American Dustin Johnson has stamped his recent return to golf with a huge victory, taking out the World Golf Championships event in Miami.
Australian Adam Scott threatened to make a run at the title heading into the back nine on Sunday but ultimately settled for a tie for fourth, five shots behind Johnson.
Johnson started the final round on the Blue Monster course at Doral five shots off the lead but shot a three-under 69 to get to nine-under and prevailing by one shot over JB Holmes.
Holmes had led from an opening round 62 but faltered when it mattered, shooting 75 in the final round to be second alone at eight-under.
Masters champion Bubba Watson, who led the tournament through the middle stages of the final round before a back-nine collapse, shot 71 to finish third at seven-under.
Scott’s 69 tied him with Henrik Stenson (72) in fourth at four-under and was enough to ensure he jumped back over compatriot Jason Day to world No.4.
The victory is Johnson’s second WGC title and ninth US PGA tour win and comes just a month into the 30-year-old’s return after a six-month absence to deal with personal issues.
Day, who will be world No.5, finished with a 71 to join John Senden (74) as the next best Australians in a tie for 31st at three-over while Greg Chalmers (+7), Geoff Ogilvy (+11) and Steven Jeffress (+12) finished at the back end of the field.
Scott opened with five straight pars before finally coaxing in a birdie on the sixth and while he failed to take advantage of the par fives on the front side he closed his opening nine with a 24-foot birdie putt on the ninth.
He then added another birdie at the 10th to begin a potential charge only to see it stall with a loose tee shot into the water on 11.
A resulting bogey made life difficult and he couldn’t muster any more birdies before a final hole bogey finished his run.
“I got off to a really good, solid start and played the first 10 just how you’d kind of plan it but unfortunately a loose tee ball off 11 cost me,” Scott said.
“And then I tried to challenge the course a bit. Maybe I didn’t need to but I tried to be aggressive, and felt like I scrambled much of the rest of the round.
“It wasn’t pretty golf like the first ten holes and I might have made an error there, especially as the leaders came back a little.”
