To the party
biggest change in my life. That probably contributed to a lot of my success,” he said.
“It changes your perspective on things. He and Paulina are the most important things in my life. Golf – obviously I love to play it and it’s very important – but at the end of the day, I still get to go home to them. No matter what kind of day I’ve had, it always gets better when I see Tatum.”
Johnson’s coach Butch Harmon, who will be watching his protege from the Sky commentary box over the next four days, has seen the turnaround at first hand. “He has matured a lot in his personal life, in his golf life, and every part of his life,” said Harmon.
“DJ is a free spirit, he likes to have a good time. My quest with him was always to get more serious about it, to work harder at it away from the tournaments.
“You want all the guys to have a life – they deserve to have a life – but DJ is a little bit of a partyer and didn’t work as hard as he could have because his natural talent carried him.
“He realised that. And once we woke up a sleeping giant and he started working harder, we started to see the fruits of his labour. I must say as his coach I am very proud of what he has done both on and off the course.
“He really has dedicated himself this year. His goal at the start of the year was to be No1.
“Now that he’s there, he likes being there. He likes being the man, he likes being the guy with the bull’s-eye on his back at every tournament, so it wouldn’t surprise me if he would win this week.
“He has to be the favourite going into it, although Rory would be right there with him.”
The biggest thing was when Paulina and I had our baby son –– that contributed to my success