As Dustin Johnson let rip along with his driver at St Andrews on the ultimate day of The British Open in 2022, a booming voice with a definite twang may very well be heard roaring in encouragement.
“Let’s go, DJ,” an American fan yelled because the dual-major winner strode purposefully down the green on the tenth gap, which is called after Bobby Jones.
DJ was within the combine on the Outdated Course, crushing drives and sinking putts, identical to the nice previous days.
FOX SPORTS, out there on Kayo Sports activities, is streaming The 2025 PGA Tour LIVE & Unique | New to Kayo? Get your first month for simply $1. Restricted time supply.
As the ultimate teams criss-crossed one another on the well-known stretch of holes across the flip at St Andrews, he nailed a birdie on the Par 3 eleventh gap earlier than fading late down the stretch.
A number of weeks earlier the previous world No.1 had been confirmed as arguably the most important title to defect to the insurgent 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 earlier than teeing off for the 4 Aces GC at Centurion in Hertfordshire.
The chatter was flying thick and quick 5 weeks later about golf’s civil warfare and the rebels at St Andrews, however Johnson, who had been the clubhouse chief for a interval halfway by way of the second day, made it clear he didn’t give a rattling about what anybody was saying.
READ MORE
WELCOME TO ‘CHOKEMONT’: Inside golf’s most ‘feared beast’ that sends gamers ‘insane’
FEATURE: Aussie’s $38m reply to golf’s most heated debate… and why fairytale may very well be brewing
‘ICE IN HIS VEINS’: Kiwi floodgates open as shot ‘of a lifetime’ swings PGA playoff marathon
“Truthfully, I don’t learn something, so I wouldn’t know what you had been saying, or if there was something destructive being mentioned. I don’t take note of it,” he mentioned.
“That’s precisely how I (deal with the controversy). I don’t learn. I don’t have a look at it. It doesn’t hassle me, as a result of everybody has their very own opinion and I’ve mine, and the one one I care about is mine.”
The cheering for DJ was quickly drowned out on a brisk, overcast day on the Scottish coast as Cam Smith went on a tear along with his putter to overhaul Rory McIlroy, who was greeted with groans of disappointment for each putt that slid by the outlet when enjoying a bunch behind the Aussie.
Within the historic a hundred and fiftieth Open, Smith secured a well-known victory amid scuttlebutt surrounding his personal future, whereas Johnson shot a 3-under 69 to complete in a tie for sixth at 13-under, solely seven pictures behind the favored Aussie in a good exhibiting.
The American was nearer to 40 than 30 however nonetheless appeared greater than able to including to his main haul of two.
‘We’ll see extra of that’ | 04:05
WILL A RETURN TO A FAVOURITE HAUNT SPARK A REVIVAL?
It’s by no means sensible to put in writing off a champion, however simply over three years after that first tee shot at Centurion, it will likely be a miracle if Johnson makes the lower within the US Open beginning Thursday.
This appears a staggering prediction given it is just 9 years since he received the US Open on the Oakmont Nation Membership, which hosts the most important once more this yr.
Johnson was dynamic in 2016 in Pittsburgh when capturing 4-under to win by three pictures from Shane Lowry, Scott Pierce and Jim Furyk in his twenty ninth main look.
The stirring triumph put behind him a heartbreaking miss within the US Open a yr earlier behind Jordan Spieth, and likewise a runner-up end within the 2011 British Open at Royal St. George’s.
Such was his buffer, he had greater than sufficient in hand to clinch victory regardless of being penalised one shot for a contentious second on the fifth inexperienced when his ball moved fractionally as he was about to handle it.
Not that it mattered. The uber-talented Johnson lastly had a significant.
“I’ve had loads of alternatives that I didn’t fairly get. So this one’s positively actually candy,” he mentioned.
However the controversy surrounding the ball motion on the fifth inexperienced led to a major change.
On the time, Johnson approached a steward and informed him that he had not addressed the ball, and was given the all-clear to proceed.
However on the twelfth gap, as he was striving to banish previous demons in majors, he was informed he could be penalised … however no willpower had been made on the penalty.
No-one knew if the sanction could be one shot or two, or even perhaps worse, and the way massive his lead over a faltering Lowry really was.
His friends had been disgusted. McIlroy declared he wouldn’t have hit one other shot till the “farce was rectified”, labelling the whole state of affairs “ridiculous”.
Rickie Fowler agreed when declaring it “laughable” and Spieth and lots of others had been as outraged on social media.
“Lemme get this straight. DJ doesn’t deal with it. It’s dominated that he didn’t trigger it to maneuver. Now you inform him he might have? Now? This a joke?” Spieth wrote on the time.
By some means he managed to not let the farce mess along with his head. And the uproar fast-tracked a rule change.
An overhaul of the legal guidelines e book was already underway however the tinsiest ball motion and the outrage that adopted proved the catalyst for officers to maneuver quick.
By the beginning of 2017 the USGA and R&A had reworked the sport’s 34 guidelines and likewise the advanced choices and clarifications.
As Golf Digest reported this week, the brand new Guidelines of Golf which got here into impact in 2019 be aware that it’s not a penalty should you by accident trigger your ball to maneuver. You simply put the ball again and play on.
Equally, if the wind, for instance, strikes your ball, a golfer can both play it from the brand new spot or place it again within the authentic place, offered it has already been marked.
Years earlier than turning into one of many trailblazers chasing a brand new path in golf, the South Carolina-native had a significant, if inadvertent, impression in making golf fairer for all.
THE FORM SLUMP
Again to the evaluation surrounding Johnson and his hopes this week.
Champion athletes discuss in regards to the positivity related to returning to a spot the place they’ve loved success, be it a tennis court docket or floor or, in Johnson’s case, Oakmont.
There’s one other issue at play as properly. Johnson boasts the enviable file of getting received no less than one match per yr, someplace on the earth, relationship again to turning skilled.
However there may be nothing to recommend that the 40-year-old is able to contending this week on condition that within the ten majors since that first rate problem at St Andrews, he has been out of kinds.
His greatest effort since then was a tie for tenth within the US Open in 2023 when ending at 3-under, seven pictures behind his compatriot Wyndham Clark.
That apart, he has missed 5 cuts and completed in ties for forty eighth, fifty fifth, forty third and thirty first. The numbers are alarming for a champion as proficient as Johnson is.
Within the 5 cuts he has made since that British Open look in 2022, he has completed a collective 76 pictures from the eventual winner, or nearly 4 pictures per spherical off the tempo.
Johnson obtained a particular invitation to contest the latest PGA Championship at Quail Hole however honoured that with a disastrous opening spherical of 78 in his newest setback.
Johnson starred initially on the LIV Tour, profitable each the staff title and likewise the person honours within the inaugural yr, which included a match win in Massachusetts.
However there have been leaner pickings since then and the 4Aces captain — who was signed for a reported determine round A$175m in 2022 — is reportedly off contract with LIV on the finish of the present season.
A winner of six World Golf Championships, Johnson performed fairly in Virginia over the weekend when ending in a tie for tenth at 9-under, six pictures behind Joaquin Niemann.
He spoke briefly with reporters after his opening spherical to report he felt it was an inexpensive preparation for his return to Oakmont this week.
“Preparing for Oakmont, this can be a fairly good preparation, simply because it’s important to drive it actually straight right here and the fairways are slender, and it’s penal should you miss them,” he mentioned.
There have additionally been indicators he’s able to snapping out of a stoop that has unfold to his staff, which has struggled after being a sensation on the brand new tour within the inaugural yr.
Johnson carried out properly in Asia in March, regardless of hurting himself in Hong Kong, and mentioned he felt like he was hanging the ball properly throughout an occasion in Singapore.
Phil Mickelson jags ludicrous birdie | 00:59
The drought, which dates again to a win in Las Vegas final yr, was because of the “high quality of gamers from high to excessive” being “fairly excessive”. However he felt his greatest golf was inside attain.
“(The) physique feels good. (It) looks like I’m swinging properly (and) shifting by way of the ball properly,” he mentioned.
“(I’m) hitting loads of actually high quality golf pictures. I used to be sort of main into Hong Kong, too, after which it was simply an unlucky state of affairs there as a result of I didn’t actually do something to injure myself. I feel I slept humorous. It occurs.”
IS IT THE LIV SYNDROME OR FATHER TIME CATCHING UP?
It’s improper to say that gamers on the LIV Tour haven’t contended and received majors since its inception in 2022. However Johnson and Smith, for that matter, are amongst these to battle.
The theories as to why are different, with former European Ryder Cup captain Paul McGinley saying after the PGA Championship that the format can’t correctly put together gamers for the problem related to attempting to win a significant.
“I feel it’s exhausting to make an argument that LIV prepares you to win main championships as a result of they’re enjoying staff occasions,” he mentioned on Stay At The PGA Championship.
“They’re not enjoying in probably the most tough golf programs, and so they’re touring world wide after which having to come back again to America to play three (of the) 4 majors. These issues alone (add to the problem).
“There’s an important quote from a Navy SEAL that’s extensively utilized in management. (When requested) ‘What do you do underneath strain?’. And he says, ‘I sink to the extent of my coaching.’
“The coaching that the blokes get on LIV, the way in which they play on LIV, it’s not the identical depth because the PGA Tour. No one can argue that that’s not true.
“Having mentioned that, they arrive shut. Brooks (Koepka) has received a significant. Bryson (DeChambeau) has received a significant. It’s simple, with recency bias, to say that they’ll’t win. I feel Jon Rahm can win.
“(However) it’s exhausting to make an argument that going to LIV goes to offer you a greater probability of profitable a significant. You possibly can argue that every one day lengthy (however) there’s no method that I can see that that could be a higher and extra productive pathway to being ready to win majors.”
There’s one other issue at play as properly. Johnson will flip 41 every week after the US Open.
It’s nearly a yr because the Florida-based golfer spoke with confidence about what lay forward of him in his fifth decade, although he was aware the problem was extra testing.
“I nonetheless need to compete at a really excessive stage. I’m not getting any youthful, I’ve to work more durable than I did earlier than to maintain myself in good type, however I nonetheless really feel nice,” he mentioned.
On Monday at Oakmont, Johnson once more performed down any decline.
“I don’t really feel like I’ve slipped any. My scores haven’t mirrored, however it’s a actually fantastic line,” Johnson mentioned.
“For me it’s at all times actually near being good, however simply getting again there and conserving it constant.
“During the last couple months I’m beginning to see loads of patterns and the sport feels prefer it’s coming again into good type.”
However Father Time catches even the legends and whereas DJ has at all times been a powerhouse across the golf course, his age mixed with queries in regards to the championship health of some LIV golfers might properly be a consider his decline.
A return to a favoured course this week will present an interesting perception into whether or not DJ nonetheless has what it takes to problem, or whether or not he actually is a fading champion.