Dustin Johnson has had a rough couple of weeks, but he heads to East Lake with a chance to end his season on a high note.

Throughout the FedEx Cup play-offs, Johnson has lost his world number one ranking, even dropping to third overall.

But as the Tour Championship looms, a tournament he has never won, Johnson is excited to get back on the course and fight for his first FedEx Cup title.

"Being in the top five, I control my own destiny," Johnson told a news conference. "It's kind of the spot where you want to be. If you're not number one, you definitely want to be in the top five at this event, and I'm sitting at four, so yeah, I mean, I control my own destiny. If I have a good week and can win, then I can be the FedEx Cup champion.

"It's something that I haven't accomplished yet. I've been very close, and it's something that I really want to win, and I want to be the FedEx Cup champion. Yeah, it's something in my career that I definitely want to accomplish, and I think it's a big milestone, and I'm looking forward to the challenge this week where I've got a chance to do it."

While Johnson realised this has not been his best annual stop on Tour, he still thinks he has a chance to win this week.

"The only other place that I can think of that I haven't had a lot of success would be at The Players," he said. "I've played well but just not that great, so I'm really looking forward to playing it in March this year with the different course conditions and playing a little bit longer.

"You know, see how I do this time around, because I haven't ever – ever since I've played it, it's been in May and it's been Bermuda that's firm and fast. So I'm looking forward to that. Maybe I'll have more of a chance to win."

The PGA Tour announced earlier this week a change to the FedEx Cup play-offs moving forward.

Not only will the competition go from four events down to three, the Tour Championship, starting next year, will place players at certain scores to start the tournament. The leader in the FedEx Cup standings will start the tournament at 10 under, and everyone else will start behind him. Johnson likes the changes.

"I think it's great," Johnson said. "It gives everyone in the field a good chance to win. Obviously you want to be in that number one spot so you start ahead, but no matter what, with this golf course, you can make up a lot of strokes with a good round. Even if you're starting at 10 under, you're going to have to play well for four days if you want to win.

"You know, especially on a golf course like this where it's not easy to shoot – there's not too many six or seven unders, three, four under is a good score around here. Yeah, I think it's going to be fun to watch as a spectator, but also too being in the tournament, it's going to be fun, and you know where you stand. It's nice that you don't have to be number one coming in here to win. The 30th guy has a chance to win.

"So I think it'll be interesting. I mean, I like it."