Round 3: The Barclays
August 27 2011
1:48 pm
Johnson wins shortened Barclays
EDISON, N.J. — For the second time in three years, Dustin Johnson won a weather-shortened event on the PGA TOUR.
Johnson shot a 6-under 65 Saturday ahead of Hurricane Irene to finish at 19 under and win The Barclays by two strokes over defending champion Matt Kuchar. The victory is Johnson’s first of the year and moves him to the top of the FedExCup standings after the first event of the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup.
“It feels great,” Johnson said. “I feel like I’ve played pretty well all year but just haven’t quite been able to get that win. The putter has been lacking a little bit. This week I finally rolled some putts, so this feels really good.”
Because of the impending hurricane, the tournament was shortened to 54 holes. The last time Johnson won a rain-shortened tournament was in 2009 at Pebble Beach. Saturday’s victory was also the second Playoffs win of his career.
Unlike that win at Pebble Beach, Johnson knew beforehand that Saturday’s round would be the last of the tournament.
With an early start as players tried to beat the weather, Johnson didn’t waste any time getting out to a fast start as he made the turn in 29 after five birdies, an eagle and just one bogey.
All week Johnson dominated on the front nine at Plainfield Country Club, where he also shot 29 in the second round after carding a 30 in the opening round. He was a combined 17 under on those stretch of holes alone.
“I don’t know what it is about the front but I played pretty well on the front,” Johnson said. Then he smiled: “I wish we could have just keep playing the front nine, I would have done really well this week.”
Kuchar, who led by one at the start of the day, got off to a similar start as he and Johnson separated themselves from the field. But bogeys on Nos. 11 and 12 proved costly to Kuchar, who wasn’t able to recover. He failed to make a birdie the rest of the day.
“Dustin and I each had it going on the front side and made for some exciting golf,” Kuchar said. “Bummer not to defend. I was right there with a shot at it and to come up short, it’s frustrating “
With the runner-up finish, Kuchar moved to second in the FedExCup standings.
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Why in the HELL are you broadcasting the results of the tournament BEFORE THE DAMN TV BROADCAST?????? Thanks for screwing up my Saturday.
On another note, way to go Dustin. Myrtle Beach is proud today.
Thanks for the updated news…you are the only one who has it! And, Jerry, if you don’t want your Saturday ruined, stay off the internet, eh?
Well done DJ, but what a joke of a tournament. Should have just called it off rather than play 3 rounds, especially with the decision being made with just one round to go.
This wasn’t golf, this was target practice.
CCU is proud of you Dustin! Congratulations! CINO says!
Course isn’t long enough for these guys, kinda like mini-putt to them.
hard to know what to make of this result??quiet guys all year then when the money shots up they away and out of sight. impressive in one way but not in another if you see what i mean?great guys though so well done to dj and kutch.
I’ll bet DJ is glad they reduced the tournament to three rounds instead of postponing the event as I believe the PGA should have done in the first place.
As it turned out, that’s exactly what they should have done. Had such a crowded leaderboard been resumed to include the 4th round, there’s no doubt in my mind that we would have ended up with an entirely different result.
Congratulations on a great win Dustin. Keep up the great play. Win it all young man.
Carl
I totally agree with you