The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Major Force
Top-ranked Dustin Johnson leads a strong field into the Masters hoping to continue his recent tour dominance
The Masters, golf’s greatest theater, awaits its biggest star. Anticipation is higher than usual to see whether the dominant force in the game, the player now expected to win whenever and wherever he plays, can handle Augusta National.
Tiger Woods? He might not even show up except for dinner Tuesday night for past Masters champions.
The new force _ the latest, anyway _ is Dustin Johnson. For years known as golf's most athletic figure, Johnson in recent months has been referred to as something just short of a machine. Whether he has a pulse is up for debate. "He's just a perfect, complete player," Spanish rookie Jon Rahm said.
Johnson finally got that major burden off his back when he won the U.S. Open last summer at Oakmont. While he did not factor in the next two majors, he now looms as the prohibitive favorite when the Masters begins on April 6. These days, that's saying something.
Jack Nicklaus says he has never seen so much depth at the top of golf in all his years. A year ago at the Masters, the talk was about a modern version of the "Big Three" with Jason Day, Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spieth. Johnson wasn't even part of that conversation. Now, the 32-year-old American not only heads to the Masters at No. 1 in the world, it will have been nearly two months since someone beat him.
Johnson rose to the top of the world rankings with a five-shot victory at Riviera, where he would have shattered the oldest 72-hole scoring record on the PGA Tour if he had known what it was or even cared, instead of just coasting home. He won in the high altitude of Mexico City. And then he became the first player to capture all four of the World Golf Championships by winning the Match Play. In the 112 holes he played over seven matches, Johnson never trailed once.
"It's as good as anybody has ever played in the last month," Zach Johnson said. "There's just not a flaw. And his confidence adds to that."
Scripts are not always predictable at Augusta National, however. Think back to 2000, when Tiger Woods was at his peak. Leading into that Masters, Woods either had won or finished second in 10 out of 11 tournaments. And then he made a double bogey and triple bogey in a span of three holes in the opening round at Augusta and wound up in a tie for fifth.
Look no further than last year. Spieth, coming off a wire-to-wire victory in which he tied the scoring record set by Woods in 1997, took a five-shot lead to the back nine on Sunday. Three holes later, he was three shots behind and never caught back up. The moment that stands out was his tee shot and a wedge into the water on No. 12 for a quadruple bogey.
Day last year had won two straight tournaments when he got to the Masters and he was on the verge of leading the opening round until he dropped five shots over the last four holes, including a triple bogey on No. 16. He never caught up from the opening round.
So that modern "Big Three" is closer to a "Big Six" by adding Johnson, Japanese star Hideki Matsuyama and British Open champion Henrik Stenson. It has been 10 years since so many top players were winning the first few months of the year going into the Masters. The winner that year? Zach Johnson, who described himself as a normal guy from Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
TIGER AT 20 Woods figures to get plenty of attention, at least for what he did. It was 20 years ago this week that Woods annihilated a shorter Augusta National and became the youngest Masters champion at age 21. He won by 12 shots, one of 20 records he set or tied that year, and one that remains. He was the first player of black heritage in a green jacket. And his victory gave the sport its biggest injection of enthusiasm since Arnold Palmer. BID FOR A SLAM, TAKE THREE McIlroy had a four-shot lead going into the final round in 2011 and shot 80, his best chance at a green jacket. He might come to rue that day. The Masters now is the only major keeping him from becoming the sixth player to complete the career Grand Slam. This will be his third shot at the fourth and final piece of the slam. He tied for fourth (six shots behind Spieth) in 2015. A year ago, he was one shot out of the lead and paired with Spieth in the third round when McIlroy shot 77.
THE ROOKIE The last player to win the Masters in his debut was Fuzzy Zoeller in 1979. Jon Rahm of Spain has done enough in nine months to at least raise the possibility. In his first tournament as a pro, he had the 36-hole lead. He earned a PGA Tour card in four starts. He won at Torrey Pines by shooting 65 on the last day. And in two World Golf Championships over the next month, he was a fraction away from beating Dustin Johnson.