Dustin Johnson may well have wrapped up PGA Tour Player of the Year honors on Sunday, winning the BMW Championship by three shots over Paul Casey for his third win of the season.
Johnson shot a final round of 5-under 67 at Crooked Stick in Carmel, Ind., to finish at 23-under 265. Locked in a battle with Casey in the final pairing, Johnson likely secured his title when he was able to make an 18-foot eagle putt on top of Casey’s 25-foot eagle at the par-5 15th hole. From there, Johnson made pars into the house for the win.
This victory follows Johnson’s breakthrough major at the U.S. Open and the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational, tying him with Jason Day for the most wins on the PGA Tour this season.
This was Johnson’s 12th PGA Tour win, and he’s quickly developing a closer’s mentality with a chance to hoist a trophy.
“The more I practice, the more I’m in the situation, the more I know what to do and what to expect in the situations and kind of know what shots that I can hit and not to hit and I like it,” he said. “I enjoy being in the hunt and having to hit really good shots when you need to and I felt like the last few times I’ve been there I’ve hit some great golf shots to finish it off.”
While Casey wasn’t able to end a PGA Tour winless skid dating back the 2009 Shell Houston Open, he was able to move into the top five in the FedEx Cup standings. That assures the Englishman that he can win the FedEx Cup and its $ 10 million prize outright if he can win the playoff- and season-ending Tour Championship in two weeks in Atlanta.
Johnson heads into East Lake as the FedEx Cup leader, while Barclays winner Patrick Reed is second, Adam Scott is third and world No. 1 Jason Day, who withdrew from the BMW after nine holes on Sunday with a back problem, is fourth.
Rory McIlroy, who won the Deutsche Bank Championship, is in sixth, while defending FedEx Cup champion Jordan Spieth is seventh. In the previous nine years of the FedEx Cup, no player has successfully defended the season-long title.
Four players managed to play their way into the top 30 with their Sunday finish. Roberto Castro made the move of the week with his solo third-place finish, going from 53rd to 21st. J.B. Holmes, who finished tied for fourth, and Daniel Berger also played into the Tour Championship. Charl Schwartzel, who also tied for fourth, went from 43rd to 30th, making Rickie Fowler this year’s bubble boy as the first man out of the playoff finale.
For Fowler, however, the Ryder Cup is a bigger deal. He doesn’t know if he’s done enough to merit a wild-card pick, three of which will be made on Monday, from Davis Love III.
“I’ve done basically everything I can do as far as schedule and playing and obviously it would have been nice to play better to make the pick a lot easier on him, but whether he has his mind made up or is still thinking, that’s up to him,” Fowler said.
Castro, who went to Georgia Tech, is excited to go home with an opportunity to win a lot of money.
“I got nothing to lose,” Castro said. “There’s 10 million good reasons to play aggressive at home. So, it’s going to be great. Friends and family there, and I love going back to East Lake.”
Ryan Ballengee is a Yahoo Sports contributor. Find him on Facebook and Twitter.
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