Jordan Spieth said that the worst thing after the PGA Championship ends is that you have to wait almost eight months for the next major, the Masters.
The wait has to be even longer for Dustin Johnson, who built up even more scar tissue in the Grand Slam events when he took himself out of contention by making a quadruple bogey 8 on the first hole of the final round at Whistling Straits. He wound up in a tie for seventh.
“I try to learn from all the things that’s happened and move forward and help me the next time I’m in the situation to overcome it and get a major championship,” said DJ who this week turns his attention to the opener of the FedEx Cup playoffs, the Barclays, which he won in 2011.
” … I’m close and I’m playing well in them. So it’s hard to win majors, it really is. You ask any of the guys out here’ it’s tough, especially the ones that haven’t won. I mean even the guys that have won, they will tell you how tough it is.
“But I’m not tired of it yet. Ask me in five or 10 years maybe I’ll be tired of it by then. But as of right now, I’m not.”
Johnson is only 31, so he should have plenty more chances, but the litany of his major failures is long and he only added to it this year.
A month after winning the WGC-Cadillac Championship at Doral, he was tied for third after two rounds of the Masters but took himself out of the picture with a 73 in the third round and tied for sixth, but that was nothing compared to what happened in the U.S. Open.
DJ was one stroke behind Jordan Spieth, who had already won the Masters, on the 72nd hole at Chambers Bay and hit a brilliant approach shot to within 12 feet of the cup to set up an eagle putt that could have ended his major malaise.
However, he ran the downhill putt four feet past the hole and missed the comebacker that would have gotten him into a playoff.
“Whatever the putt did on the last hole, I don’t know,” Johnson said. “I might have pulled it a little bit. But still to me it looked like it bounced left. It’s tough. It’s very difficult.”
Then Johnson went to the Open Championship at St. Andrews and held the 36-hole lead by playing the Old Course in 65-69.
After telling reporters that, “It wasn’t too difficult to get over,” his finale-green meltdown at Chambers Bay, he shot 75-75 in the last two rounds and plummeted to a tie for 49th.
So Johnson contended at one stage or another at all four majors but again came up empty.
It was nothing new.
In the 2010 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, DJ took a three-stroke lead to the final round but did not make a birdie all day while shooting 82 and slid to a tie for eighth.
Later that summer, he held a one-stroke lead on the final hole of the PGA at Whistling Straits but hit his drive into a sandy area and made a bogey that would have put him in a playoff with eventual winner Martin Kaymer of Germany and Bubba Watson.
However, he was assessed a two-stroke penalty for ground his club in that sandy area which was considered a bunker and slipped to a tie for fifth.
In 2011, Johnson was one stroke behind eventual winner Darren Clarke of Northern Ireland in the Open Championship at Royal St. George’s when he hit his tee shot out of bounds on the par-5 14th hole, where he figured to make birdie or eagle because of his length off the tee.
DJ carded a double bogey 7 and wound up four shots back in a tie for second.
“I don’t really get too angry about (the misses), but yeah, it’s definitely motivation for sure,” Johnson said. “It’s frustrating, sometimes, but I try not to let it bother me. I love the game and at the end of the day, it’s just a game.
” … I think I know what it takes to win majors and I believe I will.”
After each of the last two majors this year, TV commentators were saying that Johnson seemed to be over his final-green meltdown at Chambers Bay, but in truth he won’t put those demons behind until he finally wins a major.
However, Johnson seems to be able to shake off disappointment quickly and left the PGA actually sounding upbeat.
Perhaps he can find some consolation in the playoffs, having won two of the four events, the aforementioned Barclays and the 2010 BMW Championship.
“I’ve got a lot of confidence,” said Johnson, who is seventh in the FedEx Cup standings after a regular season in which he finished in the top 10 on eighth occasions.
“I feel like the game’s getting better. I’m looking forward to the playoffs and looking forward to the rest of the year.”
And to the Masters next April.
–Courtesy of The Sports Xchange, TSX Golf Editor Tom LaMarre
