Johnson has climbed from curiosity to No. 1

Nine years ago, when he won at Pebble Beach for the first time, Dustin Johnson was a curiosity: 24 years old, tall, strapping, routinely smacking the ball a country mile. He had a promising future, but so did several young power hitters back then.

This week, as Johnson make his annual return for the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, he belongs in his own realm. He’s 33, one of the game’s biggest names and the world’s undisputed No. 1 player.

At least he is for now, until the next intriguing 20-something — Jon Rahm? Justin Thomas? Jordan Spieth again? — knocks him off the throne.

Johnson has won the AT&T twice, in 2009 and ’10. The first time, he won in anticlimactic fashion, when rain washed out the final round. Johnson joined Anthony Kim as the only players under 25 with two PGA Tour victories at the time.

Kim also had a promising future, but he soon flamed out and disappeared from the golf

landscape. Johnson kept cranking out victories, one year after the next, with mindnumbing consistency.

He has won at least once every year since 2008, including last month’s eight-stroke rout at the Tournament of Champions in Maui. That’s 11 consecutive years, an impressive streak but still well short of the tour record of 17 shared by Jack Nicklaus (1962-78) and Arnold Palmer (1955-71).

“Hopefully, I’ll continue it for a few years to come,” Johnson said recently. “I think it shows it’s not just a fluke that I’m playing well. I’ve been a pretty good player for a long time now out on tour, and I want to continue that.”

Johnson’s long-ago AT&T wins were the second and third of his then-burgeoning career. He now owns 17, including the 2016 U.S. Open, putting him on track to potentially reach the World Golf Hall of Fame.

That’s dizzying stuff, especially for a player long known for his epic pratfalls on the grand stages. As much as Johnson established his fondness for Pebble Beach early in his career, he also endured one of his biggest collapses there.

In June 2010, Johnson took a three-shot lead into the final round of the U.S. Open at Pebble. He then shot 82, launching a string of major meltdowns — most memorably his bunker gaffe in the 2010 PGA Championship at Whistling Straits, and his costly three-putt on the 72nd hole of the 2015 U.S. Open at Chambers Bay.

Johnson turned 31 the next day, and he easily could have endured a career defined by major emptiness. But he has reshaped his story the past two years, with eight victories since the start of 2016 — including an emphatic, demonconquering triumph in the ’16 U.S. Open at Oakmont.

So now he resurfaces amid February sunshine at Pebble, in an unmistakable groove.

“I think I’m in a really good place,” Johnson said Tuesday. “I’ve got a lot of confidence in my game. I’m looking forward to the rest of the year.”

Johnson punctuated his Jan. 7 victory in Maui by nearly holing out his tee shot on a 433-yard par-4. That kind of feat crawls into the head of opponents.

Two weeks later, after winning the tour event near Palm Springs, Rahm said of Johnson, “So far, I’ve only lost against Superman this year.”

Johnson might need a cape to ward off the wave of challengers to his No. 1 ranking. All three players in closest pursuit — Rahm, Spieth and Thomas — are 24 or younger, creating much chatter about golf ’s young studs and occasionally overshadowing Johnson.

“No, it’s great for the game,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of great young players out here. I still feel like I’m a young player, (but) this is my 11th year…. There’s a lot of talent, and I’m happy to be part of it.”

Johnson finished third in last year’s AT&T at Pebble, igniting an especially hot stretch. He won his next three starts and headed to Augusta National as the favorite to win the Masters for the first time.

Only he slipped and fell down some stairs in his rental house on the day before the opening round, injuring his back and forcing him to withdraw. Johnson acknowledged the freak injury annoyed him “for a good five months.”

Now he’s back at Pebble, buoyed by three top-5 finishes in his past four AT&T starts. The place suits him — it’s where he launched his future, after all.