Who dominated in 2018? Hint: It wasn’t Justin Rose
By Bill Felber
1. Dustin Johnson (4), -1.48
Save for a missed cut at the British Open, Johnson’s was an almost universally solid and often excellent season. He won the Tournament of Champions by an imposing eight strokes, the St. Jude by six and the Canadian by three. As measured against the field averages, those sweeps produced standard deviations of -2.37, -3.36 and -2.98 respectively. That’s true dominance.
He complemented those with runner-ups at the WHC HSBC and the ATT, and placed third at the U.S. Open, the WGC Bridgestone and the Tour Championship at East Lake. His 19 starts included a dozen finishes inside the top 10.
Only that stumble at Carnoustie marred Johnson’s record. His first round 76 did him in and a Friday 70 was three strokes more than the maximum allowable. Aside from that, Johnson never failed to beat the field average by at least two strokes, his average advantage being 1.83 strokes per round. When the field spots you nearly two strokes every 18 holes, you’re going to do pretty well.
Next. South African Open: Top 10 power rankings at Randpark GC. dark
Given all that, why does Johnson rank only fourth in the FedEx Cup tabulation? Two reasons. The first is that the FedEx formula does not factor in a player’s dominance in events; it asks only where they finished. The second is that the Cup formula does not penalize failures such as missed cuts by subtracting points. Johnson not only won, he dominated. And unlike many of his fellow competitors, he rarely packed his bags on Friday.