Dustin Johnson is a phony.
He’s a fake No. 1, just call him Mr. Softie.
Why, you ask?
Let’s just take a quick look at D.J.’s back nine performance yesterday at The Heritage.
The so-called world’s No. 1 started a really nice run at the 11th — bogey there. Another at 12, yet another at 13. At the water-guarded par three 14th, he hit his tee shot so far right it missed the water and ended up in parts unknown. He’d take double-bogey there. But wait! There’s more. At the par five 15th, he parked yet another tee shot so far right that it probably ended up in someone’s back yard.
D.J. would make double there. Quite a run — seven-over for a stretch of five holes and this guy went from overnight leader to Sunday laughing stock. He shot a Sunset Strip — as in 77, complete with a back-nine 41 and an eyes-closed birdie at the 18th saved him from shooting 42 and 78.
Nice work, D.J.
Let’s see — the 846th player in the world, K.J. Choi, beat him. So did No. 243 Trey Mullinax. Rory Sabbatini is No. 213 and yeah, he beat D.J. too.
If that’s not bad enough, Boo Weekley is ranked 1,112th and he beat D.J., just for good measure.
What you had on Sunday afternoon was a display of golf that showed us that Johnson is a pretty weak excuse for No. 1.
The real No. 1? That would be The Peoples Champ — one Tiger Woods.
So let’s run down the list real quick. D.J. — awful, a really soft No. 1. Justin Rose is even softer at No. 2 — missed the cut in the season’s first major and hasn’t shown his face since. No. 3 — Brooks Koepka? Sorry, Tiger schooled him two weeks ago. No. 4 Rory McIlroy? Tiger putts better than Rory with his eyes closed. Finally, No. 5 Justin Thomas. Can’t carry Tiger’s shag bag.
The real No. 1 — Tiger Woods — for sure.
Let’s face it, this 43-year-old Tiger is a helluva lot better under the heat than any of the guys in front of him with maybe the exception of Koepka, who just doesn’t show up often enough near the top in regular tour events.
Things are going to get interesting in a hurry with this compressed major season.
We’ll see Tiger again in two week at Quail Hollow, then two weeks after that at the PGA.
The question going in to the season’s second major? Can any of these top five so-called hot-shots beat Tiger Woods.
Bethpage Black is a bomber’s course and Woods isn’t quite the bomber he used to be but he’s still got enough distance to take on the bombers — D.J., Koepka, Rory and Justin Thomas. Tiger’s iron play and short game trumps all of them.
So if anyone out there watched Johnson on Sunday at Harbor Town and thinks he’s the No. 1 player in the world then we’ve got some jurisdictional wetlands in Florida that we can sell you at a real good price.
They all look like paper lions.
While the guy named Tiger looks totally like the real deal.
Still.
4 Comments
JimmyD5cc
I feel you are correct, DJ is really not the #1 player in the world. Tiger is back, much to my surprise, lets see how he does when he’s not playing at Augusta. Players used to be afraid of him, I doubt they feel that way now, even with his recent win at the Masters.
Tom Edrington
Jimmy: They aren’t afraid of him until they see his name running up the leaderboard….
baxter cepeda
The easy point to agree with is Tiger is the best in the world at the biggest events —Tiger like Brooks should not be expected to shine in regular events because like Brooks he focuses on peaking for majors.
But Tiger is not number one, that’s earned thru math over time.
And the man who still deserves that honor imo is DJ. Sure DJ tanked Sunday but as I stated last week, the guys whom blow it late are still clutch-er than all the guys who blew it early.
DJ collapsing at Harbor Town is just further confirmation of my decades old belief that this small ball paradise is by far the best work with the Dye name on it; give Mr18 some credit as well.
What a duo; those two should have done everything together.
It is a tribute to DJ, accused of being a result of a bombers era, which he is. But with this performance, maybe sans that final 9, we see strong evidence that DJ can get it in play and wedge it with the best of them.
Which brings us to Pan, again a tribute to Hilton Heads gem. Too few courses allow geniuses like this kid, and his incredible story which includes mom caddying to provide opportunity for his golf, to shine.
What a mom saying to herself: I’m going to do this for my son whom will likely be 5’6” and under 150 pounds soaking wet at his biggest.
This is why the pga tour needs to find more venues like this; which allow great players like CT, KJ and Boo chances they deserve to shine.
Finding courses immune to today’s bombers seems nearly impossible, did I mention what a great course for the pga tour Harbor Town is?
Tom Edrington
Baxter, I take it you’re never on Twitter…..only 15 words there…