The way he lost both of those championships was spectacular, so much so that journalists around the world have been speculating whether he would be able to get past the mental scars and actually win a major.
As it seems with all things Mr Dustin Johnson, he doesn’t do normal both privately and on the course.
So when events conspired against him on the fifth green where his ball clearly moved, the only thing in question was whether he would or would not get a penalty. He was duly told that he would not be penalised.
The end you would have thought, especially when the event is being run by the USGA and the 116th time the US Open has been held.
Fast forward to the twelfth hole and the Managing Director of USGA Rules informs Mr Johnson that he may have a penalty looming but it would need to be reviewed at the conclusion of the round. So he would have to play the next six holes without knowing what his score was going to be.
It transpires that the USGA had already made the decision to penalise him, they just wanted to show him a replay.
This led to the likes of McIlroy and Spieth, through social media, using the words ‘farce’ and ‘amateur hour’.
Quite rightly so as the whole result of the tournament could have been affected.
Just when the tournament should have been getting to the height of its interest, the focus turned to the ruling; whether there was going to be a penalty, how would Dustin Johnson be feeling, are his competitors being distracted by this turn of events.
It was anything but clean. All of the painstaking preparation to be undone because the rules officials couldn’t make a quick decision, which is exactly what they are there for.
But before you start feeling sorry for Dustin Johnson, you may want to know a little bit more about the bad boy of the game. Due to the USPGA being so very careful about its image and brand, and colossally naive about the behaviour of sports in the wider world, its players have failed drugs tests and they have not been so open about letting the public know. In Dustin’s case he has failed on three occasions; not for game enhancing chemicals but for recreational drugs, namely cocaine and pot. This lead to his ‘sabbatical’ from the game two years ago.
Due to the ‘punishment behind closed doors policy’ or ‘don’t air our dirty laundry directive’ we are pretty certain that he was banned by the USPGA Tour for up to six months. They called it a ‘leave of absence’ whatever that means. But he dropped out of playing, sacrificed his spot on the Gleneagles Ryder Cup Squad and disappeared from the public consciousness.
You can understand the tour being a touch skittish around one of their high ranked players having question marks next to their character and name - Tiger literally leaps out at you when that topic comes up. But to be so blatant about glossing over the issue doesn’t have a grown up feel to it, more of a ‘he’s been a bad boy, said sorry, taken his punishment and that’s all we have to say on the matter.’
Johnson has openly admitted that he had a go hard or go home attitude to partying and used the alcohol as a way of escaping the stress. Understandable really, who hasn’t poured a slightly larger measure after a tough week? And the drugs he took were recreational not performance boosting unlike his namesake, Ben, who was stripped of all his titles and records for doping in the Olympics.
With the Olympics coming up in six or so weeks’ time, golf being included and the world watching, golf should be leading the charge for clean honest sport. Which it does, but with the rules fiasco on the final day Sunday paired alongside the ambiguous treatment of failed drug tests, the golf’s Governing Bodies appear to be a long way behind other sports.
A lot happened on Sunday night, boring it wasn’t. Dustin won the tournament, a tournament he should have won last year. He is now Number Three in the world and is an athletic force to be reckoned with. Whimsically I can’t help but wonder what the trophy was filled with on Sunday night, surely a drop of Champagne wouldn’t be wrong or would it?