Dustin Johnson embraces role as The Great One at Canadian Open

Dustin Johnson was fueled by fan support on his way to a three-shot victory at the RBC Canadian Open on Sunday.

You wouldn’t know it from watching him this weekend, but Dustin Johnson is not Canadian.

That didn’t seem to matter to the crowds who followed Johnson at the RBC Canadian Open. He was the clear fan favorite at Glen Abbey on his way to a final-round 66 and a three-shot victory at 23-under.

Johnson began the final round in a four-way tie for the lead. He pulled away with birdies on his first two holes, then opened up a three-shot lead with a birdie at the eighth. The only thing that stopped Johnson on Sunday was the weather. After that birdie play was halted for nearly two hours due to a rain delay.

When play resumed, Johnson didn’t let up. He birdied the 11th, the only player in the top-12 to do so on Sunday, then rebounded from a bogey at 12 with another birdie at 13.

It was at the 16th that Johnson put the tournament away like only he knows how. His approach shot to the par-five went 179 yards over the green. From the rough. With a pitching wedge. He got up-and-down from there for a final birdie to seal the victory.

Johnson had the crowd on his side all weekend, owing to his close connection with Canadian royalty. His fiancée is Paulina Gretzky, daughter of hockey legend Wayne. Even playing with Canadian Nick Taylor on Saturday wasn’t enough for the fans to turn on Johnson.

“Well, I can thank Wayne for that,” he said, via Sportsnet, following the third round. “There’s a lot of Gretzky fans out there, and so they tend to pull for me which, thanks Wayne, I appreciate that. I do get a lot of love up here, and the fans have been great this week.”

At the Wednesday pro-am, Johnson even put on Gretzky’s old Edmonton Oilers jersey. When asked at his post-tournament press conference if he felt like an honorary Canadian citizen, he made himself quite clear.

“Absolutely. For sure. Especially with the amount of support I get when I come up here, it’s been great,” he said. “Everyone’s been great to me. Yeah, definitely felt like an honorary Canadian.”

The win is even more special for Johnson because it is likely the last time the Canadian Open will be at Glen Abbey (the owners of the course want to turn it into a housing development). He has been runner-up here two times and finished eighth last year. Johnson says his last chance to win at Glen Abbey was a motivating factor for him to play well Sunday.

"“It’s never going to be back here, so it was big for me to get the win here. I like this golf course a lot. I felt like, you know, I’ve been so close here a couple of times. To get it done here, knowing there was four of us tied for the lead, I knew I was going to go out and play a good round of golf if I was going to win.”"

The win is Johnson’s third of the season, joining Bubba Watson as the only three-time winners on the PGA Tour this year. He has now won at least three times in each of the last three seasons. It is also his 19th career victory, the most by any player since 2008.

Koreans Whee Kim and Byeong Hun An, tied with Johnson and Kevin Tway at the start of the day, finished tied for second at 20-under. It is the second runner-up finish for both players this season. Kim was second at the Shriners Hospitals Open, while An lost a playoff to Bryson DeChambeau at The Memorial.

Tway, son of 2003 Canadian Open champion Bob Tway, shot a four-over 76 to fall into a tie for 17th.

Mackenzie Hughes finished as the top Canadian in a tie for eighth place. No Canadian has won their home event since Pat Fletcher in 1954, a trend that will now continue on to Hamilton Golf and Country Club in 2019.

Next: Each State's Nominee for America's Team