WGC-Mexico Championship Recap: Johnson Overtakes Elite Field

Last fall, Justin Rose and Brooks Koepka were playing musical chairs with the No. 1 ranking in the world. As it turns out, they were just keeping the seat warm for the golfer many believe is its rightful owner.

Dustin Johnson, who has been atop the OWGR for most of the past two years, will regain that standing next week after all but lapping the elite field at the WGC-Mexico Championship on Sunday. Rory McIlroy was Johnson's closest pursuer, at 16-under to Johnson's 21-under, and no one else in the 72-man field was within 10 strokes.

When golf folk pose the hypothetical question of who would be the best golfer if they all were playing at their absolute best, Johnson's name is spoken more than any other. McIlroy might get some mentions, but there's really no one else in that conversation. That doesn't necessarily mean they are the two best golfers, but there's a good argument for that right now, too.

To be clear, in the latest rankings now out, Rose is No. 1 and Johnson is No. 2. But with both players sitting out next week, Johnson will overtake Rose next Sunday. McIlroy moved up two spots to No. 6.

To make Johnson's runway victory even more impressive was that he was playing his fourth tournament this month. That's every week. And they weren't ordinary weeks. Johnson won in Saudi Arabia, then flew to Pebble Beach for a rain-filled, stop-and-go tournament (T45), followed by another grind at Riviera (T9). If he were running on empty in Mexico City, it would've been completely understandable (albeit self-inflicted). Instead, Johnson had a very full tank – you know, the ones where the gauge goes way past the F.

Get this: Not only was Johnson second in the field in strokes gained: tee to green – not surprising considering his enormous length off the tee – but he also was second in scrambling and first in strokes gained: putting. When the golfer with the best driver also has an elite wedge and the best putter, well, it's just not a fair fight.

Consider that McIlroy was first in strokes gained: tee to green – he actually statistically drove the ball better than Johnson – yet still got blitzed by five strokes.

Johnson won a tournament for the 12th straight year and now has 20 for a career that keeps getting better, even at age 34. Only 33 golfers have won more. While Johnson now has won six WGCs – second only to Tiger Woods – two playoff events and one major, he still has only, um, one major.

That's the big knock against him, and it's a valid one. For fantasy purposes, he remains on the short list of safest options week to week. Since last year's WGC-Mexico, Johnson has finished outside the top-25 only four times in 22 starts. Ten of them – almost half – have been top-10s.

We probably won't see Johnson again until The Players in three weeks. Then the first major is just around the corner. Johnson has finished top-10 in his past three Masters. It's hard to think there are not more majors in his future. Maybe very soon.

MONDAY BACKSPIN

Rory McIlroy
McIlroy's 16-under would've won the first WGC-Mexico two years ago and got him into a playoff last year. Hard luck indeed. As we said, he's finished top five in four straight events. He's got a claim to be the second best golfer around right now. But he hasn't won since almost a year ago at Bay Hill. The good news for McIlroy when he defends his title in two weeks? Johnson probably won't be in the field.

Ian Poulter
Poulter finished top-six in three straight events in the Middle East, in good but not great fields. He just added a T3 in a great field, moving him back into the top-30 in the world. Poulter is 43, and he wasn't known for this type of sustained excellence even when he was 10 to 15 years younger. But we're also coming up on couple of big events – The Players and the Masters – where the Englishman has had some recent high finishes.

Paul Casey
Casey didn't play in Saudi Arabia as Johnson did, but he played both of the ensuing grinds at Pebble Beach and Riviera, even going one day past Johnson at Pebble in a Monday finish with eventual winner Phil Mickelson. Casey finished second at Pebble and T25 at Riviera, and followed that up with a T3 at Chapultepec. And preceded that with another runner-up in Singapore (that adds up to three top-threes in four starts). Casey is back up to No. 16 in the world and continues to show remarkable consistency. He's a good lineup option virtually every week.

Kiradech Aphibarnrat
Mexico was already the Thai star's fourth event in North America in 2019, and he's also in this week's Honda Classic. Aphibarnrat didn't have much to show for all these events until tying for third at Chapultepec. Having recently bought a home in Orlando, we might be seeing more of him than usual, and he usually comes attached to a low DFS price, at least low for someone now ranked No. 36 in the world.

Cameron Smith
Did you get a load of those guns on Smith on TV last week? The Aussie has bulked up since last season, and it's been paying off. Smith tied for sixth in Mexico, moving his to a career-best 24th in the world. He won the Australian PGA in early December, then opened 2019 with a T22-T9-T15-T49 before Chapultepec. Not exactly Hall of Fame numbers, but Smith at age 25 is now showing signs of making a real move up the rankings. He tied for fifth at last year's Masters.

Tiger Woods
Woods has opened 2019 with a T20, then a T15 and now a T10 in Mexico. If that progression continues, we're looking at a T5 at Bay Hill followed by, um, a win at The Players Championship! Okay, okay, calm down! (Actually, it's us who needs to calm down, sorry.) The point is, Woods is playing really well. Maybe not as well as Tiger watchers want, but well enough to think that their good times will continue.

Brooks Koepka
Koepka has done most of his talking off the course of late, railing against slow play and Sergio Garcia. He hasn't done much on the course, falling from No. 1 at the end of 2018 to No. 4 today. That's because of a mediocre 24-T9-T57-T27 start to 2019, the last result coming in Mexico. We all know that Koepka has bulked up his ranking on the strength of a few major wins, but that seems unsustainable. He gets to change that this week as one of only three top-10 guys at the Honda.

Lee Westwood
We've mentioned 40-somethings Woods, Poulter and Casey, but none of them is as old as Westwood. The 45-year-old tied for a respectable 33rd at Chapultepec, continuing a run of success that has moved him to No. 61 in the world. Less than three months ago, he was 119th. The Englishman won a European Tour event in South Africa, then finished top-20 again three events in a row. Westwood hasn't qualified as yet for The Players or the Masters, but if he can somehow crack the top-50 in the OWGR, he's shown he can still make some noise in big tournaments and at a very favorable DFS price.

Martin Trainer
The 27-year-old, French-born rookie's life has forever changed thanks to an out-of-nowhere win at the opposite field Puerto Rico Open on Sunday. This is what his season looked like before that: T60-MC-MC-MC-MC-T73-MC-T28. Clearly, we all missed the big jump up with the top-30 at Pebble (kidding). While Trainer will get into The Players (but not the Masters) in a few weeks and jumped from 286th in the OWGR to No. 128, we aren't ready to say he will become a more prominent player week-to-week. On the other hand …

Daniel Berger
… The runner-up for Berger could indicate more good things ahead. Even though Puerto Rico was not far from a souped-up Web.com field, Berger might finally be healthy. And he might be ready to pick up on a career that had moved him into the top-20 in the world for a brief time in 2017. Last season was a lost cause for Berger because of a wrist injury. You can't finish T2 in a tournament, even this one, unless healthy. We might learn a lot more about Berger this week at the Honda, a big step up from Puerto Rico but a weak field by PGA Tour standards.