Top-ranked Johnson’s confidence is soaring
Dustin Johnson arrived in Los Angeles on Monday as the world’s No. 1-ranked golfer by a big margin.
That’s courtesy of a win in Saudi Arabia in his last start, his fifth victory in his past 13 events. That stretch includes claiming the FedEx Cup in September and his second major at the Masters in November.
That’s not to mention three runner-up finishes and a T3 during that span.
To put his current dominance into perspective, Johnson holds a 5.78-point lead over No. 5 Tyrrell Hatton in the official world golf rankings. That is the same margin between Hatton and No. 155 Daniel van Tonder.
“Obviously, the confidence is pretty high right now,” Johnson told reporters on Wednesday ahead of The Genesis Invitational at Riviera Country Club. “I feel good about what I’m doing, I’ve got a lot of confidence in everything that I’m doing.”
Johnson’s worst finish since claiming the FedEx Cup was a T11 at the Sentry Tournament of Champions while coming off a two-month break following the Masters.
He’s the heavy pre-tournament favorite at every sportsbook this week. In 13 previous starts at Riviera Country Club, Johnson has a win in 2017 and four other top-10 finishes.
“There’s golf courses that I always look forward to going to and playing,” he said. “Especially here, it’s one of my favorite courses.”
Johnson, 36, is the +550 favorite by several oddsmakers, including DraftKings and FanDuel. No other golfer has better odds than second-ranked Jon Rahm at +1100.
The Genesis Invitational is one of three “elevated status” tournaments on the PGA Tour along with the Memorial and the Arnold Palmer Invitational. With it comes a $9.3 million purse and 550 FedEx Cup points to the winner.
As such, it attracts a marquee field that includes eight of the top 10 players this week.
“This is a big tournament, it always is,” Johnson said. “It’s always got a great field, it’s at a great venue.”
And then there’s his Masters defense, which will begin 50 days from Wednesday.
Johnson said he will travel to Augusta National in a few weeks to play a couple of rounds, but really won’t plan for the Masters until the week of the tournament (April 8-11). While he’s playing well, Johnson said he’s continually working to improve every facet of his game. WORKDAY TO THE RESCUE >> When the John Deere Classic decided to cancel last year because of the coronavirus pandemic, San Francisco-based Workday stepped in as title sponsor of a one-year replacement event held at Muirfield Village a week before the Memorial.
Now, Workday has agreed to take over a World Golf Championship this year.
The PGA Tour announced that Workday will be title sponsor of what now is called the WGC-Workday Championship at The Concession. It will be played next week at The Concession Golf Club in Bradenton, Florida.
The WGC was supposed to be in Mexico City — the Mexico Championship began in 2017 — but was moved this year because of logistical problems created by the pandemic.
After sponsoring the Ohio event last summer, Workday signed a 10-year deal to be the presenting sponsor of the Memorial starting next year.
NEW OUTLOOK >> Daniel Berger switched swing coaches to Cameron McCormick. What he didn’t change was his swing.
“He’s totally given me a different outlook on short game, on putting, just a different outlook on golf in general,” Berger said. “He’s allowed me to be artistic. He hasn’t changed me in a way that where you get worse before you get better, which I know happens to a lot of people when they change swing instructors.”