Dustin Johnson cruises to eight shot victory in Hawaii
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Dustin Johnson dominated during the final round of the Sentry Tournament of Champions, easing to an eight shot victory over nearest challenger Jon Rahm
The World No.1 put to bed any past demons that may have come from throwing away a six-shot lead in his last official start in Shanghai by shooting a final round 66 – the lowest round of the tournament – to win the first event of 2018.
“I didn’t want to let up on the back nine, especially after what happened in Shanghai,” said Johnson.”That was a really difficult day, and I just … didn’t do anything terrible, I just didn’t do anything very good, and I ended up losing. So I definitely came out today with a lot of focus. I wanted to prove to myself that ain’t going to happen again.”
Johnson’s second win at Kapalua, and 17th PGA Tour victory of his career, made him the third player to win here while holding the World No.1 status (following Tiger Woods and Jordan Spieth), and extended his run of consecutive seasons with a win on tour to 11.
Starting the round just two shots clear of Brian Harman, DJ birdied the third to go four shots clear at the top thanks to a Harman dropped shot on the same hole. Back to back birdies on the fifth and sixth holes were then followed by another gain at the ninth.
He suffered his only dropped shot at the tough 11th hole as he bunkered his tee shot and failed to get up and down, but he responded with a near albatross on the par-four 12th thanks to a 433 yard drive which he then joked he ‘hit it a little thin.’
The tap-in for eagle was followed by a run of three consecutive birdies from the 14th, although he narrowly missed out on equalling David Duval’s record nine-shot win in 1999 by missing a 12-foot putt for birdie on the last.
After his win, DJ was quick to load plaudits on his new TaylorMade M4 driver for being a big difference in his confidence on the course.
“I knew I was playing well and it’s a golf course I’m really comfortable on and I felt like I’ve really been driving it well this week. I put the new (TaylorMade) M4 in last week and I’d really been driving it well. So I knew as long as I could keep doing that, then I was going to play well.”
“Last year, I drove it pretty well, I thought I was driving it pretty good. But with this new driver and this new technology, we’ve got the Twist Face in there, my misses they’re … barely offline. I got a lot of confidence in it. Even in all these crosswinds, I felt like I got no worries about where the ball’s going to go. It’s going right where I’m looking every time and that’s a good feeling for me.”
WITB: Dustin Johnson (Sentry Tournament of Champions)
Driver: TaylorMade M4 (9.5 degrees), with Fujikura Speeder Evolution 2.0 661 TS X shaft
Fairway: TaylorMade M4 (16.5 degrees), with Project X HZRDUS Black 6.5 95X shafts
Irons: TaylorMade P790 (3), P730 (4-PW), with True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100 shafts
Wedges: TaylorMade Milled Grind (52, 60 degrees), Milled Grind High-Toe prototype (64 degrees), with KBS Tour 120 S shafts
Putter: TaylorMade Spider Tour Black
Ball: TaylorMade TP5x
