British Open 2016: Is Dustin Johnson going to win three straight events?
D.J. could pull off something only Ben Hogan, Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy have ever accomplished
Winning the U.S. Open, the Bridgestone Invitational and The Open Championship in consecutive order sounds pretty delectable, doesn't it?
Dustin Johnson is 72 holes from that three-tournament reality as he steps to the tee box this Thursday at Royal Troon. Suddenly, Johnson has gone from perennially underrated uber-talent to potentially the No. 1 golfer in the world depending on how things shake out this week.
Here's the problem.
There have been just 36 three-tournament (or more) winning streaks in PGA Tour history and only four this century (nine overall since 1980). Let's take it a step further. Only three of those (Tiger Woods in 2006, Ben Hogan in 1953, Rory McIlroy in 2014) have included two or more major championship wins. Johnson would enter that hallowed ground with a claret jug at Royal Troon on Sunday.
Considering that Johnson now only has two multiple-win seasons in his career (one of them being this season), it seems improbable that he would join Woods, Hogan and McIlroy on this list. Not to mention the fact that only five golfers have won the U.S. Open and British Open in the same year (Bobby Jones, Gene Sarazen, Lee Trevino, Tom Watson and Woods).
But with the way he is playing right now, I'm not exactly prepared to rule it out. Let's put it this way: of the absurd things that could happen at Royal Troon this week, this one is on the more believable end.
Johnson is the only golfer to finish in the top five at both the Masters and the U.S. Open in 2016. He has top 10s in five of his last six majors. And this is a course and tournament he could (and probably should) own.
He has had success at the British Open, too: T9 in 2012, T2 the year before that. He opened with 65-69 last year at St. Andrews and looked prepared to part the North Sea en route to major No. 1. But it's never that easy with Johnson, who dropped off the leaderboard with a pair of 75s. It's never that easy.
What is easy is a game that will travel by land and by sea. Johnson was asked about Royal Troon after winning Bridgestone a few weeks ago. He gave the most D.J. answer ever.
Q: What do you do with your game going over to Troon?
Dustin Johnson: "Nothing."
Perfect. But also true. The short 7,100-yard par 71 can be set aflame on the front nine, and Johnson is long enough and has the kind of ball flight beneficial to holding on coming home when the wind is whipping for your soul.
"It's still a golf course," Johnson added. "I like the kind of golf over there. I enjoy it. You've got to use a lot of imagination. It's generally windy so you use the wind. You've got to use the ground. Ever since the first time I ever went over there, I've always enjoyed it. I feel like I play pretty well over there."
He does play well there. That is true. But he will have to play historically well to do something only McIlroy has done in the last 12 years -- win three in a row. Johnson is good enough, certainly, to get the job done. And if the lithe American with the rapper stride and outrageous swing can touch silver on Sunday evening in Scotland, well, we could be on the precipice of one of the great recent careers in American golf.
















