How does it feel to have that kind of form coming into this, the Open Championship at Royal Troon.
Advertisement
Anna Nordqvist’s penalty for grounding her club in a bunker on the second playoff hole – and the way the USGA handled it – came up of course because of Johnson’s own run-in with the rules during his U.S. Open win last month. After some excruciating near-misses in the biggest events, he finally claimed his first major with a dazzling display at Oakmont. Unfortunately with the weather it’s a little bit soft, but other than that it’s playing good. He could be unsafe this week if his putter gets going. “I obviously played it well”.
“Being in that environment, I think it puts a different spin on our sport and what we do and how hard we work”, Willett said. He understands many people will be skeptical of his decision, especially because 18 players have decided not to go, which “hasn’t shed golf in the best light”, IGF president Peter Dawson said Monday.
Another question: Has the attention as a major champion been hard to manage? Do you feel differently? “It’s just something that you have to keep putting yourself there and you learn eventually”. Have you been dedicating yourself properly?
Now Chalmers knows he must crash back to earth and try to make the cut at what he considers one of the toughest courses he’s ever encountered.
“On average I probably get tested four to five times a year, which is very little compared to the rest of the Olympic sports”, he said.
“I think she’ll enjoy her first Major”. Can you explain to us the feeling that you’re no longer a major-championship-nearly man now that you are a major champion? “It’s just up to me to learn from the mistakes of that Sunday afternoon and bring that into the next one”.
Prior to that success, three days before he turned 32, Johnson had come up agonisingly short on several occasions, to prompt suggestions he may never make it over the line in a major. He’s riding in the bag now (laughing).
The big thing the U.S. Open does for him is raise his confidence level.
“If you look at it, after the US Open, I was a lot further along in my career than I was the week before, so there are a lot of positives to take from it. I’m well and truly over it”. The course boasts two blind tee shots on 10 and 11, and has a private home and train tracks within the course itself. Their defence is the bunker, so for me it’s all about just navigating the bunkers.
The top four players on the world rankings have declined Rio but the likes of Henrik Stenson and Justin Rose have spoken out about how excited they are to play for Olympic gold for the first time.
DUSTIN JOHNSON: Well, we had all been talking.
Fun factoid about this tournament: the early winners of the Open were Scottish professionals.
“It’s more important just to get this first tee shot on the fairway”. It was all family.
“I thought about all of this ahead of time and still made the decision I did because it was the right move for me”. He’s not a player you should worry about, really. “I bounced back and forth with it, and ultimately a decision had to be made yesterday, and so I made it”.
Advertisement
Walking down from the stage, he plopped his 6-foot-4 frame on the top step and held court with a small group of reporters to talk about his strategy at Royal Troon, his equipment change for a week of links golf (a 2-iron and 3-iron, only three wedges) and how many shots he has to give his future father-in-law, hockey great Wayne Gretzky, when they play. Has there been an extra spring in your step? Not the two-shot penalty on the final hole of the 2010 PGA Championship for grounding his club in a bunker (“I still don’t think that was a bunker”, he said). Sometimes they’re good, and sometimes they’re bad.
