Pacific Palisades, CA …
Genesis Open – Final-Round Notes – Sunday, February 19, 2017
Weather: Mostly cloudy, with a high of 60. Wind SW 6-12 mph.
Round three resumed at 6:50 a.m. and ended at 12:03 p.m. Final-round tee times are between 10:25 a.m. – 12: 15 p.m.
Final-Round Leader board
Dustin Johnson 66-66-64-71—267 (-17)
Thomas Pieters 70-68-71-63—272 (-12)
Scott Brown 68-68-69-67—272 (-12)
Dustin Johnson
A week after his third-place showing at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, Dustin Johnson parlayed a five-stroke lead beginning the final round of the Genesis Open into a victory of the same amount with his even-par 71. The win, his 13th on the PGA TOUR, comes in his 206th TOUR start at the age of 32 years, 7 months, 28 days.
Dustin Johnson’s 13 PGA TOUR victories:
2008 – Turning Stone Resort Championship
2009 – AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am
2010 – AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, BMW Championship
2011 – The Barclays
2012 – FedEx St. Jude Classic
2013 – Tournament of Champions
2014 – World Golf Championships-HSBC Champions
2015 – World Golf Championships-Cadillac Championship
2016 – U.S. Open, WGC-Bridgestone Invitational, BMW Championship
2017 – Genesis Open
With his win at the Genesis Open, Johnson overtakes the No. 1 spot in the Official World Golf Ranking from Jason Day. Johnson becomes the 20th different player to achieve World No. 1 status.
With the victory, Johnson collects 500 FedExCup points and moves to No. 6 in the standings with 803 points.
With his win this week, Johnson joins Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer as players to have won at least once on the PGA TOUR each of their first 10 seasons on TOUR:
Arnold Palmer: 17 (1955-1971); Jack Nicklaus: 17 (1962-1978); Tiger Woods: 14 (1996-2009); Dustin Johnson: 10 (2008-2016)
Before back-to-back bogeys at Nos. 15 and 16, Johnson was on pace to tie or break the 72-hole tournament record of 20-under 264, held by Lanny Wadkins from 1985.
Johnson was making his 10th start in the Genesis Open this week, where he has now collected an impressive seven top-10 finishes. In only the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am has he collected as many on the PGA TOUR.
Johnson’s top-10 finishes at the Genesis Open: 1st/2017, 4th/2016, P2/2015, 2nd/2014, T4/2012, T3/2010, T10/2009.
The largest margin of victory at the Genesis Open is nine strokes (Phil Rodgers/1962/Rancho Municipal GC). The tournament record for largest margin of victory at Riviera Country Club is seven strokes (Lanny Wadkins/1985, Doug Tewell/1986).
Johnson’s five-stroke win is the largest margin of victory on the PGA TOUR since Justin Thomas won this season’s Sony Open in Hawaii by seven strokes.
Johnson’s bogey at the ninth hole in round four was his first in 50 holes. His only previous blemish came at the par-3 fourth hole in round one (began his round on No. 10).
En route to the win this week, Johnson led the field in driving distance (315.3 yards) and greens in regulation (56.72 percent).
Since 2008, no one has more rounds of 67 or better at Riviera CC than Dustin Johnson. In 36 rounds played at Riviera, he has played 13 of them at 67 or better. The next nearest player on the list is J.B. Holmes, with nine.
With a final-round 71, Johnson’s streak of consecutive sub-70 rounds at the Genesis Open ended at nine, matching the record set by J.B. Holmes (last three rounds of 2009, 2010, first two rounds of 2011)
Johnson, who finished round three late Sunday morning, birdied his last three holes en route to the 64. He turned around 20 minutes later to begin the final round, when he promptly birdied his first two holes, totalling five straight.
Johnson’s five-stroke lead after 54 holes marked the largest at the Genesis Open since Steve Stricker led by six strokes in 2010.
Johnson becomes only the eighth 54-hole leader of the Genesis Open to convert for the win since 2000. Since 2010, the four to have done so are Steve Stricker (2010), Aaron Baddelely (2011), Bubba Watson (2016) and Dustin Johnson (2017).
Johnson becomes the sixth (of 14) 54-hole leader/co-leader to go on to win this season. Jordan Spieth was the most recent at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am last week.
THOMAS PIETERS
Playing on a sponsor invitation, Belgium’s Thomas Pieters made eight birdies, including one from 15 feet on the 72nd hole, en route to a final round, bogey-free 63, good for a career-best T2 finish at 12-under 272. The 63 matches the lowest score of the week (Wesley Bryan/R3).
With his two-way tie for second, Pieters collects 245 non-member FedExCup points, taking his total to 306.
Pieters, who will compete in this week’s The Honda Classic and the World Golf Championships-Mexico Championship the following week, requires an additional 13 points to match the points earned by the player at No. 150 in last season’s FedExCup standings (319 by Greg Owen) to become eligible for Special Temporary Membership to the PGA TOUR.
Pieters was making his seventh career start on the PGA TOUR and has yet to miss a cut. This week’s Genesis Open marks his first top-10 showing.
Pieters, 25, was selected by Darren Clarke to compete on last year’s Ryder Cup team, where his 4-1 in his five matches became the best record by a European rookie in Ryder Cup history.
Pieters, who had received a sponsor invitation into this week’s Honda Classic, will now play based on his top-10 finish at the Genesis Open. The sponsor invitation will be offered to another player.
Interestingly, while at the University of Illinois, Thomas won the 2012 NCAA individual title at Riviera Country Club and was the National Player of the Year.
SCOTT BROWN
South Carolina native Scott Brown birdied two of his last three holes in the final round to post a 4-under 67 and finish at 12-under 272 and T2 with Thomas Pieters.
Brown was making his fourth start in the Genesis Open, where a T39 last year served as his best showing. Brown, who joined the PGA TOUR in 2012, remains in search of his second career TOUR win and first since the 2013 Puerto Rico Open.
Having gotten off to a slower start than he wanted, this week’s T2 finish marks his first top-30 showing in eight starts.
