Dustin Johnson continued his red hot play at the Northern Trust Open on Saturday curling in a 40-foot eagle putt on 18 to give him a five shot cushion going into the final round of the FedExCup playoffs opener.
Johnson’s third round seven-under 64 while impressive was almost greeted with a yawn after the sensational 11-under 60 the big-hitting American carded on Friday that shot him to the top of the leaderboard where he has remained.
Sitting five back are Harris English after returning a 66 for the second straight day and Scottie Scheffler, who returned a 67 a day after shooting a 59, just the 12th sub-60 round in PGA Tour history.
It was another cool, confident display from Johnson at the TPC Boston piling up five birdies before dropping his first shot in two days with a bogey at the 13th.
But Johnson would close in style with a birdie at 17 and an eagle at 18. It will mark the second time in as many tournaments Johnson has held the 54th lead but will be looking for a different result after failing to close the deal at the PGA Championships.
Certainly he will not be under as much pressure as he was at Harding Park where he started the final round with a one shot advantage, but he knows he cannot be complacent on layout where low scores are there for the taking.
“Obviously I’m in a great position and like where I’m at, but I’m still going to have to go out and shoot a good score,” Johnson told reporters. “You can go low out here and guys are going low every day, especially with the conditions we have.”
This week’s tournament, open to the top 125 golfers in the season-long points standings, is the first of three playoff events that culminate with the September 4-7th Tour Championship in Atlanta and the $15 million prize to the FedExCup champion.
Only the top 70 in the standings after this week go on to the BMW Championship at Olympia Fields outside Chicago, and from there the top 30 move on to Atlanta.
There was no moving day charge from Tiger Woods, who plodded his way to a two-over 73.
Woods got his day off to a positive start with a birdie at the second and ended on an upbeat note with another at 18 but in-between the 15-time major winner collected five bogeys to leave him just three strokes off the bottom of the leaderboard.
It was an equally disappointing outing for Rory McIlroy, the Northern Irishman taking a pair of triple bogeys on his outward nine on way to a three-over 73.
The defending FedEx Cup champion opened his round with a birdie but gave that back and more when his third shot at the second, a chip from just off the green, ricocheted off a rock into the water hazard on way to an eight.
Collated third round scores and totals (USA unless stated, par 71):
191 Dustin Johnson 67 60 64
196 Scottie Scheffler 70 59 67, Harris English 64 66 66
198 Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa) 65 65 68
199 Danny Lee (Nzl) 66 64 69, Daniel Berger 66 66 67, Harry Higgs 67 66 66
200 Bubba Watson 65 68 67
201 Charley Hoffman 65 68 68, Alex Noren (Swe) 69 68 64, Russell Henley 64 67 70, Tyrrell Hatton (Eng) 67 71 63, Cameron Davis (Aus) 64 65 72, Kevin Kisner 65 66 70
202 Ryan Palmer 67 67 68, Mackenzie Hughes (Can) 68 68 66, Si Woo Kim (Kor) 68 64 70, Webb Simpson 70 64 68
203 Cameron Smith (Aus) 69 68 66, Talor Gooch 66 72 65, Jon Rahm (Spa) 69 67 67
204 Brendan Steele 68 67 69, Keegan Bradley 68 67 69, JT Poston 71 67 66, Hideki Matsuyama (Jpn) 70 69 65, Kyoung-hoon Lee (Kor) 67 68 69, Matt Kuchar 69 69 66, Charles Howell III 66 70 68
205 Zach Johnson 69 69 67, Beau Hossler 73 66 66, Scott Piercy 65 70 70, Sebastian Munoz (Col) 65 71 69, Chez Reavie 68 70 67
206 Jason Kokrak 68 68 70, Mark Hubbard 67 71 68, Viktor Hovland (Nor) 68 70 68, Emiliano Grillo (Arg) 69 64 73, Wyndham Clark 68 71 67, Justin Thomas 68 67 71, Justin Rose (Eng) 69 70 67, Tommy Fleetwood (Eng) 66 69 71, Corey Conners (Can) 72 65 69, Xander Schauffele 68 71 67, Brian Harman 67 66 73, Lanto Griffin 68 68 70, Denny McCarthy 69 68 69, Brendon Todd 70 66 70, Paul Casey (Eng) 70 69 67, Ian Poulter (Eng) 66 67 73, Cameron Tringale 67 72 67
207 Adam Schenk 70 66 71, Adam Long 68 67 72, Tyler Duncan 69 69 69, Patrick Reed 68 71 68
208 Maverick McNealy 67 71 70, Robby Shelton 66 71 71, Andrew Landry 69 70 69, Rickie Fowler 67 70 71, Kevin Streelman 64 71 73
209 Matthew Wolff 65 67 77, Kevin Na 71 65 73, Keith Mitchell 69 68 72, Troy Merritt 72 67 70
211 Richy Werenski 69 67 75, Adam Scott (Aus) 66 70 75, Scott Harrington 68 67 76
212 Tiger Woods 68 71 73
213 Rory McIlroy (Irl) 69 70 74
214 Patrick Rodgers 71 67 76
215 Matt Jones (Aus) 68 71 76
