Golf

US PGA: Dustin Johnson feeling ‘really good’ after knee issues

Two-time Major champion has withdrawn from tournaments a number of times this year

Dustin Johnson hits from sand beside the eighth green during practice for the 2021 PGA Championship on the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island, South Carolina. Photograph: EPA/Tannen Maury

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Philip Reid
Wed May 19 2021 - 19:21

Dustin Johnson, the world number one, aka DJ, likes to spin his own tunes, although much of his season so far has been a little out of rhythm.

Apart from a breakout week in flying to Saudi Arabia, induced by a million greenbacks in appearance money and then lifting the title for good measure, Johnson’s season has been more misses than hits.

Indeed, his scheduling has hardly been set in stone.

A late withdrawal from the AT&T Pebble Beach pro-am in February was followed by another in the Valero Texas Open in April (“after much careful thought...”) and then another ahead of last week’s AT&T Byron Nelson ( “unfortunately, the knee discomfort I occasionally experienced has returned...”) putting a question mark on his fitness coming into this 103rd edition of the US PGA Championship in his home state of South Carolina.

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Fortunately for Johnson all seems well for the two-time Major champion – 2016 US Open, 2020 Masters – as he bids to finally lay claim to the US PGA having finished runner-up to Brooks Koepka in 2019 and to Collin Morikawa last year.

“My health is good. I just wanted to spend more time on making sure I was feeling 100 per cent for this week, and done a lot of work at home,” explained Johnson of his reasoning for missing the Byron Nelson. “I feel really good coming into this week.”

He expanded on the knee issue.

“It just didn’t feel right [last week]. I got an MRI. Everything was fine. It was [the knee] I had surgery on about a year and a half ago. I just got together with the doctor and the physio that I use for my rehab, and put together a bit of a plan to get a little bit stronger. It feels good, though.”

Mix of everything

Apart from that breakout from the PGA Tour to win the Saudi International on the European Tour, Johnson’s season has yet to scale the heights of 2020 (when he was a three-time winner on the PGA Tour, including the Masters).

“Yeah, it’s been a mix of everything,” he said. “But the game feels good. I feel like it’s been close the past few months, just haven’t put it all together at the same time.

“But everything feels really good right now. I’ve got a lot of confidence coming into this week. I feel like I’ve been working hard on the game and I’m looking forward to it....[the PGA] is on top of the lists that I haven’t accomplished, and something that I really would like to [win]. It would be great obviously to do it here in my home state.”