In a sport where the majority of players seem to follow a similar path in the pursuit of greatness, things get a lot more interesting when we get the outliers who are almost unrecognisable from their peers. Dustin Johnson is a particular case in point. If you’re looking for a player to wax lyrical about a tournament or a new sponsor, you wouldn’t position Johnson anywhere near the front.
The South Carolinian, who turns 40 next June, has an X account but it hasn’t been used for a year. His Instagram account has over one million followers, but offers the bare minimum that his LIV Golf employers most likely require. If you’re looking for a few nuggets in a pre-tournament press conference, he will likely offer, if you’re lucky, half as much as a Rory McIlroy or a Jordan Spieth.
And yet, he was the poster boy for TaylorMade for years on end. From February 2017 to the middle of 2021, he was the World No.1 for a total of 135 weeks, across seven different periods. He holds the record for the lowest winning score at Augusta at 20-under-par. Even that was done differently, coming in the middle of November due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
He wasn’t a college superstar and he didn’t scoop up endless USGA events as an amateur. He was, however, part of the 2007 Walker Cup side at Royal County Down. In the home opposition was Rhys Davies, a three-time All-American
