Dustin Johnson held on to beat Spain’s Jon Rahm 1 up on Sunday to win the World Golf Championships Match Play crown and become the first player to win all four WGC events.
World number one Johnson was 5 up through eight holes but withstood a furious rally by the 22-year-old Spaniard, who was trying to become the youngest winner of one of the elite WGC events.
Rahm’s comeback bid fell short when he was unable to birdie the 18th to extend the match. Johnson rolled in a four-footer for a par to halve the hole and seal the win.
Johnson, the reigning US Open champion, won the WGC HSBC Champions in 2013, the WGC Cadillac Championship in 2015, the WGC Bridgestone Invitational in 2016 and the WGC Mexico Championship earlier this month.
His wins in Mexico and on Sunday in Austin, Texas, saw him join Tiger Woods as the only players to win back-to-back WGC titles.
The victory capped a dominant week for Johnson, who never trailed in any of his seven matches.
Johnson took the final by the throat when he won four straight holes from the third through the six as the ever-more frustrated Rahm struggled with the putter.
But Rahm kept his nerve after falling 5 down when Johnson won the eighth with a par.
And the young Spaniard, who won his first US PGA Tour title at Torrey Pines this year, won the 13th, 15th and 16th with birdies — rolling in a clutch 32-footer at the 16th.
After both parred the par-three 17th, they went to 18 with Johnson 1 up.
Johnson hadn’t been beyond the 16th hole until Sunday. He also had to hang on for a 1 up win over Japan’s Hideto Tanihara in the semi-finals on Sunday morning.
 “I definitely didn’t play my best today in the first match or the second,” Johnson said. “So, to win both those matches not having my best stuff is definitely a positive.
 “And I’m definitely proud of the way I hung in there and played tough and just tried to never give away holes, which I felt like I did a pretty good job of.”

Points champ
American journeyman D.A. Points reaped the benefits of a recent switch to a cross-handed putting style, rolling in nine birdies on his way to a two-stroke victory at the Puerto Rico Open on Sunday.
 Points made a blazing start to the final round with five successive birdies, and also birdied four of the last six holes, carding six-under-par 66 despite three mid-round bogeys on the Coco Beach course in Rio Grande.
 He finished at 20-under 268, while South African Retief Goosen stormed home with a 64 to tie for second with Americans Bryson DeChambeau (67) and Bill Lunde (68) on 18-under.
 Overnight leader Chris Stroud proved prescient in his prediction of a winning score of at least 20-under, but was not the man to post that number, carding 71 to finish four shots behind.
 It is the third PGA Tour victory for 40-year-old Points, after Pebble Beach in 2011 and Houston in 2013.

Lee wins Kia  Classic
South Korean Lee Mi-rim turned a close Kia Classic into a procession, charging clear for a six-stroke victory in Carslbad, California on Sunday.
 Starting the day one-stroke in front, Lee birdied all five odd-numbered holes on the front nine en route to a seven-under-par 65 on the Aviara course.
 Her 20-under 268 total matched the tournament record low set by Cristie Kerr in 2015, when Lee finished runner-up.
 “It’s been a long time to be winner of the tournament,” Lee told reporters via a translator after clinching her third LPGA victory at the age of 26.
 “So I (was) kind of nervous before I started. But I tried to focus and then it gave me a good result.”



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