Dustin Johnson 🆚 The Grid

Two-time major champion, Dustin Johnson, takes on The Grid.

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Alongside our very own Luke Kerr-Dineen, DJ attempts to complete The Grid in as few shots as possible. There are 10 targets, each 10 yards long, a player’s score is the number of attempts it takes them to land a ball in each gap.

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Dustin Johnson, welcome to the grid. Here’s how this is going to work. Basically, there are 10 10 yard gaps out there in the range. We’re going to ask you to hit a golf ball into each of them. There’s a maximum of five attempts per gap. Uh current clubhouse lead is 11 and the kind of an average score is somewhere around 15. So, we’re excited to do this and thank you for giving it a try. Okay, no problem. I can’t believe this. All right. How we feeling? We feeling okay. Yeah. Good. A little chilly here though in South Florida today, but I know. I wasn’t expecting this other than that. All right. What am I hitting here? All right. So, the first gap is 180 to 190 yard. So, like a 185 yard shot. All right. What club you have here? 7 iron. 7 iron. All right. Let’s see it. I’ll be right there. Sounded good. Little 189. So, 189. Bam. Off the board. All right. So, I’m going to start picking from here. Okay. How about we jump up to 220 to 230? So, 225 yard shot. 225. Yeah. Did you How did you get into golf? My My dad was a was a club pro when I was younger. He wasn’t. Um, and that’s so I kind of got into golf, but I only played golf in the summer really really until probably like seventh grade and then I just started playing golf. That’s when you really got into it. Well, yeah. I made varsity golf team in seventh grade. So, I just started. Was it that you like were you into golf then or you just but I played it was more summertime, you know, go to go to work with my dad in the summer and me and my brother would just we’d play golf. We didn’t, you know, it wasn’t really didn’t really have a choice, but they had a swimming pool and everything. So, but we played every other sports all like baseball in the fall, basketball in the winter, and then uh soccer in the spring. So, you just became like really athletic as a kid and obviously transferred into golf, right? All right. 225 yd shot. 225. What do you got? What What club’s this? I’m going to hit a little 9inewood. Little ninewood. 225 on the nose. 25 on the nose. Bravo. A 9wood. What loft is that? 24. Feel like you’ve loved a high lofted fairway wood throughout your career. I did start it. I had a sevenwood and then I put this in at probably what two years ago maybe. I’ve been playing it ever since. So far so good. And it’s clearly pretty darn. All right. So, let’s jump up. We’ll inch up one. So, 230 to 240 on this one. Oh, yeah. I’m at the same club. So, same club. And so, was the last one stock or did you have to take a little off it? I just took a little off. Okay. So, now you’re closer to your stock at 235. A little more stocker. Okay. 230 little 230 on the nose. That was a little off the bottom cuz usually go about probably 235, but I was just just slightly thin. Slightly thin. So, but it got in the window. And so what? When it’s a little thin, that just brings the spin up a little bit. It just doesn’t go quite as far. Doesn’t go quite as far. Perfect. But it still hit hit our window we’re looking for. Yeah, I know. You’re doing great. All right, so you’re off three for three so far. How about we drop uh down to 200 to 210? So 205 shot. I did read somewhere that you played a lot of money games growing up. I did. Although So what were the stakes then that you were playing for these money games that you grow up? Um I pretty much everything was $5 a hole. $5 a hole. Okay. And what skins you were going? No, I mean it was just the dog fight that at the local club that I grew up playing. They played Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. And yeah, a lot of times I didn’t go to school on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday or I went in the morning and made it to the dog fight by 12. That’s awesome, man. All right, 205. What do we got? 205. I’m at a sixiron. Sounded good. 200. 200 on the nose again. Bam. All right. How about we jump up 2550 to 260? So 255 yard shot. It’s cold. I have to hit my 255. Yeah. So 250 to 260. Um actually I hit 7. What? You must have been an in demand junior player then for these money games once they started seeing you being able to cash some checks at a young age. I was I played all I was okay. Well, you had to play well if you didn’t have any money. 250 to 260 250 260 teed it up. Oh, don’t like it. I just hit off the bottom. Oh, 246. Give it Give it another go. I mean, it’s the right club. I just missed that one a hair. All right, give it a go. Oh, that’s not going to get it. Another one. All right, give it a go again. So, 24 255 is our goal. 250 260 is the gap. So, the first one you said just a little off the bottom and that one high toe. High toe. It’s not as terrible. All right, there we go. That was it. Solid 251. Yep. 251. All right. Nice. Let’s stay in this zone and go to how about 270 280 the longest gap out there and the most awkward according to every pro we’ve asked to do this grid challenge it I mean yeah it is cuz it’s kind of it’s a 3-wood or I use kind of a four-wood. Yeah. What’s the loft of the fourwood you’ve got cooking? 16 and a half. Okay. So and so what you don’t have a mini drive so you’re are you hitting this into par fives? Is this off the tea club? Like what’s this kind of to be honest? I don’t really hit it that often. Yeah, I mean I either hit driver or sevenwood generally. I mean I’ll hit it off the tea. Yeah. Don’t really need it, you know, in the parfs. Usually if it’s a I mean if you’re hitting a 3-wood into a par five, it’s a long 3wood. If you’re hitting a three, it’s a long par five or it’s, you know, a lot of times, you know, it kind of depends on is it the risk versus the reward. Right. Right. Right. Usually if I’m that far back, I’ll just lay up to a good number and I can hit a wedge close. Just wedge it close. Right. Yeah. Cuz you miss a 3-wood. I mean, to me, 3-wood’s probably, you know, my least favorite. Not I just never really like guys say that that 3woods just aren’t really They’re just kind of there in case of emergency. Off the tea is fine. Like I, you know, I’ll hit off the tee, but just hitting them off the ground. If you don’t hit them spot on, they just they go all over the place. Right. Right. All right. So, off the tea here. 27280 is the gap. It’s a bullet. Yeah, just off the bottom. Okay. A little thin. All right, let’s give it another go. Yep. Like I said, this is the one that every pro says the most awkward they struggle with the most just cuz they’re never really dialing it in from this ring. No. Well, you don’t need to be dialed in from this range. Sounds I made 272. Sounded good. 272. All right. How about we drop down now to 190 to 200. So 195. DJ, you know, I feel like your swing really kicked off the like bode left wrist movement. What’s funny though is I saw some old a swing of yours maybe from college. Yeah. Where it wasn’t as bowed on the back swing and and it’s just gotten more bowed over. Is that something you and Butch worked on or or No, it just kind of became it just naturally just go it was always that way. But I think it might have been a hair less cuz I used to play a draw. Okay. So I used to draw everything like wouldn’t hit a fade unless I had to go around a tree or something. Yeah. Um you know but from the middle of the fairway I’d never hit a hit a fade. Okay. Okay. And then when I started working with Butch, we started working on fades, but I still for like the first four or five years, I wouldn’t hit a I wouldn’t hit one from the fairway. Really? Yeah. I still always turned it. But, you know, it got to a point where I was just getting ready for the season and like the new drivers and equipment like I was having trouble drawing it and just started playing a fake cuz draws for you guys can just go off the planet if you get them wrong. Right. Yeah. For me, it was just more I just was went out and I was I wasn’t driving a good hitting a draw. So, I tried hitting a fade and hit it really good and just kept playing a fade. All right. What do you say? 190 to 200 19 200. Okay. 197. Good job. All right. How about 210 to 220? So, 215 shot. You know, your college coach, Alan Terrell, told me, he said that there were that you were just incredibly talented in throughout your at every level you’ve played, especially in college. But there were times where he would have to like, you know, like lean on his guys a little bit. Lean on guys on team. Is that on me? Yeah, maybe. What does that mean? I guess you have to ask him. He just said he needed to like give you a kick up the butt every now and for sure. Well, yeah. I didn’t always listen. or follow the rules. 210 to 220. 210 to 220. Oh. Oh. 209. Give it another go. That’s fine. Took took a little too much. No, I missed that one. 208. Give it one more go. Seems like this is the right club, though. It is. There we go. That was solid. Perfect. 219. All right. So, let’s go to 240 250 now. So, 245 yard shot. Is this the ninewood again or um I’m going to hit a seven just so I don’t have to swing so hard. It’s cold. Yeah. What was the period that you would say that you were grinding the most on your game? Um, I would say probably like I mean obviously college put in a lot of time but so I missed a putt. It’s like a three three to four ffooter on the 30 like on the last hole a horseshoe a putt to make the cut in the first playoff event in 2008. Okay. And because I missed the cut I didn’t get to play the next week. So obviously I wasn’t too thrilled about that and so I went back and worked with coach for a month really hard and then came out and won turning stone the next event of the fall. So that kind of 2008 period that was where you were just like Yeah. I mean from there I kept on working working at it but you were really burning hard. Yeah. cuz I well I got on tour and my first five events I played I played really well and had a lot of success and then I think I got a little lazy like oh this is you know it’s it’s easy I don’t have to put in as much work and um didn’t play very well for the like the rest of the year pretty much and then you know that was kind of the turning point for me is you know when I didn’t get the top 125 on the FedEx Cup and had to go play well in the fall to keep my card obviously. So, I went home and worked my butt off and came out and won the first fall event. I love it. That’s all right. What did he say? 245. 245 on the number on the nose. All right. Good job. And now our final gap. 260 to 270. So 265 yard shot. So what do we think? It’s funny you write these gaps that like to be honest I never never even think about them or I know that’s that’s the beauty of the Golf Digest grid challenge DJ. No, it’s fine. But like I mean I’ve got obviously too as you can tell every time I hit hit one solid it’s in the gap. It’s Yeah. If I miss it, it’s not. It’s so funny. Like, we’ve had scratch golfers do this and they’re just they can’t do it in 20 golf balls. 25 golf balls. You guys are just sleepwalking to Well, yeah. I mean, too, but as long as I hit it solid, everyone’s going to be in the You know where it’s going. Yeah. All right. 265. Let’s put a bow on this. 265. Oh, little draw. It was 271. one. That’s the second one you’ve missed by one yard. All right. It’s all right. But it went a hair further cuz I turned it over. I didn’t mean to. I lo Oh, there it is. All right. Two 259. I missed that one. Give it one more, sir. All right. One you hit too good, one you slightly missed. This one’s going to slightly knock the last one. 270. Boom. On the number. DJ, thanks so much for doing this. It kind of depends on like the temperature. Like 265 when it’s hot out is a little easier to hit than I’m trying to hit a little little 3-wood. Yeah. Yeah. It can be. It’s like And then like I said, when you’re on the course, there’s no such thing as a little 3-wood. Really? You just hit it a number. Got to dial it up in here. All right. Well, thanks again, DJ. Appreciate you taking the time to do this. Appreciate it.