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The scene was a familiar one. Jason Day was grinding out par after par on the back nine of a monster tournament, and everybody else was chasing him. There were big names, yes, like Dustin Johnson and Jordan Spieth, but Day's greatest strength (mental acuity) seemed to be enough to keep the best players in the world at bay for his eighth win in 20 starts and his second WGC win of the season.

Then a funny thing happened.

Day made a double bogey at the par-5 16th hole at Firestone after hitting out from behind two trees and dumping one in the water. While he was doing that, Johnson made a birdie at the par-4 17th and took a big lead going into the final hole. He ended up making bogey at that hole, but it didn't matter as he won by two over Scott Piercy and three over Day to take his second straight PGA Tour event and 11th of his career.

Johnson shot 66-66 on the weekend and birdied three of his last six holes on Sunday for the close and title. He has, in the span of two weeks, erased the flimsy narrative about himself that he's not a closer. His last three wins (Doral in 2015, Oakmont and Firestone in 2016) have all come when he was trailing by three or more going to the final round.


While we're here, this is another narrative I'd like to put to rest. "DJ is an atrocious putter!" says pretty much everyone. Except that he's in the top 50 on the PGA Tour in strokes gained putting and finished No. 8 in the field this week at Bridgestone.

So the Summer of D.J. gets an early kick-start as the tour heads to the British Open and PGA Championship as two of its next three events. Can Johnson swipe two more events and surpass Rory McIlroy on the career PGA Tour wins list? He certainly should be the favorite in one if not both of those tournaments. If he putts as well as he has the last two events then we could be talking about his 2015-16 season in Spieth-ian or even Tiger-esque terms.

Grade: A

Her are the rest of our grades for the Bridgestone Invitational.

Jordan Spieth: Spieth lit into those of us writing about golf for a living with a few tweets on Saturday following his dust up with the par-5 16th hole (he triple bogeyed it). But other than that, he was again very good this week. Just think, if he'd made par on that hole, he would have been in a playoff with Johnson. As it was, he finished T3.

He is maybe more over-scrutinized than anyone else in the game so his "failures" are magnified more than they should be. He's in fine form going to Troon for The Open though. Plus, he did this.

Grade: A

Rickie Fowler: Fowler notched his seventh top 10 of the season as he closed with a 67. That's normally a ho-hum week for Fowler, but he badly needed something positive after a poor stretch in which he missed cuts at The Players Championship, the Memorial Tournament and the U.S. Open. Confidence should be up again as he heads to Scotland (which has secretly always been his best shot at a major championship). Grade: B+

Jason Day: Not sure what to make of Day here. He was terrible off the tee for much of the week, and yet still came within a bad hole of winning his second WGC event of the season. On the other hand, he had the tournament in his hands and would have made a playoff with just three pars coming home. I'm pretty sure it's simply proof that he's the best grinder alive even without his best stuff, but I can't give him an "A" with that finish. Grade: A-

Bubba Watson: Watson finished T14, but he gets an "A" for his $250,000 donation to the good folks of West Virginia. Grade: A+

Tiger Woods: Wait, Tiger Woods? Every WGC win is a reminder of Woods' ridiculous greatness in years gone by. Consider this stat, and enjoy your 4th of July holiday. Grade: A

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Dustin Johnson wins another one. USATSI