The Open 2017: Dustin Johnson delivers emphatic reminder but thoughts turn to what might have been
In all probability, Dustin Johnson has left himself too much to do in the final round to overhaul the pacesetters but his scorching round of six under par 64 was still an emphatic reminder of his status as World No 1.
If there was any player that overnight leader Jordan Spieth would have feared putting together a charge from the back of the field it would have been Johnson, which is exactly what he did from a starting point of three over par. Five birdies in the first 10 holes put him on course to overhaul Branden Grace, who was burning a trail ahead of him. Yet he could not quite maintain that blistering pace. Putts lipped out at the 16th and 17th leaving him two shots away from matching Grace’s record as he closed on three under par.
That was all the more impressive considering that Johnson concedes he failed to sink a single putt, instead relying upon the power off the tee and the precision of his irons to pick apart the course that had tormented him so much in the opening two rounds. Playing partner Paul Casey, whose 67 left him level for the tournament, was more than willing to offer an endorsement of the slack-jawed 33-year-old from South Carolina.
“He's clearly, I think, the world's best player,” Casey said. “I know when Rory gets hot, Rory is amazing. But right now Dustin is the best player in the world, hands down.
“He’s got so much fire power, but he also has a great mind. He doesn't get enough credit for his short game and his attitude on the golf course is really cool. Flawless. Just kind of wanders around and looks very casual, but he's a smart golfer.”
This was the first real flash of the form that had propelled him to the top of the rankings since his tumble down some stairs at a rental home in Augusta not only ruled him out of the Masters but derailed his entire season. A missed cut at the US Open was followed by unimpressive opening rounds of 71 and 72, although he didn’t use the conditions as an excuse.
“I just wasn't striking the ball well the first two days,” Johnson said. “I mean, I struck it very poorly, wasn't hitting it solid, wasn’t controlling the ball. It was just not very good. My iron play was horrendous. Even in the windy conditions, that doesn't matter.”
The Open prize money
Yet after struggling to keep his head above water in the rain on Friday, Johnson relished making hay while the sun was shining and the wind was still. Closing his eyes, he could have been home in Florida, where courses are made to be murdered. Swaggering to the the first tee like a cross between John Wayne and Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Terminator, you could tell that Johnson had bad intentions in mind.
For all his faults, you could never accuse of Johnson of pussyfooting around. Drives were going to bludgeoned, pins attacked. Yet there is subtlety to accompany the raw power. Delightful iron shots, from the fairway and tee, set up birdie tap-ins at the first and fourth.
Outrageous fortune also played its part. Aggression got the better of Johnson on the fifth. As soon as he hit his tee shot, he dropped his club as if it was molten hot. Spectators scattered as the ball headed towards the grandstand, yet in a seeming defiance of several laws of physics the ball ricocheted off the stand, flew over four greenside bunkers and into the heart of the green. Johnson could not take the eagle opportunity but a third birdie, which could well have been a double bogey, brought him back to level par for the tournament.
Another exquisite iron set up a birdie at seven and suddenly there was a buzz around the galleries, which only amplified with another birdie on 10. But with attention trained elsewhere on the course, Johnson’s charge fell flat in the homeward stretch. His pride in his best-ever round at an Open contrasted with the thought of what might have been.
“I definitely left a couple of shots there on the last couple of holes,” Johnson said. “But other than that it was really solid. I'm really pleased with the way I played. I didn't hole any putts but I hit it really well, which I'm very, very pleased with, especially with the way I struck it the last couple of days.
“You never know what's going to happen (on Sunday). Who knows what the lead's going to be at the end of the day today, but I'm going to need to shoot probably 9-under, I would imagine. To get to 12, I think that would be a decent number to sit in the clubhouse at.”
