ATLANTA >> Dustin Johnson is playing superior to anything anybody on the planet, and Kevin Chappell can scarcely hold up to watch him at the Tour Championship. In spite of the way that that proposes beating him.
Johnson controlled his way down the fairways and on occasion out of the rankled threatening at East Lake on Friday for a 3-under 67, giving him a one-shot lead over Chappell and drawing him one round nearer to the $10 million FedEx Cup prize.
The U.S. Open champion is on an other level pleasant point.
Certainly, even on a requesting test like East Lake this year — just 10 players stay under standard — Johnson is hitting his driver long and straight. His wedge vitality has gone from an insufficiency to a quality. Another putter he put in play two weeks back when he won the BMW Championship is giving him an unrivaled vibe for strategy.
Little consider this was his seventh straight round at 68 or better amidst the FedEx Cup playoffs.
"The redirection is never clear. I wish it was," Johnson said. "Unmistakably, I'm playing great wonderful point. I have a vital measure of trust in my redirection. Dependably, I have a slant that I bring the same preoccupation, which is not very shocking. In any case, I put in a monster measure of work to get to where I am."
Johnson was at 7-under 203.
Chappell, one of two players at the Tour Championship who has yet to win on the PGA Tour, was in a general sense as strong, paying little notice to the way that it doesn't look as impressive. He has made one and starting late gatecrasher in 36 openings, a massive accomplishment on a course where the Bermuda unforgiving is spurning to the point that balls sink to the ground and now and again can't be seen from a foot away.
He shot a 68 and will be in the last assembling of a playoff occasion for the second time this year.
Kevin Kisner (70) and Hideki Matsuyama (71) were four shots behind, while Rory McIlroy vanquished another unforgiving begin on the front nine to post a 70. He was in the social affair five shots behind, which isn't definitively sensibly a need at the midpoint aside from Johnson being the one they need to look numerous.
By uprightness of nothing else, Johnson everything beside shed basically everybody not among the standard five seeds vieing for the FedEx Cup. McIlroy is No. 6 and still has a chance, in any case he would need to win the Tour Championship and Johnson would need to complete third.
"I have to win, and I basically oblige some individual to play in the same class as Dustin this week," McIlroy said.
Jason Day is exceptional and gone. The world's No. 1 player pulled back amidst a round at the second in development competition, refering to the same abrading back issues that he trusts will be cured by rest.
By Day pulling back, Johnson won the focuses based PGA player of the year give and is at danger to win the player vote as PGA Tour player of the year in light of his three triumphs, with possibly another to take after.
Notwithstanding, there is still work before him, and that begins with Chappell."I guarantee you, I'll be diagram Dustin," Chappell said. "He's the best player on the planet starting now, and it's an open section for me to see where my redirection is. There's a golf debate going on, and I have an opportunity to win that. That is a finished target. Regardless, I in like way have an opportunity to see why he's the best player on the planet starting now, and I expect misusing that open passageway."
Chappell has been a runner-up three times this season and continues running into the wrong individuals — Kisner at Sea Island, Day at Bay Hill and The Players Championship. He moreover was in the blend at the TPC Boston until McIlroy pulled away.
"It shows up I like conflicting with the hot player at the time," he said.
Russell Knox bolstered the low score of the impediment with a 66 that permitted him to get back under standard at 1-under 139, close by Justin Thomas, who is still certain of a Ryder Cup pick toward the end of the week.
Thomas lost a shot when his ball moved stupendously fine set his putter down behind a short standard putt on the eleventh opening. The PGA Tour explored it on tape and gave him a one-shot control under Rule 18-2, the same solicitation connected with Johnson at Oakmont in the U.S. Open.
Thomas couldn't swear off refuting, yet saw, the control. His request was it was not a level surface and the greens were running brisk
"It's nothing against the standards powers. It's a perfect being stunning essential," Thomas said. "It's amazingly blessed it didn't cost Dustin an essential title. I trust it doesn't cost me anything. I don't feel like I did anything wrongly."
Mark Russell, the VP of models and rivalry for the visit, said, the wind was light and the ball had been still "for a long time."
"In like way, the minute that Justin put his club behind the ball and tended to the ball, the ball moved," he said. "In that condition, the affirmation is against the player and he was blamed."
That left him six shots behind Johnson rather than five. In any case, it's a troublesome requesting Thomas or anybody to catch Johnson.
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