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THE TAKE By Ron Green Jr.
KAPALUA, HAWAII | The Plantation Course at Kapalua is one of those places capable of overwhelming the senses.
The scale of it, from its cloud-scraped peaks to the bottom where the land and lava rock meet the Pacific, is immense. It’s vivid, like a Las Vegas night, and gloriously natural with its wind-blown trees and bushes often framed by pop-up rainbows in the distant mist.
As golf courses go, it’s big and brawny, as distinctive as a birthmark and similarly unique.
Much like Dustin Johnson.
Watching Johnson deconstruct the Plantation Course and the 33 other players in winning the Sentry Tournament of Champions by eight strokes ahead of Jon Rahm was like the man himself, uncomplicated and overpowering. The final round had all the drama of an afternoon nap, but that’s because there was no match for what Johnson is capable of doing when he finds that ambling, shoulder-rolling groove of his.
“He’s obviously the No. 1 player in the world and that doesn’t happen by chance,” Rickie Fowler said.
If Johnson were to a build a course for himself, it probably would be similar to the Bill Coore-Ben Crenshaw fever dream that is the Plantation course.
The fairways are majestically wide. The greens are relatively flat and absent breakneck speed. It rewards power and confidence. And it’s near the water, which Johnson loves.
That fits Johnson like the shoulder-hugging shirts he wears. In eight starts at the Plantation Course, he never has shot over par. He has broken 70 in 21 tournament rounds. He seemingly owns everything but the Ritz-Carlton next door.
Need a visual? Here you go:
At the 433-yard, par-4 12th hole, one of the many at the Plantation Course that bump and roll over and along slopes while offering a mesmerizing view of Molokai 8 miles of blue ocean away, Johnson thunderstruck a tee shot that disappeared from his sight as it crested a hill.
It landed just right, took a handful of big hops and came to a stop 432 yards and 6 inches from where Johnson hit it. Had the ball gone 6 more inches, it would have been the first Tour ace on a par-4 since Andrew Magee did it in 2001 in Phoenix. Blame it on the pesky grain in the Bermuda greens.
“It was flush,” Johnson deadpanned.
A day earlier, Johnson eagled the same hole by pitching in from 72 yards, proving there’s more than one way to skin an eagle.
Like Tiger Woods did so often and, more recently, like Rory McIlroy occasionally has done, Johnson is capable of overpowering courses and the competition.
The way Johnson handled Kapalua was reminiscent of how he played last year when he won three consecutive starts – the Genesis Open, the WGC-Mexico Championship and the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play. That was before he slipped on a staircase in Augusta, leaving him and the rest of us to wonder what might have been at the Masters.
Augusta is still three months away but it’s never too early to think about it. He’s on the very short list of Masters favorites already, provided he finds a comfortable, one-story ranch-style house there to call home.
Will he stay in a different house this year?
“Yes,” Johnson said. “I don’t mind if it’s two-story but I’m not staying in the same house.”
At some point – and that may be now – the measure of Johnson’s still-expanding career will go from what he has done in a particular season to the collective measure of his achievements. A few years ago, when DJ kept finding ways to get beat in major championships, it was easy to wonder if the player wasn’t equal to his talent.
Not anymore.
He has learned to play to his strengths. He relies on a hard cut off the tee to take most of the trouble away. He’s so strong that nearly every par-4 is a measure of his wedge game. That’s why he spent hours upon hours sharpening his shots from 125 yards and in. He destroyed the image of a bruiser with no touch.
Johnson is not a great putter but he rarely has to be. By his estimation, he did not make a putt outside 11 feet at the Plantation Course.
He also has a short memory. In October, Johnson took a six-stroke lead into the final round of the WGC-HSBC Champions in Shanghai. He shot 77 on Sunday, failed to make a birdie and was beaten by Justin Rose. Johnson insists he left that in Shanghai – with the irons he used that Sunday, not wanting to bring the bad mojo back home.
The truth is, Johnson thought about Shanghai on Sunday. That’s why he put the blinders on, gunning to finish 25 under and eliminate the suspense. He missed his goal by one stroke.
The win at Kapalua was the 17th of Johnson’s PGA Tour career, putting him in a tie with Curtis Strange, Jim Furyk, Harold “Jug” McSpaden and Bobby Cruickshank. Only 24 players have won 25 Tour events or more. It’s not a reach to imagine Johnson getting there.
Much has been made about his winning in 11 consecutive seasons, a feat exceeded only by Jack Nicklaus and Woods since 1960. There’s a quirk in there – he didn’t actually win in 2014 when he took a six-month break for personal reasons – but Johnson benefited with a victory in late 2013 that counted as part of the wraparound season.
That’s why it’s 11 consecutive seasons, not 11 straight years. Details, details.
What the numbers and trophies don’t reveal, the eye test does. Finally, there is this from the man himself:
“I felt as close as I have to the level my game was during that stretch (last year),” Johnson said.
As on Maui, sometimes all anyone can do is stand back and marvel.
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