Big names have blown big golf tournaments after holding big leads.
Remember Greg Norman blowing a 6 shot lead at the 1996 Masters, Nick Faldo took the title, Jordan Spieth lost after leading by 5 shots at Augusta in 2016, the list goes on and includes names like Ken Venturi, Arnie Palmer...
This morning you can add the name Dustin Johnson to that list.
Starting play 6 shots up and cruising at the WGC HSBC Champions, simply overpowering the Shenshan International GC, and putting beautifully with his new Taylor made Spider we all had conceded the event to the world #1.
He bogeyed his first 2 holes and couldn't make a birdie going out in 38, and things got worse on the back with 3 more bogey's and all the rest pars, for 39 and a shocking +5 77, -12 total.
As is always the case, the rest of the field smelled blood, even on a very windy difficult day for scoring.
Henrik Stenson (70) caught him at -12, Brooks Koepka (71) caught him at -12 but it was English star Justin Rose with the round of the day -5 67 that caught and passed them all at -14 to add this WGC HSBC title to his Olympic gold medal and his US Open Championship. He also won the WGC Cadillac Championship in 2012.
Rose started the day 8 behind Johnson and was 6 behind on the 10th tee. However he got hot at the right time making 5 birdies, coming in with just 31 strokes.
This is what he had to say afterwards:
"This is really, really satisfying. All players pride themselves on winning and I've won every year since 2010 (worldwide). I was very aware that that was slipping away from me this year. To win a WGC is just amazing, they count for so much on both tours. It's an incredible start to my 2018 PGA Tour campaign and gives me a real shot in the Race to Dubai as well."
Adam Hadwin with rounds of 69 74 79 73 finished +7 T65
Bryan Angus
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