American Dustin Johnson won the PGA Tour opener at the windswept Tournament of Champions in Hawaii Tuesday.
Johnson had a five-under 68 in the final round at the Kapalua Resort, beating defending champion Steve Stricker by four shots.
"Obviously it gives me a lot of confidence going into this year," Reuters quoted Johnson as saying. "I'm very pleased to come out and get a win this week, I played very good golf the last two days.
"It's tough when you have a three-shot lead to stay aggressive. I just hit a couple of bad drives that cost me a few shots but other than that I played really good golf today."
The winners-only tournament was trimmed to 54 holes because of bad weather. Powerful winds wiped out three days' play and players did face some problems in adjusting with the breeze on the fourth day, but Johnson did not allow the trying conditions to affect his game in the final two holes and finished at 16-under 203.
"It definitely got close out there today," Johnson said. "Sometimes I hit a couple of bad drives, but I was always able to bounce back and do what I needed to do to stay out front."
"It looks like very little fear in him," Steve Stricker added. "Because he'll hit one a little crooked, but he'll pull out that driver again and try it again.
"And he pulled it off, especially at 14. That was the deciding shot and chip for the tournament. Expect a lot of good things as he continues his career."
Johnson has great playing skills and ability to win big golf tournaments, but experts believe that he is little weak in his decision-making and sometimes plays wild shots. For example, in the U.S. Open's final round his shot selection was not up to the mark.
"I've done it enough times that it doesn't really bother me anymore," Johnson said. "I've been in this situation enough now and I've made enough double bogeys in my life.
"You know, it's just another hole, and you've got a lot more holes to go where you can make it up. Fortunately, today I made a double and then the next hole I made eagle.
"That definitely was the turning point of the day, because walking off 13, I was like, 'Oh, no, here it goes again.'
"But I came right back, focused and hit two great shots."
Stricker gave tough completion to Johnson and was at one point just one shot behind of his U.S. Ryder Cup teammate with five holes to play.
"I knew it was going to be tough, but I gave it a run for a little while," Stricker said.
Brandt Snedeker, who shot 5-under during a four-hole stretch, was also one shot behind Johnson at one point of time, but finished at third, six shots behind.
© Copyright 2024 Sports World News, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
