2017 Genesis Open at Riviera results: Dustin Johnson wins and is your new world No. 1

It was Dustin Johnson’s turn to fire a warning shot in this monster opening quarter of 2017. The first two months of the PGA Tour year have seen 20-something after 20-something, the cream of the up-and-coming generation, put Ws up on the board and ignite the Masters hype train. DJ is not a 20-something but he is a lead dog of this post-Tiger era and now, after a dominating win at one of the Tour’s premier events, he’s the No. 1 player in the world.

These first two months of 2017 have delivered two Justin Thomas wins, a Jon Rahm breakout win, a Sergio victory in Dubai, a Hideki Matsuyama vintage in Phoenix, and a Jordan Spieth runaway at Pebble. DJ has as much talent as anyone in the group of elite players, and really, anyone in the world who plays this silly game. That’s been the case for a long time, but he’s realized so much of that potential in the past couple years with a dialed-in wedge game and that first career major championship. Last year was, unquestionably, his best as a pro and he walked away with Player of the Year honors at the end of a season that started with the suffocating “Big Three” narrative (DJ, if you’ll recall, was not a part of that triumvirate).

DJ’s never really had an unimpressive win. When he takes a tournament, whether it be by a shot or four, it always looks breathtaking and sexy as hell. You walk away thinking no one can touch him in the game and he’s going to win every major championship for the rest of time. He just always makes it look so good and overwhelms you with the way he does it. This early-season victory puts him in a pretty exclusive class of players who won each of their first 10 years on the Tour.

But this Sunday was also something else. It never looks like he’s laboring but he barely had to lift a finger as he cruised around Riviera on a marathon 36-hole Sunday with a multi-shot cushion.

It was not close and after playing the third round in the morning following two days of intense rain pounding Los Angeles, this was over. The final round was a formality.

DJ is that kind of talent that once he gets out in front by four, five, six shots, there’s little hope, especially at a course where he’s always shown well. He finished the third round with three straight birdies, went right back out for the fourth round and posted two more red numbers, and it was over. The lead ballooned to seven and the only real drama was whether he would set a new all-time scoring record at the Genesis Open (nee L.A. Open). He threw a couple shots away at the end but it did not matter in the slightest. Like Spieth playing at Pebble last week, DJ just had to run a four-corners offense and not blow up on a Riv track that has fit his bombing style perfectly throughout his career.

As with Spieth at Pebble and Matsuyama (who also had a chance to become No. 1 this week) in Phoenix, the Masters anticipation will now get turned all the way up for DJ. Spieth was candid this week that his win at Pebble will stick in his mind when the Masters comes around, and even 50-some days in advance of the season’s first major, it mattered for Augusta. He said winning in the first quarter of the year does provide a boost for that all-important event.

It’s likely DJ will contend or even win again before Augusta, perhaps at a WGC or two. He has become that consistent and has always been that lethal. He may contend at Augusta or he may not, but it’s pretty damn fun to have him as the new world No. 1 in a start to the year where it seems most of the top young talents in the world are all sending a message.

Here are your final results from Riviera: