Meet the guys: ‘DJ’ Dustin Johnson
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Dustin Johnson fact file
Name: Dustin Hunter Johnson
Date of birth: 22/06/1984
Place of birth: Columbia, America
Nationality: United States
Height: 6’4″
Staffer: TaylorMade & Adidas
Turned professional: 2007
The Lowdown: Dustin Johnson
Big-hitting American Dustin Johnson is quickly becoming one of golf’s most successful players in modern times.
The 32-year-old has won over 16 worldwide tournaments, his latest being the WGC-Mexico Championship in March 2017, including the 116th US Open at Oakmont Country Club.
He is currently ranked first in the world and has been inside the top-ten of the OWGR since 2015.
Johnson has a win in his first 10 straight seasons. Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer are the only other players to do so.
Dustin started his golfing career at the young age of six and was taught by his father, a club professional at Weed Hill Driving Range in Columbia, South Carolina. He grew up watching the swings of other golfers on the range and copied them in his own swing.
As an amateur, he won the Monroe Invitational and the Northeast Amateur in 2007 and played on the winning 2007 Walker Cup team, alongside Rickie Fowler and Billy Horschel.
He failed to progress past the first round of the 2007 US Amateur, after being knocked out by Ricky Jones. The eventual winner was American Colt Knost.
Johnson instead turned professional in 2007 and earned his 2008 PGA Tour by finishing in a tie for fourteenth at the 2007 qualifying school.
During his rookie season on tour he won his first PGA Tour event in October, the 2008 Turning Stone Resort Championship in New York. This was followed four months later when he won his second tournament at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, Johnson won by four strokes over Mike Weir.
Dustin Johnson after the 2009 season ranked fifteenth on the PGA Tour money list.
In February 2010, at the age of 25, Johnson successfully defended his AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am title, he birdied the final hole to beat world number one David Duval.
Major Drought
He took a three-shot lead over Graeme McDowell at the 2010 U.S. Open, to continue his Pebble Beach dominance, after rounds of 71-70-66. However, when in the last pairing on Sunday, Johnson stumbled early and never recovered; shooting an 82 and finishing tied for eighth.
Johnson is no stranger to absurd rule scenarios and in 2010 he nearly won the PGA Championship at Whistling Straits, but was given a two-shot penalty for grounding his club in a waste bunker.
The American held a one-shot lead entering the final hole and subsequently dropped down to tie for fifth and missed the playoff with Martin Kaymer and Bubba Watson.
Major Championship results
Dustin has 12 top 10s at major championships and one victory in the 2016 U.S. Open at Oakmont CC, it’s a very impressive record.
The Open Championship: T2 (2011)
The Masters: T4 (2016)
US PGA Championship: T5 (2010)
US Open: 1st (2016)
Swing sequence: Dustin Johnson
Top 5: Highs and lows of Dustin Johnson’s career
Tom Irwin
Tom is a lifetime golfer, now over 30 years playing the game. 2023 marks 10 years in golf publishing and he is still holding down a + handicap at Alwoodley in Leeds. He has played over 600 golf courses, and has been a member of at least four including his first love Louth, in Lincolnshire. Tom likes unbranded clothing, natural fibres, and pencil bags. Seacroft in Lincolnshire is where it starts and ends.
