Dustin Johnson embraces Royal Troon’s tough conditions and scores a solid second round

You might say Dustin Johnson saw this coming ... a day later than he might’ve hoped, maybe, but better late than never.

Before Thursday’s start of the 152nd Open Championship at Royal Troon , the Columbia native and former No. 1 player in the world (2017-21) talked about frustration at what his golf had produced the past two years in major championships. “Good golf, poor scores” pretty much summed it up.

After a 3-over par 74 Thursday — not a terrible score in the windy, rainy conditions, but closer to possibly missing the 36-hole cut than he liked — Johnson wasn’t surprised.

“I didn’t play bad (Thursday); a couple of bad drives on the back nine is what cost me,” he said. “I didn’t hit many fairways.”

Friday, though, Johnson looked more like his old, pre-LIV self, with a solid 2-under 69 — a second-round score bettered by only four players, all but one of them past major winners, and highlighted by his eagle on Troon’s par-5 16th hole. At 1-over par overall, he’s eight shots behind leader Shane Lowry , the 2017 Open champion, at 7-under … but Johnson knows he’ll be around to see the tournament’s end on Sunday.

Regardless, he was pleased both with his play (nothing new there) and the results — a change from his recent run in major championships, where he missed the cut in three of his past four. Typically of the laconic 38-year-old, his assessment was long on technical points, short on emotion.

“I feel like I’m swinging the irons good, rolling (putts) good,” he said. “I gave myself a lot of chances … missed a couple of short ones, but I rolled the putter really nice. The short game … everything feels really good. (I) just need to get in the fairway a little bit more (but) I drove it a little better today.”

Also typical for Johnson, he hadn’t contemplated a possible missed cut.

“(I) never think about that,” he said. “Obviously I would’ve liked to get one more (birdie) in there and get it back to even (par), but still as I sit now, it’s not too bad, probably not going to be too far off (the leader).”

He smiled. “With a good weekend, you never know.”

Any danger of faltering late ended at the 572-yard 16th, where “I hit two really good shots,” a 7-wood off the tee and a 5-iron from “265 (yards) or something like that” that chased onto the green, leaving him a 20-foot putt that he holed to the delight of spectators.

Historically one of the longest drivers in professional golf, Johnson for the most part Friday kept his ball in Royal Troon’s narrow, heather-lined fairways.

“I just didn’t drive it in trouble, really,” he said. His worst miss, at the par-4 10th hole, resulted in a bogey. “Other than that, I drove it pretty good, kept it nice on the right side of the fairways.

“(And I) didn’t hit any bunkers,” a major accomplishment on a course with deep, dangerous hazards that ruined others’ rounds. “That’s kind of what you’ve got to do” on a links course, he said.

So, about those past majors: Between February 2017, when he ascended to world No. 1, and May 31, 2022, when he left the PGA Tour for the Saudi-supported LIV tour, Johnson had posted eight top-10 major finishes, including his second major victory at the 2020 Masters. Since joining LIV, he’s managed just two top-10s. Given the big-bucks, low-pressure nature of the 54-hole LIV events, it’s reasonable to wonder if that cost him a competitive edge.

As usual, Johnson on Friday didn’t address that, sticking with the theory that his game has been better than his results.

“I feel like I’m swinging well, doing a lot of things really well,” he said. “I’m just not getting the scores out of it.”

His most recent major, the U.S. Open at Pinehurst in June, Johnson “felt like I was playing really good going in there, and unfortunately I got sick,” en route to missing another cut. “I don’t know if I had the flu or whatever. Trying to play that golf course, in the heat with not feeling good, was not fun.

“It’s been like that for the longest I can remember in my career, really: playing good golf, just not shooting good scores. But (that’s) golf; it’s frustrating. It’s always going to be that way … but it can turn around really quick. I feel like I’m doing all the right things, and some good scores are to come for sure.”

Johnson acknowledged that with links golf in general and Royal Troon in particular, the wind and weather can scuttle even good play. It’s more about playing steadily than heroically, he said.

“This golf course, you’ve just got to take what it gives you,” he said. “It all depends on the weather, really.” And that could benefit a player who functions well in such conditions, trying to overtake a leader.

“I like (tough conditions),” Johnson said. “You can be pretty far behind, as long as you play well. … You’ve got to hit good shots, quality shots all day off the tees, into the greens. This windy, it even affects the speed of the putt, so you’ve got to play the wind on putts, too, and it’s difficult.”

For his final 36 holes, Johnson figures to be all business. He laughed when asked if any family members had joined him in Scotland.

“Well, my brother’s here,” he said with a grin, referencing Austin, his caddie. “My wife (Paulina Gretzky) and a couple of friends are in St. Tropez. I’ll meet her on Sunday.”

So the missus doesn’t care for Scotland’s wind and rain? “I don’t blame her,” Johnson said.

Depending on the next two days, his opinion could change — for the better.