National Post (National Edition)
Missing Masters is painful
‘Unbelievably difficult’ decision for Johnson
Dustin Johnson has had a lot of strange luck in major championships, but he had never before been beaten by a staircase.
Johnson, the top-ranked golfer in the world who came to Augusta National on a three-tournament winning streak, slipped on the stairs at his rental house on Wednesday afternoon and made it as far as the first tee on Thursday afternoon before deciding he could not go in the 81st Masters.
“For me to pull out, it sucks really bad,” said the laconic 32-year-old from Columbia, S.C., in a television interview. “I’m really sad.”
Johnson, who was the first player in more than 40 years to win three straight prior to the Masters, said he was wearing socks on a small set of hardwood stairs at his rental house on Wednesday when he slipped and fell.
He said he landed on his elbows and lower back, and though he was treated on Wednesday night and through Thursday morning, he was not able to swing at better than 70 per cent on the driving range.
“I just felt I wasn’t able to compete,” Johnson said. “It’s unbelievably difficult.”
Johnson warmed up on the range on Thursday afternoon and practised on the putting green next to the first tee, and even made it as far as the tee itself before he changed his mind.
“I was doing everything I could to try to play. Last night ice, heat, ice. I was up pretty much up all night, trying to get it ready for today. I’ve been worked on all morning. And obviously I can make some swings, but I try and make my normal swing and I just don’t feel like there’s any chance I’d be able to compete. Johnson said he has no major worries about his long-term health and his ability to play the rest of this season.
“The worst part about it is I feel like in two days I’m going to be fine,” he said. “If it happened on Monday, I don’t think we would have any issues but it happened Wednesday afternoon.”
Canadian Adam Hadwin said the accident made you realize how fragile an athlete’s body can be.
“So much torque is being put on our bodies constantly and one wrong move, one wrong swing, one wrong slip and the next thing you know you’re not playing this week. It’s very unfortunate,” he said.
“The back is not something to play with. We see it with Tiger. We see it with Jason (Day) a little bit, and now we see it with Dustin. It’s tough.”
Adam Scott said the Johnson withdrawal was “disappointing, for sure, for everybody.”
“The way he’s been going, a freak accident, he’s obviously very, very injured, because to pull out of the Masters when you’re in the kind of form he’s in, it must be a very difficult decision to make.”
Earlier this week, Johnson had said he knew the Masters would be a challenge.
“If I want to win here, everything’s going to have to go well for me,” he said then. “You know, I’ve got a lot of confidence in my game now, especially with the way I’ve been playing the last few tournaments. But, you know, anything can happen.” It did, and then some.