Bay agony is all behind me, says Johnson
WAS it really only nineand-a-half months ago that American golfing pride lay shattered in pieces in Scotland, amid much rancour and recrimination as the man at the helm was subjected to a mutiny? Here at St Andrews for the 144th Open Championship, they’re a nation reborn.
Since those sobering events in the Ryder Cup at Gleneagles it has been all birdies and eagles. Two majors, two world golf championship strokeplay events and the flagship tournament on the PGA Tour have been staged, with all five leading prizes ending up in American hands.
On Sunday, Rickie Fowler’s victory in the Scottish Open over fellow American Matt Kuchar was followed by Jordan Spieth’s latest success, at the John Deere Classic in Illinois. Talk about momentum. If Spieth is denied the latest leg of the calendar Grand Slam, chances are it will be an American denying him.
It may even prove to be the man standing alongside him when the action begins in the first round on Thursday morning. The last time Spieth and Dustin Johnson were in close proximity, the latter was falling victim to the most infamous three-putt in US Open history.
Now, thanks to someone at the Royal and Ancient Golf Club with a somewhat black sense of humour, the pair will be together again when Johnson (below) returns to action for the first time since that bitter loss at Chambers Bay last month.
How do you get over something like that? It might help to have a father-in-law who just happened to be the greatest-ever player in his particular sport. ‘Don’t worry about it, the fact is you played great,’ said Wayne Gretzky, ice hockey’s all-time monarch, on that fateful Sunday evening. ‘You’ll get the next one.’
A bit of that necessary arrogance appears to be rubbing off on Johnson. Asked about Spieth’s chances of pulling off the Grand Slam, the 31-yearold said: ‘I’m playing in the next two, aren’t I? We’ll see. I can’t wait to get started.’
Johnson insisted it didn’t take him long to get over his brutal setback in Seattle. As Gretzky said, the fact is he flat outplayed the rest of the field, only to suffer more than anyone on the horrific greens.
Given the prodigious distances he hits the ball it was some feat to hit all 14 fairways on Saturday. On Sunday he overcame a mid-round wobble to hang tough on the closing holes, with two magnificent blows to the par five 18th underlining his gifts. It was cruel indeed that he should three-putt from just 12 feet.
‘I felt like I was hitting good putts all day but it’s tough to judge bounces,’ he said, rather wittily.
Johnson came over early and, as is his wont, spent the weekend meeting up with the Irish billionaire Dermot Desmond and his family, relaxing with the odd pint of Guinness and sampling two of the nation’s finest links courses at Portmarnock and Royal Dublin.
Helping him this week will be the fact that he has played St Andrews more than his American peers, having come over a couple of times to compete in the Dunhill Links Championship. In the 2010 Open here he finished tied 14th, the start of a decent run in this event that has seen him finish in the top 15 in four of the last five editions.
‘I’ve just always enjoyed it and the fact you’ve got to be able to use your imagination to play shots,’ he said. ‘I like that sort of challenge. I think that suits me. And I just love playing this course.’
It’s hardly surprising, given the advantages it offers the bigger hitters. The softish greens will help Johnson, too, given he will be hitting them with shorter irons than everyone else, and he’ll presumably enjoy putting on greens with grass on them and free from uneven bounce.
There are a long line of leading American challengers out on Thursday morning, beginning with Bubba Watson on the stroke of nine, followed in turn by Patrick Reed, Spieth and Johnson, and then comes Tiger Woods. Even if you discount the latter name — and he is, after all, the 241st-ranked player in the world, albeit one who has won twice at the Old Course — it’s a formidable line-up, and it’s followed after lunch by Fowler, Kuchar and 2013 Open Champion Phil Mickelson. The other thing they all have in common — apart from Woods, who was injured — is that they were part of that American team humiliated just an hour from here in the rolling Perthshire hills of Gleneagles last September. How different the landscape looks now, as they seek to continue their recent domination and underline their resurgence at the most evoca
tive venue of all.