Dustin Johnson sheds a tear
Golf's preeminent flatliner -- and its No. 1 player -- finally gets emotional in winning the Masters
Dustin Johnson does not do emotions. Sure, there’s the occasional, if subdued, fist pump after a significant shot. Or a hint of a smile when all cylinders are firing. Perhaps the slight shake of the head after a rare errant drive or a putt that didn’t obey his read.
Generally, though, he’s difficult to decipher. Keeps everything in check, lets his clubs speak for him, doesn’t open up, doesn’t reveal, doesn’t feel. Win big or lose big … a spectacular eagle or a deflating double … who knows? You can never tell just looking at his body language or listening to his generic post-round comments.
The man has no pulse – although he claims otherwise. “It’s beating,” he once argued, “but not very fast.” Good to know. Cancel the defibrillator.
Even as he stood on the green at the 72nd hole of the Masters – at a record 20 under, five shots ahead of the field; guaranteed to win the most prestigious title of his career, the one tournament he most wanted as a kid growing up in nearby South Carolina; and wrap up an incredible 2020 second-half campaign that strengthens his argument as the best golfer in the post-Dominant Tiger era – Johnson could not let it go.
His brother did, though. Austin Johnson couldn’t hold off the emotions as he waited for big brother to putt out. A.J. has been on Dustin’s bag for seven years. Some have questioned that partnership. Despite 17 worldwide wins with AJ, Dustin has been considered an underachiever, at least when it comes to majors. Would a more experienced caddie, or at least someone not in the family circle, offer a more objective viewpoint? Prior to the November Masters, there had been more major heartache, more agonizing near-misses (four blown 54-hole leads) than victories (just one, the 2016 U.S. Open – the same year, by the way, AJ won Caddie of the Year honors).
Now? As Dustin sized up his final strokes, there was no question this brother act is a perfect fit. Dustin had made the game look so easy, and yet they both knew the journey had been difficult. So AJ let the tears of joy flow.
Then it was Paulina Gretzky’s turn. Dustin’s fiancée, the mother of their two children, rushed onto the green after the final putt, outfitted in a fashionable Danielle Cathari track top featuring – appropriately -- two shades of green. She was thrilled, bubbly, happy, proud. Wayne’s little daughter was not old enough to fully appreciate her dad’s domination of the NHL many years ago. But she’s very well aware of how Dustin dominates the golf scene.
Still, for Dustin, the game face remained. A scorecard had to be signed. Winner’s arrangements had to be made. Media obligations awaited, as did a trip to Butler Cabin. While he enjoys winning, he never seems comfortable with the attached trappings. So he stayed in stoic mode while heading to the clubhouse. Had he just won the Masters or the RSM Classic?
A few minutes later, the 42 large Green Jacket now part of his wardrobe, something unusual happened.
Dustin Johnson cracked. He became human.
“It’s a dream come true,” he replied when asked on television about his Masters win. “As a kid, I always dreamed about being a Masters champion.”
Then he stopped. He choked up. He lowered the microphone that he held in his right hand. His left hand rested on his abdomen, steeling himself. He looked away from the camera -- to his left, then down.
“It’s hard to talk,” he admitted. He appeared surprised as much as we were by the demonstration. He let out a sigh. He closed his eyes. Gathered his thoughts but could offer just one more sentence. “It’s just incredible, obviously, as you can tell.”
After taking time to process the victory an hour later, Dustin explained his rare display of emotion.
“Yeah, I had a tough time there speaking,” he said. “Just because it means so much to me. It means so much to my family, Paulina, the kids. They know it’s something that I’ve always been dreaming about and it’s why I work so hard.
“You know, I put in a lot of work off the golf course, on the golf course and it’s just something that you push yourself for. That’s why I work so hard is to be in this position. And to finally have the dream come true – I think that’s why you see all that emotion.”
In this most emotional of years – the heartache and sorrow of a COVID-19 pandemic that has killed 1.3 million people globally, including 250,000 in the United States; the rancor and polarizing presidential race and the incumbent’s challenge to the outcome; the protests to end institutional racism in the aftermath of the George Floyd killing – it seems incongruous that golf’s highest-profile event was won by its most undemonstrative star.
On the other hand, Johnson won a Masters unlike any other. As a precautionary health move, Augusta National was patron-less this week, except for a small amount of club members and media types – all wearing masks, most limiting their cheers. That meant no echoes or reverberations through the pines, no roars, no buzz. It meant no swells of appreciation as players closed out their rounds.
When Tiger Woods – well off the pace -- walked up 18 on Sunday, it was no different than a private round back home in Jupiter. Having fed off Augusta’s roars for more than two decades, it was a tough, strange week. “Very different,” he said. “This world that we live in is not what we’ve had throughout my career.”
It was perfect for Johnson, though. He has never needed the applause, the adulation, the support of galleries to push him beyond his limits. He doesn’t offer emotion, nor does he feed off it.
As AJ told a small group of reporters outside the Augusta National clubhouse after the win: “You can’t tell if we’re coming down the stretch of a major or if we are laying on the couch watching football.”
A short while later, Dustin was asked if he felt any disappointment in walking off the 72nd hole without thousands cheering his name. “No,” he replied. “I do not.”
To win the Quiet Masters, it helped to be a flatliner.
It also helped to be well-rested, as Johnson played just one time during a two-month stretch and was forced to the sidelines last month after a positive COVID-19 test. Three years earlier, Johnson was world No. 1 heading into the Masters but withdrew after he slipped on the steps in front of his rental house and injured his back. It was less than 24 hours before the opening round. An untimely blow then; this time, the health issue may have worked to his favor.
Johnson again was No. 1 heading into this Masters, with physical skills he may be reticent to explain but are consistently superior to all others … yet also with a mental approach that is criminally underappreciated, a by-product of his dispassionate demeanor.
“He’s smarter than you think,” said Rory McIlroy, the one player who can match Johnson’s decade of success. “He’s switched on – more so that he lets on, more so than everyone in the media thinks.”
On Sunday -- after a tearful hug from his brother and a celebratory kiss from his fiancée, after signing a scorecard that nobody else has matched in Masters history, after slipping on the Green Jacket to turn a childhood dream into reality – Dustin Johnson switched on his emotions.
For the first time.
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FULL DISCLOSURES
>>Wish I had been able to post this story sooner, but I was not among the limited number of media members onsite at Augusta National and did not acquire access to a transcript of DJ’s post-round news conference until recently. First time I haven’t covered the Masters in more than a decade. Hope to be more timely moving forward.
>>The headline, by the way, is a riff off one of the most famous pieces of magazine journalism ever written - Guy Talese’s profile of Frank Sinatra in Esquire in 1966. While I’ll never come close to such superb writing, I can at least borrow the headline idea.
>>Yes, I had to look up the designer for Paulina’s track top. The last time I picked up Vogue, I was still working for Conde Nast.
Great read Mike! Thanks for the insight.
Top notch as usual..Your on your game just like DJ.....