Dustin Johnson enters the weekend at the U.S. Open at six underneath.
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LOS ANGELES — It appeared for some time that nothing might cease the grin unfold broad throughout Dustin Johnson’s face at this week’s U.S. Open.
Until, in fact, he discovered himself on the third tee field at Los Angeles Country Club.
In Johnson’s protection, what had simply occurred was, charitably, a catastrophe. On the second gap, a tame par-4, DJ had simply made a quadruple-bogey eight, the highest single-hole rating of any participant in the whole event. And because it turned out, even that description was an undersell.
“Caught the corner of the bunker, and then chunked my bunker shot, and then chunked the next one, skulled the next one,” Johnson mentioned later, reliving the eight-shot nightmare with the similar grim humor a 20-handicap relives taking pictures 120. “Everything that you could do wrong, I did wrong.”
Johnson was not smiling as he walked from the second inexperienced to the third tee field. He was fuming.
He’d walked into LACC on a monthlong excessive following a win at LIV Tulsa. He’d performed effectively in the weeks main up to the event. His swing had felt snug; his physique assured. And then he’d dropped a steaming eight onto an in any other case pristine scorecard, wiping away most of the laborious work he’d performed in a formidable Thursday 64.
Now, on the third tee, it threatened to all come aside. Another unfortunate drive and Johnson’s U.S. Open might unravel altogether. He knew, he mentioned, that he wanted to discover the fairway.
So he gripped his driver and pulled the set off.
IN A LOT OF WAYS, Dustin Johnson is already this week’s winner in golf. And final week’s winner. And subsequent week’s winner. And the winner for a complete ‘lotta weeks after that.
And why is DJ the winner? Because he stepped into the center of the warfare between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf, and by some means, he beat each of them.
As the golf world reacts to the sophisticated information of a merger that can ultimately put the PGA Tour and LIV Golf underneath the similar management, Johnson’s title has hidden safely away from the limelight. But as he grins and giggles his approach round LACC at this U.S. Open, it’s clear to nearly everybody round him that his dream has develop into a actuality: he can have his cake — LIV cash — and eat it too, ultimately from the acquainted fairways of the PGA Tour.
The victory does rely as one thing of a stunner. The warring sides had far more cash than him, much more sources than him, and typically talking, much more curiosity in the battle.
Johnson, on the different hand, entered the battle a 38-year-old with two kids, a spouse, and a common affinity for being wealthy. When LIV’s supply got here in, his resolution didn’t focus a lot on prickly geopolitics or the weight of his legacy — it targeted totally on just a few commas and a bunch of zeroes.
“We talked about this yesterday,” Johnson mentioned, tongue planted firmly in cheek, at LIV’s first occasion in London. “I really regret my decision to come here. It’s just so terrible. I’m sitting there last night thinking about it, it was really bothering me a lot. Yeah, just can’t get over it.”
When the PGA Tour/LIV battle entered the mainstream, it appeared there can be not less than just a few who got here out on high of the complete engagement, be it by cash or popularity or glory or some mixture of the three. It did not appear, nevertheless, that Johnson can be one in every of them.
Until a couple of week in the past, his lifetime ban from the PGA Tour felt fairly ironclad, and LIV’s common ineptitude felt … fairly telling. Johnson’s more than likely path into the future appeared to be using LIV out till the league closed its doorways or he determined to shut his. He would take pleasure in his boatloads of latest cash from LIV, however not the reverential retirement a participant of his high quality and achievement typically enjoys on the PGA Tour. That was okay, he’d see his previous sparring companions the Tour when he noticed them — be it round the fairways at a significant championship or in the neighborhood down in Jupiter, Fla.
But Johnson all the time had an ace up his sleeve: his focus in leaving for LIV was so singular, his needs so wholly self-driven, he’d managed to go away for the rivals with out upsetting his previous friends on Tour. Faced with likelihood after likelihood to decide a aspect by bashing his previous league, Johnson stayed fiercely impartial. His previous pals observed.
“It’s a very nuanced situation and there’s different dynamics,” Rory McIlroy mentioned of his previous pal Dustin at the Masters. “You know, it’s okay to get on with Brooks and DJ and maybe not get on with some other guys that went to LIV, right? It’s interpersonal relationships, that’s just how it goes.”
In May, at LIV Singapore, an Australian information outlet erroneously quoted him as saying he “didn’t give a damn” what PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan considered him. By morning, his agent, David Winkle, had despatched a press release to media correcting the report — and providing an eerie peek into his future.
“Dustin remains grateful for his time on the PGA Tour and has the utmost respect for Commissioner Monahan,” Winkle mentioned.
When information of the merger that may reunify LIV and the PGA Tour got here final week, Johnson stayed silent, partially as a result of LIV didn’t have an occasion, however principally as a result of the particulars mentioned all of it. Under the proposed settlement, LIV gamers can be prolonged an avenue to return to the PGA Tour. Monahan, his previous good friend and commissioner, can be his boss but once more. Eventually, Johnson can be welcomed again with open arms.
The less complicated fact was much more apparent: he’d taken on the home and won, pocketing some $125 million through signing bonus and one other $45 million in on-course earnings with LIV. In the finish, he’d made that cash and discovered a path again to the creature comforts he’d known as dwelling for the higher a part of twenty years.
He seemed mild as air at LACC, flowing by means of the observe vary and out to the golf course. He laughed with previous pals on the vary and chuckled with household close to the clubhouse. As he greeted his spouse, Paulina, after a six-under opening spherical, his Airpod-white tooth poked out from beneath a mile-wide grin.
“Not bad,” he’d mentioned. “Yeah, not bad.”
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THE GOOD VIBES returned shortly at the U.S. Open.
Early in the week, Johnson discovered himself stunned by the vitality round the event. Could or not it’s the merger information had really helped professional golfers reconnect?
“I felt like I’ve always had a good relationship with the guys,” Johnson mentioned. “Through it all and obviously now — sure, I could see that point of view, absolutely.”
On the course, it took solely quarter-hour for Johnson’s second spherical at LACC to rebound in type.
After the quad on No. 2, he pumped his drive down the heart of the fairway on No. 3. Ten minutes later, he rolled in a 15-footer for birdie.
He walked off the course with an adventurous even-par end. Somehow, he was nonetheless six underneath for the event, similar as he’d began the day, getting into the weekend solely a handful of strokes off the leaders.
“Sometimes it is hard to keep it from unraveling,” he mentioned. “Today, it wasn’t.”
As he stepped away from the lectern, he grinned once more.
This time, the smile mentioned all of it.
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