Johnson just steps away from his peak
Eight-shot victory in Hawaii sent message the world No. 1 is fully back from injury
KAPALUA, HAWAII— Dustin Johnson won’t be staying in the same house at the Masters. One with no stairs? “I don’t care if it’s two floors,” he said. “But we aren’t staying in that house.”
Johnson can smile about it now, even though his short stay at Augusta National remains one of the few memories that linger. He still recalls the spill he took down the stairs on the eve of the Masters last year, at first fearing that he had broken his back in two.
“I knew it wasn’t good. You could tell,” he said. “It wasn’t like, ‘Oh, I might be hurt.’ I knew it was hurt.”
The topic was timely Sunday evening at Kapalua because of his eightshot victory in the Sentry Tournament of Champions, and the feeling that Johnson was closer than ever to the form from last spring that had some players talking about him in a tone usually reserved for Tiger Woods.
He won three tournaments in a row, all of them against the strongest fields of the year to that point. He was an overwhelming favourite going into the Masters. And after his fall, he was never really the same for the rest of the summer.
It’s hard to declare Johnson is back for two reasons: It’s only one tournament into the new year, and he already is No. 1 in the world.
Even so, his performance at Kapalua was a statement. Johnson shot 66-65 on the weekend in 56 km/h gusts, the best closing 36-hole score by four shots. His 65 in the final round was the best score of the tournament, even more impressive considering he was in the final group.
He drove two par 4s on the back nine, and came within 6 inches of a hole-in-one on the 434-yard 12th hole. He went from a two-shot lead to a six-shot lead on the front nine. He never let anyone closer to him than five shots over the last 11 holes.
“The game is as close as it’s been to the level it was for that stretch,” he said. “I’ve got a lot of confidence in the game. I’m hitting the shots I want to hit. It’s really windy, and for the most part, all the shots I hit were the shots I wanted to hit.”
Kapalua was only the start, of course. Still to come are a pair of World Golf Championships and topheavy fields that he will face at Pebble Beach in Riviera, all part of the prologue to the Masters.
And it’s not like anyone is ready to concede.
“In all seriousness, I think if I had my ‘A’ game, I think I could take him on,” Jordan Spieth said. “The most difficult part is, I guess, trying to stay within your own game, not play off his. When I’m playing well, if I’m focusing on my things and me versus the golf course, that’s the best opportunity to capitalize.”
Still to be determined is how Rory McIlroy returns this year, and Justin Thomas certainly has the power and game. Jon Rahm at age 23 became the fourth-youngest player to reach No. 3 in the world with his runner-up finish at Kapalua. Even in a lost cause, Rahm doesn’t shy away from a fight.
The next test for Johnson is in two weeks in Abu Dhabi, where he faces another strong field that includes McIlroy, Henrik Stenson and Justin Rose, who ended last year with three victories among 10 straight top-10 finishes.