Dustin Johnson’s putter has been on vacation for quite a while.
It came back this week at the Northern Trust.
After rounds of 63-67 at Liberty National, Johnson has the 36-hole lead in this first round of the PGA Tour playoffs.
Johnson, the world’s No. 2, has just one bogey on his card at the halfway mark and all facets of his game have worked well the first two rounds.
“I drove it really well,” Johnson said after his round was over. “This course suits my eye and I’ve always liked it since the first time I played it.”
Johnson likes the way he’s playing. “Right now I feel like I’m swinging it really well. I’ve got a lot of control with the golf ball and hitting a lot of really nice shots and rolled in a couple putts today which is nice, but still feel like I left quite a few out there. I’m in a good position heading into the weekend, and you know, if I can keep swinging the way I am, I think it’s going to be a good weekend.”
Although it wasn’t as good as his opening 63, Johnson felt the same during his round. “I felt like today was a lot like it was yesterday, and that’s kind of when I was playing really well, was very consistent. I was hitting the same kind of shots, feeling the same every day, and that’s when I played really well. So the last two days have been very consistent, which is probably the only two rounds that I felt like have been the same like this whole year besides México (WGC) where I played well all four rounds there. Yeah, I’ve got a lot of confidence in the swing.”
Then there’s the putting, which came around.
“I’m hitting the putts right where I want to,” he pointed out. “Just the ball is not going in the hole. There’s not anything I can really do about that. There’s so many putts that look like they are going to turn into the hole that maybe stay high or a putt that looked like it was going to turn and I felt like it was in the middle and it would break and hit the low side left. I don’t know; felt like that the last two days.”
But he made enough to put 13 birdies on his card and that got him a one-shot lead over surprising Jordan Spieth heading into Saturday.
Jon Rahm, Patrick Reed, Abraham Ancer and first-round leader Troy Merritt were all in at 10-under par.
World’s No. 1 Brooks Koepka has basically been sleep-walking through the first two rounds. With scores of 70-69, he’s three-under and tied for 47th.
