There's an old saying it's not how you start, it's how you finish. South Carolina's Dustin Johnson showed the steady, consistent play of a winner provides one of the most satisfying finishes of all for his third WGC championship.
Johnson stayed the course and took the 2016 WGC Bridgestone Invitational at Firestone Country Club's fabled South Course when the world's top golfer faulted on the late holes, including a double bogey on "The Monster," Firestone's massive 16th hole. Day was leading when his tee shot went errant into the trees, and his second shot also bounded across the fairway into another grove of trees on the opposite side. By the time he was done on 16 the double bogey, along with a bogey on 15 and then a bogey on the final hole, sealed his fate and sent him back into the back with a tie for third place.
WATCH Johnson's post-match news conference below
Scott Piercy, who played the final round with Day, took sole ownership of second place. For the first time, both the first and second place finishers took home more than a million dollars in prize money. Johnson won $1.6 million, Piercy a more than $1 million dollar payday.
This year's tournament was held over the July 4th weekend due to conflicts with golf's standing in the Rio Summer Olympics as a medal sport; the weekend classic in Akron also competed for players from the European Tour, many of whom declined the invitations to play here and opt instead for the 100th French Open and the opportunity to earn Ryder Cup points. The event will return to Firestone County Club with a more familiar time next year starting August 2, 2017.
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(PGA Tour) Final-Round Notes – Sunday, July 03, 2016
Weather: Skies were mostly cloudy in the morning with light S/SE winds at 4-8 mph, intensifying in the afternoon to 10-15 mph, gusting near 20 mph. Temperature reached a high of 77 with low humidity.
Final Leaderboard
Dustin Johnson 69-73-66-66—274 (-6)
Scott Piercy 69-69-67-70—275 (-5)
Jordan Spieth 68-71-71-67—277 (-3)
Matt Kuchar 69-72-70-66—277 (-3)
Kevin Chappell 71-70-69-67—277 (-3)
Jason Day 67-69-69-72—277 (-3)
William McGirt 64-74-70-70—278 (-2)
Charl Schwartzel 72-69-67-70—278 (-2)
David Lingmerth 70-67-69-72—278 (-2)
Third-Round Lead Notes
Third-round leaders/co-leaders have gone on to win 14 of 32 PGA TOUR events this season, including four winners of the last six events. Shane Lowry led through 54 holes when Dustin Johnson won the U.S. Open. Scott Piercy and Jason Day shared the 54-hole lead this week before Johnson's win today. The most recent player to covert a 54-hole lead into victory was Billy Hurley III at last week's Quicken Loans National.
Dustin Johnson, 1st (-6)
U.S. Open champion Dustin Johnson shot consecutive rounds of 66-66 on the weekend at the Bridgestone Invitational to rally from three strokes behind to start the fourth round for his third career World Golf Championships victory joining Tiger Woods (18) and Geoff Ogilvy (3) as the only players with three or more wins in World Golf Championships events.
Johnson earns 550 points and is projected to overtake Jason Day at No. 1 in the FedExCup standings, the first time he has been ranked No. 1 in the standings since winning the 2013 Hyundai Tournament of Champions.
Johnson wins his 11th PGA TOUR title in his 194th start at the age of 32 years, 11 days.
The victory is Johnson's 10th top-10 finish of the season, which leads the PGA TOUR. The most top-10s that Johnson has ever had in a season is 11 in the 2014-15. He has finished in the top 5 in 8 of his last 11 events.
Dustin Johnson joined Geoff Ogilvy with three World Golf Championships titles. No player has won all four World Golf Championships events. Johnson joins only Tiger Woods as players to win three different World Golf Championships events.
Johnson's Strokes Gained stats:
Stat R1 Rank R2 Rank R3 Rank R4 Rank Cumulative
Strokes Gained: Off the Tee 2 4 3 6 1
Strokes Gained: Tee To Green 9 22 3 12 3
Strokes Gained: Approach The Green 25 28 4 36 16
Strokes Gained: Around The Green 19 43 40 13 27
Strokes Gained: Putting 27 52 6 3 8
With his win at the U.S. Open, Johnson continued his streak of winning at least one tournament in each of his first nine seasons on the PGA TOUR (the TOUR"s current best streak). By comparison, Tiger Woods won in his first 14 seasons (1996-2009).
Dustin Johnson's PGA TOUR wins (11):
2008 Turning Stone Resort Championship
2009 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am
2010 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am
2010 BMW Championship
2011 The Barclays
2012 FedEx St. Jude Classic
2013 Hyundai Tournament of Champions
2013 World Golf Championships-HSBC Champions (2013-14 Season)
2015 World Golf Championships-Cadillac Championship (2014-15 Season)
2016 U.S. Open (2015-16 Season)
2016 World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational (2015-2016 Season)
Johnson becomes the first player since Jordan Spieth to win his next PGA TOUR start after winning the U.S. Open. Last year, Spieth won the John Deere Classic in his next start after winning the U.S. Open.
Scott Piercy, 2nd (-5)
Scott Piercy, who finished runner-up at the U.S. Open, birdied the final hole to finish solo second, one shot behind Dustin Johnson. With the runner-up finishes to Dustin Johnson in back-to-back starts, Piercy moves to No. 22 in the FedExCup standings.
Piercy's runner-up finish at the Bridgestone Invitational is his third top-10 finish of the season. Piercy has made 16 of 18 cuts. The most cuts he has ever made in one PGA TOUR season is 19 in 2012.
A three-time winner on the PGA TOUR, Piercy's previous best World Golf Championships finish was a T2 at the 2012 HSBC Champions.
In 2016, Piercy has top-30 finishes in each of the first two major championships, THE PLAYERS Championship and all three World Golf Championships-Dell Match Play and Cadillac Championship. He is one of four players (Piercy, Dustin Johnson, Louis Oosthuizen and Jason Day), to finish in the top 30 in each of these events this year.
Piercy's Strokes Gained stats:
Stat R1 Rank R2 Rank R3 Rank R4 Rank Cumulative
Strokes Gained: Off the Tee 13 3 5 34 7
Strokes Gained: Tee To Green 8 7 1 T41 1
Strokes Gained: Approach The Green 8 6 29 T40 6
Strokes Gained: Around The Green 26 50 1 34 14
Strokes Gained: Putting 35 23 32 11 20
Jason Day, T3 (-3)
Jason Day, who entered the final round with a share of the lead, reached the 15th green at 7-under-par. A bogey on No. 15, double bogey on No. 17 and a bogey on the final hole meant a T3 finish for the top-ranked player in the world. Previous to this event, Day had converted five consecutive third-round leads into victory on the PGA TOUR. Overall, Day has now converted 6 of 13 54-hole leads into victories.
Jason Day's 54-hole leads
Date Tournament Finish
7/3/2016 WGC-Bridgestone Invitational T3
5/15/2016 THE PLAYERS Championship 1
3/20/2016 Arnold Palmer Invitational 1
9/20/2015 BMW Championship 1
8/30/2015 The Barclays 1
8/16/2015 PGA Championship 1
7/19/2015 The Open Championship T4
6/21/2015 U.S. Open T9
4/26/2015 Zurich Classic of New Orleans T4
8/24/2014 The Barclays T2
9/6/2010 Deutsche Bank Championship T2
5/23/2010 HP Byron Nelson Championship 1
3/15/2009 Puerto Rico Open T2
Day, a three-time winner this season (Arnold Palmer Invitational, World Golf Championships-Dell Match Play, THE PLAYERS Championship), dropped from No. 1 to No. 2 in the FedExCup standings to Bridgestone Invitational winner, Dustin Johnson. Day had held the No. 1 spot for seven consecutive weeks.
Day owns 10 PGA TOUR victories, including the 2014 and 2016 World Golf Championships-Dell Match Play.
Day's Strokes Gained stats:
Stat R1 Rank R2 Rank R3 Rank R4 Rank Cum.
Strokes Gained: Off the Tee 15 14 50 42 26
Strokes Gained: Tee To Green 2 13 38 37 11
Strokes Gained: Approach The Green 2 18 47 58 36
Strokes Gained: Around The Green 12 31 7 1 1
Strokes Gained: Putting 31 8 2 44 9
Kevin Chappell, T3 (-3)
Kevin Chappell remains in search of his first PGA TOUR win. Chappell owns five runner-up finishes on the PGA TOUR, including three in the 2015-16 PGA TOUR Season. In his last two runner-up performances, he has finished second behind Jason Day: 2016 Arnold Palmer Invitational, 2016 PLAYERS Championship.
At No. 6 in the FedExCup standings, Kevin Chappell is the highest-ranked player without a win this season.
Chappell required just nine putts in his front-nine 5-under 30 and 24 total putts in his round of 67.
This was Chappell's first appearance in a World Golf Championships event. He was the highest finisher among those players making their first World golf Championships appearance.
Kevin Chappell (T3), Billy Hurley III (T36), Andrew Johnston (T42), Michio Matsumura (T49), William McGirt (T7), Younghan Song (T21), Brian Stuard (T16) and Yosuke Tsukada (57) made their first-ever World Golf Championships appearance.
Jordan Spieth, T3 (-3)
Last season's FedExCup champion Jordan Spieth posted his best result in his third appearance at the Bridgestone Invitational (49/2014, T10/2015, T3/2016). This week's performance also marks Spieth's best result in any World Golf Championships event. His best result in 11 previous World Golf Championships appearances was T5 at the 2014 Dell Match Play, losing in the Quarterfinals to Ernie Els (4 and 2). He also finished T7 at the HSBC Champions earlier this season.
Spieth entered his 98th career PGA TOUR start just $611,000 shy of $25 million in career earnings. With $449,250 in earnings this week, he is now $161,750 short of the $25 million figure.
Matt Kuchar, T3 (-3)
Matt Kuchar's T3 is his fifth top-6 finish in his last six starts on TOUR (T3/THE PLAYERS Championship, 3/AT&T Byron Nelson, T6/DEAN & DELUCA Invitational, T4/the Memorial Tournament, T46/U.S. Open, T3/Bridgestone Invitational).
Kuchar now owns 10 top-10 finishes in 22 World Golf Championships appearances, including a victory at the 2013 World Golf Championships-Dell Match Play.
Miscellaneous notes
If either Jason Day or Scott Piercy had won at the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational after holding a share of the 54-hole lead, it would mean either player would have won a new TEMPUR-Breeze bed, courtesy of Tempur-Pedic, the Official Mattress of the PGA TOUR. Either player would have also won a bed for one lucky fan who entered the Sleeping on the Lead Sweepstakes at TempurPedicGolf.com and a Birdies for the Brave® military member from the Akron/Canton area. With Dustin Johnson victorious, a lucky fan who entered the sweepstakes will still receive a pair of TEMPUR-Cloud® pillows. This program will run from the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational until the TOUR Championship.
First-round leader William McGirt posted a final-round 70 to finish T7 in his first ever World Golf Championships appearance. McGirt claimed his first PGA TOUR win last month in Columbus, Ohio at the Memorial Tournament.
Zach Johnson closed with 5-under 65 to record his lowest round on TOUR since the first-round of the Sony Open in Hawaii in January (64). The T10 finish, along with T8 at the U.S. Open in his last start, marked top 10s in consecutive starts for the second time this season (5th/Arnold Palmer Invitational, T9/WGC-Dell Match Play).
Phil Mickelson closed with a bogey-free 2-under 68 to finish T27. It's the first bogey-free round for Mickelson since the third-round 66 he posted at this year's AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, where he finished 2nd to Vaughn Taylor, and one of five bogey-free rounds for Mickelson this season (R3/CareerBuilder Challenge, R4/CareerBuilder Challenge, R3/Waste Management Phoenix Open, R3/AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, R4/WGC-Bridgestone Invitational).
Jimmy Walker used a 9-iron to hole out from 164 yards for an eagle (2) at the ninth hole during a final-round 71. It marked the first eagle at the 504-yard, par-4 hole in Bridgestone Invitational history at Firestone Country Club.
Phil Mickelson and Adam Scott climbed the list of players with the most World Golf Championships appearances (Dell Match Play, Cadillac Championship, Bridgestone Invitational and HSBC Champions since it become a World Golf Championships event in 2009) and now share third place on the list with Ernie Els with 48 appearances. Jim Furyk is now sixth on the list with 47 appearances. Lee Westwood has the most events with 54.
Westwood, Lee 54
Garcia, Sergio 49
Els, Ernie 48
Mickelson, Phil 48
Scott, Adam 48
Furyk, Jim 47
Woods, Tiger 44
Poulter, Ian 44
Two former Florida State University golfers withdrew during the first round. Daniel Berger withdrew with a shoulder injury after hitting his opening tee shot. Berger receives $50,500 but the money is unofficial and he will not receive FedExCup points. Earlier this year, Berger also pulled out of the World Golf Championships-Dell Match Play after hurting his hand on a rock during a swing. Brooks Koepka also withdrew during the first round with an ankle injury.
Davis Love III, who received the Ambassador of Golf Award at a ceremony on Wednesday, withdrew after the first round with a hip injury.
Bogey-free rounds:
R1 – William McGirt
R2 – None
R3 – None
R4 – Phil Mickelson (68), Matt Kuchar (66).
Scoring average:
Front nine Back nine Total
R1 35.831 36.000 71.831
R2 36.017 36.207 72.224
R3 35.379 35.810 71.190
R4 34.983 35.431 70.414
Cumulative 35.554 35.863 71.416