Professional golf is a cyclical sport when it comes to eras. The post-World War I era was dominated by the triumvirate of Bobby Jones, Walter Hagen and Gene Sarazen. The Depression era and post-World War II generation was led by Ben Hogan, Byron Nelson and Sam Snead. Golf’s golden era of the 1960s and 1970s featured Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus, Lee Trevino and Tom Watson. Most recently, we’ve been in the Tiger Woods era, a 15-year period of time dominated by Woods with a secondary role played by Phil Mickelson.
Yet from the moment of Tom Watson’s eighth and final major triumph in 1983 at the British Open until Tiger’s breakout victory in the 1997 Masters, there was a 14-year span of golf with a number of golfers sharing the era. Europeans Nick Faldo, Seve Ballesteros, Bernhard Langer, Sandy Lyle and Jose Maria Olazabal won multiple majors. So too did Australian Greg Norman and American Payne Stewart. Yet it would be hard to pinpoint the two or three golfers who dominated that era. We might be at the start of a similar pro golfing experience today.
The post-Tiger era has seen the advancement of a 20-something core of great young golfers, including Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth and Jason Day. They have been able to stay atop the game’s world rankings for months and a time, but thus far no one has been able to sustain that brilliance for an extended period of time. With the results of the past nine months, the newbies now have a fourth golfer of note to join them atop the world rankings. He’s barely on the other side of 30 years of age, but as of this moment he is the best golfer on the planet.
Since last June, Dustin Johnson has won the United States Open under most trying circumstances, won a World Golf event at Firestone in August, won the third leg of the Fed Ex Cup playoffs at the BMW last September, captured the Los Angeles Open three weeks ago, and just last weekend prevailed at the World Golf Championship in Mexico. Johnson has now nudged Day, McIlroy and Spieth aside to climb to the top of the rankings worldwide. He has matured as an individual, he has added a rock-solid wedge game to his dynamic power game, and he appears ready to add to his total of one major championship, four World Golf wins, and three Fed Ex Cup victories to go along with 16 professional wins.
Dustin was born in Columbia, South Carolina, and played collegiately at Coastal Carolina University. He had a strong amateur career, winning the Monroe Invitational as well as the Northeast Amateur. In the summer of 2007, he was a top-10 ranked amateur and played for Team USA on the victorious Walker Cup and Palmer Cup teams. During the autumn of 2007, Dustin turned professional, got through the rigorous golfing test that is Q School, finished in 14th place in the finals, and was part of the PGA Tour’s rookie class of 2008.
Johnson was a most talented ball striker who would find himself ranked among the tour’s top five in driving distance from that 2008 rookie season through 2015. He was still a relative unknown in that he hadn’t played collegiately at one of the prestige programs, but all that changed in October of his rookie season when he won the Turning Stone Open in upstate New York. He beat out tour veteran Robert Allenby by one stroke and his bank account suddenly had $1.08 million added to it. He finished 42nd on the PGA Tour’s money list. It was a very good start to his rookie season on tour.
Dustin took a giant leap forward, winning at Pebble Beach in February of 2009. He concluded his sophomore season finishing 15th on the money list. The 2010 campaign was more of the same as he defended his title at Pebble Beach. He returned to Pebble four months later for the United States Open. It was his first solid appearance at a major championship and he entered the fourth and final round with a three-stroke lead over Graeme McDowell. Johnson struggled from the start as he shot an 82 to finish eighth. Two months later at the PGA Championship, he entered the final hole at Whistling Straits with a one-stroke lead. He bogeyed the 18th hole to fall into a three-way tie with Martin Kaymer and Bubba Watson. Yet before the playoff could commence, Johnson was informed that he had grounded his club in the sand on the 18th, received a two-stroke penalty and was no longer a part of the playoff won by Kaymer. One year later he was atop the leader board at the British Open well into the final nine when he hit his second shot on the 14th hole dead right and out of bounds. He ended up finishing second to Darren Clarke. He had had three dramatic faltering moments in majors in 13 months.
Dustin Johnson continued his winning ways, but suddenly he had the reputation as someone who seemed to blink during the glare of major championship pressure. He won the BMW in 2010, the Barclays in 2011, and following an injury at the start of 2012, he returned to the tour in May and won the Memphis Open the following month. In 2013 he won the season-opening TOC in Hawaii and later that year won the HSBC in China.
In July of 2014, Dustin took a six-month hiatus from the tour to deal with “personal challenges.” Various news outlets reported that he had failed a third drug test, but the PGA Tour stated that Dustin’s was taking a “voluntary leave.” He returned to the tour in 2015 and was the new father of a baby boy. He lost in a playoff at the L.A. Open to Alameda’s James Hahn. The following month he won a WGC event at Doral. However, 2015 was generally remembered as the year he three-putted the final hole to lose the National Open to Jordan Spieth at Chambers Bay. While that could have been a career-defining negative moment, Dustin grew from it, survived the chaos of the USGA and came back in 2016 to win the U.S. Open by three strokes at Oakmont. Later wins at Akron and the BMW got him the Palmer Award as the leading money on the PGA Tour for 2016.
Dustin Johnson has now joined the conversation atop the game’s world rankings alongside Rory, Jordan and Jason. He has 13 top-10 finishes in the majors and he has the kind of game that stands out in the game’s grand slam championships. He is a power player, perhaps the most accurate long driver in the game, has a much improved short game, and can be a streaky good putter. Part of his putting advantage is that he hits it far and he hits it close. What all of this comes down to is that Dustin Johnson suddenly finds himself alongside the great young players of the game in what must now be considered The Big Four. He is that good.
