LIV Golf and the PGA Tour will collide this year for the first time in two weeks at the Masters, one of four events where all elite golfers come together since the industry fractured when LIV started raiding the PGA Tour.
And although Dustin Johnson clearly views the Masters as a special tournament, just because he took the generational money offered by Saudi Arabia to join LIV, doesn’t mean he does not see those golfers who remain on the PGA Tour.
“Living down in Jupiter, Florida, I think half the world a golf lives here,” Johnson said Wednesday on a Zoom call. “So I see the guys all the time.”
Johnson was sitting in a golf cart when he spoke about his game, the Masters and the next LIV event, April 5-7, at Trump National Doral. Like the 12 other LIV golfers in the Masters, he’s hoping to peak the week he arrives at Augusta National.
The former world No. 1 (he has held the spot for 135 weeks, third most in history) had one of his worst years when it comes to majors in 2023. Johnson’s best finish was T10 at the U.S. Open. Otherwise, he tied for 48th at the Masters, tied for 55th at the PGA Championship and missed the cut at the British Open.
Johnson’s score (8 over) and finish last year at Augusta was the worst of his career, part of the reason the 39-year-old is ramping up his work this year.
“Just wasn’t pleased with my results,” Johnson said. “Putting in the effort, I think is the biggest thing. I just wasn’t happy with the way I played.”
Just how much that is paying off will be determined, although he does have one LIV victory on the season, winning the event in Las Vegas in February.
Johnson’s lone Masters victory, and one of his two major championships, was when he destroyed Augusta National in 2020, when the event was moved to the fall because of COVID. Johnson shot a record 20-under. The lowest Masters score when the azaleas are in bloom is 18-under held by Jordan Spieth (2015) and Tiger Woods (1997).
That also marks Johnson’s last win on the PGA Tour – he joined LIV 21 months ago. Johnson was asked if his game is approaching that level today.
“I feel like the game is trending in that direction,” he said. “Am I exactly there? I think it’d be hard to get back to as good as I played that week. But, am I playing good enough now where I can have a week like that? Absolutely.”
Johnson still “looks back” at 2017, when during the peak of his career a freak injury in which he injured his lower back during…
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