Contributed Content from GlobalGolfPost
While Dustin Johnson was gone, he certainly was not forgotten and he clearly remembered how to win. Johnson broke away from a tightly bunched pack with birdies late in the final round to win the FedEx St. Jude Classic on Sunday.
Johnson, 27, won his sixth PGA Tour event and has now won at least one tournament in each of the past five years. And he heads into this week’s U.S. Open running on a high in confidence and form. Johnson had missed 11 weeks on Tour because of a back injury and returned just two weeks ago at the Memorial Tournament.
Johnson shot a final-round 66 to finish 72 holes at 9-under 271 on the par-70 TPC Southwind. He wound up winning by one over John Merrick, but it was much closer than that in the early afternoon in Memphis.
Players were started early Sunday morning in threesomes, hoping to avoid a forecast of afternoon thunderstorms so the competitors could easily get out of town to travel to San Francisco today for the U.S. Open.
About midway through the back nine, 11 players were within one shot of the lead that was held at times by Johnson, Merrick, Rory McIlroy, Chad Campbell and Nick O’Hern.
But Johnson made birdies on the par-5 16th and the par-4 17th to take the lead for good. He safely found the fairway on the treacherous par-4 18th and two-putted from 30 feet to capture the win.
McIlroy, Campbell, O’Hern and Merrick all stood on the 18th tee needing a birdie to catch Johnson, and only Merrick was able to make as much as a par. McIlroy drove it in the water off the tee and made double-bogey, O’Hern drove in the water and saved bogey, while Campbell missed the the green with his second and couldn’t get up and down. Merrick drove in the right rough, couldn’t reach the green and saved par from the right of the green.
Merrick, who started the day in a three-way tie for the 54-hole lead with O’Hern and Davis Love III, shot 68 on Sunday to finish second, one behind Johnson at 8-under 272. It was by far Merrick’s best finish of the year. He had missed seven cuts in 15 events and his best finish was a T33 at the Farmers Insurance Open.
Ryan Palmer shot a 4-under 66 on Sunday and tied for third at 7 under with Campbell, O’Hern and Love. Ken Duke tied for low round of the day with a 65 to post a tie for seventh with McIlroy, Seung-Yul Noh and Robert Allenby.
Get your daily dose of golf news at WGTGolf.com.
PHOTO: Associated Press