Dustin Johnson

Dustin Johnson: Serial winner with an appetite for more

Dustin Johnson has been winning professional golf tournaments for a long, long time. He has been a regular fixture at the top of golf that it may come as a surprise to realize he only reached his 40th birthday as recently as June 2024.

Johnson’s longevity at the peak of the game is matched only by his consistency. This is a man who recorded a victory in 15 of his 16 seasons on the PGA Tour – and who has continued in the same vein in LIV Golf.

He won the LIV Golf Invitational Boston in 2022 and was a clear leader of the individual standings in that first year of the series. That was followed by victories in Tulsa in 2023 and Las Vegas in 2024.

As skipper of 4Aces GC, Johnson has led his men to regular success in the team standings and his appetite for playing – and winning – is undimmed.

Shortly after his 40th birthday, he said: “I still want to compete at a very high level. I’m not getting any younger, I have to work harder than I did before to keep myself in good form, but I still feel great.”

Which is great news for his legions of fans – and bad news for his rivals across LIV Golf and beyond.

Destined for golf greatness from an early age

Dustin Johnson was born in Columbia, South Carolina, in June 1984. His father Scott was the head pro at the Mid Carolina Club, just outside the state capital, and it wasn’t long before young Dustin was spending hours there hitting balls.

By his early teens, Johnson was going round 18 holes in the low 60s and making bold – but accurate – predictions about the golfing success that lay in wait for him.

He played for his college, Coastal Carolina University, and won tournaments as an amateur, as well as playing on the Walker Cup and Palmer Cup teams in 2007.

Johnson turned pro that year and recorded his first PGA Tour victory in late 2008 by sinking an eight-foot birdie putt to win the Turning Stone Resort Championship in Verona, New York, by one stroke.

Early in 2009, he won the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, and a couple of months later he became only the second person to eagle successive holes in the Masters at Augusta, on the 13th and 14th.

By now the long-hitting Johnson, whose 6ft 4in height made him stand out in any crowd, looked like a major winner in waiting – but that wait would go on for a surprisingly long time.

Major champion at last with victory in the U.S. Open

Dustin Johnson almost reached the winner’s circle at the majors several times over the next few years. Throughout this time, it seemed as he was destined to achieve majors greatness.

He tied for 5th at the 2010 PGA Championship and second place at The Open Championship in 2011, a year in which he took part in the final grouping three times.

In 2015, he returned to major contention with a 2nd place finish at the U.S. Open and by the start of 2016, he had finished in the top 10 of the majors 10 times.

His consistency finally paid off at the U.S. Open, held that year at Oakmont, Pennsylvania. Johnson played consistently throughout the tournament and a final-round 69 gave him victory by three shots.

More victories followed in 2017, propelling him to the top of the world rankings – where he would spend a total of 135 weeks over the next four years.

More major glory with Masters triumph

Dustin Johnson believed from an early age he was destined to be a golfing champion, but his road to the top wasn’t always easy.

Nothing emphasized his resilience and composure better than the way he won his second major title, the 2020 Masters.

The tournament was staged in November rather than its traditional springtime slot because of the Covid-19 pandemic, which also meant there were no patrons in attendance at the iconic Augusta venue.

Play was disrupted by storms, but nothing could distract Johnson from his aim of winning a Green Jacket. He shared the lead over both of the first two rounds, then eased clear with a magnificent bogey-free 65 on day three.

Four strokes ahead going into the last round, he reeled off a series of birdies to become the first man in Masters history to reach 20-under par. His eventual margin of victory was an emphatic five shots.

Johnson leads the way again in signing with LIV Golf

Given his status as a multiple Major champion, a recent No.1 in the world ranking, and the winner of more than 20 PGA Tour events, it represented a significant shift when Dustin Johnson signed with LIV Golf in early June 2022.

He was one of the earliest – and one of the most high-profile – recruits to the new series that is shaking up golf.

He said in 2024: “I was on the Tour for 15 years, and I love everything it did for me – I always have and still do. But it’s also pretty cool to start something completely new and it’s more of a global tour, where you play in places around the world. I am definitely traveling more with LIV Golf.”

Johnson has clearly bought into the unique flavor of LIV Golf. His message to golf fans is a simple one: “If you haven’t been to an event, I invite you to come and watch. You’re going to like it. The fans who come all seem to like it and have a good time, and the more the merrier.”

The team he captains, 4Aces GC, finished top of the season-long standings in both 2022 and 2023. They also finished the 2024 season on a high, clinching second place at the Team Championship in Dallas.

2024 saw Johnson win an individual LIV Golf tournament for the third year in a row, this time in Las Vegas. He said: I knew it would be tough with the conditions and obviously a lot of really good players around the lead... I knew it was going to be a grind from start to finish.”

Dustin Johnson’s life away from the course

Some golf wives might be slightly intimidated by the prospect of having a golfing superstar in the family. Not Dustin Johnson’s wife, Paulina.

She is the daughter of Wayne Gretzky, who is commonly regarded as one of the greatest hockey players of all time and is still idolized by fans across the world.

The couple were married in Tennessee in April 2022. They have two sons: Tatum, who was born in 2015, and River, who arrived two years later.

Having a sporting legend as a father-in-law could have been daunting, but by all accounts Johnson and Wayne Gretzky have a good relationship. The hockey star even had some advice for his son-in-law in 2017.

“If I scored 50 goals in a season, I wanted 70 the next year,” he said. “If I got 70, I wanted 90. Never, ever settle… I want him to see that only he can put limits on himself.”

Giving something back through the Dustin Johnson Foundation

Dustin Johnson has always been passionate about helping the next generation of golfers.

He established the Dustin Johnson Foundation in 2010. It offers opportunities for young people in Myrtle Beach to “learn, play and contend, ultimately giving them a competitive edge on and off the course”.

The foundation works in partnership with the DJ Golf School, located in Myrtle Beach, which offers a range of ways in which players can improve their golf game. One of the board members at the foundation is Wayne Gretzky.

That’s a powerful combination of inspirational figures for the next generation – even as Johnson, one of the greatest golfers of the current generation, continues to work to stay competitive at the highest level of the game.