The course is in perfect shape, with ACC head pro Dale Morgan telling Golfweek it’s probably the best it’s been during the seven-year run at the Pete Dye-designed track.
The event’s spot on the 2024 schedule, which is typically in late March on the back end of the Florida Swing, is expected to be filled by the Cadence Bank Houston Open, unless it prefers a date in the late April/early May timeframe instead as part of a shuffling of events.
The semifinals certainly weren’t lacking star power this year as Rory McIlroy met Cameron Young and reigning champ Scottie Scheffler squared off with his friend Sam Burns.
Here’s a look at how the final day has played out (with most recent updates at the top).
Scottie Scheffler has taken the golf world by storm in 2022.
Scottie Scheffler has taken the golf world by storm in 2022. The 25-year-old from Highland Park secured his third PGA Tour victory of the young season at the WGC Dell Match Play. He took down veteran Kevin Kisner four and three in the championship round at Austin Country Club.
The win moved Scheffler into the top spot in the Offical World Golf Rankings. He moved in front of major winners, Jon Rahm and Collin Morikawa to claim the throne.
It took Scheffler just 91 tour starts to earn the world’s No. 1 ranking. Only Tiger Woods (21) and fellow Longhorn Jordan Speith (77) accomplished the feat faster.
Scheffler played four seasons in a spectacular career at the University of Texas before turning pro in 2018. He is now the next Texas Longhorn holding the world’s No. 1 ranking.
Contact/Follow us @LonghornsWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Texas news, notes and opinions.
Have the world’s first coed match-play tournament. Invite the top 32 ranked male and female golfers.
Tom Kite pretty much hated the idea.
Ty Votaw thought it might actually work.
Billy Horschel mulled it over and thinks it could be fun.
Even I think it’s harebrained crazy, but it’s a crazy world. How else does one explain the Kardashians?
Again, I’m not considering adding a shark’s mouth or a loop-de-loop prop to some holes on the PGA Tour, so go easy.
So here’s my brainstorm. Or brain lapse, depending on your viewpoint.
Given the runaway success of the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play tournament at Austin Country Club for the past seven years, how about staging a similar event using the same round-robin format but open up the competition?
Have the world’s first coed match-play tournament. Invite the top 32 ranked male and female golfers in the world to play intermingled in the same 64-player field just as the PGA Tour folks have now for the PGA’s Dell tourney.
So the Austin Country Club, Dell folks and PGA Tour don’t freak out, I’d recommend we keep the Dell tourney as it is and let’s get busy creating a similar event on the schedule that we’ll call, say, the Kirk Bohls-Michael Dell Coed Match Play tournament somewhere else on the calendar. Heck, I’ll even give Michael top billing. Or Elon Musk, are you a golf fan?
Imagine Lydia Ko squaring off against Jon Rahm. Jin Young Ko facing down Bryson DeChambeau. Or Nelly Korda (or anyone named Korda) versus Xander Schauffele in a battle of Olympic gold medalists from the Tokyo Games.
Hey, we seem to get these made-for-TV exhibitions every other month, whether it’s Tiger Woods and Peyton Manning beating Phil Mickelson and Tom Brady on a live broadcast on four networks drawing an average of 2.8 million viewers or you name it.
Heck, some people even watched — through squinted eyes — Charles Barkley team with Phil to beat Manning and Steph Curry. We’ve had Phil vs. Tiger and Brooks vs. Bryson, and there may be no end.
I assume NBC probably already tried to line up Brady again for another such showcase until he decided he’s still got some football left in his tank.
If we can be subjected to those silly events, why not a serious one in a true mano a mano Battle of the Sexes. For big dough.
Votaw, who is a former commissioner of the LPGA and a current PGA Tour adviser when he isn’t promoting his new bourbon brand Blue Run, was on hand for the third round of the Dell Match Play tournament on a calm, cloudless Friday. We chatted as he was in the grandstand at the first tee and took in a few of the golfers starting their third-round matches.
I wouldn’t say he fully embraced the scheme, but he far from rejected it.
So what do you think, Ty?
Collin Morikawa, left, and Sergio Garcia shake hands at the 18th green after tying during the second round of the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play golf tournament. (Photo: Erich Schlegel-USA TODAY Sports)
“Against each other?” asked the 60-year-old, who will retire from his job as the PGA’s chief marketing officer in July but remain as an adviser to PGA Commissioner Jay Monahan. Monahan could not be reached for comment about how nuts I am, and who can blame him? Or he’s already on the phone to the networks.
But his office released a statement from him that reads, “In March of 2016, the PGA Tour formalized its relationship with the LPGA with a strategic alliance agreement designed to further promote the growth of golf, and this included the potential development of joint events.”
I’m going to take that as a yes. Glad to have you on board, Jay. We’re all in favor of joint events.
But why not such a tournament? Got to think out of the box in 2022, right? The world ain’t flat, no matter what Kyrie Irving says. Think big.
Votaw seemed intrigued by the concept even though he was much more focused on Friday night’s North Carolina basketball matchup with UCLA in the Sweet 16. And is the UNC Law School grad openly rooting against Duke?
“Uh, yes,” he said. “But it’d be nice if they meet again in the Final Four. Some people would watch that, I think.”
As they would the inaugural WGC-Dell Technologies Coed Match Play event. I’m only asking for a 5% cut.
“We’re constantly trying to think of ways do (events like) that,” Votaw told me. “We’ve had a lot of conversations, and we do have a strategic alliance with the LPGA Tour. Down the road, both parties would have to be interested. It’d have to be the right format and the right date.”
There are inherent problems. We get it.
Jin Young Ko and Nelly Korda at the CME Group Tour Championship at Tiburon Golf Club in Naples, Florida. (Photo: Michael Reaves/Getty Images)
Fitting in an event like that in an already crowded schedule could be nightmarish. The two tours normally play on opposite coasts at the same time. When the men are on the West Coast, the women are on the East.
Votaw did say the two tours have had conversations about staging separate but equal golf tournaments concurrently at the same site, a place with 36 holes to accommodate each event. Likewise, they have discussed mixed team concepts.
Horschel, the defending champion who tied his Dell match with Thomas Pieters on Friday to become the first to advance to Saturday’s quarterfinals, endorsed the idea.
“I think it’s pretty cool,” Horschel said. “It’s not a bad idea at all. I watch the ladies play golf all the time, and several of the girls are really, really good.”
He’s never played on an LPGA golf course set up for tournament play, and he thinks his male counterparts would probably have an advantage because he said the LPGA greens are “usually softer” than on the PGA Tour.
He avidly follows the Korda sisters, Nelly and Jessica, and says many of those on the LPGA Tour are “pretty unbelievable.”
I would imagine Monahan and new LPGA Commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan will tackle this idea soon. Samaan didn’t get where she is by taking the well-traveled path from her days as athletic director at Princeton, where she was an All-Ivy ice hockey player. Yeah, she’s a get-it-done gal.
But Kite, a Hall of Famer who won 19 times, including a U.S. Open, during his brilliant career, wasn’t buying it.
“Years and years ago, they tried mixed events in the ’70s and ’80s, and it died,” Kite said during a break from watching Scottie Scheffler bury Matt Fitzpatrick 5 and 4 Friday. “I don’t think it would work. You wouldn’t get the top players.”
You would if the purse were big enough. The Tiger-Phil match purse was $9 million, although maybe that was in crypto coins.
This Coed Match Play event would have twice the appeal of a Billy Jean King-Bobby Riggs sham. King was in her prime, Riggs moved around like the Statue of Liberty in an awful performance at age 55, and the staged event in the Astrodome scored huge points for the feminist movement. Good for her and the movement.
And it did draw 90 million eyeballs — I guess actually that’d be 180 million eyeballs, give or take — worldwide, and BJK walked away with 100 large.
Hey, I still daydream about the day Serena Williams takes on Novak Djokovic in a best-of-three tennis match. I’d sure watch. And I’ll be happy to watch Candace Parker take on Steph Curry in a game of H-O-R-S-E.
So let’s put on this unique format and watch Jin Young Ko battle Jon Rahm in a matchup of No. 1 seeds on their respective tours. I’m guessing that draw would get boffo ratings in Korea and Spain.
For that matter, Koreans might steal the whole show with three top-10 LPGA golfers in the world from there as well as six in the top 20 in the world.
I don’t see how it could not be a big hit.
For now, I’ll leave the details to Jay and Mollie. You got my number. You can thank me later.
Kirk Bohls is a columnist for the Austin American-Stateman, part of the USA Today Network.
Austin’s adopted son never could get untracked early.
Collin Morikawa and Sergio Garcia were the marquee group of the day on the second round of the World Golf Championship-Dell Technologies Match Play tournament Thursday at Austin Country Club.
But someone forgot to tell Garcia until the back nine.
And when they did, Garcia’s game went into overdrive as he won three consecutive holes on 14, 15 and 16 and scrambled from an errant tee shot under the oak trees with one of his patented recovery shots to sink a 3-foot par putt on 18 for the draw.
Make no mistake, however.
Garcia “won” this tie, and Morikawa “lost” it.
At least, emotionally.
Of course, that’s how even everyone expected this round two match to be between two of the best ball-strikers in the game, the second-ranked player in the world against one of the game’s most experienced veterans. This was a showcase matchup, and both showed their top-shelf games, at least at different times.
Sergio Garcia fell behind by three holes through 11 of his second-round match with No. 2-seeded Collin Morikawa but fought back to force a draw.
“I’m not going to lie,” a relieved Garcia said. “I’m happy with it.”
Morikawa wishes he could say the same. However, after building a 3-up lead after nine holes and sustaining it the first two holes on the back nine, he let it get away from him to leave both golfers at 1-0-1 in Group 2 play.
Their immediate futures will be settled Friday when Garcia faces Jason Kokrak, who won his match with Robert MacIntyre 3 and 2 to improve to 1-1, and Morikawa goes up against the winless MacIntyre. The winners advance to Saturday’s quarterfinals, a spot Garcia has clinched each of the last two years.
“I can still get out of group play,” Morikawa said.
Their longer-term futures have longer shelf lives.
Morikawa, a whiz kid out of Cal, already has a pair of major championships in his pocket as he became the eighth player since 1920 to win multiple majors before the age of 25. He did so by capturing the 2020 PGA Championship in his backyard and last year’s British Open at the expense of Texas’ Jordan Spieth by two strokes when Morikawa put together a string of 31 consecutive holes without a bogey.
Incidentally, Spieth was the seventh player to pull off that magical feat at such a tender age in 2015.
Now while Garcia ranks 49th in the world and Spieth 15th, Morikawa is a solid No. 2 behind only Jon Rahm and on a path to becoming No. 1. He’s got five wins on Tour and two of them majors along with a tie for fourth in last year’s U.S. Open and eighth in his PGA Championship defense.
That’s consistency, folks.
“When you play a guy who’s so solid and who’s such a good player, he’s not a guy who’s going to give away things easy,” Garcia said. “But I did the first seven or eight holes.”
Garcia, Morikawa’s senior by almost two decades, was resourceful if not refined in the early going, but showed the savviness and creativity of his game that has helped make him one of the premier match-play artists in his sport.
Collin Morikawa waits for Sergio Garcia before hitting out of the sand on #7 during the second round of the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play golf tournament. Mandatory Credit: Erich Schlegel-USA TODAY Sports
He hasn’t been on his game of late. But the 42-year-old Spaniard, who lives part-time out at Spanish Oaks, has just a single top-10 finish this season with a tie for seventh at Mayakoba and only one win on the PGA Tour since his impressive Masters victory in 2017.
Morikawa has been tearing it up everywhere but Austin, failing to get out of the group play last year when he went 0-2-1 and lost to eventual champion Billy Horschel, but he’s obviously in the thick of things this week.
He admitted to being “a little bit” irritated by the turn of the events, but credits a man who with 29 victories has more match-play wins than anyone but Tiger Woods, Matt Kuchar and Ian Poulter and who has been a mainstay for the Europeans with 10 Ryder Cup appearances.
“Sergio made three birdies in a row,” Morikawa said. “And birdies are going to win holes.”
Austin’s adopted son never could get untracked early, pulling his irons and burning one hole after another with his putts, but he came on in a rush when he had to.
The 25-year-old Morikawa looked as if he would school his more seasoned opponent on a crystal clear Thursday when he methodically built up a 3-up lead on the front nine.
Not even the backing of Longhorn fans seemed to help.
Garcia, of course, is married to the former Angela Akins, daughter of Texas All-American wishbone quarterback Marty Akins and his wife Pam.
When he was introduced on the first tee by announcer Ed Clements, he received loud applause and flashed the Hook ’em Horns sign. He did the same when he reached the green on the final hole.
Just the day before, Texas football coach Steve Sarkisian tagged along in the gallery to root on Garcia in his winning match over MacIntyre. The two are tight. Sarkisian even spoke at Garcia’s junior golf event.
This marquee pairing had some of the biggest crowds Thursday, especially on the front nine where they lined the fairways and shouted their support of Garcia.
Morikawa put Garcia behind the 8-ball from the outset. His lob wedge shot on the first hole backspin and cozied up to the hole just inches from the cup for a conceded birdie. Garcia’s seven-foot attempt lipped out, and he found himself down 1 from the get go.
Morikawa won the fifth hole to go 2 up after both hit terrific approach shots to identical distances from the pin, so close that Morikawa flipped a coin to see who would putt first. He then drained his 10-footer for a second birdie.
Disaster almost struck Morikawa on the sixth hole when his approach shot from the rough sailed right, bounced high off a slope and deep into the mulch beyond the cart path maybe 100 yards from the green. “A different zip code,” cracked golfer-turned-broadcaster Dylan Frittelli on PGA Tour Live.
Morikawa could have mailed it in from deep in the woods, but salvaged a par with a great chip. Garcia failed to cash in as his 15-foot birdie attempt slid by.
He tossed his ball to PGA volunteer scorer Terry Whitlow from Carrollton as she joked, “I should get an assist. He got rid of his bad ball.”
However, there were more in his bag where that came from when he nailed his tee shot on No. 7 but couldn’t convert. That run of bad luck continued on No. 9 when his approach shot out of a fairway bunker nestled in the canyon below the green, costing him a bogey and a 3-down deficit at the turn.
The two traded punches on the back nine, and a key par on 11 helped save Garcia’s bacon.
“When that putt on 11 was put in the bag,” he said, “I got a little bit of happiness in me. My putt on 15 (from 30 feet) was massive after he made a long putt for par.”
Sergio Garcia looks on from the sixth hole during the first day of the 2022 World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play at Austin Country Club in Austin, Texas. (Photo: Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
More joy was to come.
A rare Morikawa bogey on the par-5 12th gave Garcia an opening, but the 2 seed took it right back with a birdie putt from 14 feet, prompting Morikawa to throw a fist pump.
One hole later, Garcia put some more pressure on his opponent when he sank a 10-foot birdie putt on 14 — his first birdie of the day — to come within two holes with four to play. He almost went up on the 17th hole when Morikawa’s tee shot flew into the bunker, but Garcia’s 18-foot birdie putt came up inches short.
Then the save on 18 with a terrific low sand wedge to the green, and Garcia was still alive with much on the line Friday and the majors beginning next month.
“My game still needs to improve,” he said. “I’m not going to lie. There are some things I need to get better at. I feel like I’ve been playing OK, but not to my standards. Not amazing.”
See StrackaLine’s hole-by-hole maps of the layout designed by Pete Dye alongside the Colorado River in Texas.
Austin Country Club’s current course in Texas, host site of the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play, was designed by Pete Dye and opened in 1984.
Built on the shores of the Colorado River, it has been the host site of the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play since 2016. Austin Country Club was founded in 1899, but the club moved from one course to another before Dye built the club its third course.
Austin Country Club will play to 7,108 yards with a par of 71 on the scorecard for the Match Play.
One of the most interesting holes on the course each year is the short, drivable par-4 13th. Listed at 317 yards from the back tees but playing shorter for players who take on the challenge, the hole gives Tour pros the chance to drive the green, which is all carry over water. Or players can lay up with a mid-iron to the fairway, leaving a wedge into the green. The risky option can be incredibly tempting to these players who have plenty of length to aim at the tiny target from the tee.
Thanks to yardage books provided by StrackaLine – the maker of detailed yardage books for thousands of courses around the world – we can see exactly the challenges the pros face this week. Check out the maps of each hole below.
A loaded field is set for some PGA Tour match play.
Local fan favorite Jordan Spieth highlights a group of major champions as the draw for the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play was conducted Monday morning.
The field is divided into 16 four-player groups that will begin three days of round-robin play Wednesday at the Pete Dye-designed Austin Country Club in Texas. The top 16 players in the Official World Golf Ranking who are in the field are the top seeds in each group; each group was filled out randomly.
The three-time major champion Spieth, the 11th seed, is joined by 2013 Masters champion Adam Scott, 2013 U.S. Open champion Justin Rose and 2011 PGA Championship winner Keegan Bradley.
Defending champion Billy Horschel, who defeated Scottie Scheffler, 2 and 1, in last year’s final, is the 12th seed and grouped with Thomas Pieters, AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-am winner Tom Hoge and Min Woo Lee.
Scheffler, another local favorite and winner of the WM Phoenix Open and Arnold Palmer Invitational earlier this year, is the No. 5 seed and will face a trio of Englishman in group play — Matt Fitzpatrick, Tommy Fleetwood and Ryder Cup warrior Ian Poulter.
World No. 1 and reigning U.S. Open champion Jon Rahm has U.S. Ryder Cup hero Patrick Reed, Cameron Young and Sebastian Munoz in his group.
Sixth-seed Justin Thomas, who tied for third in last week’s Valspar Championship, will have to deal with Kevin Kisner, the 2019 champion and 2018 runner-up; Marc Leishman; and Luke List, who won the Farmers Insurance Open earlier this year.
Eight-time PGA Tour winner Bryson DeChambeau is the ninth seed and grouped with Talor Gooch, Lee Westwood and Richard Bland. DeChambeau has not played on the PGA Tour since the Farmers Insurance Open in January. He was in the field for the Arnold Palmer Invitational and The Players Championship but withdrew with a wrist injury before play began.
The strongest group based on seeding features Louis Oosthuizen (10th seed), Paul Casey (19), Corey Conners (36) and Alex Noren (50).
After pool play, the format turns to single elimination beginning Saturday.
Four of the top 12 players in the world are not in the field – Players Champion Cameron Smith (No. 6), four-time major winner Rory McIlroy (8th), last week’s Valspar Championship winners, Sam Burns (10th) and reigning Masters champion Hideki Matsuyama (12th).
Don’t think for a second that this week’s WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play is simply a Masters tune-up for World No. 3 Jon Rahm.
AUSTIN, Texas — Don’t think for a second that this week’s WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play is simply a Masters tune-up for World No. 3 Jon Rahm.
Sure, Augusta is looming in a few short weeks, but the Arizona State product gushed at length about the format at Austin Country Club, one he’s enjoyed success with. In his first appearance at the tournament back in 2017, Rahm reached the final before falling to Dustin Johnson.
Not only did Rahm insist he highlights this event on his calendar, but he wishes there were others like it along the way.
“I love match play. It is the one time you play one-on-one against somebody else, and it’s maybe the more relatable of the four matches to other sports, right?” Rahm said. “I guess a lot of what you do is dependent on what the person in front of you is doing, and you don’t necessarily need to be playing your best golf every single day, you just need to be better than the person in front of you, which is the beauty of it; it’s one-on-one. It’s a typically different game.
“I enjoy it a lot. I really, really like it. It’s about just trying to somehow get it done. Strategies change, it goes back and forth, sometimes you need to be aggressive, sometimes you don’t. It’s certainly something I wish we had more often.”
Jon Rahm works on the practice green at Austin Country Club in advance of the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play. (Photo: Tim Schmitt/Golfweek)
Aside from the format, Rahm comes into Austin singing the right tune — he’s been in the top 10 six times in 10 starts and has not finished lower than 32nd. And the driver that’s been such a big part of his ascension to the top of the golf world is currently in top form. Rahm is second on the PGA Tour in Strokes Gaines: Tee to Green this season and third in Strokes Gained: Off the Tee.
Only his putting has been amiss. Rahm had back-to-back seasons in the top 40 in Strokes Gained: Putting, but has fallen to 122nd during the current campaign. If he can get his putter back on track, Rahm could be poised for a breakthrough — either in Austin, or Augusta.
Of course, plenty of factors come into play. Rahm and his wife Kelly are expecting a child in the near future and Rahm has already insisted he’ll leave any tournament he’s in the middle of to be part of the experience.
That could create some interesting scenarios under this week’s round-robin format, as others could be awarded forfeit victories if he’s forced to leave. In fact, count Rahm as one of the players who wish the tournament reverted to its former true match play format, one that consistently saw big names knocked from the field on the opening day.
“I like the sudden death format. We played so many events in Europe like that, that if it wasn’t sudden death you had 36-hole qualifying rounds to get to 64. So I do like the sudden death,” Rahm said. “I don’t know, I understand it’s a little bit harder for the sponsors and TV because your best guys might be gone, but I think it’s more thrilling.
“You’re competing for your life every single event. Well, not your life, but it’s a little different.”
This is in contrast to Fitzpatrick’s October comments, in which he called out DeChambeau’s distance gains.
AUSTIN, Texas — Don’t expect to see a Matt Fitzpatrick training montage with the world’s 15th-ranked golfer pulling a sled, chopping wood, or climbing the steps to the Philadelphia Museum of Art in anticipation of a bout with golf’s most prolific weightlifter. At least not any time soon.
In fact, five months after Fitzpatrick made comments on how Bryson DeChambeau’s body transformation and commitment to length was making a “mockery” of the game, the two have apparently patched things up. On Monday, Fitzpatrick, who’s in Austin for this week’s WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play, tweeted out a picture of himself with DeChambeau with the note “Getting some tips.”
When asked about the picture in advance of Wednesday’s opening round, the English golfer (and current Florida resident) said the two have communicated on numerous occasions and there’s no bad blood.
“We hate each other. It’s a really nasty thing between us,” Fitzpatrick joked about his relationship with DeChambeau. “No, it’s fine. Listen, we spoke a few times since the whole thing anyway and I made my comments, and that was my opinion at the time. I think they were definitely taken out of context, there’s no doubt about that. We talked about it since, we talked about it (Monday), and there’s no problems between us. It’s obviously just a bit of a media thing that kind of people want it to turn into something.
“But, yeah, I wouldn’t fancy my chances in a fight, anyway.”
“I could put another two inches on my driver. I could gain that, but the skill in my opinion is to hit the ball straight. That’s the skill, he’s just taking the skill out of it in my opinion. I’m sure lots will disagree. It’s just daft,” Fitzpatrick said in October.
Those comments came soon after DeChambeau won his first major — the U.S. Open at Winged Foot. DeChambeau, who has since dropped 10 pounds, was also victorious at the Arnold Palmer Invitational in Orlando earlier this month.
Meanwhile, Fitzpatrick — who has played well himself, finishing no worse than tied for 11th in four PGA Tour starts this calendar year — is hoping a little extra distance off the tee could be the key ingredient to taking his game to the next level. His driving distance currently ranks 183rd on the PGA Tour, although he’s in the top 50 in driving accuracy percentage.
Who better to ask for some tips than DeChambeau, who has maintained his accuracy through his distance gains?
“I was just asking him about his clubs and his speed training and stuff and I’ve been doing something similar and looking into it anyways before my comments that I made last year, so it’s nothing too new to me,” Fitzpatrick said. “It’s just quite interesting just to hear his thoughts and how he’s going about things to improve his swing speed and get longer.”
Fitzpatrick is making his fifth appearance at the Dell Match Play at Austin Country Club, but he hasn’t fared as well as he’d like. Coming on the heels of a top-10 finish at the Players Championship, however, he thinks the timing could be right for a breakthrough. He opens round-robin play on Wednesday with Jordan Spieth (12:42 p.m. ET), and then will square off with Corey Conners on Thursday.
“I’m looking forward to the week. I have not really had too much success here, unfortunately. It’s a strange golf course; the front nine’s very different to the back nine. And it can get windy here, so it can be quite tough. So yeah, it’s going to be an interesting week,” Fitzpatrick said.
“I feel like I’ve been playing well recently, so hopefully, I’ll just bring it to this course and improve on previous years’ finishes.”
Dustin Johnson is coming to Austin on an absolute high.
Dustin Johnson is coming to Austin on an absolute high.
No, he didn’t win The Players Championship a week ago. He actually struggled, hit an angry, unforgiving flagstick on the historic No. 17 island hole and limped home in a tie for 48th.
Before that, he was uncharacteristically off his game in the WGC at The Concession in late February, winding up in a tie for 54th.
In fact, he hasn’t won a single big-time event since, well, all the way back in November. Oh, yeah, that one.
So why does he cruise into Austin Country Club this week as a big favorite in the WGC-Dell Match Play, a taxing, seven-round tournament featuring 64 of the top 69 players in the world that begins Wednesday?
Well, for starters, he’s still Dustin Johnson.
Dustin Johnson plays his shot from the 14th tee during the second round of the 2019 WGC – Dell Technologies Match Play golf tournament at Austin Country Club. Stephen Spillman-USA TODAY Sports
And he’s still ranked No. 1 in the official world golf rankings. Not exactly shabby.
That last big event he won? Yeah, it was the Masters, which got shifted from the azaleas in April to no fans in November and seemed more like the Dustin Johnson Invitational. He only had a stirring, Masters record-breaking, 20-under-par performance and showed the world just how complete his game is.
He broke par just five times in 18 rounds in his first five Masters. His last five have produced a win, a second place and consecutive top-10 finishes.
Johnson, who usually presents an image of robotic cool, actually broke down during his acceptance of the green jacket last fall and said he was blown away again when he returned to Augusta National recently with his father and his caddying brother, Austin, for the first time since November. He’ll share a locker with 1979 winner Fuzzy Zoeller.
“That was pretty cool, first time back,” Johnson said a few days ago. “Going into the Champions Locker Room and stuff. That was a really neat experience. First time I spent the night on the grounds, so that was another cool, first-time experience. And had dinner in my green jacket. That was a lot of fun.”
Johnson declined to reveal the menu he has planned for the Champions Dinner, but he feasted on the relatively benign conditions and softer greens of Augusta in late fall to win by five strokes.
[vertical-gallery id=778066110]
He’s eager to return to the form that has helped him win two majors as well as six WGC events, second-most to Tiger Woods. Because of his severe injuries from his car accident in Los Angeles, Woods won’t be competing in this year’s Dell tournament, which was canceled last March because of the pandemic. But 13 major champions who have 20 titles among them will be in Austin.
The field is still littered with marquee names like recent Players Champion Justin Thomas, U.S. Open champion Bryson DeChambeau, Lee Westwood (fresh off two impressive runner-up finishes at Sawgrass and Bay Hill) and four-time major champion Rory McIlroy. Young stars like Collin Morikawa and Jon Rahm will also be playing.
Local favorite Jordan Spieth has had a terrific resurgence this season, scoring well consistently with two top-four finishes, as the three-time major winner aims for his first WGC title after advancing past the group stage just once in four attempts.
He’ll be joined by two other former Longhorns in Scottie Scheffler and Dylan Frittelli, who scorched it at the 2020 Masters and became the last Dell entry at 69th in the world.
That spot became available when former U.S. Open champion Gary Woodland was one of three PGA golfers to test positive for COVID-19 and withdrew from the Honda Classic.
Kevin Kisner, who like the other three Dell champions, will be on hand to defend his 2019 title. He also finished as runner-up to Bubba Watson at ACC in 2018. The draw for groups will be Monday.
And the 36-year-old Johnson, playing some of the best golf in his career in his 30s, always figures to contend if it’s a WGC event, especially in Austin, which he calls “one of the best cities we visit all year.”
He won the 2017 Dell Match Play — one of his four titles that season — when he went undefeated in seven dazzling rounds and never trailed in 112 holes. He took out other major champions Webb Simpson, Jimmy Walker and Zach Johnson before besting Rahm 1-up. He reached the 18th hole just twice the entire week, and Rahm called him “just a perfect, complete player.”
“Every aspect of my game was pretty good that week, and I made some nice putts at the right time,” Johnson said of that 2017 event. “Obviously I do remember the momentum swing in my final match, which was closer than I would have preferred. Fortunately, I was able to finish it off and win the tournament.”
Johnson also posted his 26th victory worldwide when six weeks ago he won the Saudi Invitational for the second time in three years. But he also finished a combined 36 shots out of the lead in his last two PGA events.
When I asked Johnson how close to top form he is, he said, “I’ve got a little ways to go. Obviously, the game is not quite in the form that I would like it to be in right now, but I’ve got plenty of time to get it back in order leading up to Augusta.”
Dustin Johnson celebrates with the green jacket after winning The 2020 Masters golf tournament at Augusta National GC. Rob Schumacher-USA TODAY Sports
Not that he’s ever far off.
At the TPC, he posted 17 birdies and an eagle and came in at 1 under par. It would have been even better had his on-target tee shot on No. 17 struck the flagstick.
He, like many players, including the struggling McIlroy, has even considered DeChambeauing their already strong games.
Johnson said he “messed around a little bit” in October but quickly gave up on the idea.
“I mean, if I want to, I could hit it further,” he said. “I have a driver that I could definitely hit a lot further than the one I’m playing. But to me, the little bit of extra distance that came with it … obviously the harder you swing, the bigger your misses. For me, it just didn’t help. When I’m at my best and I can’t beat someone, then I’ll try and change something.”
Until that day, he’s doing just fine. What’s interesting is Johnson said he felt his second major somehow validated this great golfer and said the Masters victory “reassures me I am a good player and I can win big golf tournaments.”
Amen to that, whether it’s Amen Corner or even Austin Country Club.
