Dustin Johnson finally gets over the hump at the Masters

Dustin Johnson proved on Sunday at the Masters he’s no longer the player that lets majors slip away

Tiger Woods was trying to defend the title he won so memorably a year ago. Bryson DeChambeau mounted a quest to play Augusta National as no one else had ever done before. Rory McIlroy was going for the career Grand Slam. These were the headlines at the start of the week. But if the 84th Masters proved anything, it’s that Dustin Johnson is the best golfer on the planet.

Johnson, the No. 1 ranked player in the world, staged a Tiger-esque assault on the Masters record books this week. He broke the tournament scoring record by two shots, finishing at 20-under. His five-shot margin was the largest at the Masters since Tiger won by 12 in 1997.

What it adds up to is Johnson, formerly the best player with only one major championship, is now a two-time winner, doing so in a way he had consistently failed to do before.

Johnson’s struggles with 54-hole leads at the majors have been replayed time-and-again over the course of his career. His 82 at Pebble Beach in 2010; the penalty stroke for grounding his club in a bunker that kept him out of a playoff at the 2010 PGA Championship; his three-putt from 12 feet at Chambers Bay in 2015.

These past misses were all part of Johnson’s story. For all his successes, including a tour-leading 23 victories since 2008 and a U.S. Open title, they came to define him. Not anymore.

Johnson began Sunday’s final round at Augusta National with a four-shot lead. By the time he was preparing to make the turn, Cameron Smith had reduced that to one shot. Johnson bogeyed both the fourth and fifth holes and, suddenly, a major title seemed to be slipping from his grasp again.

But then he hit his approach shot on the par-three sixth hole to seven feet and made a bounce-back birdie. He reached the green on the par-five eighth in two and two-putted for another birdie. He laid up on both par-fives on the back-nine, the 13th and 15th, but got up-and-down for birdie both times.

When he rolled in his birdie putt on the 15th green, Johnson did what no one had ever managed to do in the previous 83 Masters tournaments: reach 20-under-par. His four-under 68 on Sunday was tied for the best score of the day, even though he didn’t need it.

Smith became the first player in Masters history to shoot four rounds in the 60s but still lost by five. Such was the level of Johnson’s play this week.

Back in July, Johnson did the unthinkable, shooting consecutive rounds of 80. He blamed a back injury and withdrew from his next tournament to rest. He returned to the tour to finish second at the PGA Championship in August. He’s finished first or second in six of his last seven events, a level of dominance on tour not seen since Woods’ heyday.

Smith put on a gutsy performance on Sunday to finish runner-up in a major for the first time. Sungjae Im, in his Masters debut, tied Smith for second at the age of 22. Their day will come.

But on Sunday, at a Masters unlike any other, it was Johnson’s time to shine, finally putting to rest the narrative that he couldn’t succeed at a major. He owned Augusta National this week. He won’t have to wait long to do it again.

The next Masters is just five months away, and if he plays like this again, no one can stop him.