Watch the penultimate event of the FedExCup Play-Offs on Sky Sports Live Featured Group coverage begins Thursday at 6pm
Wednesday 26 August 2020 10:38, UK
Dustin Johnson is confident of another strong week at the BMW Championship as he looks to start the PGA Tour season finale on top of the FedExCup standings.
Johnson arrived at Olympia Fields on the back of a stunning 11-shot win at The Northern Trust last week, a victory which took him to the top of both the world rankings and the FedExCup standings.
The layout this week should be significantly tougher than the challenge posed by TPC Boston, where Johnson's winning score of 30 under par was only one shy of the PGA Tour record, but he is determined to head to the Tour Championship with the lead in the staggered-start format at East Lake.
"Obviously, a goal of mine is to be a FedExCup champion," said Johnson, who has yet to win the lucrative end-of-season title despite winning five career events in the Play-Offs. "It's something that I really would like to be that I haven't done yet.
Get the best prices and book a round at one of 1,700 courses across the UK & Ireland
"I've been close a couple times, but obviously this week is another week for me to go out and play well and hopefully hold that No 1 position going into East Lake because that's where you want to be starting next week is No 1.
"But being No 1 is a bonus, but you're still going to have to play really good golf if you want to win the FedExCup Championship," added Johnson, who believes his form bodes well for big weeks at Olympia Fields at East Lake following a performance he described as the best ball-striking week of his career.
"East Lake is a tough golf course, you've got to drive it straight, got to hit quality iron shots," he said. "And then I've had kind of a mixed bag of tournaments at East Lake. I've played there a lot. I like the golf course. I either play it really well or I play it horribly. But it's a tough golf course.
"I feel like the more I play it, the more comfortable I get. Obviously with my game feeling as good as it is right now, I'm really looking forward to going to East Lake because it's a golf course where if you drive it straight there, you can shoot good scores, and right now obviously I'm driving it pretty straight.
"Hopefully I can continue doing that for the next couple weeks, and I think we'll be in good shape."
Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy have both admitted in recent weeks that they have struggled for focus and motivation with no spectators permitted on site, but that has not affected Johnson.
"I still go into a round now even without all the fans with kind of the same mindset as I would if there was a bunch of fans out there," he said. "Either way it doesn't really affect me because I'm used to playing with them.
"But I still get the same feelings whether there's people out there watching or not just because I'm so used to it, and obviously you know a lot of people at home are watching.
"Yeah, I do miss the crowds. I mean, obviously there's a lot more electricity in the air. But it doesn't affect me one way or the other."
