost him that year’s US PGA at Whistling Straits, and no echoes of the three-putt on the 72nd hole that cost him the 2015 US PGA at Chambers Bay, not to mention a string of close calls in other majors where he didn’t have the 54-hole lead,
“I proved that I can get it done on Sunday in a Major with a lead, especially in tough conditions,” he said. “I proved to myself that I do have it. There were even doubts in my mind just because I have been in this position a lot of times. When am I going to have the lead and finish off a major? For me, it proved I definitely can do it. It is very tough to get it done on Sunday in a major.”
