JOHNSON MOSEYS HIS WAY AROUND GLEN ABBEY
BUT EVEN AT NO. 1, DOES THE RESUME MATCH THE 33-YEAR- OLD’S PRODIGIOUS TALENT LEVEL?
Dustin Johnson stood on the 13th tee at Glen Abbey and loomed over his ball. He slowly pulled back his driver and then uncoiled again, an effortless move that sends golf balls great distances.
The ball rocketed off his club face. “Jesus Christ,” a woman muttered.
Johnson can have that effect on you. Watching him hit balls invites spiritual thoughts.
It’s not just that Johnson is long, though he is very long. Many of his fellow pros can hit it a mile. It’s that Johnson plays with what looks like such relative ease. Other players lash at the ball, and at times look like they will come out of their shoes. Bubba Watson, another bomber, famously hits big swooping fades and soaring hooks, whipping his pink driver all over the place. Johnson turns back, turns through and, boom. Then he walks slowly up the fairway and doesn’t stop for a very long time. Sometimes he twirls his driver as he moseys along. Dustin Johnson has an A-plus mosey game.
You watch this for a little while, the effortless power combined with a soft touch around the greens, and the thought can cross one’s mind: how does he not win all the tournaments?
It wasn’t that long ago, actually, that we thought he might. Heading into the Masters at Augusta National, Johnson had already won three times this season, was the defending U. S. Open champion, and had opened up the kind of lead atop the World Golf Rankings that only Tiger Woods had enjoyed previously. ( Although Woods opened up such a lead a lot.) Other players were talking about him with a touch of awe. Rickie Fowler called him a freak of nature, but he meant it in a nice way. There was a feeling that Johnson, 33, long possessed of all of the tools, had finally harnessed them. Maybe the guy to dominant the sport was the guy was just going to do it a little later than originally envisioned.
And then, in one of the all-time examples of the trouble that can befall you when you are just trying to help, Johnson got up to move a car in his driveway on the eve of the Masters and slipped in stocking feet on a staircase. Always wear proper footwear, kids. The resulting back injury kept him out of the season’s first major and he hasn’t done much since.
That he is still ranked No. 1 in the world speaks to the big lead he once had, but after Jordan Spieth’s win at the Open Championship, it’s now the 24-year old Texan who bestrides the golf world like a colossus. When the RBC Canadian Open began at Glen Abbey on Thursday, Spieth’s absence from the field, in terms of putting the event on the golf radar, was more notable than Johnson’s presence in it.
But through two rounds in Oakville, Johnson has flashed hints of his world-beating form. A 3-under 69 on Friday left him at 8- under for the tournament, within striking distance of the lead heading into the weekend. More significantly, 69 was about the worst he could have scored with the way he was hitting it.
“I’m hitting the ball good,” Johnson said. This counts as effervescence, coming from the laconic Carolinan. “I hit a lot of good putts that didn’t go in the hole. I still feel really good with the putter. I feel like I’m rolling it well.” I tell you, the man is thrilled.
He’s not wrong, either. In one stretch on Friday, he left a birdie putt just short of the hole on 14, lipped out a birdie attempt on 15, finally made a birdie putt on 16 and then burned the edge of the hole with birdie tries on 17 and 18. That close to going really low.
It’s little wonder that, almost alone among the top pros who do not wear an RBC logo on their sleeve, Johnson keeps coming back to Glen Abbey.
The course surrenders a lot of eagles — the most on Tour since 2013 — and it has also seen the most 320- yard- plus drives, although at least some of that is due to the dry conditions of the past two years, when balls were bounding down the fairways like they were airport runways. It is well suited to a guy who can bomb it long and reasonably straight, which Johnson does better than anyone.
It doesn’t hurt that he’s engaged to a Gretzky. “The fans have been great since the first time I came,” he said earlier in the week. It’s definitely a big boost.” Also: “It’s a lot of fun.” This is Johnson being gleeful.
He has reason enough to be pleased. Three months after the injury at Augusta, Johnson says he is almost back to where he was. When he was winning all the time.
“Yeah, it’s really close,” he said Friday. “The golf swing feels a lot better. I’m starting to hit a lot of good shots, a lot more consistent ball flight. It’s definitely moving in the right direction.”
Glen Abbey, be forewarned.
THE THOUGHT CAN CROSS ONE’S MIND: HOW DOES HE NOT WIN ALL THE TOURNAMENTS?
He is literally one of the faces of the RBC Canadian Open. It’s up there on a billboard at the entrance to Glen Abbey off of Doral Drive.
And while his face will still be there Saturday if you happen to drive past, Adam Hadwin won’t be found battling on the 7,253- yard Jack Nicklaus-designed course.
Hadwin, the top- ranked Canadian at the 108th running of this tournament and the man who shot 59 earlier this season to become only the ninth player in PGA Tour history to do so, failed to make the cut on Friday after firing a respectable 3-under-par 69 for a two-day total of even-par 144.
“It is disappointing not to play well,” Hadwin said after his round. “I fought hard today.”
Luckily for those hoping a Canadian will finally win this tournament for the first time since Pat Fletcher did so in 1954, there is still reason for optimism.
Graham DeLaet and Mackenzie Hughes are right there in the thick of things.
DeLaet, a native of Weyburn, Sask., fired his second consecutive 4- under- par 68 to get to 8 under and make it through to the weekend. It was the same for Hughes of Dundas, Ont., who posted a 3- under 69 Friday to also sit at 8-under, good for T14.
“Just keep doing what I’m doing,” DeLaet replied when asked about his plan for the weekend. “Obviously, it’s easy to say but my game feels good. It’s just solid all around. I’m driving it nicely and if you can hit it in the fairways here, it’s soft enough that you can attack almost every single hole.”
DeLaet’s card included five birdies and a bogey, while Hughes’ card was a little more uneven with seven birdies and four bogeys.
The pair weren’t the only ones to go low on this day, though.
With all the recent rain, Glen Abbey was ripe for the picking and the cut line was set at 4 under, compared to last year when it was 3 over.
American Mark Flores emerged as the leader at 12 under after shooting a 6- under 66 that included four birdies and an eagle. Fellow American Gary Woodland posted a sizzling 63, the low round of the day and one stroke off the course record, to sit in a secondplace tie with compatriots Matt Every and Brandon Hagy all at 11 under.
“This has been a long time coming,” said Woodland, whose card included 10 birdies and a bogey. “I’ve been playing well for a while. I just haven’t put things together and today I finally put all aspects together, and if I continue to do that, things should be pretty good.”
A group of five other players, including former champion Vijay Singh, was at 10 under, while four golfers were grouped at 9 under.
“Just to make the cut here is pretty good for me,” joked DeLaet, the world No. 110, who hasn’t always had the best results at this tournament despite having been one of Canada’s top golfers for several years.
Hughes, who won on the PGA Tour back in November at the RSM Classic, said he felt like he left a few strokes out there again on Friday.
“I was on but I was also off at times,” said Hughes, who had a huge throng following him and playing partners Ernie Els and Tom Hoge as they made their way through the valley holes as the sun began to set and the shadows got long.
Fifteen homegrown players, including veteran David Hearn, PGA Tour winner Nick Taylor, and last year’s amateur sensation Jared du Toit, didn’t make the cut.