Golf: the tobacco-chewing victor of Augusta
For the first time in its 84-year history, this year’s Masters was held in November, not spring, said James Corrigan in The Daily Telegraph. That wasn’t the only groundbreaker: Dustin Johnson, who won the tournament, finished with a tally of 20 under par – a milestone never previously achieved at Augusta. The 36-year-old American entered the tournament as world No. 1, said Ewan Murray in The Guardian. And over the four days, he entirely justified that ranking with a “cold-blooded”, utterly dominant performance. Only on the final day were there any “wobbles”, as successive bogeys at the 4th and 5th holes briefly reduced his lead to a single shot. Yet with birdies at the 6th and 8th holes, he pulled away again, and after that was never really in trouble.
The tobacco-chewing Johnson has long been known as a player with “otherworldly potential”, said Oliver Brown in The Daily Telegraph. His vast shoulders enable him to generate effortless power, and he has an enviably stoical mindset. Yet his career has been blighted by “misjudgements and misdemeanours”. As a teenager, he fell in with the wrong crowd and was allegedly coerced into buying bullets for a stolen gun, which was later used in a murder. In 2014, he took six months out of the game – reportedly after testing positive for cocaine. At times, too, his passion has been questioned: “he’s not the most dedicated player on the planet”, a former caddy remarked. Happily for Johnson, such struggles appear to be behind him. His win at Augusta is his second major title (he achieved his first at the 2016 US Open), and if he continues to play this well, the sport is arguably “his for the taking”. After his victory at Augusta, the famous Green Jacket was slipped onto his “broad frame” by last year’s winner, Tiger Woods (who, in his final round, recorded a septuple-bogey ten on the 12th hole, his worst score in 23,789 holes on the PGA Tour). It certainly “felt like a significant succession”.