Dustin Johnson Lights Up the Northern Trust

Turns out that the hottest dude in golf kept the sizzle crackling when the PGA Tour's three-week playoffs fired up.

Dustin Johnson blew away the field while renting TPC Boston asunder, finishing an ultra-spiffy 30-under for the weekend to claim the Northern Trust title and the $1.71million check that went with it.

Think of it as adding the green theme to a stratospheric performance that made for a sorta metaphoric Northern borealis over the Boston area.

 

All those FedEx Cup points that are accrued through the season come home to roost in the playoffs:

• The Top 125 make it to the Northern Trust, and after it adds to point totals,
• The Top 70 advance to the BMW Championship the following week, after which points are tallied again and
• The Top 30 move on to the Tour Championship, where the Supreme Linkster is anointed.

Johnson's been jockeying with Jon Rahm lately to sort out who's who in the zoo, and after this weekend, dude left no doubt:

 

Think of it as golf's version of vapor trails.

Dude's 30-down was one stroke shy of the Tour's record for a four-round blitz. That's what happens when one hits the greens in regulation. Johnson's round-by-round total in that department went 15, 17, 15, and then all 18 greens on Sunday.

The follow-up advantage to that is he led the field by requiring a mere 104 putts for the tourney. This efficiency also helped account for the fact he had at least an eagle in each round and five overall.

All in all, just a classic in-the-zone experience.

 

Incidentally, he's the World No 1 again, too.

The BMW's next, but after this performance, Johnson's odds-on to receive the -10 head start when the Tour title's on the line the week after that.