Is Dustin Johnson ready to win a major?

 

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- This week at Augusta National, the person who potentially could have the greatest impact on the outcome of the 2015 Masters won't hit a single drive, negotiate a single approach shot or drain a single putt.

Tatum Gretzky Johnson, after all, is just a bit young -- barely 11 weeks old when play begins Thursday -- to do any of those things. Check back with him in, say, 2040, though.

Tatum's dad, on the other hand ...

Last Tuesday and Wednesday, Dustin Johnson was at the famous course in Augusta, preparing for his sixth shot since 2009 -- and, probably, his best chance yet -- at a Masters green jacket. It was, he said in typically laconic Johnson golf-speak, basic "grunt" work with an important goal.

"Just practicing," he said. "(I played) nine holes (Tuesday), practiced chips and putts around the greens, and (Wednesday) 18 holes, again chipping and putting. You've got to hit full shots well there, but it's crucial when you mishit it to hit in the right spots, so you can get up and down."

Also on the course Tuesday was the main focus of pre-Masters hype, four-time winner Tiger Woods. "Yeah, I saw him," Johnson said. Any exchange of words or thoughts between the two? "Nah," he said. "I was eating lunch."

The Columbia native and former All-American at Coastal Carolina ranks among the best young players on the PGA Tour, and arguably is the best of an uber-talented crop of 20- and 30-something Americans. The 30-year-old has won nine PGA Tour events (plus two international tournaments) and nearly $30 million since 2008, with a streak of at least one victory in each of his eight seasons since turning pro -- an achievement matched only by that Woods guy.

It is fitting, then, that in one of his first Instagram appearances, son Tatum wore a T-shirt with the inscription, "My daddy golfs (sic) better than your daddy."

Fatherhood is a favorite topic for Johnson these days. "It's totally different, hard to explain," he said, obvious pleasure in his voice. "Once you see him born, your whole perspective on things changes -- for me, the whole way I think about things. A lot of things that were important aren't now.

"No matter what happens on the golf course, when I get home and get to hold him, it's all right out the window."

Tatum -- the name, Johnson says, "me and Paulina just liked, kind of a unique name; her brothers are Ty, Trevor and Tristan, so she wanted to stick with T's" (ironically, Johnson's grandfather Art Whisnant says "my grandfather's name was Tatum, but they didn't know that") -- is perhaps the biggest reason for the life change that has come over Johnson since summer 2014.

In 2015, Johnson is one of the hottest players on Tour. Besides his triumph at the Cadillac Championship in Miami -- where he won $1.6 million by outlasting an elite World Golf Championships field including two-time Masters champ Bubba Watson -- Johnson also lost in a playoff in Los Angeles; "my first playoff on the PGA Tour, and I hit great shots when I needed them, which is a big confidence booster," he said.

More recently, Johnson rallied from a first-round 78 to barely make the cut at the Valero Texas Open, then shot 68-68 on the weekend (11 shots better than the field average) to finish sixth, one of four top-10 finishes in six events. His take-home for the year so far: nearly $2.7 million.

What makes this all the more remarkable is the fact it comes on the heels of a mysterious six-month hiatus from the Tour. Last August, Johnson -- at the time a lock for the Tour's FedExCup playoffs and a U.S. Ryder Cup berth -- announced he was taking a leave of absence to deal with "personal challenges." Golf.com, quoting sources, reported he had been suspended for six months by the Tour for a third failed drug test (the last two for cocaine, the story said). Johnson -- and later Tour officials -- denied he was suspended; he later told Sports Illustrated his demon was vodka, not drugs.

In several one-on-one interviews since his return in February, Johnson has consistently declined to give details about his absence. After his win at Doral, asked if had ever flunked a PGA Tour drug test, he replied, "No."

As 2015's first major approaches, reporters seem resigned to not getting any mea culpa confessions. After Doral, Sports Illustrated's Michael Bamberger -- part of the reporting team that broke the Golf.com suspension story -- wrote this: "Maybe nobody cares (now). Maybe that's the point of Johnson's impressive win ...

"If you can smash it 320 (yards) in a crosswind, hit old-school punch shots all day long, stiff tee shots and approach shots and putts from downtown, then come in and kiss your girlfriend (Paulina Gretzky, Tatum's mother) and your ... son and collect 1.6 (million), well, maybe nobody cares about your murky absences (in 2011, Johnson also missed six weeks, saying he'd strained his back lifting a Jet Ski).

"It's not 'Just win, baby.' It's 'onward, baby.' Onward and upward, and leave the past where it belongs."

Johnson, if he talked about the topic, likely would agree. His past, after all, is about missed opportunities in majors -- three from 2010-2011 -- and embarrassments (a DUI the week before his 2009 Masters debut) and what he told Golfweek magazine he considers "a mediocre career so far."

The future, on the other hand, is about his impending marriage to Paulina, daughter of hockey great (and recent Johnson mentor) Wayne Gretzky; about a new dedication to his game and his craft; about becoming a winner of majors instead of an object lesson in blown chances.

Mostly, it's about the newborn son who, as Johnson said, gives all the rest of it meaning.

Masters time

This week will be family time as well as Masters Week for Johnson, Paulina, Tatum (staying together in a rented house) and others closely involved in his career. That includes Wayne and Janet Gretzky, as well as Johnson's father Scott, mother Kandee, brother Austin (his caddie), and perhaps the most excited of the bunch, his grandfather Whisnant and wife Judy.

If that name is familiar, the 74-year-old Lake Murray resident is the other great former athlete in Johnson's gene pool. Whisnant played basketball at USC from 1959-62, was All-Atlantic Coast Conference three times and was named to the USC Athletic Hall of Fame in 2001. At 6-foot-4, he's a likely source for Johnson's height and athleticism.

"We go to every event on the East Coast that we can," Whisnant said. He, Scott, Kandee and other kinfolk were at Doral when Johnson won, a moment he calls "incredible." But this week, he says, is the real payoff.

"I'm anxious to get to the Masters," Whisnant said. "He's hitting his irons like I've never seen. And it's got a lot more prestige than the other (tournaments) ... even if it is a tough place to try and watch.

"I've often said if he concentrates, he's unbeatable. He's got the distance, all the shots. He's as good as anyone out there. I think sometimes it comes so easy he didn't put forth the effort. But having a baby, I think he's growing up. And when he bears down, he can do it."

As a budding junior golfer and later college player -- when Whisnant would drive all over to see his grandson play -- Johnson fantasized about playing at Augusta. "Growing up so close, that was the major we thought about on the putting green, you know, 'this putt is to win the Masters,'" he said.

Perhaps that's why, despite his love of the golf course -- "it fits my eye," he said -- Johnson's track record at Augusta National is the poorest of the four majors. His best finish is a 2013 tie for 13th, while he has had seven top-10 finishes in the U.S. Open (2), British Open (2) and PGA Championship (3). And unlike the others, he's never been in position to win -- and then not do so -- a Masters.

But that was then. This is now.

If Johnson doesn't talk about the whys of his six-month hiatus, he is more than happy to talk about the new Dustin. "I've worked pretty hard on my game, but you can't simulate tournament play when you practice," he said -- one reason why, other than his short game, Johnson prefers playing rounds of golf to whacking range balls. "I'm not a big 'practicer,' but I'm playing all the time," he said.

Another change is his physical conditioning. He told SI he lost 10 pounds (from a high of 220) and regained 13 pounds of muscle, thanks to daily workouts. "Most of all is working on my fitness harder, getting in the gym," Johnson said. "Before, I always did the basic stuff, but now I'm lifting all the time, before or after I play."

His swing instructor, hard-bitten Butch Harmon, has noticed the changes, physical and otherwise. "He seems to have his head on straight and is in great shape," Harmon said shortly before Johnson's return.

The gym, Johnson said, has replaced the bars, where a late-night lifestyle was his way of dealing with stress -- which, in turn, he said, came from always trying to maintain an unfazed demeanor. "My way of getting rid of (stress) was drinking or partying," he told SI's Pete Thamel. "That might work for that day or the next week, but eventually everything keeps piling up."

Bottom line, Johnson said, his repressed personality and self-medicating "fixes" also prevented him from realizing a potential that could be seen from the start of his PGA Tour career -- but especially over a two-year stretch, when he flirted with winning three majors. The leader by three shots at the 2010 U.S. Open, he faltered early and shot a closing 82 at Pebble Beach; a year and a month later at the 2011 British Open, he hit a shot out of bounds at the 14th hole on Sunday as Darren Clarke eased to his lone major.

And of course, there was the 2010 PGA Championship at Whistling Straits. Leading by a shot with one hole to play, Johnson grounded his club in a bunker and incurred the penalty that kept him out of a playoff, won by Germany's Martin Kaymer. Afterward, Johnson earned "boneheaded" labels by admitting he hadn't read the week's rules sheet defining bunkers (though he also earned praise for his calm acceptance of the penalty without complaint).

Johnson said he has "zero" regrets about those near-misses. "I'm not a guy who looks back, not at all," he said.

That said, he reminds that "everyone forgets that I birdied the 16th and 17th holes" to be in a position to win. "And," he added, "a couple of weeks later, I won, so it didn't bother me too much."

Of course, that also suggested that while Johnson had the talent and skills to win a major, he was missing something else: the dedication, the focus, the mental game, maybe the heart. Apparently, he and his support group saw that, too, hence the decision -- for whatever reasons -- to take a leave from the Tour last fall, and reassess ... or perhaps truly assess for the first time.

The result? "I've got a lot of confidence now, especially about my golf game, and as a person," he said. "I think it all helps. Being in the gym more does wonders for everything, and my practicing, I'm a lot more focused."

The proof of that, of course, is what comes next.

Fit for Augusta

The glaring missing item on Johnson's resume is a major. But at this point in his career, and with new attitudes, Johnson figures he's laid a foundation to change that.

"Last year I didn't do so well" -- he missed the cut at Augusta, and while he tied for fourth, he was far behind Kaymer, the winner -- "but every other year, I think I've done well," he said. "Overall, I think I've done OK in majors, but I know I can do a lot better."

hat he has done is absorb hard lessons, and "you always learn more when you don't succeed," he said. "I know how to get it done in a major. The only way to know how (to win) is to be in them enough times."

Johnson sees this week in Augusta as the perfect venue for applying that knowledge. "I'm in the best shape ever going into Augusta," he said, "golf-wise and everything else. The golf course is hard, and I think it's a place where the more you play it, the more comfortable you are, and the better you get at it.

"In past years, I wasn't real confident, but right now I am. I'm controlling my ball well, and if I just putt well, I'll be there on Sunday."

That assessment is shared by, among others, three former PGA Tour players who'll be on site to call the first two rounds of the Masters for ESPN. Curtis Strange, he of his own Augusta near-miss in 1985, says Johnson is "No. 3" on his list of pre-tournament topics, behind the golf course, Rory McIlroy (who'll be seeking to complete a career Grand Slam) and Woods' maybe-maybe not return.

"Dustin has something that very few other people have, and that's the length (essential to score at Augusta), and he looks like he controls it well enough," Strange said. "I think he could win as easily this week as Rory McIlroy, simply because of his length, and I think he's playing well enough -- and, you've got to remember, he's had a chance to win three other majors."

Paul Azinger, captain of the 2008 Ryder Cup team, agrees Johnson's past majors experience is a plus. "And his natural ball flight fits (Augusta). He hits it high and he likes to draw the ball a little bit," Azinger said. "Yeah, I don't think it would surprise anybody (if Johnson contended). He can overpower any golf course; the key to that (is) how well does Dustin know Augusta National, and will he devour the par-5's."

Andy North likes Johnson's chances because of an "overlooked" talent: putting. "I think he's a very good putter from 8, 10, 12 feet, and at Augusta National, you get so many of those," he said. "The combination of his length and the fact he's a pretty darned good short-to-middle length putter -- that's a nice combination."

The three are less concerned about Johnson's perceived wasted opportunities than other observers. "I don't think he's missing anything," Strange said. "At the (2010) PGA, he was very unlucky, really, because of the design of the golf course. He had a bad last round at Pebble Beach. ... My point is, he's been there, numerous times, so he knows what it feels like."

As for the "new" Dustin, "He stayed in shape (during the six months away)," Strange said, "(and) he came back and he's proved that, because he's played so well this year. ... He's got a newborn (and) I think he's got himself together (so) it wouldn't surprise anybody."

That's what the media experts say. The final word, though, goes to Johnson. Asked which of the four majors might be his best chance at a breakthrough, he laughed easily.

"This one coming up," he said. "Whichever the next one is my best chance for my first one." And if on Sunday he finds defending champ Bubba Watson draping an extra-long green jacket onto his shoulders, what will Johnson's reaction be to a moment you might think he's been dreaming about most of his life?

Another sign of the new Dustin: "I'll think about it when it happens." He laughed again.

"I'm going to try," he added. He has one very small -- but very important -- reason to do that: try like he's maybe never tried before.

This article was written by Bob Gillespie from The State and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network.