Irmo’s Dustin Johnson second in return from injury
Dustin Johnson can’t win ’em all.
The Irmo native did his best to win a fourth consecutive tournament on Sunday, but missed a playoff by a stroke when Brian Harman drained a 28-foot putt to win the Wells Fargo Championship.
In his first event since withdrawing from the Masters with a back injury, Johnson finished at 9-under 279, tied for second place with Pat Perez. The Coastal Carolina alum overcame a shaky second round 75, which briefly put him in peril of missing the cut, rebounding with back-to-back 67s. He vaulted from 12th place to the clubhouse lead before Harman knocked home his clutch putt.
Johnson has dominated in 2017, winning three events in a row heading into the Masters in April. A freak accident knocked him out of the year’s first major before play started. Having returned from the gym, Johnson was still in his socks when he went downstairs in his rented home to move his car.
He slipped near the bottom and crashed so hard on his lower back that it left a deep bruise, and the pain didn’t entirely subside until last week. Johnson tried to warm up the next day for the opening round at Augusta National and decided minutes before his tee time that he couldn’t go.
“I was on a good roll, playing the best golf of my career leading into Augusta,” he said. “I’ve had a lot more time off than I would have liked to have had. Still, I feel like I’m swinging really well. Hit a few good shots out there today. But we’ll just have to see. I haven’t played many rounds, and definitely haven’t played any competitive rounds since six weeks ago.”
Johnson’s winning streak was the longest since Rory McIlroy also won three in a row in the summer of 2014. He was trying to match Tiger Woods, who won five in a row from September 2007 through March 2008.
Although he didn’t capture the championship, Johnson continued to solidify his spot atop the World Golf Rankings and FedEx Cup standings, where he leads Justin Thomas by 296 points.
Prior to the Masters, Johnson won the Dell Technologies Match Play, the Genesis Open at Riviera Country Club and the WGC Mexico Championship.
Johnson’s ascent in the rankings has been steady, highlighted by winning the 2016 U.S. Open, the first major tournament victory of his career. In a decade-long PGA Tour career, Johnson has won at least one tournament every year since his rookie season.
Besides the U.S. Open, in 2016 Johnson won the WGC-Bridgestone (a World Golf Championship event) and the BMW Championship, part of the Tour’s FedEx Cup playoffs. In total, he cashed checks for more than $9 million, best in professional golf, while leading the Tour in scoring average and top-10 finishes.
This story was originally published May 7, 2017 at 6:11 PM with the headline "Irmo’s Dustin Johnson second in return from injury."