The Dustin Johnson Roller Coaster Is on the Upswing Again at 2015 U.S. Open

UNIVERSITY PLACE, Wash. — It’s not always what you’ve done lately, especially for Dustin Johnson, whose present will always be linked to the past.

Here he is, tied for the clubhouse lead after Thursday’s first round of America’s golfing championship, the U.S. Open. Yet the questions that surround him deal as much with what he has done as what he might do.

In the game’s shifting landscape, with Tiger Woods declining and Phil Mickelson, at 45, aging, Johnson, sharing the 18th-hole lead with Henrik Stenson at a five-under-par 65 at bizarre Chambers Bay, has a chance to be one of the country’s next superstars. 

But at age 30, after ups and downs that included nine PGA Tour victories but two mammoth failures in majors; and after a mysterious self-imposed leave of absence—which was or was not to avoid a rumored drug suspension—he's reduced his chance from what it had been only a few years ago.

So this Open, on a course carved from a onetime gravel pit near Tacoma, would seem to offer Johnson the option to change the direction of his career. His life, he says, already has changed. For the better.

How do we separate the person and the performance? Here was a man who led the 2010 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach after 54 holes and then, part arrogance, part carelessness, tossed everything away with a triple bogey on the second hole and double bogey on the third, ending up with an 11-over-par 82.

Matt York/Associated Press

Then two months later, in the PGA at Whistling Straits, where the event returns this year, Johnson neglected to check the regulations given every player, grounded his club at the 72nd hole in what was listed as a hazard and missed a playoff by a stroke after incurring the two-stroke penalty.

But much like his off-course misgivings, he wants those failures to stay in the past. 

“I’m here to play golf and put myself in position on Sunday to have a chance to win,” Johnson said when asked if this Open provided an opportunity to erase those two incidents. “Whistling Straits was a long time ago. I know I’m going back there this year, and I’m excited. I like the golf course, and I played well there last time.”

Unlike other entrants who ripped a course that’s a merger of British links and hillside ravines, Johnson said he enjoys Chambers Bay. “This place plays like a British [Open],” he said. “You’ve got to use your imagination.”

It didn’t take much imagination to see Johnson where he is now, in the top 10 of the world rankings (No. 7), free of whatever demons that haunted him, a new father—he’s engaged to and earlier this year had a child with Paulina Gretzky, daughter of hockey’s Wayne Gretzky—and on a roll.

Talent is a gift. Johnson, growing up in South Carolina, always had it. He wasn’t always mature, however. And out on the fairways, in the public eye, he struggled to find himself.

Johnson was wild. Off the tee. Off the course. Last summer, Johnson, who would have been on the Ryder Cup team, abruptly announced he was taking a leave from the sport that was his profession. A Golf.com story claimed Johnson had failed a drug test and would be suspended. He denied the accusation to Sports Illustrated (h/t USA Today) but never gave a reason for his departure.

“It’s nobody’s business,” he insisted when, of course, because he’s a public figure in a public activity, it was everybody’s business. Johnson did admit to drinking problems and said during his break that he gave up alcohol, mornings pumping iron in the gym the satisfying replacement.

Johnson returned to the Tour in February with a vengeance. He missed the cut the first event, at Torrey Pines, then followed with a fourth in the AT&T Pebble Beach, a playoff loss at the Northern Trust, a missed cut at the Honda and a win in the WGC-Cadillac at Doral.

In the media interview following the victory, he called it one of his biggest wins, adding “I’ve been working hard on my game. I’ve been working hard on me.”

The work has paid off.

“I’m driving it straight, yeah,” Johnson said after his round Thursday. “I got out here Saturday, played 18 and really liked the course. I thought it set up well for me. The conditions are tough. Yes, it feels like a U.S. Open.”

It also feels like a tournament in which Johnson, off the roller coaster, could get his first major. He’s been working with Butch Harmon, who coached Woods and who coaches Mickelson. Some list of students.

“Leading up to this week,” said Johnson, “I was actually a little bit frustrated. I’ve been playing pretty well. I’ve had some good finishes. But I wasn’t striking it like I wanted to. But the last few days I’ve done a lot of good work with Butch...So the confidence is definitely there. I feel really good about where I’m at and going into [Friday]."

Which is all fine. Again, we've seen this before with the hugely talented player.

But how will he feel Sunday evening? Like a major champion? Or once more a nearly man?