STRAITS TALK
Dustin Johnson returns to Whistling Straits, where his rising career was grounded
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THAT PATCH of sand that Dustin Johnson didn’t think was a bunker five years ago is barely in play at this week’s PGA Championship at Whistling Straits.
It is half-covered by a sponsor’s stand.
The demon that resides there? Not buried. Not yet.
As Johnson returns to the scene of his crime, he is still trying to stay out of his own way enough to win his first major. From blowup rounds (U.S. Open, 2010) to rules infractions (PGA, 2010) to wild shots (2011 British Open) to
threeputts on the final hole (2015 U.S. Open), Johnson has found every way possible to give away golf’s most cherished trophies.
Maybe worse yet, when it looked as though he might grasp the claret jug at St. Andrews last month, he followed a one-shot, 36-hole lead with an inexplicable pair of 75s.
“I remember saying after on a conference call for the Open Championship after what happened at Chambers Bay (in the U.S. Open) that this was going to be tough for him,” Golf Channel analyst Frank Nobilo said on a recent
conference call. “And he had a great opportunity to do what Rory did after Augusta (in 2010) . . . going to a golf course that suited him in Congressional and just blow the doors off of it.
“He got halfway there at St. Andrews, and I don’t know what happened on Saturday, Saturday more so than Sunday,” Nobilo went on. “For him to finish 75-75 at St. Andrews was unexplainable. That course was built for him.”
Johnson’s prolific length combined with St. Andrews’ generous fairways should have been leaving him with 11 wedge shots per round. And for 36 holes, he was the epitome of resiliency, simply powering through the wind, the leader at 10-under par. Then, as the conditions got better, he got worse, more tentative. It was if he had simply checked out.
From the last three holes of his third round through the first seven of Round 4, Johnson made seven bogeys in 10 holes. While most everyone was tearing up the course, he didn’t make a birdie until 15 in the third round, then bogeyed his last three. The next day, in easy conditions on the easiest part of the course, he birdied one and bogeyed the next three.
Johnson was the only top 25 player
in the world who failed to break par in the third round. New Zealander Ryan Fox alone was higher with a 76.
“The Saturday and Sunday at the Open Championship really told us he has not forgotten about what’s happened, not just at Chambers Bay but over the last four or five years,” Nobilo asserted.
The brain cramp at the 2010 PGA was a killer because he could have immediately erased the memory of his fourth-round 82 in that year’s U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, which was somewhat excusable because he’d never been in that position before. Now he was in that position again as he stood on the 18th tee at Whistling Straits.
A par on the difficult par-4 finishing hole would have protected his one-shot lead on eventual winner Martin Kaymer and Bubba Watson as Johnson pushed his drive into the gallery. The rules were clear and posted everywhere: Every sandy area was to be played as a hazard (1200 of them), even the ones trampled through by spectators, like on 18. Neither Johnson nor his then-caddie, Bobby Brown, took note and, with rowdy fans surrounding him, he grounded his club amid the chaos.
Johnson made what he thought was a bogey for the playoff. Officials told him otherwise as he came off the green. “If that hadn’t have happened, if he hadn’t grounded his club, makes the putt, that major championship is done, one and done,” Nobilo said. “When you look at those guys on the leaderboard back in 2010 — Martin Kaymer has two major championships, Bubba Watson has two majors, Zach Johnson has two majors, (Jason) Dufner one, (Steve) Elkington has one and obviously Rory McIlroy has four, so the one absentee that is glaring
is Dustin Johnson.”
It’s as glaring as his potential. Tee to green, Johnson’s game is as good as it gets. His short game may be his weakness, but it shouldn’t be costing him this much.
“Just such a phenomenal talent,” said Nobilo’s Golf Channel cohort, Notah Begay. “In fact, of the players in that particular age group he could be the most talented, just with his ability to literally dominate golf courses. I don’t know that there’s another player out there with the exception of (Rory) McIlroy who can literally go out and pick apart a golf course with their driver. I think that it’s a toss-up when Rory is hitting his driver good and Dustin is hitting his driver good. I think it’s a toss-up on who’s the better driver and who can take advantage of it.”
Johnson’s problems are certainly an enigma, as he is in general. No one has gotten to the bottom of his six-month leave of absence, reportedly part of a suspension for cocaine use, an allegation denied by Johnson and the PGA Tour.
A renowned partier, Johnson admitted to some binge drinking but said he simply had to work through personal challenges. The birth of his son, Tatum, with fiancée Paulina Gretzky seemed to steady him when he returned to the PGA Tour in February. His impressive win at the WGC Championship at Doral in March was a very good start to the comeback and he soon worked himself back into a top 10 spot in the world rankings. Still, the majors taunt him. To some, Johnson’s plight is reminiscent of Sergio Garcia’s. The 35-year-old Spaniard is one of the best ball strikers in the world, a phenomenal iron player who just can’t get it done in the big four events.
“It gets harder,” Nobilo noted. “If you get a twinge or a doubt or sometimes it’s ‘Why me?’ and we’ve heard that with Sergio Garcia. It’s the intangibles.” Begay doesn’t agree. “I don’t know that Dustin is going to fall into the same category as a Garcia,” he says. “Garcia has always had sort of a melancholy disposition towards how tournament golf and majors have treated him. I don’t think Dustin has that same mentality.
“I think Dustin may fall along the lines of a Phil Mickelson. It might take him a while to break down the door, and once he does, I think he’ll realize that, ‘Well, if I did it this time, I can do it again.’”
As for how Johnson can break through in these events, some think he should part ways with his caddie brother, Austin, and hire a professional again, someone who can push the right buttons and help him make the right decisions. It’s not about nerves, it seems. It’s more about focus — focus at the right time.
“It takes some players a little time and a little bit of scar tissue for them to realize that this is a big moment and I need to step up at this particular time and hit a golf shot or make a putt, otherwise this window is going to shut on me,” Begay said. “Dustin is going to get a lot more chances than most players, and until he recognizes the moment and capitalizes, I think he’s still going to be on the short end of the stick.
“It’s really weird,” Nobilo said. “Some people seem to be given the key to the mansion; others it’s sitting under a carpet and no one tells them where the carpet is.”
For Johnson, maybe it’s still in that bunker on the 18th at Whistling Straits. He just has to pick it up on his way.