World No 1 for 19 weeks in 2020, Dustin Johnson was awarded his third Mark McCormack award as the player who had the most calendar weeks as No 1 on the Official World Golf Rankings. An elated Dustin spoke to the media ahead of the US Open at Torrey Pines. Excerpts:
We’re pleased to be joined by World No. 1 and 2016 U.S. Open champion Dustin Johnson. Talk about your preparations so far this week.
Dustin: Yeah, it’s good. I played last week and had a few weeks off. I felt like last week went pretty well. Then obviously I’ve seen a lot of good things this week. I feel like the game’s starting to come back into good form. Yeah, I’m looking forward to it. Obviously, this week’s a tough challenge. I feel like the golf course, it’s long, it’s hard, rough, steep. So, it’s going to be all we want as golfers for sure.
How do you feel your game fits this course specifically?
Dustin: I think it fits it well, especially this week driving. If I can drive it well, I feel like I’m going to have a really good week. Fairways are pretty narrow. The course is long, like I was saying, and if I can hit the driver good, yeah, I like my chances.
When you look back at most recent Opens, does this rough compare with anything? Does it remind you of anything? Oakmont, Marion, whatever the case may be?
Dustin: Yeah, it seems like a typical U.S. Open. I played here in ’08, and it seems like it’s very similar, from what I remember. Maybe a little deeper around the greens. It’s pretty thick and healthy around the greens for sure. But like off the fairways and up to the greens, it seems like it’s real similar. Just a little more around the greens.
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On that note — and kind of work with me on this one — is a worse miss off the tee or to the green in terms of the rough?
Dustin: Depending on the hole.
Can you survive out of the rough and the fairway more than you could around the greens, I guess is what I’m getting at?
Dustin: Like I said, depending on the hole, there’s places where you can miss, but a lot of times when you’re in the rough, especially if it’s a long hole, I don’t see you getting it to the green, or if you get lucky and get a good lie, obviously you can get it up around the green or on the green, but for the most part, what I’ve seen is a lot of just chip it down the fairway.
Is there a couple holes out here that you can point to as key? I know it’s a U.S. Open and all 18 holes are a challenge, but is there a couple holes that maybe you look to as places that you know you need to get through there with a par and/or maybe a par-5 that you need to birdie on?
Dustin: Yeah, always at U.S. Opens, the holes you’ve got to take advantage of are the par-5s. Obviously a lot of par-4s are quite long and difficult, like 12, 6, a few of those holes, 4. If you can make pars on those holes, you’re going to be doing well.
Text courtesy: USGA
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