Column: Dustin Johnson in high form, and so is Winged Foot

Dustin Johnson is enjoying the perfect golf

MAMARONECK, N.Y. — Dustin Johnson had by no means been to Winged Foot till this week for the U.S. Open, or so he thought.

The person is famend for having a brief reminiscence.

Seems he was at Winged Foot some years in the past for a company outing, although he may be forgiven for not remembering. It wasn’t on the fabled West course that has dished out equal elements pleasure and distress because it first hosted the U.S. Open in 1929.

“I feel we performed the opposite one as a result of I did not bear in mind one gap,” Johnson stated Tuesday.

He’s the perfect participant in golf coming into the second main of the 12 months, and he’s not coming in blind. Johnson has glanced at some drone protection of the course, and he watched highlights from the final U.S. Open at Winged Foot in 2006.

The tough obtained his consideration, because it ought to. It’s among the many deepest at any U.S. Open.

The end would have seemed acquainted, too, one thing Johnson would do properly to overlook. He is already had sufficient calamity occur to him within the U.S. Open, even the one he managed to win.

In addition to, the infamous deep tough wasn’t all that determined the ultimate hour of that 2006 U.S. Open.

Phil Mickelson missed the tough so badly on the 18th that his drive caromed off a hospitality tent into grass that was useless and skinny from spectators. It was his subsequent shot — a 3-iron right into a tree — that led to double bogey.

Colin Montgomerie made his double bogey from the golf green. Jim Furyk was within the apron of the golf green when he tugged it into the bunker, blasted out properly to five toes and missed his par putt. All of them completed one shot behind Geoff Ogilvy, whose par save started with a tee shot that landed in a divot.

That stands out as a result of it was the newest. Winged Foot, although, has a historical past of being robust on front-runners.

Return to 1929. The good Bobby Jones had a four-shot lead with three holes to play and made triple bogey on the 15th gap and a bogey on the subsequent gap. He was spared an ignominious collapse by making a curling 12-foot par putt on the ultimate gap and profitable the 36-hole playoff by a whopping 23 photographs.

The “Bloodbath of Winged Foot” is thought for Hale Irwin profitable at 7-over par in 1974. Usually missed is that 24-year-old Tom Watson shot 41 on the again 9 for a 79 and misplaced the 54-hole lead. Irwin had the 54-hole lead 10 years later, by one shot over Fuzzy Zoeller, and shot 79.

Winged Foot and Johnson would appear to be an ideal match.

Johnson took a three-shot lead into the ultimate spherical at Pebble Seashore in 2010, misplaced all of it on the second gap and it solely obtained worse from there on his approach to an 82. He wanted a 12-foot eagle putt to win in 2015 at Chambers Bay and three-putted for par to complete one shot behind.

Most up-to-date was Shinnecock Hills two years in the past, when Johnson took a four-shot lead into the weekend, shot 77 on the baked greens on Saturday and completed two photographs behind Brooks Koepka.

Johnson by no means appears bothered by the misses due to that brief reminiscence. And something in his thoughts proper now’s from the final month or so, most of it nice. Two victories. Two runner-up finishes, neither self-inflicted.

Expectations are excessive from everybody however him.

“I imply, I count on to play properly each week,” Johnson stated. “However coming right here … the sport is in good type proper now, hopefully it stays in good type for the remainder of the week, nevertheless it’s a type of golf programs the place it’s very troublesome and you might want to be spot-on if you wish to play properly.”

Johnson shedded the “finest to by no means win a serious” label at Oakmont in 2016, an unbelievable efficiency contemplating he did not even know the rating over the ultimate two hours as a result of the USGA waited till it was over to evaluate a penalty shot that Johnson nonetheless thinks he did not deserve from his ball transferring on the inexperienced.

But when there is a case for “finest with one main,” he wins in a landslide.

Johnson, who turned 36 in June, has 23 victories on the PGA Tour. Of gamers who started their careers within the final 40 years, solely Tiger Woods, Mickelson and Vijay Singh have gained extra instances. All of them have three majors or extra (much more within the case of Woods).

Winged Foot will get talked about alongside Oakmont on the subject of the hardest U.S. Open programs. Johnson smiled on the comparability when it was talked about to him final week in Atlanta. His recreation is constructed for a course like this. His type is true the place he needs it going into a serious.

What might presumably go incorrect?