Dustin Johnson was a veteran on the PGA Tour before making the switch to LIV golf in 2022, and it is hard to believe he has been a professional since 2007. Johnson gained his first ever PGA Tour card at the end of 2007 and joined the tour right away.
It didn’t take Johnson long to win his first event once he gained his PGA Tour card. Johnson won the Turning Stone Resort Championship in October 2008 winning by one stroke over Robert Allenby. Johnson would go on to win at least one tournament in his first six PGA Tour seasons. Despite his tournament successes, he was unable to finish with a golf major title in that time period.
In his first seven PGA seasons, Johnson’s best major finish was second. He achieved the runners-up spot at the 2011 Open Championship. Johnson’s first major win finally came at the 2016 U.S. Open. His three stroke win gave him a first major victory and a feeling of success that had eluded him for years. Johnson has continued to win on the PGA Tour, but a second major eluded him for four more years.
In 2018, Johnson became just the third PGA golfer in the last three decades to reach 17 tournament wins. The feat equalled Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson. Johnson won a PGA event in each of the previous four golf seasons.
Despite regularly finding himself at the top of golf’s money list, Johnson had to wait until 2020 to win his second Major, triumphing at Augusta to win the delayed Masters at Augusta in the November of that year.
Johnson isn’t just famous on the golf course, but he has earned some fame of it. Johnson’s spouse is singer and model Paulina Gretzky. She is the daughter of famed NHL ice hockey player Wayne Gretzky. The pair have two children and they will have world-class athlete genes.
Dustin Johnson’s Major Wins
| Years | Masters | US PGA | U.S. Open | Open |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | ✕ | ✕ | ✅ | ✕ |
| 2020 | ✅ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ |
Masters Wins: 1
Dustin Johnson became just the third golfer ever to win a Tour title in each of the first 13 seasons he played in, but he struggled when it came to the Majors. His first win came in 2016, having endured a few near misses over the years, but it took until 2020 for his to win the Masters Tournament for the first time. It almost felt as though he was building up to it, following up a tied-sixth finish in 2015 with a tied-fourth a year later, only to not take part in 2017 and end up tied-tenth a year after that. In 2019 he was tied-second, then he eventually won it in 2020 before missing the cut in two of the following four years of Masters entries.
2020 – Record Low Score in November Masters
The 2020 Masters Tournament was one of the strangest in history, on account of the fact that it was played with no spectators because of the global health crisis at the time. Augusta National was eerily quiet at the players made their way around it, perhaps relieving the pressure whilst adding its own sense of disquiet. DJ shot a 65 on his first round to be tied for the lead at -7, whilst the second round was split over two says because of the weather. A score of 70 kept him tied for the lead, then he took it in his own right after carding a 65 on the Saturday. A final day 68 saw him stretch his lead and end up on 268 for the week, which was -20 and handed him a five shot win.
PGA Championship Wins: None
It is perhaps fitting that Dustin Johnson has not won the PGA Championship, given the fact that he resigned from the PGA Tour in 2022 in order to join LIV Golf. In the February of 2017 Johnson became the world number one, remaining there for 64 weeks and also holding the position in 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021. He nearly won the PGA Championship during that time, coming second by two shots to Brooks Koepka in 2019 and tied-second in 2020, again by two shots, to Collin Morikawa. His first attempt at it was in 2009 when he ended up tied-tenth, then he was tied-fifth a year later, but his two second-place finishes were followed by two missed cuts.
US Open Wins: 1
The US Open was the first of the Majors that Dustin Johnson entered, finishing tied-48th in 2008. With two years he’d improved by 40 places, finishing the 2010 version in tied-eighth. In 2014 he was tied-fourth, the the following year he ended up tied-second before eventually securing his first win a year on from that. He missed the Cut when returning as the defending champion in 2017, but was third in 2018 prior to a disappointing tied-35th in 2019. Two top ten finishes across the following five years will have boosted his coffers nicely, but he didn’t really trouble the Majors after his 2020 success in the Masters Tournament.
2016 – Three Stroke Victory Despite Penalty
The 2016 US Open was played at Oakmont Country Club in Pennsylvania and saw 156 players enter. The first day saw play delayed because of heavy rain, but Johnson ended it tied-second with a -3 score of 67. The second round was also split over two days on account of darkness halting play, but Johnson carded a 69 to take the lead. In keeping with the rest of the competition, the third round also took place over two days, with DJ slipping back to tied-second after a 71. The final round was played entirely on the Sunday, with Johnson having his score cut from -5 to -4 after being adjudged to have made his ball move at address on the fifth. Luckily it didn’t matter and he still won by three shots.
Open Championship Wins: None
The very best golfers in the world like to prove it by winning the Open Championship, given the fact that the links courses used in the competition present an entirely different challenge to what players have to taken on with the American courses. That is perhaps reflected in the fact that Johnson missed the cut when he first took part in it 2009, but he did end up tied-second in 2011. That was when Royal St George’s Golf Club in Sandwich was the host course, with Johnson and Phil Mickelson ending up three shots behind Darren Clarke, who was an immensely popular winner. DJ added to tied-ninth finishes, a tied-eighth and a tied-sixth to his record before missing the cut in 2023.