ATLANTA — Dustin John­son ed his open­ing dri­ve sail long and fall gen­tly to the right, just like he imag­ined. So did the next dri­ve. It was like that all day at East Lake, and the out­come was predictable.

John­son is play­ing the best golf and looks tougher than ever to beat.

When he fin­ished with a 10-foot birdie, John­son matched the low round Sun­day with a 6‑under 64 to build a five-shot lead over Justin Thomas and Xan­der Schauf­fele in the Tour Cham­pi­onship, leav­ing him one round away from the FedEx Cup and its $15 mil­lion prize.

“I’ve got a lot of con­fi­dence in every­thing I’m doing right now,” John­son said.

A quick fix on the range the pre­vi­ous evening was all he need­ed to get straight­ened out. John­son missed only three fair­ways, and not by much. He putted for birdie on all but three holes and made sev­en of them.

“He’s show­cased what he can do,” Schauf­fele said. “If he does what he nor­mal­ly does, it’s going to be almost impos­si­ble to catch him.”

Nor­mal these days for John­son must be daunt­ing for every­one else.

He was at 19-under par, mak­ing this his four con­sec­u­tive start with at least a share of the 54-hole lead. He con­vert­ed one of those into an 11-shot vic­to­ry at the TPC Boston. He lost to a 65 by Collin Morikawa in the PGA Cham­pi­onship and o a 65-foot putt by Jon Rahm in a play­off last week at Olympia Fields.

“We’re going to need Dustin to throw us a bone and not have a good day,” said Rahm, who was six shots back.

John­son knows bet­ter than any­one that it’s not over. He had a six-shot lead in Shang­hai three years ago and failed to win, though he had a new set of irons and was com­ing off a five-week break. He also had a five-shot lead at The North­ern Trust two weeks ago and oblit­er­at­ed the course and the field to win by 11.

“If he hits the ball like every­body knows he can and the way he’s putting … I haven’t seen him putt that well in a long time,” Har­ris Eng­lish said. “It’s hard to stop.”

Only four play­ers have a rea­son­able chance of catch­ing him.

Schauf­fele, a big-game play­er who won the Tour Cham­pi­onship three years ago, dropped only one shot on the front nine and fin­ished with a 10-foot birdie putt for a 67 that put him in the final group with Johnson.

Thomas missed a 16-inch par putt on the 10th hole that he care­less­ly went to tap in, bounced back with a 25-foot birdie putt on the tough­est par 3 at East Lake and made two more birdies com­ing for a 66.

They were at 14 under.

“DJ is clear­ly play­ing well. It wasn’t easy today,” Thomas said. “It’s still East Lake. But any­thing can hap­pen around this course. You can shoot 63 or 64 and you can shoot 73 or 74 very eas­i­ly. I just need to hope that tomor­row is my 63 or 64.”

Rahm has had a wild week. He opened with a 65, fol­lowed with a 74 and bounced back with a 66. He played bogey-free and his round only felt bet­ter when he fin­ished with two birdies.

“The one good thing I have going for me is we’re here to win, so tomor­row is a green light for every­thing,” Rahm said.

Morikawa ral­lied with five birdies on the back nine to sal­vage a rough start for a 67. He was sev­en behind.

Daniel Berg­er also had a 64, but he made up no ground on John­son was remained nine behind. Also at 10-under was Sung­jae Im, who played in the final group with John­son and must have won­dered what hit him. Im shot 72.

The FedEx Cup has been on Johnson’s mind ever since he squan­dered a great chance to win it in 2016.

He went into the final round that year tied for the lead and then couldn’t find a fair­way, clos­ing with a 73. He still had a chance to win the FedEx Cup when it was based on points. Only one play­er could have beat­en him that day and it was Rory McIl­roy, who holed a shot from the fair­way on the 16th for eagle and then won in a three-way playoff.

John­son moves on from wins and loss­es, no mat­ter how high or how crush­ing. Even so, he thinks about that day, main­ly because the FedEx Cup is filled with big names and his isn’t among them yet.

“To be the FedEx Cup cham­pi­on is some­thing that I want to do. It’s some­thing that I want on my resume when I quit play­ing golf,” he said. “Yeah, it means a lot to me. So yes, I do want to win this tour­na­ment. … I had a chance to win it a few years ago. I couldn’t con­trol win­ning by my golf. Tomor­row, I do.”

McIl­roy won’t be in the mix this year. He was walk­ing off the 17th tee and looked back at John­son head­ing to the 14th, a 512-yard par 4 and the tough­est at East Lake. John­son already was 10 shots ahead of him, and then smashed a dri­ve down the fair­way and made a 15-foot birdie putt.

McIl­roy birdied the 17th to sal­vage a 70. He was 11 shots back.