Dustin Johnson's Sunday Quad Illustrates Crazy Talent, Maddening Inconsistency
Dustin Johnson trudged his way to a tie for eighth at the soupy AT&T Byron Nelson this week, somehow managing to massacre his tee shots an average of 318.7 yards off the tee at a course where rollout was totally nonexistent.
On the subject of massacres, a day after blitzing the makeshift par 69 with a seven-under 62, Johnson looked to be on his way to victory at 13 under par as he stepped up to the No. 6 tee Sunday. However, thanks to a hellacious tee shot, he penciled in the dreaded snowman, carding a quadruple bogey on the par four and effectively going down in flames.
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While the long hitter rues a Sunday 69 that should have been no worse than a 65, it’s worth remembering that 11 months ago Johnson shockingly announced in a statement that he was taking a leave of the game to address vague “personal challenges,” per the Associated Press (h/t Golf.com).
And as much as the golfing world wondered what exactly the impetus for the hasty exit from golf’s main stage was, discussion circulated as to when Johnson would return and what the state of one of the most promising American talent’s game would be.
“I’m not worried about what people think or what they say. I’ve just got to be me. I’ve got a son, a future wife, and I’m really happy. I’m going to enjoy my life,” Johnson told the Associated Press (h/t Fox Sports) ahead of his return to competition at Torrey Pines Golf Course in January.
Of course, no one was really sure how the practice rounds with father-in-law-to-be Wayne Gretzky, daily training, early rising and clean living would help the TaylorMade client’s game.
The new father missed the cut by a stroke in his return at the Farmers Insurance Open sixth months after his leave began, which wasn’t exactly a ringing endorsement of his new lifestyle.
However, after tying for fourth at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, Johnson lost to James Hahn in a playoff at the Northern Trust Open: good signs. Then, after an uninspired 77, 75-performance to miss the cut at the Honda Classic, DJ manhandled Trump National Doral at the WGC-Cadillac Championship to raise a trophy for the first time since the WGC-HSBC Champions last season.
He hit an impressive 72.22 percent of greens in regulation in his winning week and bombed it an average of 328.3 yards off the tee. He also putted uncharacteristically well, picking up .536 strokes on the field on the greens.
Perhaps more importantly, he showed that he was able to hold his nerve down the stretch, carding a back-nine 34 that included a piped tee shot at Doral’s 18th, one of the most difficult tee shots in golf, to notch a 72nd-hole par and the victory.
DJ made up a five-stroke final-round deficit to outpace J.B. Holmes by one with a nine-under 279.
After the win, the resurgent golfer said, per the Associated Press (via ESPN.com):
"I’ve been working hard on my game and been working hard on me. And so it means a great deal to have success right out of the gate. It gives me a lot of confidence, too. I knew there was something I was missing that could make me great. I was working hard on that, and I think it’s showing right now.
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Following the W, Johnson tied for sixth at the Valero Texas Open and put together a solid week at the Masters Tournament, finishing tied for sixth. The finish was Johnson’s first top 10 at the Masters, topping his previous-best finish of T13, which came in 2013.
He then tied for 43rd at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans and for 69th at The Players Championship, but he didn’t make it out of the group stage at the WGC-Cadillac Match Play Championship between those two events.
Thus, he’s made nine of 11 cuts and recorded six top-10 finishes, including one win and a second-place finish. He’s seventh in the FedEx Cup standings.
Golf.com’s Michael Bamberger summed up Johnson’s performance (and struck at the heart of his greatness and appeal) succinctly with this episode:
"He strolled Doral’s emerald fairways with an ambling, shoulder-rolling jock’s walk. On the 293-yard, par-4 16th hole, he hit a 3-wood over the green. He then played a delicate downhill pitch -- with the tournament on the line and a pond awaiting a thinned shot -- after about 10 seconds of consideration. “I never take much time,” Johnson said afterward. “You’re either going to hit it good or hit it bad.”
Somewhere Sam Snead is smiling. John Daly too. For all his greatness, Tiger Woods never made golf look easy. Johnson -- in the tradition of Snead and Daly -- does.
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We knew that Johnson, with his signature bow-wristed backswing and explosive snap through impact, had this sort of consistent quality play in him.
However, with every Jet Ski-induced back strain, with every allegation that he played a part in breaking up another pro’s marriage, according to Fox Sports’ Robert Lusetich (via Deadspin), it looked more and more like consistent brilliance would be out of reach for the sauntering maestro of the long ball.
How does the South Carolinan’s play stack up against his record from his leave-of-absence-shortened 2014? Johnson played 17 times in the 2013-2014 season. He recorded one win and seven top-10 finishes, missing just three cuts. It’s worth noting that one of those missed cuts came at the Masters.
And for a statistical comparison, let’s look at a few key metrics from the past two seasons and where Johnson ranks.
| Stat | 2014 | 2015 |
| Driving Distance | 331.0 (2) | 316.5 (1) |
| Greens in Regulation | 68.03 % (21) | 65.28% (111) |
| Strokes Gained: Putting | .081 (83) | .266 (147) |
| Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green | 1.212 (9) | 1.471 (9) |
| Strokes Gained: Total | 1.293 (8) | 1.205 (9) |
| Scoring Average | 69.54 (6) | 70.20 (12) |
What does all this mean for Johnson’s prospects at the U.S. Open at Chambers Bay in three weeks?
USA Today’s Steve Dimeglio describes the course as “a 7,500-yard green bear with plenty of teeth waiting for him and his colleagues outside of Tacoma, Washington.” It doesn’t take a professional golf analyst to realize that Johnson’s ability to mutilate the golf ball off the tee will be an advantage.
And while bomb-and-gouge isn’t the preferred method of U.S. Open conquest, Johnson is one of the few golfers in the world with the length and strength to have any chance of playing from the Tacoma course’s fescue and roughage and finding its massive greens.
It’s worth noting too that Johnson, while not brilliant with the flatstick, is a respectable lag putter: He was 22nd on tour in three-putt avoidance last year and is 64th this year, which should serve him well on the aforementioned large fringeless greens.
Johnson’s U.S. Open record: six of seven cuts, two top-10 finishes. He tied for fourth at Pinehurst No. 2, a course that certainly has some similarities to the links-style course built on a former sand and gravel mine.
Perhaps not until he tells his biographer decades from now will we ever know how long of a look into the abyss Dustin Johnson took in 2014. And while we can’t approximate the velocity of his downward spiral, the lanky bomber has acknowledged that he’d begun to circle the drain.
So he blew up on one hole at the Nelson. Rather than citing this as evidence that Mr. Hyde is alive and well in the golfer, let’s consider that he mostly overpowered a long, soggy track as we expected him to this week.
Fulfilling rather than frustrating expectations was at the heart of Johnson’s push for improvement as both man and golfer. He entered the Masters this year among the favorites and delivered an eagle-laden top 10. He’ll head to Chambers Bay among the favorites to win the year’s second major.
Whether his free-swinging, quick-playing brilliance will be maddeningly impressive or lead to frustration for the golfer and his fans will be the litmus test of whether he’s now truly equipped with the appropriate bridle for his singular talent.
Stats courtesy of PGATour.com.
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