McIlroy in 3-way tie, nears Race for Dubai title

ATLANTA — Dustin Johnson started with the lead, matched the low round Sunday at the TOUR Championship with a 6-under 64 and now is one round away from capturing the FedExCup. Johnson missed only three fairways and putted for birdie on all but three holes. It led to a five-shot lead over Justin Thomas and Xander Schauffele going into the Labor Day finish at East Lake. RELATED: Full leaderboard | McIlroy explains second shot on 18 from Saturday “He’s showcased what he can do,” Schauffele said. “If he does what he normally does, it’s going to be almost impossible to catch him.” No one was playing better going into the FedExCup finale and Johnson has shown no signs of slowing. He was at 19-under par, his fourth consecutive event holding at least a share of the 54-hole lead. He converted one of those into an 11-shot victory two weeks ago at TPC Boston. He lost to a 65 by Collin Morikawa in the PGA Championship and to a 65-foot putt in a playoff by Jon Rahm last week at Olympia Fields. Now only four players have a reasonable chance of catching him. Schauffele, a big-game player who won the TOUR Championship three years ago, dropped only one shot on the front nine and finished with a 10-foot birdie putt for a 67 that puts him in the final group with Johnson. Thomas missed a 16-inch par putt on the 10th hole that he careless went ot tap in, bounced back with a 25-foot birdie putt on the toughest par 3 at East Lake and make two more birdies coming for a 66. They were at 14 under. “DJ is clearly playing well. It wasn’t easy today,” Thomas said. “It’s still East Lake. But anything can happen around this course. You can shoot 63 or 64 and you can shoot 73 or 74 very easily. I just need to hope that tomorrow is my 63 or 64.” Jon Rahm played bogey-free, but only a pair of birdies at the end made it feel like a better day with his 66. He was six shots behind, while Morikawa rallied with five birdies on the back nine to salvage a rough start for a 67. He was seven behind. Daniel Berger also had a 64, but he made up no ground on Johnson was remained nine behind. Also at 10 under was Sungjae Im, who played in the final group with Johnson and must have wondered what hit him. Im shot 72. The FedExCup has been on Johnson’s mind ever since he squandered a great chance to win it in 2016. He went into the final round that year tied for the lead and then couldn’t find a fairway, closing with a 73. He still had a chance to win the FedExCup when it was based on points. Only one player could have beaten him that day and it was Rory McIlroy, who holed a shot from the fairway on the 16th for eagle and then won in a three-way playoff. McIlroy won’t be in the mix this year. He had to birdie the par-5 18th for a 70 and was 11 shots behind.

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The PGA TOUR is back on the mainland – specifically the Coachella Valley in Southern California. This year marks the 60th anniversary of the Desert Classic. Arnold Palmer won the inaugural event in 1960, then won it for a fifth time in 1973, a victory that would be the last TOUR win of his legendary career. We’ll be thinking of Arnie this week. THE FLYOVER The 435-yard par-4 18th at the Stadium Course was ranked in the middle of the pack among all closing holes on TOUR last season (25th of 51 with a stroke average of 4.043). Water down the left side and a bunker complex on the right ratchets up the difficulty level – especially if you’re in the mix late Sunday afternoon. PGA West master instructor Bryan Lebedevich discusses the challenges of the 18th below. LANDING ZONE The 195-yard par-3 13th ranked 26th hardest among the 918 holes played on the PGA TOUR last season, playing to a stroke average of 3.302. Not only did it produce 13 double bogeys, but also eight “others.â€� The other 17 holes combined at the Stadium Course had nine others. Because of the water, you can’t miss left, and there’s not much room right of the green to bail out. So, yeah, pretty tough hole. Here’s where all recorded tee shots landed last year. WEATHER CHECK From PGA TOUR meteorologist Wade Stettner: “Another storm system will impact Southern California on Thursday with mostly cloudy skies and a chance for rain showers. Most of the rain will fall west of the mountains, but there may still be a few light showers and periods of light rain. Total rainfall on Thursday is forecast under 0.10 of an inch. Dry weather is forecast from Friday through Sunday with warm afternoon temperatures. Breezy conditions are forecast on Friday with winds gusting to 25 mph.â€� For the latest weather news from La Quinta, California, check out PGATOUR.COM’s Weather Hub. SOUND CHECK I get a good vibe in California. I like it. What can I say?   BY THE NUMBERS 5 – Players in the FedExCup era who made the Desert Classic their first career TOUR victory (Charley Hoffman in 2007, Pat Perez in 2009, Bill Haas in 2010, Jhonattan Vegas in 2011 and Hudson Swafford in 2017). 68.83 – Scoring average last season at La Quinta, making it the third easiest course on TOUR behind Aronimink (67.88) and Sedgefield (68.69). That was also the lowest scoring average at La Quinta in the ShotLink era since 1983. 7,503 – Strokes under par on the par 5s at the Desert Classic since 2012. No other tournament on TOUR has had easier par 5s than the three courses used at this event. SCATTERSHOTS 30-Birdie Club: Since the 2013-14 PGA TOUR season, there have been four TOUR winners who made 30 total birdies on their way to victory in four-round events. Two of those have come at the Desert Classic — Jason Dufner in 206 and Patrick Reed in 2014. The other two were Justin Thomas at the 2015 CIMB Classic and Michael Kim at the 2018 John Deere Classic. Charl’s Debut: Among the first-time Desert Classic participants this week is South African Charl Schwartzel, who will be making his 183rd career start on the PGA TOUR. Schwartzel’s best results in any tournament debut were solo thirds at the 2013 AT&T Byron Nelson and third (with teammate Louis Oosthuizen) at the 2018 Zurich Classic of New Orleans. Fast Starter: Will 2007 Desert Classic winner Charley Hoffman gets off to another fast start this week? He’s a combined 42 under in the first round in his 11 career starts (five different courses), and his first-round stroke average of 68.18 is his third-best Round 1 scoring average at any tournament . He has 11 opening-round scores of par or better. After starting at La Quinta the last four years, Hoffman will start out at the Stadium Course on Thursday with Schwartzel as his playing partner (along with their amateur teammates). Another Big Hitter: USC freshman Charlie Reiter is considered one of the longest hitters of any 2019 freshman golfer. The Palm Desert High School grad, who is playing on a sponsor exemption this week, isn’t exactly sure how he generates all that power. “I think I was just born with it, maybe,â€� he said.

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