Dustin Johnson defends his title at Pebble Beach

Dustin Johnson can’t lie.

When he was declared winner of the 2009 AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, after waiting for 40 hours of sideways rain and dangerous winds to wipe out the final round, Johnson wasn’t disappointed.

“I was prepared to play,” he said. “Can I say I was real disappointed when we didn’t? No.”

Johnson spoke Tuesday with water still dripping from his baseball cap. It’s raining again at Pebble Beach and Johnson comes to defend his title well-prepared.

He tied for third at last week’s rainy Northern Trust Open at Riviera Country Club. The long-hitting Johnson led for two rounds and except for losing a ball under soaked grass -- an unusual occurrence because he and eventual champion Steve Stricker spent five minutes looking everywhere -- Johnson might have kept control of the wet event.

Stricker chose not to play the AT&T event this week, preferring to spend his time at home in snowy Wisconsin rather than fighting the predicted wind and rain, even though Pebble Beach will host the U.S. Open this summer.

But Luke Donald, who was runner-up to Stricker last week, said weather makes the courses here much different in February than in June. “I’m not sure you’ll learn much by playing now,” he said.

For Johnson, that’s fine. “I feel real comfortable with these conditions,” he said. “Wet and windy? Fine. If the courses play long, fine.”

Besides the defending champion, the field includes six players ranked in the top 20 in the world -- Phil Mickelson, Jim Furyk, Padraig Harrington, Sergio Garcia, Sean O’Hair and Retief Goosen.

John Daly also returns to the PGA Tour. The last time he played, two weeks ago at the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines, he missed the cut and told a producer for his upcoming Golf Channel reality show “Being John Daly,” that he was done with golf.

A day later on Twitter, Daly basically said “Never mind,” and he is paired with Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo in this event, which begins Thursday. If the weather cooperates and the rain stops, crowds should be big around the tabloid-friendly duo of Daly and Romo.

And if the rain doesn’t stop, Johnson will be fine with that.

After all, he knows Pebble Beach well, having learned its unique characteristics by playing a video game.

“I played against Tiger Woods a bunch,” he said of the game. “I knew the course pretty well the first time I came here.”

But a video game can’t simulate the wind blowing an umbrella inside-out or the rain making the grips slip.

“I don’t mind playing in the rain,” Johnson repeated. “You’ve just got to be patient, and I can be patient.”

Bits and pieces

The only woman playing in the pro-am, U.S. women’s soccer star Brandi Chastain, is playing with former University of Arizona star Ricky Barnes, who had Luke Walton in his gallery last week. . . . Because of the Super Bowl and Winter Olympics, the Northern Trust Open was played a week earlier than normal and television ratings suffered. This year’s overnight was 1.9. A year ago, when Mickelson won his second consecutive title, it was 3.5. Though compared to the tournament held on Super Bowl Sunday last year, the Phoenix Open, the Northern Trust did better on television. The Phoenix Open was 1.5.

diane.pucin@latimes.com

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