Dustin Johnson holds up the trophy after he won the hurricane-shortened Barclays golf tournament in Edison, New Jersey, Aug, 27, 2011. [Photo/Agencies]

EDISON, New Jersey - Big-hitting Dustin Johnson won a final-round duel with Matt Kuchar to win The Barclays on Saturday and the runner-up sounded like it was almost unfair.

"Guys like Dustin Johnson can make golf seem really easy," said Kuchar after finishing two shots behind his fellow American in the weather-shortened 54-hole event at Plainfield Country Club.

"If you could have any one attribute as a golfer, you would want to drive it like Dustin Johnson. You would want to hit it that far and that accurate. From there golf gets a whole lot easier," he said.

Johnson's booming drives on the relatively short course gave him a big edge - he outdrove playing partners Kuchar and Vijay Singh by 80 yards to make birdie at the par-four second - but the winner was more pleased about his short game.

"The putter has been lacking a little bit," said Johnson who won for the first time in 2011 after four top-four results including runner-up finishes at the British Open and WGC-Cadillac Championship.

"This week I finally rolled in some putts."

The 27-year-old Ryder Cup player said practice was paying off for him.

"I've been working hard on my putting, not necessarily making putts but getting it started on line, because I read the greens very well," said Johnson.

"You can't control whether the ball goes in but you can control where you start it. I've just been working on starting it where I'm looking."

Reuters