RENO, Nev. – Geoff Ogilvy won the Barracuda Championship on Sunday for his eighth PGA Tour title and first since 2010, scoring five points with an eagle on the par-5 13th and pulling away for a five-point victory in the modified Stableford event.

Players received eight points for double eagle, five for eagle, two for birdie, zero for par, minus-one for bogey and minus-three for double bogey or worse.

Ogilvy, the 2006 U.S. Open winner, added birdies on the par-4 14th and par-5 18th to finish with 49 points. He had 14 points in the final round with the eagle, five birdies and a bogey.

The 37-year-old Australian was making his first appearance at Montreux since 2002 after failing to qualify for the World Golf Championship-Bridgestone Invitational. He entered the week with only two top-25 finishes this season and was 151st in the FedEx Cup standings.

He earned $540,000 and a spot next week in the PGA Championship at Valhalla in Louisville, Kentucky.

Justin Hicks was second at 44 points after an 18-point day.

John Huh and Jonathan Byrd tied for third at 37. They each had 11-point rounds.

Nick Watney, three points behind Ogilvy entering the final day after leading after each of the first two rounds, tied for eighth at 34 points. He had three birdies and four bogey in a two-point round.

Ogilvy had 14 points in the first round, 16 in the second and seven in the third.

Canada’s Miek Weir finished tied for 69th with 14 points.

AKRON, Ohio – Tiger Woods was at Firestone, and the scene looked all too familiar.

Except he wasn’t hoisting a trophy.

He could barely bend over to pick up his tee.

Right when Woods thought he was making small progress toward his return from back surgery, he suffered a scary setback Sunday when he was stricken with more back pain and withdrew after eight holes from the Bridgestone Invitational.

How bad was it? Woods headed home to Florida to find out if he could play the PGA Championship this week.

But as he stood next to his car, he struggled to even take off his golf shoes before his caddie drove him away into an uncertain future.

The lasting images of Woods at Firestone were not of him winning, like he did last year for the eighth time. They were of Woods wincing, hobbling and twitching. Those were the scenes from earlier this year when he coped with recurring back pain that forced him to withdraw from the Honda Classic and eventually led to back surgery March 31.

In his third tournament since returning from surgery, this had the look of a serious setback.

Woods injured himself playing a shot from edge of a bunker on the par-5 second hole. With all weight on his right leg, he took an awkward slash at the ball, fell back toward the sand and landed with a thud, and kept jogging out of the bunker from sheer momentum of the steep drop.

“I just jarred it, and it’s been spasming ever since,” Woods told a PGA Tour official before leaving.

Woods kept playing, hitting a number of shockingly bad shots. He hit one into the water from the fairway on No. 3, coming up some 30 yards short of the flag. And on the par-3 fifth hole, his tee shot was 65 yards short of the hole. From a bunker left of the seventh green, he blasted out and back into the fairway and made double bogey.

He grimaced at impact when he hit a 315-yard drive into the left rough on No. 9. Woods slowly stooped over with his right hand on his leg, reached toward his back and slowly bent down to remove the tee from the ground. Moments later, he stepped into a cart and headed for the parking lot.

“It’s just the whole lower back,” Woods said. “I don’t know what happened.”

Masters champion Bubba Watson said he didn’t see Woods hit the shot that hurt him on No. 2, though he could tell as the round went on that something wasn’t right.

“He hit some shots that we’re not used to seeing Tiger hit, even when he’s coming back from an injury like this,” Watson said. “So obviously, something was bothering him. … Like I told him when I shook his hand, I said, `I’m praying for you. Hope everything turns out good. Hope to see you next week.'”

With the pain he showed leaving the course – and just four months removed from back surgery – it would seem unlikely that Woods plays next week at Valhalla, where he won the PGA Championship in 2000. Woods is scheduled to play the opening two rounds with Phil Mickelson and Padraig Harrington.

Mickelson was on the 11th hole – not far away from No. 9 – when he noticed Woods leaving.

“It didn’t look good. It looked like he was really in pain,” Mickelson said. “I hope he’s OK. I hope he’s able to play next week. I hope it’s a muscle and nothing serious because I’m really looking forward to playing with him. We rarely get paired together. If we do, it’s been early Saturday.

“As much as I love playing with him, playing against him, trying to beat him, we all want him in the field. We all want him back. I just hope he’s OK.”

If Woods does not play in the PGA Championship, that would be the end of his season. He would have to win the PGA to be eligible for the FedEx Cup playoffs. In six starts on the PGA Tour this year, Woods finished all four rounds only twice.

Woods had back surgery to alleviate an impinged nerve, forcing him to miss the Masters for the first time and the U.S. Open. He returned after three months to Congressional – three weeks ahead of his own schedule – and reported no pain in missing the cut by four shots at the Quicken Loans National. He also reported no pain in four rounds at the British Open. He finished 69th, 23 shots out of the lead, his worst 72-hole result in a major.

And now with another injury, Ryder Cup captain Tom Watson might have an even more difficult time picking him for the American team. The captain has said he wants Woods on the team if he was healthy and playing well.

Woods was doing neither.

AKRON, Ohio – Sergio Garcia was in the trees left of the 18th fairway, looking through a gap in the branches to find a way out. Ahead of him was Rory McIlroy, giving his 35-foot birdie putt a little body English before it fell for birdie.

Garcia never lost command of the Bridgestone Invitational on Saturday, even after a storm delay of just over three hours. He started with a three-shot lead, stretched it to six shots at one point and closed with three good pars for a 3-under 67, three shots ahead of McIlroy.

The Spaniard just lost a small measure of comfort.

McIlroy, coming off a wire-to-wire win in the British Open, might be the last player anyone wants to see right behind.

“I’ve got to keep doing the same thing, make sure that I have good confidence in myself, that I play nicely, and then see what happens,” Garcia said. “If Rory comes out, or whoever is behind us comes out, and get crazy like I did on Friday, then it is what it is. But hopefully, I’ll be able to play well again and be all the way up there tomorrow.”

Garcia, who seized control with a career-best 61 on Friday, was at 14-under 196.

McIlroy birdied his last two holes for the second straight day for a 66, and he got his wish – a spot in the final group.

Sunday is set up as a replay of The Open – only with the roles reversed.

McIlroy had a six-shot lead going into the final round at Hoylake. Garcia, playing in the group ahead, made a spirited run at McIlroy and got within two shots late in the round until he faltered and Boy Wonder pulled away.

“Obviously, Rory is playing great, and we get along nicely as of right now,” Garcia said. “I think we’re both excited about it. We’re definitely going to play hard. It will be nice to see if I can do the same thing he did to me a couple of weeks ago. So we’ll see.”

This time, it’s McIlroy who has to chase.

“My goal today was to try and get in the final group,” McIlroy said. “Sergio didn’t quite have that luxury of seeing what I was doing on the last. It will be nice to play alongside him tomorrow and at least keep an eye on what’s going on. Try to apply a bit of pressure when I can, but just really looking forward to getting in there and having another chance to win a tournament so soon after what happened at Hoylake.”

Rickie Fowler also was in the hunt at Hoylake, though he took himself out of the picture on the final hole. He went from the left trees to a plugged lie in the bunker, having to brace his right good against the side of a hill. He left it in the bunker and wound up with a double bogey for a 72, putting him 10 shots behind.

This isn’t a two-man race for a World Golf Championship title.

Marc Leishman had a 68 and was five shots behind, while Adam Scott returned from the rain delay carrying only his long putter, the only weapon he needed to convert one last birdie for a 65 that at least left him with a slim chance. He was six shots behind, along with Keegan Bradley (68) and Justin Rose (70).

The race won’t feature defending champion Tiger Woods. The eight-time winner at Firestone made only one birdie on Saturday – he failed to birdie a par 5 for the second straight day – and shot 72. He was 15 shots behind.

Garcia, who won the Qatar Masters this year, has been building toward moments like this. Two weeks after his runner-up finish to McIlroy at Hoylake, the Spaniard has performed so solidly at Firestone that he went 37 consecutive holes without a bogey. Along with four birdies in 11 holes to start his third round, he built a six-shot lead for a brief moment until missing the 14th green long and failing to convert a 5-foot par putt.

Three pars at the end helped keep in front.

He pulled his lay-up shot on the par-5 16th into deep rough, which felt even thicker after the rain delay. Garcia managed to judge it perfectly to clear the water. He hooked his tee shot on the 17th hole and hit 8-iron safely onto the green. The biggest challenge was the 18th, where he had to clear trees with a shot from the rough. He opened up the face of a 7-iron to play a big cut with such elevation, and it cleared the back bunker, leaving him 75 feet away.

“Where I hit it, I couldn’t really do much more than that and hope to make a good two-putt,” he said.

He lagged it down to 5 feet, and lightly pumped his fist when it fell. Every shot matters, especially with someone like McIlroy right behind him.

“The one on 18 is the one that felt the best,” Garcia said, “because it was probably the toughest to make par.”

RENO, Nev. – Geoff Ogilvy got up-and-down for birdie from a greenside bunker on the par-5 closing hole to take a three-stroke lead Saturday in the Barracuda Championship.

In the modified Stableford event, players receive eight points for double eagle, five for eagle, two for birdie, zero for par, minus-one for bogey and minus-three for double bogey or worse.

Ogilvy, the Australian who won the 2006 U.S. Open, had seven birdies and two bogeys in a 12-point round in hot, windy conditions at Montreux to push his total to 35.

“I played quite well,” Ogilvy said. “Birdied the par 5s I needed to birdie, which is ante in this format, because birdies are so much better than bogeys are bad. So it’s definitely a format that rewards the guy that makes a lot of birdies. … So I put some points on the board, which you have to, because there were some low ones this morning, it looked like, or some high ones, however you want to put it.”

He’s making his first appearance in the event since 2002 after failing to qualify for the World Golf Championship-Bridgestone Invitational.

“Someone can have 20 points,” Ogilvy said. “So that means I still have to score a bunch of points just to stay in front of the guys who are close. So I just go out and play as well as I can. Hopefully, it goes well.”

Nick Watney, the leader after each of the first two rounds, was tied for second with Jason Allred. Watney scored six points, and Allred had 14.

“A little bit disappointed, to be honest,” Watney said. “Missed my share of putts. But I’ve got a chance tomorrow. So I would have taken that at the beginning of the week.”

He had four birdies and two bogeys.

“It was tricky and the greens were getting a little baked out,” Watney said. “So, probably the most difficult that I’ve seen it this week so far. But at the same time Geoff played really well and there were some out there.”

Brandon Steele was fourth with 30 points after a 10-point round.

John Mallinger, Lee Janzen and David Lingmerth had 28 points.

Mallinger, playing on a sponsor exemption, had a hole-in-one on No. 11 in a 19-point day – the most in the history of the event.

“I just started off a little bit slow,” Mallinger said. “Only had a couple of birdies on the front and then made the turn and made a 1, kind of kick-started my day.”

He used a 9-iron on the 155-yard hole and won a car.

“Perfect club for me,” Mallinger said. “You can’t see. It’s elevated. I hit it. They all clapped. I was like, `Is it close? Is that in?’ … Sounds like I got a Lexus.”

Janzen scored 13 points, and Lingmerth had 12.

Ogilvy won the last of his seven PGA Tour titles in 2010. He has only two top-25 finishes this season and is 151st in the FedEx Cup standings, with the top 125 getting into the first playoff event.

“I don’t really think about it, to be honest with you,” Ogilvy said about the FedEx Cup. “I thought I was thinking about it a bit earlier in the year because I was struggling. I was way back on the list. Thinking about it doesn’t really help you play very well, usually. I’m glad I’ve got a chance.”

Watney is making his first appearance in the event since 2008. He’s 124th in the FedEx Cup race as players fight for spots in The Barclays, the playoff opener he won in 2012 for the last of his five PGA Tour titles.

“I’m hitting the ball great,” Watney said. “If I can putt, I got a real chance.”

Because of expected afternoon thunderstorms Sunday, the tee times have been pushed up and the players will start on both Nos. 1 and 10 in threesomes.

Mike Weir is tied for 61st with 14 points.

RENO, Nev.  – Nick Watney increased his lead to three points Friday in the Barracuda Championship, scoring eight points in the modified Stableford event at Montreux to push his two-day total to 26.

Players receive eight points for double eagle, five for eagle, two for birdie, zero for par, minus-one for bogey and minus-three for double bogey or worse.

Watney had five birdies and two bogeys in the morning session after making nine birdies in his bogey-free first round.

Geoff Ogilvy was second. Wes Roach was third at 22, and Tommy Gainey and Tim Wilkinson had 21. Ogilvy had a seven-point round, Roach and Gainey each scored 10 points, and Wilkinson had five.

Watney is making his first appearance in the event since 2008 after failing to qualify for the World Golf Championship-Bridgestone Invitational. He’s 124th in the FedEx Cup standings, with the top 125 getting into The Barclays – the playoff opener that he won in 2012 for the last of his five PGA Tour titles.

Watney made two birdies and two pars on his opening nine and added birdies on Nos. 2, 3 and 8.

Ogilvy, the Australian who won the 2006 U.S. Open, earned five points with an eagle on the par-5 13th, gave back a point with a bogey on No. 14 and birdied No. 16. On Thursday, he had eight birdies in a bogey-free round.

Making his first appearance in the event since 2002, Ogilvy won the last of his seven PGA Tour titles in 2010. He has only two top-25 finishes this season and is 151st in the FedEx Cup standings.

Mike Weir is tied for 29th heading into the weekend. The 2003 Masters champ recorded five birdies Friday to earn 10 points.

AKRON, Ohio – The PGA Tour is refuting a report that Dustin Johnson has been suspended.

Johnson said in a statement Thursday he was taking a leave of absence to seek professional help for “personal challenges” that brought an end to his season. Johnson will miss the PGA Championship, the FedEx Cup playoffs and the Ryder Cup.

Golf.com reported Friday that the tour had suspended Johnson for six months for using cocaine and failing a drug test. The website cited a source it did not identify.

The PGA Tour has a policy of not commenting on disciplinary actions. But it issued a statement Friday afternoon to clarify that Johnson has taken a leave of absence “and is not under a suspension from the PGA Tour.”

AKRON, Ohio  – Sergio Garcia doesn’t know anything about being in a zone. He had no trouble identifying the best round of his career.

Garcia one-putted the final 11 holes and made birdies on his last seven holes Friday in the Bridgestone Invitational to tie the course record at Firestone with a 9-under 61 and take a three-shot lead into the weekend.

He had a birdie putt on every hole on the back nine, missing only a 15-footer from the fringe at No. 11. Garcia shot 27 on the back nine, a course record.

“Just one of those moments that you love and you enjoy, and you wish there were no end,” he said.

It matched the tournament record held by Tiger Woods, who shot 61 in 2000 and 2013, and Jose Maria Olazabal, who shot his 61 in 1990. Woods went on to win by 11 shots in 2000 and seven shots last year. Olazabal won by 12 in the World Series of Golf.

Garcia still has work to do.

He was at 11-under 129, three shots clear of Justin Rose, who had a 67. British Open champion Rory McIlroy birdied his last two holes for a 64 and joined Marc Leishman of Australia (67) four shots out of the lead.

McIlroy played in the group behind Garcia, and could hear what was going on if he couldn’t see it.

“Every time I looked, he was putting a ball in the hole and the crowd was cheering,” McIlroy said. “I knew that he was making a few birdies.”

Garcia was five shots out of the lead when he had to scramble to save pars on back-to-back holes to close out the front nine on what seemed to be an ordinary round. Two good swings on the 10th hole led to a 20-foot birdie putt. He hit 8-iron to 2 feet on No. 12 and 3 feet on No. 13 for the easiest birdies he had all day, and those turned out to be the start of his big run.

The Spaniard finished in style, making birdie putts of 15, 25 and 20 feet on his last three holes.

It reminded Garcia of the Travelers Championships earlier this summer, when Kevin Streelman closed with seven straight birdies to beat Garcia and K.J. Choi by one shot.

“When I made the one on 17 I thought, `This kind of looks familiar from what happened not too long ago,'” Garcia said. “Obviously, Sunday would be even nicer. But I’ll take what I can get.”

His previous best score was a 62 on three other occasions – as a 19-year-old at the Scottish Open and Byron Nelson Classic in 1999, and at Mount Juliet in 2002 at the American Express Championship.

Woods also shot his 61s at Firestone in the second round. He could have used something remotely close to that to stay in range of Garcia. Instead, Woods hit only four fairways off the tee and couldn’t seem to make anything on the green. It added to a 71, leaving him 10 shots behind.

“I didn’t hit the ball well. I didn’t putt well. I didn’t do anything well,” Woods said. “The only thing I did well was I fought hard. Grinded hard. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a very good day.”

Starting times for the third round were moved up to Saturday morning, with threesomes off both tees, because of a forecast for storms. That figures to only keep Firestone soft, allowing players to attack the pins provided they’re in the short grass.

Rose missed only two greens in posting a 67 as his momentum builds toward the final major of the year next week at the PGA Championship. He wouldn’t mind adding a WGC title this week. Either way, there is a long stretch of big tournaments, and Rose is headed in the right direction. He won back-to-back starts at Congressional and Royal Aberdeen before stalling slightly at the British Open.

“I’m feeling good about peaking at this time of the year,” Rose said. “Every week is big. You could argue a major championship in the middle of it all is the one you’d really love to peak for next week. But at the same time, there’s not a bad golf tournament now for about two months. Looking forward to the whole stretch.”

He didn’t realize when he finished that Rose would have three shots to make up on Garcia starting out the third round.

It didn’t come entirely out of the blue for Garcia. Just two weeks ago, he challenged McIlroy briefly at Royal Liverpool until tying for second in the British Open. But this was something special, and Garcia could sense it.

“It feels great to be able to … equal the course record on a course like this. Even playing soft, it’s not that easy a course,” Garcia said. “You have to drive the ball very, very well. You have to put the ball on the greens on the right spots because you can get some really, really fast putts.

“Being in a group with Tiger and Jose Maria, it feels really good.”

Canada’s Graham DeLaet is tied for 9th after shooting 69 in the second round, only days after claiming low Canadian honours at the 2014 RBC Canadian Open.

RENO, Nev. – Nick Watney made nine birdies Thursday in a bogey-free round in the Barracuda Championship to take a two-point lead in the modified Stableford event.

Watney earned 18 points at Montreux Golf and Country Club. Players receive 8 points for double eagle, 5 for eagle, 2 for birdie, 0 for par, minus-1 for bogey and minus-3 for double bogey or worse.

“I’m very pleased with the way I played today,” said Watney, from Fresno, California. “This is pretty close to home. So it’s nice to see a lot of friends and family. I’m enjoying myself and hope it continues like this.”

Watney is making his first appearance in the event since 2008 after failing to qualify for the World Golf Championship-Bridgestone Invitational. He’s 124th in the FedEx Cup standings, with the top 125 getting into The Barclays – the playoff opener that he won in 2012 for the last of his five PGA Tour titles.

“You definitely don’t want to miss tournaments and not qualify for tournaments,” said Watney, who hasn’t had a top-10 finish since finishing second in the 2013 BMW Championship. “So it’s definitely a factor. But if you tee off thinking about that, you probably won’t play as well as you should.”

Geoff Ogilvy and Tim Wilkinson were tied for second.

Ogilvy, the Australian who won the 2006 U.S. Open, had eight birdies in his bogey-free round. Wilkinson, from New Zealand, had nine birdies and two bogeys.

“It was there for the taking,” said Ogilvy, 151st in the FedEx Cup standings. “I birdied the holes I was supposed to.”

Chad Campbell and Scotland’s Martin Laird were fourth at 13 points, and 2009 winner John Rollins was another point back along with Kevin Chappell, John Huh and Wes Roach.

Watney closed his afternoon round with a birdie on the par-5 18th. He also birdied Nos. 2, 4, 8-10 and 13-15.

“It seems to be pretty calm in the mornings around here and then the wind kicks up,” Watney said. “It’s just another factor, combined with the elevation and the uphills and downhills. Definitely gets your attention. We were very happy to get the round in with no rain because if we had to come back tomorrow and play extra holes, this is one of the toughest walks we have. So it’s nice to get it in and definitely sleep well tonight.”

Ogilvy, making his first appearance in the event since 2002, won the last of his seven PGA Tour titles in 2010. He has only two top-25 finishes this season and has missed 11 cuts in 20 events.

“I played well,” said Ogilvy, coming off a 34th-place tie last week in Montreal in the RBC Canadian Open. “Kind of weird. Was a bit 50-50 on actually coming here. Even after last week, I was kind of just frustrated and not making enough birdies really. I thought, `Well, I’m going to come and make 18 pars and not score enough points.'”

Wilkinson, winless on the PGA Tour, is 108th in the FedEx Cup standings. He birdied the final five holes on the back nine.

“I enjoy it out there,” Wilkinson said. “Good scenery.”

Gary Woodland, the winner last year, is playing in the World Golf Championship event in Ohio.

Canada’s Mike Weir has 4 points, while Brad Fritsch has 2.

AKRON, Ohio – Tiger Woods showed signs of a positive recovery Thursday at the Bridgestone Invitational.

Not just from back surgery, but from making bogeys.

Woods bounced back with birdies all three times that he made mistakes, opening with a 2-under 68 on a soft, gentle day for scoring at Firestone. It left him four shots behind Marc Leishman of Australia, and hopeful that this time he can build on a solid start.

Woods opened with a 69 at the British Open two weeks ago, only to plunge down the leaderboard the rest of the week at Royal Liverpool.

“I hit a lot of good shots,” Woods said. “I dropped shots at three holes out there today (and) got it right back on the very next hole.”

For so many players, the opening round of this World Golf Championship felt like either a warmup or an audition for bigger events to follow. Ryan Moore was among three players at 65, a good start for someone looking for one big week to get him on the Ryder Cup team.

Two more Ryder Cup hopefuls – Patrick Reed and Francesco Molinari of Italy – were among those another shot back.

British Open champion Rory McIlroy, who next week will chase his second straight major, was among the leaders until not paying attention to packed sand in a bunker that sent him to a double bogey late in his round. He still wound up with a 69.

Leishman has quietly gone about his work in reasonable form, with top 10s recently at Congressional and Royal Liverpool. He had the perfect formula for Firestone, a big golf course where good scores are available by keeping the ball in play.

“I drove the ball well. It makes this course a lot easier when you’re on the fairway,” Leishman said. “It’s pretty tough when you’re playing from the rough. Then, I hit my irons really well and was rolling the ball awesome. So it’s a pretty good combination for a tough golf course like this, something I can hopefully keep going.”

Charl Schwartzel and Justin Rose joined Moore one shot out of the lead.

Woods said only a mild breeze and soft conditions from overnight rain allowed for scoring, though he noted that no one went terribly low. The 64 by Leishman seemed like a good score, so maybe Woods was basing that on his own experience at a course where he has won eight times.

Woods twice has shot his career-best 61 at Firestone, including last year on his way to a seven-shot victory. That he managed six birdies was a sign that he was making putts, even though two of his birdies were tap-ins.

He still had a few wild moments, starting with a three-putt bogey from 10 feet on the opening hole. He hooked his drive so badly on the par-5 second hole that he worried it might not clear the lake on the adjacent third hole. It was far enough left to leave him a good angle with a 5-wood that he put on the green for a two-putt birdie.

His only big mistake was a shot into the trees on the ninth hole. It took him two shots to get out, and from behind the green he couldn’t get up-and-down and made double bogey. Just like two other bogeys in his round, he answered with a birdie with a shot into 6 feet on No. 10.

“I feel like I made some progress,” Woods said. “As I said, this is only my seventh round back. So it’s just going to take a little time. I’m starting to get in the flow of things. If you look at my iron shots into the holes today, a majority of them were pin-high. So I’m starting to get the feel back in my hands and get my trajectory under control.”

Woods missed three months following back surgery, and the six rounds he has played since returning have not been inspiring, except for that opening round at Hoylake. He needs more rounds like that to remind Ryder Cup captain Tom Watson he would be worth selecting, and to try to extend his season beyond the PGA Championship next week by moving up 90 spots in the FedEx Cup standings to qualify for the playoffs.

Phil Mickelson’s biggest struggle was with his health. He didn’t arrive in Ohio until Wednesday night because of strep throat, and he opened with a 71.

Canada’s own Graham DeLaet got his tournament off to a good start, coming off a top 10 finish at last week’s RBC Canadian Open at Royal Montreal. The Weyburn, Sask. native opened with a 3-under 67 and is tied for 5th heading into Friday.

AKRON, Ohio – Dustin Johnson is taking a leave of absence from golf to seek help for “personal challenges,” a swift end to his season that will keep him from playing the PGA Championship, the FedEx Cup playoffs and the Ryder Cup.

In a statement Thursday from Hambric Sports Management, the 30-year-old Johnson said his leave of absence was effective immediately. It did not indicate how long he would be out, though agent David Winkle told the PGA of America he would not be at the PGA Championship next week or the Ryder Cup at the end of September.

“I will use this time to seek professional help for personal challenges I have faced,” Johnson said. “By committing the time and resources necessary to improve my mental health, physical well-being and emotional foundation, I am confident that I will be better equipped to fulfill my potential and become a consistent champion.”

He asked for privacy “as I embark upon this mission of self-improvement.”

Johnson, who tied for fourth in the U.S. Open and tied for 12th in the British Open, was No. 5 in the Ryder Cup standings and virtually certain to earn one of nine automatic spots when qualifying ends next week at the PGA Championship.

As long as he stays in the top nine, he will be replaced by the next player in the standings.

“We will certainly miss Dustin Johnson at Gleneagles, and we wish him the best,” U.S. captain Tom Watson said. “As one of the longest hitters in the game with an undefeated record of 3-0 at Medinah in 2012, he has clearly been an asset for the United States team. That said, the United States is a team with an abundance of talent.”

Players at the Bridgestone Invitational said they were surprised by the announcement.

“If anything, I just hope this is the start of something really, really positive,” Zach Johnson said. “And I don’t know what happened. I don’t know what the specifics are, nor should I know. That’s none of my business. I feel for him.”

Justin Rose called it “big blow for the tour.”

“He’s always been a charismatic player and popular player out here,” Rose said. “He’s not going to play in the Ryder Cup. That will be a blow for the American team. Just wish him well, whatever he’s facing right now. Can’t be easy for him.”

Johnson played poorly in his first Ryder Cup at Wales, not winning a match until the final day in singles. He was the only American to go undefeated last time in Medinah, winning both fourballs matches with Matt Kuchar and handily beating Nicolas Colsaerts in a singles match.

“I’ll tell you what, you always want guys with that kind of power to play on any team,” Tiger Woods said. “I’ve been his partner in the Presidents Cup in Australia, and the firepower that he has, it’s pretty cool to be around. It’s not too often you see the guy carry the ball 320 (yards) without even trying, and then when he steps on it, he can hit it even further. When he gets it going, it’s awfully impressive.”

Johnson was replaced in the PGA Championship by Jerry Kelly. Pat Perez is now the first alternate, and will get into the PGA provided the Bridgestone Invitational winner is already eligible.

Johnson won the HSBC Champions in Shanghai last October at the start of the PGA Tour’s wraparound season. He has seven top 10s this year on the PGA Tour and was at No. 4 in the FedEx Cup standings. He will not be replaced in the 125-man field at The Barclays when the FedEx Cup playoffs begin Aug. 21.

It’s the second time in two years that Johnson has missed a major under curious circumstances.

He pulled out of the Masters in 2012, saying that he tweaked his back while lifting a jet ski. He wound up missing three months, and won in his second tournament back.

Johnson played in the final group in the third round of the British Open with Rory McIlroy, fading with a 71-72 weekend and tying for 12th. He missed the cut the following week at the RBC Canadian Open, and then withdrew from the World Golf Championship at Firestone.

The PGA Tour, which does not comment on disciplinary action, offered little in a statement.

“We have nothing to add to Dustin’s statement, but we wish him well and look forward to his return to the PGA Tour in the future,” the tour said.

Johnson is No. 16 in the world ranking with eight PGA Tour victories. He is the first player since Tiger Woods to go from college to winning in each of his first seven seasons on the PGA Tour. He lost a three-shot lead in the final round of the 2010 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, closing with an 82. Later that year, he was assessed a two-shot penalty on the final hole of the PGA Championship for grounding his club in a patch of sand, not realizing it was a bunker at Whistling Straits.

Johnson last year got engaged to Paulina Gretzky, the daughter of NHL great Wayne Gretzky.