by Doug McAllister
What can be said of Dustin Johnson? Think of it. In June he blows up at Pebble Beach with 82 during the final round of the U.S. Open. Has a freak scenario at Whistling Straits — a club grounded in a sand trap (that really wasn't a sand trap...but was by local rules for the week!) — and loses a chance to win his first major.
So, you would think, Johnson, by all rights, should go off and get into sales. After all, how could he get his head back into a game that had treated him so abominably over the course of just a few months? The game is rife with stories of other players who, having experienced similar disappointment, quickly evaporated from the forefront of the game and were never heard of again.
But today Dustin Johnson proved what he is made of. Playing his usual brand of Cool Hand Luke golf, Johnson won the BMW Championship — the third leg of this years PGA Playoff Series — and heads to next week's Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club in the #2 position on the FedEx Cup rankings.
What does it mean? Quite simply, Johnson is now in a position with a win next week to take it all! A $10 million bonus and the Tour Championship to boot. Can he do it? With the resilience that he has shown since Pebble Beach, I would say that you'd have to bet the ranch on Johnson. Still, golf is an incredibly fickle game. Just ask Johnson. One minute you're tapping in a putt, believing you are to enter a playoff to win your first major and the next you're erasing the score you thought you had, adding two strokes in penalties for grounding your club where, just seconds before, half the population of Wisconsin had convened for a cheese-tasting festival — and you're heading for the showers. Fickle as can be!
But that's what makes golf what it is. And it's just the sort of game that someone with Dustin Johnson's character traits would excel at. And don't forget, Johnson is just 28! I'd say that he's got a lot more success ahead of him.
NOW, if we could only get him to shave off that ridiculous soul patch!
Until my next post...HELAS!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment