Dustin Johnson closing in on Masters glory after third round

World No. 1 Dustin Johnson opens up a four-shot lead heading into the final round of the Masters.

When Dustin Johnson began his third round of the Masters at 11:48 a.m. in the second-to-last threesome, a tight leaderboard had nine players tied for the lead. By the time he played four holes on Saturday, he may have put the tournament out of reach for everyone else.

The No. 1 player in the world is 18 holes away from putting on the Green Jacket after a superb display that separated him from the field. Johnson shot a bogey-free 65, opening up a four-shot lead heading into Sunday’s final round, his second major championship and first Masters firmly within his reach.

His assault on Augusta National began on the par-five second hole on Saturday. With 220 yards left to the flag for his second shot, Johnson came tantalizingly close to only the second double-eagle on the hole in Masters history, his five-iron approach lipping out and leaving him just three feet for a tap-in eagle. He birdied the short par-four third, then rolled in a 38-footer for birdie at the fourth to get to 13-under for the tournament. Suddenly the five-way tie that he was apart of after 36 holes started to look like a rout.

Johnson played smart when he had to, knowing it was up to the other players to catch him. On the par-five 13th, instead of challenging the tributary of Rae’s Creek or risk going long, he hit his second shot safely into the middle of the green and safely two-putted for birdie. On the 15th, blocked out from a direct line to the green by the pines that guard the left side of the fairway, he hit a sweeping hook that caught the edge of the green and again two-putted for birdie.

All around him, the competition fell apart trying to keep pace. Jon Rahm played the par-five eighth hole like a weekend hacker, chunking his second shot into the trees and hitting his third off a tree trunk and into the thick bushes before making double-bogey on one of the easiest holes on the course. Justin Thomas tried for too much on the 15th and ended up hitting his approach shot over the green and into the lake close to the 16th hole.

Johnson’s closest challengers on Sunday will be Cameron Smith and Masters rookies Sungjae Im and Abraham Ancer. But the one thing that will keep him from a Masters title is himself. He’s 0-4 in converting 54-hole leads at majors in his career. But if he continues to play like this, there is nobody who can catch him.

“I feel like I’m swinging well. I’ve got a lot of confidence in what I’m doing. Everything’s going well. I’m driving it well, hitting a lot of good iron shots,” he said after his round. “Tomorrow I’m going to have to go out and do the same kind of thing. There’s a lot of really good players right around me, so I’ll have to go out and play aggressive when I can and play smart when I can. I’m still going to have to put together a really good round if I want to put on the Green Jacket after tomorrow.”

Johnson is 16-under through 54 holes, tying Jordan Spieth for lowest score in Masters history. He’s already the first player to ever shoot two rounds of 65 in the same Masters. He hit all 14 fairways in regulation on Saturday and 16 of 18 greens; he’s at 87 percent of greens hit in regulation so far this week. And he’s made just two bogeys all tournament.

A player with the ability to hit the ball like Johnson seems destined to win a Masters title eventually. Johnson’s date with destiny appears to be this Sunday.