Dustin Johnson blows away the field at The Northern Trust

Dustin Johnson left the field in his wake with a dominant performance at TPC Boston

Like Secretariat leaving the field in his dust at the Belmont, Dustin Johnson had a rendezvous with history this week at The Northern Trust.

The only question during Sunday’s final round at TPC Boston wasn’t whether Johnson would win his 22nd PGA Tour title. That matter was already settled well before he reached the 18th green. Instead, it was how much he would win by and just how record-shattering his victory in the opening event of the FedEx Cup playoffs would be.

Johnson finished the tournament at 30-under after a bogey-free 63 on Sunday, joining Ernie Els in 2003 and Jordan Spieth in 2016, both at the Tournament of Champions, as the only players in PGA Tour history to reach that mark in a 72-hole event. He was 11 shots clear of second-place Harris English, the largest margin of victory on tour since Phil Mickelson won the BellSouth Classic by 13 in 2006. No player had won by double-digits in more than a decade.

Dustin Johnson had himself quite a week

Johnson just missed the scoring record, shooting 254 over the par-71 layout at TPC Boston; Justin Thomas shot 253 at the Sony Open in 2017. He also came one shot short of Els’ record of 31-under. But that shouldn’t take away from just how dominant his performance this week was. He tied the PGA Tour record by making five eagles for the week. He gained 18.14 strokes tee to green, the most by a PGA Tour champion since 2007. Flirting with a 59 on Friday, he shot 64 or better each of the final three rounds; his 187 was the lowest 54-hole score in PGA Tour history. And he made just one bogey over his last 56 holes.

Johnson could only laugh afterward over the fact he had a chance to do even better. “I missed quite a few short putts, but other than that, I did everything pretty well,” he said at his post-victory press conference.

It was a career-defining moment for the 36-year-old Johnson, one that comes at just the right time. Johnson is now No. 1 on the FedEx Cup points list going into the second event of the playoffs, the BMW Championship at Olympia Fields in Chicago, next week. He’ll then have a chance to win the $15 million prize awarded to the FedEx Cup champion the following week at the Tour Championship. It’s a trophy he’s never won but desperately wants to add to his collection.

“For me, it’s something that I haven’t won. It’s something I’ve been close to winning a few times. It’s just something that I would really like to have on my resume when I’m done playing golf,” he said. “It’s a big title. It means a lot to all the guys out here. It means a lot to me.”

Another big prize awaits Johnson next month. The U.S. Open is two weeks after the conclusion of the FedEx Cup. Johnson is fully aware that, despite his 22 wins, the most on tour since 2008, he only has one major. He finished second at the PGA Championship in his last start heading into this week. There may not be a better time for him to pick up a second major.