By Ron Green Jr. of Global Golf Post

Think back to last spring when Dustin Johnson was in the midst of winning three consecutive PGA Tour starts. Johnson did it in the way he tends to do it – by making it look simple.

Johnson’s easy-rolling victory at Kapalua took on a similar look as he gradually siphoned any potential drama about the PGA Tour’s first event in 2018 on Sunday, starting at the final round with a two-stroke lead and quickly doubling it, turning the first Sunday of the new year into a comfortable stroll through the occasional Maui mist.

Last fall, Johnson carried a six-stroke lead into the final round of the WGC-HSBC Championship in Shanghai and managed to kick it away, shooting a final-round 77. There was none of that at the Plantation Course.

While Johnson steadily stacked up birdies, Jon Rahm short-circuited his chances with a couple of short misses around the turn and Brian Harman, closest to Johnson when the final round began, never generated any positive momentum.

If you’re into such things – and the bigger the numbers the more attention they capture – this is Johnson’s 17th PGA Tour victory, tying him with Curtis Strange and Jim Furyk among others. It is also his fifth Tour win in the past 11 months, dating back to his win at the Genesis Open last February.

There is also the impressive string of having won at least one event in each of his 11 seasons on Tour. Johnson hasn’t won every year – he went from November until March 2015 without a victory – but the streak endures as a quirk of the wraparound season.

As for that world No. 1 ranking, Johnson has held for nearly a year since winning at Riviera, there’s no reason to think he is going to surrender it anytime soon. In a year that is still being unwrapped, Johnson put a big shiny bow on the first event.

Driver: TaylorMade M4 (9.5 degrees)
Shaft: Fujikura Speeder 661 Evolution 2.0 Tour Spec X-Flex

3 Wood: TaylorMade M4 (HL, 16.5 degrees)
Shaft: Project X HZRDUS Black 6.5 (95X)

Irons: TaylorMade P-790, TaylorMade P-730 DJ Proto (4-PW)
Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100

Wedges: TaylorMade Milled Grind (52 and 60 degrees), TaylorMade Hi-Toe (64 degrees)
Shafts: KBS Tour Black 130X

Putter: TaylorMade Spider Tour Black (with sightline)

Golf Ball: TaylorMade TP5x

Republished with permission from Global Golf Post