Tuesday 8 September 2020 12:41, UK
Paul McGinley pays tribute to FedExCup champion Dustin Johnson and believes his impressive form over the last month makes him the outstanding favourite leading into the US Open at Winged Foot...
I'm pleased for Dustin Johnson, and all credit to him. What he just did at East Lake wasn't easy. He might have made it look easy, but there was a lot of battling going on out there.
His competitiveness has been questioned by many people on many occasions and there's no doubt he's let opportunities slip in the past and dropped the ball on occasions, but he's also a prolific winner.
He had two guys chasing him down in Atlanta and both Justin Thomas and Xander Schauffele got off to good starts, but Dustin matched them and kept his nose in front. Hopefully that will give him another boost in confidence because there's no doubt he's the clear favourite now for the US Open next week.
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DJ's last four events - second, first, second and first - against the best players in the world, that is some run of form he's on at the moment. And rightly he's the best player in the world, the FedExCup champion and the PGA Tour Player of the Year.
The last few weeks he's had that look about him. He's had that bite, that vision, the sense of destiny and determination, the focus, the drive, and all that is the key for him at the moment and why he's on top of the world rankings.
It's not always going to be there, but he has it at the moment and the big thing for now is holding onto all that for a couple more weeks and going on to win a second US Open.
Thomas and Schauffele did what they needed to do early in the final round of the Tour Championship, and Dustin matched them. The first six holes were crucial, and he played them in three under par.
You have to give him so much credit, and it wasn't just the birdies that were crucial. DJ holed a really good putt on nine to avoid making three bogeys in a row, and momentum is so important. It plays on your mind and it's so critical to stem the flow when you're bleeding.
And after the save at 13, he steadied the ship coming in and he's ended up with a terrific win, and $15m! But I think the title meant more to him, I don't think the money is going to change his life.
It's significant that he's now won something he's never won before, and we all expect so much from Dustin Johnson because he is such a talented player.
Can he take this form to the next level now, with the US Open coming up? Of course he can. The "X-Factor" we're all searching for is confidence, and after two wins and two runner-up finishes in his last four starts, against high-quality fields, there's no doubt he's got that confidence.
But he's also got a good track record on difficult golf courses, and Winged Foot is an incredibly difficult course. I understand that it's being set-up really tough, with very heavy rough for the US Open, and Dustin has excelled in the past on an examination of golf like that.
So yes, he's going to be the clear favourite but, most importantly, he's got the form going into the US Open and that confidence is vital heading into a major. There is so little between the top four or five players in the game right now, and that extra confidence is often the difference.
Dustin Johnson is at the top of his game. He's putting very well, his mind is in the right place, and he's ticking all the right boxes at the moment.
I was really impressed with his performance at East Lake. He said it's been a great season, so let's hope he doesn't switch off with two majors coming up. Ultimately, his career is going to be defined by major wins, and I hope he can keep this form going because I do want to see him win more majors.
The US Open is going to be fabulous, especially with so many of the top players in the world playing so well recently. There are some great guys at the top of the game, and the standards are so high.
