As Dustin Johnson let rip with his driver at St Andrews on the final day of The British Open in 2022, a booming voice with a distinct twang could be heard roaring in encouragement.
“Let’s go, DJ,” an American fan yelled as the dual-major winner strode purposefully down the fairway on the 10th hole, which is named after Bobby Jones.
DJ was in the mix on the Old Course, crushing drives and sinking putts, just like the good old days.
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As the final groups criss-crossed each other on the famous stretch of holes around the turn at St Andrews, he nailed a birdie on the Par 3 11th hole before fading late down the stretch.
A few weeks earlier the former world No.1 had been confirmed as arguably the biggest name to defect to the rebel LIV Golf Tour.
It had been a contentious few weeks, with the 2020 Masters champion resigning from the PGA Tour on June 7, two days before teeing off for the 4 Aces GC at Centurion in Hertfordshire.
The chatter was flying thick and fast five weeks later about golf’s civil war and the rebels at St Andrews, but Johnson, who had been the clubhouse leader for a period midway through the second day, made it clear he did not give a damn about what anyone was saying.
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Dustin Johnson has endured a woeful run at the majors.Source: Getty Images
“Honestly, I don’t read anything, so I wouldn’t know what you were saying, or if there was anything negative being said. I don’t pay attention to it,” he said.
“That’s exactly how I (handle the controversy). I don’t read. I don’t look at it. It doesn’t bother me, because everyone has their own opinion and I have mine, and the only one I care about is mine.”
The cheering for DJ was soon drowned out on a brisk, overcast day on the Scottish coast as Cam Smith went on a tear with his putter to overtake Rory McIlroy, who was greeted with groans of disappointment for every putt that slid by the hole when playing a group behind the Aussie.
In the historic 150th Open, Smith secured a famous victory amid scuttlebutt surrounding his own future, while Johnson shot a 3-under 69 to finish in a tie for sixth at 13-under, only seven shots behind the popular Aussie in a decent showing.
The American was closer to 40 than 30 but still appeared more than capable of adding to his major haul of two.
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WILL A RETURN TO A FAVOURITE HAUNT SPARK A REVIVAL?
It is never wise to write off a champion, but just over three years after that first tee shot at Centurion, it will be a miracle if Johnson makes the cut in the US Open starting Thursday.
This seems a staggering prediction given it is only nine years since he won the US Open at the Oakmont Country Club, which hosts the major again this year.
Johnson was dynamic in 2016 in Pittsburgh when shooting 4-under to win by three shots from Shane Lowry, Scott Pierce and Jim Furyk in his 29th major appearance.
The stirring triumph put behind him a heartbreaking miss in the US Open a year earlier behind Jordan Spieth, and also a runner-up finish in the 2011 British Open at Royal St. George’s.
Such was his buffer, he had more than enough in hand to clinch victory despite being penalised one shot for a contentious moment on the 5th green when his ball moved fractionally as he was about to address it.
Not that it mattered. The uber-talented Johnson finally had a major.
“I’ve had a lot of opportunities that I didn’t quite get. So this one’s definitely really sweet,” he said.
But the controversy surrounding the ball movement on the fifth green led to a significant change.
At the time, Johnson approached a steward and told him that he had not addressed the ball, and was given the all-clear to continue.
But on the 12th hole, as he was striving to banish past demons in majors, he was told he would be penalised … but no determination had been made on the penalty.
No-one knew if the sanction would be one shot or two, or perhaps even worse, and how big his lead over a faltering Lowry actually was.
OAKMONT, PA – JUNE 19: Johnson with the US Open trophy in 2016.Source: AFP
His peers were disgusted. McIlroy declared he would not have hit another shot until the “farce was rectified”, labelling the entire situation “ridiculous”.
Rickie Fowler agreed when declaring it “laughable” and Spieth and many others were as outraged on social media.
“Lemme get this straight. DJ doesn’t address it. It’s ruled that he didn’t cause it to move. Now you tell him he may have? Now? This a joke?” Spieth wrote at the time.
Somehow he managed to not let the farce mess with his head. And the uproar fast-tracked a rule change.
An overhaul of the laws book was already underway but the tinsiest ball movement and the outrage that followed proved the catalyst for officials to move fast.
By the start of 2017 the USGA and R&A had reworked the game’s 34 rules and also the complex decisions and clarifications.
As Golf Digest reported this week, the new Rules of Golf which came into effect in 2019 note that it is no longer a penalty if you accidentally cause your ball to move. You just put the ball back and play on.
Similarly, if the wind, for example, moves your ball, a golfer can either play it from the new spot or place it back in the original position, provided it has already been marked.
Years before becoming one of the trailblazers chasing a new path in golf, the South Carolina-native had a major, if inadvertent, impact in making golf fairer for all.
THE FORM SLUMP
Back to the assessment surrounding Johnson and his hopes this week.
Champion athletes talk about the positivity associated with returning to a place where they have enjoyed success, be it a tennis court or ground or, in Johnson’s case, Oakmont.
There is another factor at play as well. Johnson boasts the enviable record of having won at least one tournament per year, somewhere in the world, dating back to turning professional.
But there is nothing to suggest that the 40-year-old is capable of contending this week given that in the ten majors since that decent challenge at St Andrews, he has been out of sorts.
His best effort since then was a tie for 10th in the US Open in 2023 when finishing at 3-under, seven shots behind his compatriot Wyndham Clark.
Johnson was a bombshell signing for LIV Golf for a reported figure of about A$175m.Source: AFP
That aside, he has missed five cuts and finished in ties for 48th, 55th, 43rd and 31st. The numbers are alarming for a champion as talented as Johnson is.
In the five cuts he has made since that British Open appearance in 2022, he has finished a collective 76 shots from the eventual winner, or almost four shots per round off the pace.
Johnson received a special invitation to contest the recent PGA Championship at Quail Hollow but honoured that with a disastrous opening round of 78 in his latest setback.
Johnson starred initially on the LIV Tour, winning both the team title and also the individual honours in the inaugural year, which included a tournament win in Massachusetts.
But there have been leaner pickings since then and the 4Aces captain — who was signed for a reported figure around A$175m in 2022 — is reportedly off contract with LIV at the end of the current season.
A winner of six World Golf Championships, Johnson played reasonably in Virginia over the weekend when finishing in a tie for 10th at 9-under, six shots behind Joaquin Niemann.
He spoke briefly with reporters after his opening round to report he felt it was a reasonable preparation for his return to Oakmont this week.
“Getting ready for Oakmont, this is a pretty good preparation, just because you have to drive it really straight here and the fairways are narrow, and it’s penal if you miss them,” he said.
There have also been signs he is capable of snapping out of a slump that has spread to his team, which has struggled after being a sensation on the new tour in the inaugural year.
Johnson performed well in Asia in March, despite hurting himself in Hong Kong, and said he felt like he was striking the ball well during an event in Singapore.
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The drought, which dates back to a win in Las Vegas last year, was due to the “quality of players from top to high” being “pretty high”. But he felt his best golf was within reach.
“(The) body feels good. (It) feels like I’m swinging well (and) moving through the ball nicely,” he said.
“(I’m) hitting a lot of really quality golf shots. I was kind of leading into Hong Kong, too, and then it was just an unfortunate situation there because I didn’t really do anything to injure myself. I think I slept funny. It happens.”
IS IT THE LIV SYNDROME OR FATHER TIME CATCHING UP?
It is wrong to say that players on the LIV Tour have not contended and won majors since its inception in 2022. But Johnson and Smith, for that matter, are among those to struggle.
The theories as to why are varied, with former European Ryder Cup captain Paul McGinley saying after the PGA Championship that the format cannot properly prepare players for the challenge associated with trying to win a major.
“I think it’s hard to make an argument that LIV prepares you to win major championships because they are playing team events,” he said on Live At The PGA Championship.
“They’re not playing in the most difficult golf courses, and they’re traveling around the world and then having to come back to America to play three (of the) four majors. Those things alone (add to the difficulty).
“There’s a great quote from a Navy SEAL that’s widely used in leadership. (When asked) ‘What do you do under pressure?’. And he says, ‘I sink to the level of my training.’
“The training that the guys get on LIV, the way they play on LIV, it’s not the same intensity as the PGA Tour. Nobody can argue that that is not true.
“Having said that, they come close. Brooks (Koepka) has won a major. Bryson (DeChambeau) has won a major. It’s easy, with recency bias, to say that they can’t win. I think Jon Rahm can win.
OAKMONT, PENNSYLVANIA – JUNE 09: Johnson speaking to media at Oakmont this week.Source: AFP
“(But) it’s hard to make an argument that going to LIV is going to give you a better chance of winning a major. You can argue that all day long (but) there’s no way that I can see that that is a better and more productive pathway to being prepared to win majors.”
There is another factor at play as well. Johnson will turn 41 a week after the US Open.
It is almost a year since the Florida-based golfer spoke with confidence about what lay ahead of him in his fifth decade, though he was mindful the challenge was more testing.
“I still want to compete at a very high level. I’m not getting any younger, I have to work harder than I did before to keep myself in good form, but I still feel great,” he said.
On Monday at Oakmont, Johnson again played down any decline.
“I don’t feel like I’ve slipped any. My scores haven’t reflected, but it is a really fine line,” Johnson said.
“For me it’s always really close to being good, but just getting back there and keeping it consistent.
“Over the last couple months I’m starting to see a lot of patterns and the game feels like it’s coming back into good form.”
But Father Time catches even the legends and while DJ has always been a powerhouse around the golf course, his age combined with queries about the championship fitness of some LIV golfers could well be a factor in his decline.
A return to a favoured course this week will provide a fascinating insight into whether DJ still has what it takes to challenge, or whether he truly is a fading champion.
