Down The Stretch, Dustin Johnson Takes Control

During a back nine where nobody seemed to be making a move, Dustin Johnson surged ahead of Graeme McDowell with birdies on 17 and 18 to move to -6. McDowell, at -3, leads third-place Tiger Woods by two strokes. Nobody else is above par heading into Sunday’s action.

Woods and Johnson both submitted the top round of the day, each registering a 66 that featured clutch play down the stretch. As mentioned before, Johnson birdied his last two holes. For Woods, it was the last three. Meanwhile, in the rest of the top 10, only two players (Phil Mickelson, Tim Clark) managed to go even -1 on the final three holes, and both did that with birdies on 16.

Tiger’s “only” five shots back, but staging large Sunday comebacks like this isn’t really his method of success--he’s always best protecting leads, not manufacturing them. But then, that was the old Tiger, and there’s really no predicting what he’ll do Sunday. Just make sure you’re watching.