Thomas Edison, N.L. (AP) - Just how Dustin Johnson began the next round in the Barclays, it seemed the only thing that could stop him from winning was the weather.
Needing a strong start, he opened with back-to-back birdies. In a bunker for the first time all week, he holed an 85-foot shot for eagle on No. 4 to take the lead. Even a wild tee shot on the par-5 fifth landed in trampled grass with a clear shot to the green.
And then it started pouring rain.
The Barclays, without a doubt shortened to 54 holes because of Hurricane Irene, would have reverted to a 36-hole event if the weather had come earlier and kept the second round from finishing Thursday, making Matt Kuchar the safe bet.
"The way I got started, I was hoping they were going to keep playing," Johnson said.
The water stopped. Johnson kept pouring it on.
He went out in 29 on the front nine for the second straight day - he literally entered at 17-under par for the week - to close with a six-under 65 and win the opening FedEx Cup playoff event by two shots over Kuchar.
Johnson didn't take the lead for good until Kuchar, who won The Barclays last year on a different course, three-putted from long range just off the green on the 16th hole for bogey. He closed with a 68.
"I had two easy three-putts today, which is just uncharacteristic of me," Kuchar said. "I felt like I was just giving shots away."
Johnson, who moved to No. 5 in the world, finished at 19-under 194 for his first win of the season and fifth of his career. He became the first player since Ernie Els to go straight from college and win in each of his first four years on the PGA Tour.
If the season started at Kapalua, Johnson was asked what players should expect from Woods next year. Johnson replied that he hoped to see Woods play well, but that it "won't bother me. I'm still going to win."
Johnson figured it wouldn't be until the first playoff event that he'd get a chance to hold up a trophy.
"I used to be never nervous - more frustrated than anything," he said. "Because I was feeling like I played some great golf this year, just have not gotten to actually do it. And it wasn't that my ball-striking was bad. The putts I needed to make, I wasn't able to make them. This week, I didn't do anything crazy with the putter. I just made the ones I was supposed to."
He was the first player since Phil Mickelson to win two live playoffs events. Mickelson won the rain-shortened BellSouth Classic in 2000 and 2005. Johnson previously won the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am last year when Sunday's final round was washed out.
Brussels was perfect. Johnson knew Wednesday was the second round, and he might only hope the round would finish.
"We got lucky," he said. "The next storm held off for us for a while."
Johnson wasn't the only big winner Saturday.
Ian Poulter birdied five of his last six holes for a 64, one of eight players who moved inside the top 30 in the FedEx Cup standings and advanced to the second playoff event in two weeks outside Boston.
William McGirt, one of the 125 players who qualified for the 2009-10 season, birdied the 17th hole to move to No. 96. Padraig Harrington went from No. 124 to No. 60 with a tie for 13th. And then there was Ernie Els. He would have been eliminated had the tournament been truncated to 36 holes. Els shot a 67 to move from 118th in the standings to No. 99.
"You're trying to survive. It's frustrating," Els said. "It's sadistic. In a way it's fun, if you're into this (stuff)."
Johnson is atop the FedEx Cup standings as the four-tournament battle begins for the $10 million prize.
The courses were so soft and vulnerable to low scoring that Brandt Snedeker made a run at the first 59 of his career when he birdied the opening five holes and was out in 28. He was slowed by a bogey on the 14th and came in with a 61 to tie for third with Vijay Singh, who shot 68.
Kuchar, however, separated himself from Johnson with a captivating front nine.
Johnson opened with back-to-back birdies to briefly forge ahead, and that's when the fun began. Kuchar birdied the par-3 third for no worse than a two-shot lead when Johnson missed a par save. Johnson answered with no worse than a two-shot swing of his own by driving into the sand bunker on the 328-yard fourth and holing out for eagle while Kuchar had to scramble for par.
They matched birdies on the sixth, seventh and ninth holes, which is where Johnson showed his putting was paying off. He holed a 25-foot birdie putt on the 17th after Kuchar already had settled for par, then made a tricky 12-foot par save on the ninth after Kuchar got too aggressive and wove his way through five trees.
Kuchar caught Johnson with a 15-foot birdie on the 11th, and that's when it unraveled.
Kuchar chose to lay up on the par-5 12th - Johnson was in the heavy rough with no choice - figuring his sand wedge game would produce a birdie. Instead, he was over a tilt between pitching wedge, a tough shot to the difficult pin, and his imaginary ball landed short and spun behind away from the hole.
He knocked his putt some six feet beyond the hole and missed that one for bogey to fall behind. On the next hole, Kuchar again was faced with a routine birdie putt from just over 12 feet and rammed it by the hole and watched helplessly as it curled away for another bogey. Just like that, he was two shots behind. To Johnson, it was hard to make up.
"Wednesday habits are to come in somewhat short, and I gave them some extra," Kuchar said. "Pretty disheartening because I think like putting is the strong part of my game."
The galleries had eliminated the scoreboards before the final round because of the approaching storm, even though it didn't matter to those trying to win the tournament. They knew where everyone stood.
It was even farther down the list when players were looking for ways to get among the top actors chasing the $10 million FedEx Cup, when it mattered. McGirt got some help from his girlfriend, who was in the gallery.
On the 17th fairway, she flashed "info" with her fingers, pointing where they needed to finish in order to advance in the standings. He pulled 7-iron and made the "best shot I hit all week, bar none" to 5 feet for birdie.
Now he gets to endure this roller-coaster ride once more in a month at the Deutsche Bank Championship.
"Heck yeah, dude," McGirt said. "This is 2010 playoffs."