By Christopher Powers
Even with a history of painful near-misses, when Dustin Johnson gives himself a chance to win through 54 holes, he’s proved to be a good guy to bet on. Sunday at the RBC Canadian Open, Johnson grabbed hold of the solo lead right from the start and never let go, calmly strutting his way to a 19th career PGA Tour victory and joining some elite company in the process.

The win comes off a rough stretch by Johnson’s standards in his last two starts, one being a solo third that featured a tough weekend at Shinnecock Hills during the U.S. Open, and the other being his first missed cut in over a year at the Open Championship at Carnoustie. But as Johnson has often proved in the last three years, anytime you question where his game is at he usually responds in impressive fashion.

That’s what he did on Sunday at Glen Abbey Golf Club outside of Toronto, carding a final-round 66 to win by a comfortable three strokes over Whee Kim and Byeong Hun An, who each carded three-under 69s that weren’t enough to keep pace with the World No. 1.

Related: The clubs Dustin Johnson used to win at Glen Abbey

“It means a lot, it’s the last time the RBC is going to be here at Glen Abbey,” said Johnson, who overpowered the Jack Nicklaus-design all week, leading the field in strokes-gained/off-the-tee. “It’s a golf course I really like, I play well at it. So, it definitely means a lot to win here, got a lot of fans out here thanks to Wayne [Gretzky] and the family. It was a great week.”

As Johnson cruised down the back nine, it was easy to see why he loves the course so much. His towering drives made Glen Abbey’s three back-nine par 5s play like par 4s, with Johnson needing only short irons to reach the green on his second shots. The most impressive display came at the par-5 16th, where Johnson missed the fairway with his tee shot, leaving him a difficult 180 yard approach on a downslope, out of the rough to a back left pin. For Johnson, it was a pitching wedge that landed on the green and just rolled off the back, leading to one of his seven birdies on Sunday.

Even a weather delay that stopped play for roughly 90 minutes couldn’t derail Johnson.

The victory makes him the first player since Tiger Woods to win three or more events in three consecutive years, Woods accomplishing the feat in 2009. It also puts him in a tie for 38th on the all-time tour win list, joining Hall-of-Famers Ben Crenshaw, Ernie Els, Doug Ford, Hubert Green and Tom Kite.

“It takes a lot of work,” Johnson said. “A lot of support, I got a great family and get a lot of support from them. They’re a great team to help me get to where I’m at.”

For Kim and An it was still a good week, each of them matching their season-best T-2 finish.

Keegan Bradley, whose eight-under 64 was the low round of the day, finished in solo fourth, which gives him four finishes of T-7 or better this year. Abraham Ancer finished in solo fifth and Tommy Fleetwood and Danny Lee tied for sixth.

The post Dustin Johnson joins elite company with 19th career win at the RBC Canadian Open appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Christopher Powers
The PGA Tour heads to Canada this week for the RBC Canadian Open, the third oldest tournament on tour after the Open Championship and U.S. Open. For the fifth straight season and 30th time total, it will be held at Glen Abbey Golf Course in Oakville, Ontario. Next year the event heads back to Hamilton Golf and Country Club for the first time since 2012.

This year’s field is surprisingly strong for an event following a major championship, with world No. 1 Dustin Johnson leading the way and looking to break through in an event he’s finished runner-up in twice in the last five years. To do so he’ll have to beat the likes of Brooks Koepka, Tommy Fleetwood, Matt Kuchar, Kevin Kisner and Bubba Watson.

Another player to watch this week will be Jhonattan Vegas, who has won the RBC Canadian Open the last two seasons, becoming the sixth player in tournament history to win in back-to-back years. A victory this week would make him the only three-peat champion in tournament history, and it would put him in a group with Lee Trevino, Sam Snead, Tommy Armour and Leo Diegel as the only players to win the event three or more times.

Thursday Tee Times

Tee No. 1
7:10 a.m. — Robert Streb, Jason Kokrak, Ricky Barnes
7:20 a.m. — Robert Garrigus, Jamie Lovemark, Andrew Putnam
7:30 a.m. — Retief Goosen, Parker McLachlin, Shawn Stefani
7:40 a.m. — Vaughn Taylor, Jim Furyk, Stewart Cink
7:50 a.m. — Ian Poulter, Chris Stroud, Jimmy Walker
8 a.m. — Gary Woodland, Hudson Swafford, Fabian Gomez
8:10 a.m. — Bill Haas, Nick Watney, Steve Stricker
8:20 a.m. — Matt Jones, Michael Thompson, Martin Piller
8:30 a.m. — John Senden, Rory Sabbatini, Mike Weir
8:40 a.m. — Chad Campbell, Cameron Tringale, Sung Kang
8:50 a.m. — Rob Oppenheim, Adam Schenk, Mitchell Sutton
9 a.m. — Jonathan Randolph, Michael Gligic, Cameron Champ
9:10 a.m. — Lanto Griffin, Kyle Thompson, Joey Savoie
12:25 p.m. — Whee Kim, Dominic Bozzelli, Corey Conners
12:35 p.m. — J.B. Holmes, Nick Taylor, J.T. Poston
12:45 p.m. — Byeong Hun An, Blayne Barber, Joaquin Niemann
12:55 p.m. — Si Woo Kim, Wesley Bryan, D.A. Points
1:05 p.m. — Troy Merritt, Mackenzie Hughes, Graeme McDowell
1:15 p.m. — Brooks Koepka, Jhonattan Vegas, Tommy Fleetwood
1:25 p.m. — Sergio Garcia, Charley Hoffman, Brandt Snedeker
1:35 p.m. — Johnson Wagner, Martin Flores, Harold Varner III
1:45 p.m. — Danny Lee, Ken Duke, Ryan Blaum
1:55 p.m. — Brett Stegmaier, Nicholas Lindheim, Justin YW Kim
2:05 p.m. — Tom Lovelady, Zach Wright, Norman Xiong
2:15 p.m. — Sam Ryder, Sam Fidone, George Cunningham
2:25 p.m. — Xinjun Zhang, Conrad Shindler, Ryan Yip

Tee No. 10
7:10 a.m. — Jonathan Byrd, Seamus Power, Tyler Duncan
7:20 a.m. — Ben Crane, Scott Brown, Sam Saunders
7:30 a.m. — Chez Reavie, David Hearn, Steve Wheatcroft
7:40 a.m. — Billy Horschel, Billy Hurley III, Brian Stuard
7:50 a.m. — Jonas Blixt, Rod Pampling, Chris Kirk
8 a.m. — Kevin Kisner, Tony Finau, Matt Kuchar
8:10 a.m. — Bubba Watson, Dustin Johnson, Adam Hadwin
8:20 a.m. — Sean O’Hair, Ryan Palmer, Keith Mitchell
8:30 a.m. — Hunter Mahan, Scott Stallings, J.J. Spaun
8:40 a.m. — Bronson Burgoon, Denny McCarthy, Marc-Etienne Bussieres
8:50 a.m. — Will Claxton, Talor Gooch, Zachary Bauchou
9 a.m. — Joel Dahmen, Russell Budd, Jared du Toit
9:10 a.m. — Matt Akins, Todd Farning, Dylan Meyer
12:25 p.m. — Harris English, Patrick Rodgers, Zac Blair
12:35 p.m. — J.J. Henry, John Huh, Daniel Summerhays
12:45 p.m. — Ollie Schniederjans, Abraham Ancer, Brandon Harkins
12:55 p.m. — James Hahn, David Lingmerth, Matt Every
1:05 p.m. — Aaron Baddeley, Peter Malnati, Sangmoon Bae
1:15 p.m. — Ryan Armour, William McGirt, Shane Lowry
1:25 p.m. — Alex Cejka, Cameron Percy, Tom Hoge
1:35 p.m. — Martin Laird, Andres Romero, Tyrone Van Aswegen
1:45 p.m. — Keegan Bradley, Kelly Kraft, Kevin Tway
1:55 p.m. — Roberto Diaz, Zecheng Dou, Chris Crisologo
2:05 p.m. — Stephan Jaeger, Adam Svensson, Huge Bernard2:1
5 p.m. — Ben Silverman, Roger Sloan, Austin Connelly
2:25 p.m. — Ethan Tracy, Andrew Yun, Nyasha Mauchaza

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