Dustin Johnson’s US PGA Tour win streak ended at three this morning at the Wells Fargo Championship where he had to settle for a tie for second with Pat Perez, one stroke behind winner Brian Harman. But Johnson’s finish put to rest any concerns that the back injury that caused him to miss last month’s Masters will have any lingering effect on the world No.1.
After making the cut on the number in his return to action, Johnson posted back-to-back 67s to card his sixth top-six finish in his past eight starts and 15th top-10 finish in his past 19 starts.
RELATED: Brian Harman wins one for the little guys
If not for a second-round 75 – his first over-par score in 14 rounds dating back to the Farmers Insurance Open in January – Johnson may well have added a fourth win to the Genesis Open, WGC-Mexico Championship and the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play titles he’d claimed in his proceeding three starts.
After his shocking slip and fall in his rental house on the Wednesday of Masters week, which forced him to withdraw moments before his first-round tee time at Augusta National, Johnson said he thought the injury was such that there wouldn’t be any long-term effects. Still, Johnson waited four weeks before making his return, and from the sound of it, hadn’t spent much time working out the rust until last week at Eagle Point.
“I did have a lot of time off so I didn’t really know what to expect this week because I didn’t really get to practise leading into this tournament, either, so most of my practice I’ve done since I’ve been here,” Johnson said.
Had Johnson won, he would have become the first player to win four consecutive starts since Tiger Woods in 2007-’08.
Johnson now prepares for this week’s Players Championship, a tournament in which he’s had mixed results. In eight starts, Johnson has made the cut six times but has never finished better than the T-28 showing he had in 2016. His overall scoring average at TPC Sawgrass is 72.58 with his third-round scoring average being 74.17.
