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A clenched fist, a hug from the caddy as well as his brother Austin and a kiss of victory to his girlfriend Paulina Gretzky. Later, Dustin Johnson noted that he had just completed one of the most powerful performances seen at the Masters.
After rounds 65-70-65-68, Johnson finished 20 under par and won five strokes ahead of South Korean Sungjae Im and Australian Cameron Smith.
– It feels like a dream. Even when I was little, I dreamed of winning Masters and now getting Tiger’s (Woods) green jacket, says Dustin Johnson in the interview at the jacket competition in “Butler cabin.”
The 36-year-old American He started Sunday with a four-stroke lead but has shaken before and lost big leads several times during the last lap. And what seemed so simple to Johnson on Saturday seemed a bit dubious at first now. But after I was as close as a stroke, after the four-five bogeys for DJ, ”it was the end of Johnson’s shaky start.
– I didn’t let it bother me too much (with two bogeys) and then I got a good shot at six and made a birdie, he says.
Before the final nine holes, two shots separated Smith and then there was a lot of work to do for Dustin Johnson. Not least the holes at Amen Corner, which on this day were more complicated due to the increased winds at Augusta.
Ask for example only Tiger Woods, who needed ten (!) shots on the shortest hole on the course, the iconic twelve. Amen Corner has also put several players in the lead over the years, but “DJ” got stronger from there. When the birdie followed on the 13th hole with two new ones on the 14th and 15th, victory was almost ready for the extremely strong and long-range world point guard.
All week he made just four bogeys and 20 under par is two better than the previous scoring record, shared by Tiger Woods (1997) and Jordan Spieth (2015).
– It is always difficult to do it in a specialty. I was nervous all day, the Masters is the biggest competition and the one I want to win the most, says Johnson, who grew up in South Carolina just an hour’s drive from the golf mecca of Augusta, Georgia, and previously won the US. Open 2016.
When Dustin Johnson finished the major with just one pair, a couple hundred spectators stood around the 18th green. The organizers had let in some more invited guests and family especially on the final day and along with the club members gave him to the master champion the applause he deserved after the second great victory of his career.
At the same time it was a reminder of how the crowd has been lost earlier this week, when it has usually been eerily quiet in the normally lively competition.
A little behind Dustin Johnson, Rory McIlroy made the most gigantic comeback of this week. The Northern Irishman was just 77 after a failed start in the first round, but the former world trainer then climbed to a shared fifth place. McIlroy was ten strokes behind the leader after 18 holes, but actually played the rest of the tournament one stroke better than the champion.
In less than five months, it’s time for Dustin Johnson to defend his title. Then the Masters is waiting again, again on the regular competition date in April after this year’s postponed crown championships.
