Dustin Johnson carded a birdie at the 18th hole on Saturday at the Open Championship, but that 3 on the scorecard doesn’t tell the entire story. This birdie was an adventure.
With the fairways firm and baked-out this week, nearly every player in the field has the length to reach the par-4 finisher from the tee. But instead of flying the entire distance, players have landed the ball short and let the ground do the work.
Rory’s romp, DJ’s disaster, Old Course oddness: 5 things we learned on Saturday at St. Andrews
Johnson’s plan was no different in Round 3 — but he accidentally took that ground-game strategy to the utmost extreme.
As soon as his ball left the clubface, the two-time major winner knew it wasn’t the shot he intended to hit.
“Oh Jesus,” he said. “That was low.”
“Low” might be an understatement. With the trajectory of his ball, he was threatening the local earthworm population. Not to mention the famed Swilcan Bridge.
Instead of a low stinger, Johnson semi-topped the ball and watched as his ball zipped past the bridge, barely cleared the burn that runs in front of the tee and hopped down the fairway. Luckily, with the conditions as they are, the miscue didn’t hurt his distance too much with the ball rolling out and ending up over 280 yards from the tee box.
You can watch the shot below.
“That’s hilarious,” said NBC analyst Paul Azinger. “You know what, even the best players are going to hit some shots that are pretty ugly. He sure did get away with it.”
Never one to take himself too seriously, Johnson even had some fun at his own expense as he walked off the tee box.
“We were walking off the tee, and D.J. looks at me, and he goes, ‘Man, I forgot to get the cover there. I didn’t think about that,'” said Scottie Scheffler, who played alongside Johnson on Saturday. “It carried the burn by like 10 yards.”
In the end, though, the miscue didn’t hurt Johnson. From his position in the fairway, he pitched on the green and sunk a 16-foot birdie putt to close out a third-round 71.