The TOUR Championship: Power Ranking the top ten at East Lake

Dustin Johnson may not have had the spectacular year we were all expecting early on, but that doesn’t mean he won’t show out at East Lake.

It feels like a year ago that we were all watching peak DJ, crushing everybody who dared stand in his path. A near-miss tie for third at Pebble Beach was followed by three straight wins, and “winning” simply didn’t feel like a strong enough word. Then, the slip at Augusta, where DJ was favored to wear the green jacket turned the whole thing upside down.

It wasn’t all over for Johnson, to be fair, but the last three and a half months have been much more of a roller coaster than they should have been. Still, he’s more than earned his place inside the top three, with a chance to win the FedEx Cup.

This week all boils down to how well Johnson can build off his experiences. He had the FedEx Cup title nearly in the palm of his hands in 2016, but he finished sixth at East Lake, and Rory McIlroy’s playoff win gave the Ulsterman the season title, and the $10 million prize that goes along with it.

You can bet that, if he’s in that same position heading into Sunday, Johnson won’t let it happen again. We saw that killer instinct at play in the playoff at Glen Oaks, and that could be the difference maker this week. It’s not a major, but it would be an amazing capper for the year that could have been.