SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. — At 1:30 p.m. on Friday, Dustin Johnson signed a golf ball, handed it to the giddy teenage standard bearer and then promptly tripped up a couple of stairs leading into the stately Shinnecock Hills clubhouse.
It summed up his day well.
Johnson, the two-time major champion, shot 41 on the back nine Friday, which included a quadruple-bogey 8 on the par-4 15th. It was the exclamation point on an eight-over, five-hole stretch that saw him go from one off the lead to 11 back.
He shot 77, but thanks to his 66 Thursday he’s still three over and will play the weekend. Wyndham Clark leads at seven under, but Johnson’s only six back of second (three under) and lots can change with half a U.S. Open left to be played, especially at Shinnecock Hills.
But if you are only looking at the 77 next to Johnson’s name, you aren’t getting the complete picture. Through 28 holes he was only one off the lead, a surprising flash up the leaderboard we haven’t seen in several years from one of this generation’s best players. And the odd part? DJ said he didn’t really play that poorly Friday.
“I still feel like I’m swinging good,” Johnson said. “I hit good shots coming in … but it’s tough. The wind today was switching all over the place. It was hard to get a good bead on it. Swinging really well and rolling it good.”
Johnson went to LIV Golf in 2022 and hasn’t recorded a major top 20 in his last 11 starts That includes three missed cuts last season. Some want to blame LIV Golf for Johnson’s slide, but the reality is he also turns 42 on Monday. No one’s prime can last forever.
He played well here the last time the Open was at Shinnecock, back in 2018, when he held at least a share of the lead after each of the first three rounds but ultimately ended up two strokes shy of winner Brooks Koepka.
Johnson started this week with a late back-nine tee time on Thursday and made the turn in even par before making four straight birdies on Nos. 1-4. He made a messy double bogey on 6 and then marked his ball on the 7th green after play was suspended due to darkness. He woke up Friday morning, drained the 4-footer for birdie and closed his round par-birdie on 8 and 9 to sign for 66.
Johnson was even for his second round through 10 holes — just one shot behind playing partner and leader Clark — but the wheels came off soon after. He doubled 11 and bogeyed 12 and 13, although he said he didn’t feel like he hit any bad shots on 11 or 13. The real trouble came on 15, where a drive into the rough led to an approach into the bunker. He needed three shots to escape the sand — and ran into rock troubles.
“I actually hit it to where I wanted to,” Johnson said. “If I didn’t get it on the green I figured the front-right bunker was the easiest place to make par from. I hit a rock coming out and it shot straight left [into the other bunker]. Then the next one hit a rock and it came out soft [and back into the bunker]. … On the third one I hit a rock when it went into the ball [and it went over the green].”
He chipped on and two-putted. On the 16th tee he was 11 back of Clark. Johnson birdied 16 and parred the last two.
While Johnson failed to land inside the top 10 in LIV’s first seven starts of the year, he’s finished fifth and fourth, respectively, in his last two. He said he weakened the lofts of his irons before a recent tournament — in typical DJ fashion, he could not remember which one — and started to play better.
“I’ve been driving it well,” he said. “The game feels really good. Obviously even through 10 holes I was even par today. I get it if I hit terrible shots, but I really didn’t hit a bad shot.”
This is Johnson’s last year of his 10-year exemption he received for winning the 2016 U.S. Open, and he’s currently not ranked high enough where he’d get invited back next season. During the end of his small scrum with reporters Friday, he was asked if he planned to go through qualifying next year.
“That’s a long time away,” he said.
He’s still got 36 holes left this week.