All eyes are turning to Dustin Johnson

Before the final round of the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational two weeks ago, Golf Channel commentator Brandel Chamblee watched Dustin Johnson warm up on the driving range.

Everybody stops to watch Johnson hammer drives as far as anybody out there. Chamblee became fascinated when the newly crowned U.S. Open champion pulled out his wedges.

Using the TrackMan launch monitor, Johnson was working hard on dialing in his short clubs. What’s the sensation like when you’re trying to hit the ball 122 yards instead of 121? When you figure that out, you can become a major champion.

“To me, that’s the proper way to use that machine,” Chamblee said in an interview last week.

Johnson then went out that Sunday, shot a second straight 66 and overtook world No. 1 Jason Day, who suffered a rare late stumble. Johnson’s second straight victory and his 10th top-10 finish of the year pushed him to a career peak at world No. 2.

“The last person to drive the ball this far and also be the best wedge player on the PGA Tour was a fellow by the name of Tiger Woods,” Chamblee said. “So it’s a rare combination … and it’s almost unfair when you’re competing against him.”

Even more daunting when Johnson has the one missing mental piece that myriad golf sufferings had taken from him: the knowledge he can get it done.

That next chance begins Thursday with the start of the season’s third major, the 145th British Open Championship at Royal Troon.

“I think that now that he got out of his own way and broke through and won the U.S. Open … it’s hard to see him not being the favorite moving forward for the next multiple majors – if not multiple years,” said David Duval, the 2001 British Open champ and a Golf Channel commentator.

Everybody is on the Johnson bandwagon now, of course. At the beginning of the season, he was rarely mentioned because of the justified excitement over the Big Three — Day, Jordan Spieth and Rory McIlroy. Rickie Fowler — with three tour wins to Johnson’s nine at the season’s start was sometimes forced into a conversation about the top players before Johnson.

When talk did turn to Johnson, it was mostly centered on the circumstances of his lost majors and not living up to his potential. And that was really about the big tournaments, since Johnson is the only current player to have won at least once in nine consecutive years.

“I’ve said on many occasions — and I don’t think too many people disagree — that for a year or two he’s been the most talented player there is in golf,” Duval said. “He has that weapon that is just basically unbeatable — driving the golf ball, and he’s improved his wedges.”

Johnson ranks fractions of a yard behind J.B. Holmes as the tour’s second-longest driver at 312.5 yards. Then from short distance, according to the tour’s ShotLink numbers, Johnson is No. 1 in hitting wedges closest to the hole from 50 to 125 yards. A year ago, he was 53rd in the category. In 2014, he was 80th.

The difference between first and 80th is about 3 yards in proximity to the hole, and that can make a huge difference, especially for a player not considered to be a deft putter. Still, Johnson has improved in that department, too, ranking a respectable 38th in strokes gained putting.

“I felt like my putting was holding me back,” Johnson said at the Bridgestone. “But I feel like I’ve worked really hard and it’s getting better. I putted really good on Sunday at the U.S. Open. … You know, [putting] was really the only difference between me winning four or five times this year and finishing in a lot of top fives.”

Johnson has 12 top-10 finishes in his last 25 major starts, and yes, he does have one tale of woe from the British Open.

In 2011 at Royal St. George’s, Johnson was only two shots behind on the back nine while playing with eventual champion Darren Clarke. At the par-5 14th, Johnson was in the middle of the fairway after his drive and got strangely conservative, choosing 2-iron over 3-wood for the second shot.

Johnson pushed the intended layup so badly that it went out of bounds and he eventually made double-bogey 7. He finished three shots behind in the 42-year-old Clarke’s tremendously popular win.

“It’s definitely a ‘go’ situation,” Johnson admitted that day. “If I had to do it over again, I’d do 3-wood.”

For now, the second-guessing mercifully has stopped. Duval made the point that for Johnson to have not been ruined by his previous major failures – or even rattled by the officials’ rules bumbling in the U.S. Open at Oakmont — is his true triumph.

“Who else could have withstood that?” Duval said. “It would have been really difficult to do, and it was certainly amazing to watch.”

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