A man in need of sunglasses

Anyone who thought Dustin Johnson's rain-shortened, 54-hole victory last year in the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am was a fluke had that notion dispelled yesterday by his milestone-filled triumph.

With a short birdie putt on the 18th hole, Johnson became the first player in 20 years to win back-to-back Pebble Beach National Pro-Am titles, closing with a 2-over-par 74 for a one-shot victory over David Duval and J.B. Holmes. Not since Mark O'Meara in 1990 had someone won back-to-back at Pebble Beach. The other back-to-back winners are all in the Hall of Fame -- Sam Snead, Cary Middlecoff, Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson.

Johnson's victory didn't come easy and required a display of grit. On an entertainment scale of 1 to 5, Oldgolfdawg would throw it 4 dog biscuits. It's hard to follow up a low round and Johnson was coming off an 8-under 64 at Spyglass Hill that had given him a share of the lead with veteran Paul Goydos. In a final round in which only seven players broke 70, Johnson surrendered a lead he had taken over Goydos with an eagle on the sixth hole by double-bogeying No. 9.

Goydos appeared to be in good shape with a one-shot lead until he came up short of the dangerous 14th green with his third shot on the par 5 hole. He started a train wreck with his fourth shot when he tried to flop it over the edge of a bunker protecting the pin. It came out too hard and went down a slope on the left side of the green. His next chip wasn't hard enough and rolled back toward him. Then came his sixth shot, some 35 feet beyond the flag, inches from rolling off the front of the green. He three-putted for 9.

After Johnson managed to par No. 14, he was back in the lead. But Duval sank a 12-foot birdie putt on No. 17 and Holmes sank a 4-foot birdie putt at No. 16 to close to a shot of the lead. After Johnson bogeyed the par-3 17th after hitting his tee shot into the a back bunker, there was a three-way tie for the lead. As he stood on the tee of the famous par-5 18th that runs along the Pacific Ocean, Johnson knew only a birdie would make up for his miscue at 17.

At that point, the longest driver in the field hammered his tee shot beyond the small pines trees that most of the pros use as aiming points for shorter drives on the scenic hole. He then hit a 3-iron into the front right bunker and blasted out to just more than 3 feet. When Johnson made the putt, he lightly pumped his fist to celebrate becoming the first player since Davis Love III in 2003 to win Pebble Beach with a birdie on the 72nd hole from the final group.

"The tee shot he hit on 18 was all world," Goydos said. "I mean, that's never straight and narrow where he's hitting the ball, consider he has to make 4 to win the golf tournament. Pretty impressive."

Johnson, 25, finished at 16-under 270 to move into the lead of the FedEx Cup standings ahead of Steve Stricker and to No. 2 in the Ryder Cup standings. He also joined Sean O'Hair as the only Americans in their 20s with three PGA Tour victories and became the first player since Tiger Woods to come out of college and win in each of his first three years on the PGA Tour.

The victory also established Johnson as a force to reckon with in June when Pebble Beach will play host to the U.S. Open. Johnson has a chance to join Woods and Nicklaus as players who won regular tour events at Pebble before winning U.S. Opens there in the same year. Not bad company for a soft-spoken native of South Carolina who some doubted could win a 72-hole event at Pebble.