Dustin Johnson posts 77, ejects right out of 2016 PGA Championship hunt

The U.S. Open champ will not be a factor for the weekend after a first-round 77 has him 12 back of the leader Jimmy Walker

SPRINGFIELD, N.J. -- Dustin Johnson had six consecutive top 10 finishes on the PGA Tour coming into the 2016 PGA Championship, but it will take a Herculean effort from the world's No. 2 golfer to make the weekend, much less notch a seventh top 10.

Johnson shot a 7-over 77 on Thursday, his worst round since he shot a 7-over 79 on Sunday at Doral in the WGC-Cadillac Championship. Johnson's first round began spiraling on the third hole when he yanked his drive well left and was forced to punch back to the fairway, leading to a double bogey.

Johnson had nothing working for him in the first round. His trusty driver, which he's been hitting better than anyone on the planet, all of a sudden began going left on him rather than playing the nice cut he'd been using to dominate his peers. His putting was equally as rough as he had 37 putts in the round, including 20 on the front nine with three three-putts.

Whether it was fatigue from the condensed schedule, a lack of concentration on his part or simply a bad day, Johnson is now out of contention, 12 behind the leader Jimmy Walker at in T143.

He trails 17 of the 22 PGA club professionals in the field after the first round.

It was as bad as we've seen Johnson play all year, and for it to come in the first round of the PGA Championship certainly puts a damper on the excitement surrounding Johnson coming into the week. After six top 10s in a row, including two wins, he was in position to take the No. 1 spot in the world rankings with a win and Jason Day finishing anything worse than solo-second.

Now, Johnson will be lucky to see the weekend as he's currently six back of cut line, which takes the top 70 and ties. He's played a lot of golf recently, with the PGA Championship being his fourth event in five weeks, so we might finally be seeing him wearing down both physically -- the left miss off the tee when trying to hit a cut would indicate a tired swing -- and mentally, as evidenced by the short putts he missed on the front nine.

Whatever it is, Johnson needs to figure it out quickly and fire a real low number on Friday to make it to the third round. If not, he'll be headed home for what would seem to be much-needed rest.