Johnson finally earns his sweet redemption
Everyone loves a tale of redemption and they don’t come much sweeter than the one completed by American Dustin Johnson in oakmont’s evening shadows at the US open on Sunday.
The man who sat out the last ryder Cup as he sought refuge from a party lifestyle filled with all the usual destructive urges will turn up at the next one in September as a family man reformed, and an awesome weapon in America’s arsenal.
An exotic back catalogue of drama at the majors told us that if it could happen to Johnson it would do so, but even by the standards of the man who is 32 tomorrow the closing holes in Pittsburgh were astonishing.
After being approached by a rules official on the 12th hole and told he might receive a one-shot penalty at the end for a supposed earlier infringement, not even a farcical sword of Damocles hanging above his head could cause his hell-bent determination to falter as he landed his first major.
The fact he did it in style, with what he would later describe as the best shot of his career to set up a birdie at the 18th, reinforced the image of a man who’s finally conquered his demons.
‘Could it get any better?’ he said, smiling. Given that he had, in turn, just embraced his brother Austin, who caddies for him, clutched the trophy, cradled his young son Tatum and kissed his photogenic fiancee Paulina, it’s hard to imagine how it could.
It’s true Johnson is not among golf’s sharpest thinkers but he’s handled all that the game has thrown at him over the years with a touch of class.
It began at the 2010 US PGA Championship when he was set for a sudden-death playoff, only to be assessed a two-shot penalty for grounding his club at the 18th in what was considered a bunker by the organisers but a trampled sandpit by everyone else. Johnson didn’t rant or rave but accepted the misfortune with grace.
A year later at The open he was in position to win again, but drove out of bounds with four holes to play. other chances that came and went were now being accompanied by whispers that his lurid off-course proclivities were catching up with him.
A prime athletic specimen by any standard, they concerned the usual: loose women, alleged recreational drug use.
Johnson denied the latter, but when he took himself off for six months beginning in September 2014 — which just happens to be the length of suspension a player gets for recreational drug use — you can understand why many had their suspicions.
More importantly, both for himself and the game, he put the time away to good use and clearly got his act together. And then we had another typical Johnson moment, at the 2015 US open. All week he outplayed the field, missing countless chances, before standing over a 12ft eagle putt at the last to win. not only did he miss that putt, however, he missed the tiddler back.
Three weeks later he demolished the old Course at St Andrews with his drives to lead at halfway, but failed to finish the job.
A more deep-thinking soul might not have recovered from these setbacks but Johnson is smart enough to know that what works for him is keeping it simple.
When Phil Mickelson was discussing the science of putting with the physics major Bryson DeChambeau recently, Johnson walked away, telling them: ‘If I listen to you two any longer, I won’t be able to take the putter back.’
While rory McIlroy, the only other player in Johnson’s league when it comes to driving, was cowed by oakmont’s difficult setup, the latter just blasted away. For three rounds, it looked like producing a typical Johnson result. He was comfortably the best player but trailed Shane Lowry (left) by four shots.
And then, through all the travails of a particularly difficult final day at a major, came his moment of redemption. Twelve months after his most trying moment on a course, he stood at the centre of a joyous scene of unconfined bliss. A man complete.