Can Johnson the ‘freak’ shrug off Augusta curse?
T he signs are good. Dustin Johnson is the Masters favourite and in the best form of any player arriving at Augusta since hubert Green in 1976.
The signs are bad. No favourite has won the Masters since Tiger Woods in 2005 and Green — like Johnson, coming off the back of three straight tournament wins — finished tied 19th in 1976, having completed the final two rounds 11 over par.
‘It’s a funny game,’ said Johnson. ‘It doesn’t matter how good you’re playing, you can still not win. If I want to win here, everything has to go well for me. Drive it well, hit my irons well, putt well. You’ve got to bring your best stuff to Augusta.’
And Johnson’s best is good. he’s the No 1 in the world right now, a player Rickie Fowler described on Monday as ‘a freak of nature’. ‘Dustin is just crazy,’ added Fowler. ‘he’s one of the best drivers of the golf ball, the longest, but also the straightest.’
Both attributes will count in his favour if, as expected, rain falls today and the wind blows tomorrow and Friday. In his nick, it should be his Masters. Yet there are plenty who came here with similar endorsements in previous years, and left with no green addition to their wardrobe.
Asked directly about his favoured status, Johnson was blunt. ‘I don’t care,’ he said. We imagine being No 1 must please him but it is hard to say. Without a club in his hand, the world’s finest golfer is something of a blank canvas.
‘he’s so dense that light bends around him,’ wrote celebrated sports writer Rick Reilly and, while cruel, the description would bring nods of agreement from correspondents who have spent many hours mining for insight.
Johnson is just damn good at golf, no more. The sponsors that adorn his clothing and equipment don’t see a salesman, but the world No 1.
how would you describe your personality, Johnson was asked at Augusta yesterday. ‘I have no idea,’ he said. And pretty much left it at that.
The irony being that the world No 1 possesses a back story could make him a marketing man’s fantasy, if he was remotely inter- ested in ever being that; or even engaging. he could be golf’s bad boy made good, the way that Tiger Woods managed to combine the adman’s dream of supreme talent and edge in his Nike promotions.
Before Johnson rose to golf’s pinnacle, there were rumours of past indiscretions with cocaine and marijuana. Then he met Paulina Gretzky, a model and actress, with looks once described by the website Deadspin as ‘cocaine in human form’.
If that name is familiar, it is because Paulina is part of American sporting royalty, daughter of Wayne, an ice hockey legend so gifted that the area of the rink behind the goal is forever known as ‘Gretzky’s office’.
So it’s all there. Listening to Johnson mumble through his duties, however, it is plain that he is not in the least interested in personal projection. This is about maintaining his supremacy, having spent so long as a runner-up.
It is Wayne Gretzky, future fatherin-law and grandfather to Johnson’s son Tatum — another boy is on the way — who is credited with bringing the changes to Johnson’s game that turned him from perennial choker to winner. ‘hard work and dedication,’ said Johnson. ‘Listening to him tell stories about growing up and how much he used to practice.’
The turning point, too, was Johnson’s six-month absence from the golf in 2014. Never satisfactorily explained — there have been rumours of failed drugs tests, but nothing the game’s authorities ever confirmed — what is known is that Johnson used the time to get his professional life in order, and returned stronger.
he says that without the period away he might not be in golf at all, let alone at its peak. ‘I still get mad, but I just don’t show it as much,’ he said.
‘I still get frustrated, just like everybody else, but even some of my losses in the majors I try to take a positive from it. Obviously there are tough losses, but it’s still a game, and I still enjoy coming back the next day.
‘Then to be No 1, that drives me to practise more and get better so I stay there. I don’t count the weeks, but it’s nice to hear it.’
Like being the Masters favourite. Johnson sees the blessing, not the curse.