DUSTIN JOHNSON, COMING off his first major victory at last month’s US Open, fired a four-under par 66 on Sunday to overtake top-ranked Jason Day and win the World Golf Championships Bridgestone Invitational.
Johnson birdied three of the last six holes for enough of a cushion to allow for a closing bogey and still win with a 72-hole total of six-under 274 at Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio.
“I played good this weekend,” Johnson said. “I drove it really well, had a lot of shots from the fairway. I rolled the ball really well with the putter.”
Scott Piercy, who finished second behind Johnson at the US Open last month, settled for second again by one stroke after a final-round 70.
Australia’s Day, who defends his PGA Championship crown at the end of the month, suffered a late meltdown with a bogey at the par-3 15th and a double bogey at the par-5 16th to help hand Johnson the victory.
Day finished with a round of 72 to share third with a US trio — world number two Jordan Spieth, Matt Kuchar and Kevin Chappell.
Ireland’s Shane Lowry finished six-over-par in a tie for 36th after shooting a 68 in his final round.
The results set up an intense showdown in two weeks at the year’s third major tournament — the British Open at Royal Troon.
“I feel great,” Johnson said. “I feel like my game is where it has been all year. The last couple weeks I’ve just putted a little bit better and the game shows it.”
It was Johnson’s 11th career triumph in a US PGA event, his third in WGC tournaments, and the 32-year-old American’s third win a row where he rallied in the final round.
Johnson, three shots behind the lead Sunday at Firestrone, was five adrift entering the final round at the 2015 WGC Cadillac Championship but won and was four off the pace last month at Oakmont before a final-round fightback for his first major crown.
Day, whose streak of five wins when he led or shared the lead after 54 holes was ended, missed a 4.5-foot par putt at 15 to fall back into a share of the lead with Johnson.
On the tee at 16, Day smacked a tee shot into the trees left of the fairway, then blasted out from under a limb across the fairway and into trees on the right side. He smashed a third shot into a water hazard on his way to a double bogey, falling to four-under.
Johnson, meanwhile, sank a 16-foot birdie putt at 17 and then found himself into the left trees at 18. He clipped a branch on his second shot and landed in dense rough but put his third onto the green and took a bogey that still kept him ahead by two shots over Piercy and Day.
Both parred 16, meaning they had to make the first eagles at the last at Firestone since 1984 to force a playoff. Neither did as Day went into the rough and made bogey while Piercy put his approach to eight feet and birdied to finish second alone.
Day eagled the par-5 second hole, punching the ball from the fringe 47 feet into the cup to grab a two-stroke lead.
The Aussie took a bogey at the ninth, finding the rough off the tee and on his third shot, but answered with a six-foot birdie putt at the 10th sank a 15-foot par putt from the fringe at 13 to keep the lead.
Johnson, meanwhile, charged early. After following a birdie at the second with a bogey at the third, he sank a 26-foot birdie putt at the par-3 fifth and a 20-footer for birdie at the sixth.
Back-to-back birdies at 13 and 14 set up the closing drama.
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