Nobody can stop Dustin Johnson from winning the FedEx Cup now

Dustin Johnson is about to be $15 million richer as he carries a 5-shot lead into the final round of the Tour Championship

Eighteen holes. That is all that separates Dustin Johnson from the FedEx Cup title and a $15 million check. And don’t be fooled into thinking there is any suspense heading into Labor Day’s final round. For Johnson, playing at an almost-superhuman level, has ensured etching his name on the trophy is just a mere formality now.

Johnson is doing the same thing to his competitors at the Tour Championship that he did two weeks ago at The Northern Trust. With a combination of bombing drives and a delicate touch on the greens, he’s blowing away the field. Johnson leads by 5 shots, the largest 54-hole lead since the Tour Championship moved permanently to East Lake in 2004.

If Johnson plays as he did during Sunday’s third round, forget anyone catching him. No one will be able to get near him. After hitting just five fairways combined in the first two rounds, he hit 11 of 14 and is second in the field in strokes gained: off the tee. He had the closest approach shot of the day to the par-three ninth hole, leaving it six feet to the right of the pin and rolling in the birdie to make the turn.

On the back-nine, he made birdie putts of 20, 23, and 16 feet before closing with another birdie, clipping a soft chip shot to nine feet on the par-five 18th and holing the putt to get to 19-under. Even taking away the two-shot lead he began the tournament with under the FedEx Cup’s two-year-old format, he would still be in second place at nine-under, behind Xander Schauffele.

If might be Schauffele who will be the one to mount a challenge to Johnson on Monday. His last win, the Sentry Tournament of Champions in January 2019, came when he started the final round five back, the same deficit facing him this week. Or it could be PGA champion Collin Morikawa, who birdied five of his last seven holes and is seven-back. Jon Rahm, who beat Johnson in a playoff last week at the BMW Championship, is at 13-under following a bogey-free, four-under 66. And Justin Thomas, the 2017 FedEx Cup champion, is tied with Schauffele for second at 14-under.

But no one can contend with how Johnson is playing right now. The Tour Championship is the fourth straight PGA Tour event where he held the 54-hole lead. In his last three starts, Johnson was runner-up at the PGA Championship, won The Northern Trust by 11 shots at 30-under, and lost in a playoff to Rahm last week on a miraculous putt. He’s shot sub-70 in 17 of his last 19 rounds and is a combined 62-under in that span. The back-to-back 80s he shot at the Memorial less than two months ago are a distant memory.

Johnson is World No. 1, the hottest player on the planet, and, come Monday, the 2020 FedEx Cup champion. For there is no one left who’s capable of matching the level he’s on right now.