Learn the Secrets of the Long Ball with Dustin Johnson!
Golf Chats is a website to encourage discussions on various subjects relating to the game of golf. I am Mel Sole, Director of Instruction of the Mel Sole Golf School and SAPGA Master Professional. I invite you to enter into a discussion on this or any article on the golfchats.com website. The input is for the entire subscriber base to learn something new each time! Please post your comments below. Keep it clean and tasteful. We are here to learn from one another!
Dustin Johnson is the longest, straight hitter on the PGA Tour. He accomplishes this with a combination of these things: a powerful and flexible body, a wider stance that tilts the spine angle slightly back, and a slightly open stance to help cut across the ball slightly, giving him a very powerful baby fade! Today, Piers Ward and Andy Proudman of Meandmygolf talk to Dustin and find out the secrets of the long ball!
In this week’s Impact Show PGA Professionals Andy Proudman and Piers Ward Interview world number 3 Dustin Johnson about how he smashes his driver. During the video Dustin gives some useful advice to anyone looking to get that extra distance off the tee and how he hits the ball over 300 yards.
What is your take on the Dustin Johnson Rules decision?
Golf Chats is a website to encourage discussions on various subjects relating to the game of golf. I am Mel Sole, Director of Instruction of the Mel Sole Golf School and SAPGA Master Professional. I invite you to enter into a discussion on this or any article on the golfchats.com website. The input is for the entire subscriber base to learn something new each time! Please post your comments below. Keep it clean and tasteful. We are here to learn from one another!
The ball did not move!
I have reviewed the video of Dustin Johnson’s apparent violation of Rule 18-2, and I still cannot see how he caused that ball to move. In our justice system in the USA, unless there is overwhelming evidence of guilt, the person is presumed innocent. I could not see any overwhelming evidence in this case. Many golf fans disagree with the USGA ruling, and plenty of the PGA players also weighed in as they vented on social media. To put things in perspective, Jaime Diaz of Golf World gives us his take on this ruling.
OAKMONT, PA – JUNE 19: Dustin Johnson of the United States chats with a rules official on the fifth green during the final round of the U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club on June 19, 2016 in Oakmont, Pennsylvania. (Photo by David Cannon/Getty Images)
It was a bad moment for the USGA. But, man, it could have been a million times worse. Dustin Johnson bailed out the governing body by playing well down the stretch on Sunday at the 116th U.S. Open, and his challengers cooperated by playing poorly. It created a big enough stroke swing that what could have been the toughest rules decision in USGA history basically was of no consequence.
What is your take on the Dustin Johnson Rules decision?
Thank you, Dustin! But some advice for the USGA: Please take a hard look at what almost transpired.
A quick recap. On the fifth hole during the final round at Oakmont Country Club, Johnson ran a seven-foot birdie putt four feet past the cup. As he prepared to hit his second putt, Johnson took some practice strokes besides his ball. As he stepped in to address the putt—but before he grounded the club—Johnson noticed his ball had moved slightly. Quickly, he called in rules official Mark Newell. Johnson told him that the ball moved a bit backward, but he had not addressed his putt by grounding his club. Newell confirmed with Johnson “and you didn’t address it?” At that point, with playing partner Lee Westwood confirming Johnson’s view, Newell did determin that a rule had not been broken. Johnson played on, making his putt.
About the time Johnson reached the ninth hole, however, Jeff Hall, managing director of rules & competitions for the USGA, had video brought to his attention that he said had caused concern. After studying the video and consulting with Thomas Pagel, USGA senior director of Rules of Golf and Amateur Status, the two met Johnson on the 12th tee, where Johnson arrived with a one-stroke lead. They told Johnson that the USGA had reviewed video and that officials needed to talk to Johnson about his being the possible cause of his ball moving on the fifth green.
“We told him the USGA could very well assess him a one-stroke penalty,” Hall said.
Johnson crushed a drive on the 12th hole more than 350 yards. He later said that the rules issue didn’t weigh on him as he played on. “I just told myself, we’ll worry about it when we get done,” said Johnson, who felt he was safe because he had not grounded his club behind the ball. “I didn’t think there was going to be a penalty. They said they were going to review. There was nothing I could do about it. Just focus on this next shot. I tried to do that from there, all the way to the house. It was just me and the golf course.”
But Johnson wasn’t as sharp with his shot-making, which had been superb, over the next few holes. With only 210 yards remaining for his second shot on the par-5 12th, he hit a bad push into long rough, from where he didn’t get up and down for the birdie he was counting on. On the par-3 13th, he pulled his approach into a bunker but managed to make a great recovery and saved par. But on the par-4 14th, he took three putts, and the pressure looked like it might be getting to Johnson, just as it seems to happen in several other instances throughout his star-crossed major career.
Dustin Johnson’s 4 Great Ball Striking Tips to hit it Long!
Golf Chats is a website to encourage discussions on various subjects relating to the game of golf. I am Mel Sole, Director of Instruction of the Mel Sole Golf School and SAPGA Master Professional. I invite you to enter into a discussion on this or any article on the golfchats.com website. The input is for the entire subscriber base to learn something new each time! Please post your comments below. Keep it clean and tasteful. We are here to learn from one another!
When we think of Dustin Johnson, we all think of the short putt that he missed on the 72nd hole of the US Open to miss getting into a playoff with Jordan Spieth. However, the thing that amazed me most about Dustin’s game that week was not only how long he drove it. After all, he is the longest driver of a ball on the PGA Tour, but just how straight he drove it.
The best drive I’ve ever seen!
After consistently driving the ball down the middle of the fairway all day, he also hit his drive on the 18th hole at Chambers Bay into the most narrow part of the fairway under extreme pressure conditions. With that kind of pressure in a Major Championship, that’s one of the best drives I’ve seen! The golfing gods seem to be against him in Major Championships, but I am sure his time will soon! Thanks to Ron Kaspriske of Golf Digest for this helpful instruction article, and J.D. Cuban for the pictures.
When I look at a golf course, I don’t see trouble. I see opportunities. It might have tight fairways or heavy rough or be super long—that’s fine by me. On tour, we expect a tough test. But I’m not sure everyone has that kind of mind-set. I think a lot of golfers see a hard hole or stretch of holes, and instead of revving up, they get defensive. Before they even put their tee in the ground, they’re thinking about avoiding double bogey, not how they can par this sucker. Assuming you’re playing from the right tees for your skill level, there’s no reason to let any hole routinely beat you up. I’ll show you how to turn the tables on tough holes, from tee to green, so you can become the bully. —With Ron Kaspriske
1) TEE.
Here’s where most amateurs go wrong: Instead of being aggressive, they opt for the safe play. That approach is fine if you commit to it and put a good swing on the ball, but that’s not what usually happens. Most people go into “steering mode” when faced with a tough tee shot. When you try to guide the ball, your swing gets short and hesitant, and you usually end up in trouble.
I don’t know about you, but if my drive is going to find the junk, I’d rather be 50 yards closer to the hole.
At the PGA Championship at Whistling Straits last year, I started on No. 10. It has a bunker in the middle of the fairway that calls for a 290-yard carry. Catch the bunker, and you’re looking at bogey or worse. When I was warming up, my coach, Butch Harmon, said it might be good to hit 4-iron to avoid the sand. I said, “Nah, I’m just going to send it.” He loved that term. I ended up flying the bunker and making 3.
So here’s my advice: Grab your driver, think about the best tee shot you’ve ever hit, and send it. Make sure you take your time going back.
Before you start down, feel like you can’t turn back any farther (below). You’ll store extra power and give yourself more time on the downswing to square the face so you put the ball in the short grass.
317.7 Yards Per Drive | 2015 Rank: 1st
2) FAIRWAY.
Assuming you took my advice and hit a decent drive, you gave the hole a nice punch to the gut. But he’s not down yet. You need to be equally aggressive with your irons. I don’t mean fire at a pin tucked next to a water hazard. I’m talking about what you need to do to that little white ball—you’ve gotta go get it.
On the final hole of last year’s U.S. Open, a 600-yard par 5, I needed a birdie to tie Jordan [Spieth] and an eagle to win. I swung almost 100 percent off the tee and ripped one way down the narrow fairway. I had 260 left, but I thought I could get a 5-iron there because of the helping wind and firm ground. Still, I really had to step on the ball. Because I went after it, I made a free swing and knocked my approach to 12 feet.
Can Anybody Figure Out the (almost) great Dustin Johnson?
Golf Chats is a website to encourage discussions on various subjects relating to the game of golf. I am Mel Sole, Director of Instruction of the Mel Sole Golf School and SAPGA Master Professional. I invite you to enter into a discussion on this or any article on the golfchats.com website. The input is for the entire subscriber base to learn something new each time! Please post your comments below. Keep it clean and tasteful. We are here to learn from one another!
Dustin Johnson is so near greatness, and yet so far!
Every time he seems ready to step up and claim that Major Championship that everybody believes he deserves, something ( PGA Championship) or someone (US Open) gets in the way! Some people question his desire, but I think they are way off the mark. People questioned Freddy Couples in the beginning as well. Just because you are laid back doesn’t mean you don’t have the fire burning deep down inside. Can Dustin win a Major and claw his way into the upper echelons of the sport? Only time will tell. Or, in this case, Jaime Diaz of Golf World Digital gives us his views on the subject!
2015 Chambers Bay. 72nd Hole.
Funny how Dustin Johnson seems to have been forgotten. Or maybe it’s that his recent past is uncomfortable to recall.
We’re talking about the three major championship nightmares of 2015.
First on the 72nd green at Chambers Bay, where two epic shots left him a 15-footer for eagle to win the U.S. Open, he ended up three-putting to lose. Then at St. Andrews, he took the lead at the Open Championship with a 65-69 start, but finished 75-75 to end up T-49. He even had an outside chance at redemption in the PGA Championship at Whistling Straits, but made quadruple-bogey on the first hole Sunday, ham-handedly employing a wedge five times.
Currently, DJ’s is not the feel-good story that blends with the heroics of Jordan Spieth and Jason Day and, now, Rickie Fowler. At least Rory McIlroy’s 2015 shortcomings could be mostly blamed on injury.
Roughly 11 months ago it was Johnson—who at 30 resolved to take more responsibility for his life after returning from a six-month sabbatical to resolve personal problems—being projected as the year’s burgeoning star. When he won the WGC-Cadillac Championship at Doral in March, it was his ninth career PGA Tour victory, and he became only the fourth golfer (joining Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods) to win in each of his first eight seasons. Yet now the suspicion is that the still majorless Johnson could be damaged goods.
If so, you could never tell by DJ. With his full beard, cool saunter and always positive rap, Johnson makes sure every outward indicator says “I’m fine.” His game is in good shape under Butch and Claude Harmon; his dedication to honing his 6-foot-4, 190-pound frame under trainer Joey Diovisalvi continues; raising their now 1-year-old son, Tatum, with Paulina Gretzky has made Johnson a better man; and his younger brother and best friend, Austin, remains his caddie.
A Look at Dustin Johnson’s Golf Swing at TPC Myrtle Beach!
Golf Chats is a website to encourage discussions on various subjects relating to the game of golf. I am Mel Sole, Director of Instruction of the Mel Sole Golf School and SAPGA Master Professional. I invite you to enter into a discussion on this or any article on the golfchats.com website. The input is for the entire subscriber base to learn something new each time! Please post your comments below. Keep it clean and tasteful. We are here to learn from one another!
Dustin Johnson is from the “Golf Capital of the World,” Myrtle Beach, SC. He went to Coastal Carolina College and has always returned to his roots in the off-season. Here, Dustin explains what things he works on, both with his driver and his wedge shot into the 18th green. This hole is a par 5, playing 538 yards. Driver, wedge! Wow! Thanks to John Ledesma of GOLF Magazine for this great video!
Check out Dustin Johnson’s Pad – Private Island and all!
Golf Chats is a website to encourage discussions on various subjects relating to the game of golf. I am Mel Sole, Director of Instruction of the Mel Sole Golf School and SAPGA Master Professional. I invite you to enter into a discussion on this or any article on the golfchats.com website. The input is for the entire subscriber base to learn something new each time! Please post your comments below. Keep it clean and tasteful. We are here to learn from one another!
Here are just a few pictures of Dustin Johnson’s new house in Palm Beach, Fl.
When you get to the status of Dustin you can afford to have your own private island, boat dock, and beautiful mansion. What I don’t notice (and Tiger Woods does have) is a private short game area. Sorry Dustin, maybe you can head down to the local muni where the rest of us practice! Or turn your island into a short par 3!
Aerial shot showing the house, island, and dock with Tiki Bar!
Across the island and into your own paradise. All we need is a guy with a ukulele!
The entire house has a great “open” look to it. Good job Dustin!
Whistling Straits with 1012 Bunkers – Watch out, Dustin Johnson!
Golf Chats is a website to encourage discussions on various subjects relating to the game of golf. I am Mel Sole, Director of Instruction of the Mel Sole Golf School and SAPGA Master Professional. I invite you to enter into a discussion on this or any article on the golfchats.com website. The input is for the entire subscriber base to learn something new each time! Please post your comments below. Keep it clean and tasteful. We are here to learn from one another!
The PGA returns to Whistling Straits, where one spit of sand cost Dustin Johnson. Five years later, there are even more bunkers.
NO. 6 / 355 YARDS / 56 BUNKERS: Here’s the shortest par 4 on a course that will measure 7,501 yards, par 72 for the PGA.
Herb Kohler is a happy man.
Not just because his Straits course at Whistling Straits, ranked 22nd on Golf Digest’s list ofAmerica’s 100 Greatest Courses, is hosting its third PGA Championship in the past 11 years Aug. 13-16 (and will host the Ryder Cup in 2020), but because his Pete Dye-meets-Salvador Dali-meets-Pablo Picasso course design certifiably has more than 1,000 bunkers.
In 2010, before that year’s PGA, we counted every bunker (a task that took 11 hours over two days), and Kohler was disappointed–make that, in disbelief–that we’d found only 967. “Maybe I’ll have Pete add a few more,” he grumbled at the time.
Dye insists he never received such a request from Kohler, and though he has dinked around with some holes over the past few years, achieving a threshold bunker count was never one of his goals. Yet, when caddie Bob Palm and I repeated the process before this year’s PGA–walking down the right side of every hole one morning, the left side of each the next morning, charting every bunker and marking each to ensure we wouldn’t count any of them twice, we discovered the course now has 1,012 bunkers, an average of more than 56 per hole: 535 on the front nine, 477 on the back. The par-4 eighth has the most (109), and the par-3 12th has the fewest (18).
We found big bunkers divided into smaller ones and a few eliminated.
But, remaining is the infamous bunker right of the 18th fairway where, in the 2010 PGA, Dustin Johnson grounded his club in the sand and incurred a two-stroke penalty that knocked him out of a playoff and into a tie for fifth. (Martin Kaymer defeated Bubba Watson in the three-hole aggregate playoff for the title.)
Dye was sympathetic but took no responsibility for Johnson’s error. “How he didn’t figure out it was a bunker, I don’t know,” Pete says.
In Johnson’s defense, although the bunker was certainly in a depression, with a modest front lip, it contained only a shallow layer of sand, which was dotted with patches of grass and was full of footprints from a week’s worth of spectators who gave it scant notice. Indeed, in replays of Johnson’s shot, spectators can be seen standing in the bunker.
Johnson told officials he thought he was in a patch of rough trampled by the gallery.
Trouble is, every patch of sand at Whistling Straits is considered a bunker. The course looks like a links in towering sand dunes along the western shoreline of Lake Michigan, but in a previous life, the site was a flat Army air base, crisscrossed by concrete roadways and runways and containing the type of bunkers in which ammunition was stored. When Dye starting transforming it, he found no pure sand on site. The soil was rocky and mostly clay–even the beach was mostly rock–so Dye had 13,126 truckloads of sand hauled in.
Again, in Johnson’s defense, photos taken before the Straits opened in 1998 show some of the faux dunes created by Dye were covered in sand, which had been dumped and spread in an apparent attempt to make them appear as natural sand dunes. But then tall fescue grasses overtook them, and the hillsides went from white and barren to green and wavy (golden in the fall). But in 2010, spectators’ wear patterns might well have exposed some of that thin layer of sand.
Still, Johnson (and most definitely caddie Bobby Brown) should have known they were in a bunker:
Every competitor and caddie in the 2010 PGA was given a local rules sheet. It specified all sand throughout the property was to be played as a bunker. The notice even stated that some bunkers were outside the gallery ropes. And would likely contain “numerous footprints, heel prints and tire tracks.”
The local rule will be enforced again at this year’s PGA. Says Kerry Haigh, chief championships officer for the PGA of America. “As in 2004 and 2010, it will be in writing. It will be placed in the registration packet, attached to the rules sheets, posted on mirrors in the bathrooms as well as at the first and 10th tees. If players aren’t aware of the rule, it’s not for lack of distribution.”
The bunkers are so numerous and scattered. That there’s no way to keep them off-limits to spectators. “In a couple of tight areas,” he says, “the only way to circulate the gallery is to have them walk through a portion of a bunker. But those bunkers aren’t normally in play.”
Player confusion might lie in the fact that this all-sand-is-a-bunker rule isn’t universal.
The opposite rule was applied at the 2012 PGA at Dye’s Ocean Course at Kiawah Island, S.C. Where nothing was considered a bunker. All sand was considered a “transition area,” and players could ground their club anywhere. It also differs from the rule the USGA applied at last year’s U.S. Open at Pinehurst No. 2, where only sand having rake marks was considered a bunker. All other patches of exposed sand were treated as “through the green.” And a final determination was left with the rules official accompanying each group.
Fact or Fiction – Spieth isn’t “great” in any one facet of golf.
Golf Chats is a website to encourage discussions on various subjects relating to the game of golf. I am Mel Sole, Director of Instruction of the Mel Sole Golf School and SAPGA Master Professional. I invite you to enter into a discussion on this or any article on the golfchats.com website. The input is for the entire subscriber base to learn something new each time! Please post your comments below. Keep it clean and tasteful. We are here to learn from one another!
The word among many golf reporters is that Jordan Spieth is not great in any one facet of the game! Although “Strokes Gained Putting” has been around for a long time, strokes gained in several other categories are fairly new on the PGA Tour. These prove beyond a doubt that Jordan Spieth is in the top 10 in most categories! He may not drive it as long as Bubba Watson, but this shows that driving distance alone can deceive stat.
(Photo by Sam Greenwood/Getty Images)
Statistically, Jordan Spieth excels in several key areas of the game.
More than a few myths and misunderstandings have recently crept into the golf conversation, especially Jordan Spieth and Dustin Johnson. Let’s use Strokes Gained data to shed light on some of the “facts” I’ve been hearing.
Jordan Spieth isn’t “great” in any one facet of golf.
FICTION!
I hear a familiar refrain regarding the reigning Masters and U.S. Open champion: Sure, he’s a well-rounded player, but he isn’t great in any area. Indeed, through mid-July, Spieth’s performance in traditional categories wouldn’t make a stat lover’s jaw drop. He was 76th in driving distance, 85th in driving accuracy, 49th in greens in regulation, and 40th in total putting. Statistically, that’s average—but it’s utterly misleading.
Why? Because traditional stats are flawed. Strokes Gained reveals a much clearer snapshot of Spieth’s performance this year. Entering the British Open, he ranked first in overall Strokes Gained (gaining 2.6 strokes per round on the field), 12th in driving (0.6 strokes per round), seventh in approach shots (0.8 strokes), sixth in the short game (0.6 strokes), and seventh in putting (0.6 strokes). Spieth is outstanding in every key area. That sounds “great” to me.
Dustin Johnson is an elite putter.
FICTION!
Midway through 2015, Dustin Johnson was second in putts per green in regulation and 13th in putts per round, suggesting that he’s among the Tour’s best on the greens. But those two categories can be misleading because neither accounts for the initial putt distance. Johnson takes fewer putts because (in large part due to his incredible driving) his putts start closer than average to the hole, not because he’s a good putter. Strokes Gained accounts for the initial putt distance and give a very different result: D.J. ranked 125th in putting. Watch him, and you may be convinced that Strokes Gained is a more accurate measure of pure putting skill.
Photo: Sports Illustrated/Robert Beck
Dustin Johnson’s putting statistics on the PGA Tour this season is misleading.
Dustin Johnson handles US Open loss with a lot of class!
Golf Chats is a website to encourage discussions on various subjects relating to the game of golf. I am Mel Sole, Director of Instruction of the Mel Sole Golf School and SAPGA Master Professional. I invite you to enter into a discussion on this or any article on the golfchats.com website. The input is for the entire subscriber base to learn something new each time! Please post your comments below. Keep it clean and tasteful. We are here to learn from one another!
A baby in his arms, Dustin Johnson, knew his priorities, family, and then golf.
Yes, it was a heartbreaking experience to three-putt the last green to lose the US Open, but Johnson has his life back together, and his child has made him realize that life is more important than a trophy. I am sure that Dustin will get his Major Championship (or two) soon. In the meantime, he has his family. Thanks to GOLF.com and Associated Press for this classy article.
Dustin Johnson had his baby in his arms, a smile of sorts frozen on his face.
There would be plenty of time later to sort through the pain and the what-ifs. Still in shock from the events of a few moments earlier, he walked from the 18th green, holding little Tatum, with fiancee Paulina Gretzky lending a comforting hand on his back.
The U.S. Open would have been his had he made a 12-footer on the final green. An 18-hole playoff with Jordan Spieth would have been scheduled for Monday with a 3-footer coming back.
He missed both, and one of the most dramatic U.S. Opens ended in the worst way imaginable. The cruelest of games had dealt Johnson the cruelest of blows.
Instead of holding the Open trophy on the 18th green, he was looking for a quick exit from the chamber of horrors that was Chambers Bay. Instead of resting up for an 18-hole playoff on Monday, he was heading home wondering how it could have all gone wrong.
He tried to keep it in perspective the only way he knew how.
“I’m proud of the way I played and I’m most proud of my family,” Johnson said outside the locker room. “So I did get to hold up my trophy at the end of the day, which is my son.”
That a long week at Chambers Bay ended on such a sour note wasn’t lost on Johnson. He skipped the trophy ceremony and didn’t come into the media center to answer questions, though he did spend some time signing autographs for kids before leaving.
Golf Chats is a website to encourage discussions on various subjects relating to the game of golf. I am Mel Sole, Director of Instruction of the Mel Sole Golf School and SAPGA Master Professional. I invite you to enter into a discussion on this or any article on the golfchats.com website. The input is for the entire subscriber base to learn something new each time! Please post your comments below. Keep it clean and tasteful. We are here to learn from one another!
There are many great couples on the PGA Tour, and the first two that come to mind are Jack and Barbara Nicklaus and Gary and Vivien Player.
But today, we have the “young guns,” and they also are pretenders to the throne of the “Top Power Couples on the PGA Tour.” bleacherreport.com gives us their take on today’s power couples.
When you think of the PGA Tour, relationship statuses are not usually the first things mentioned.
However, in the past year, the PGA Tour has been headlined by relationship news. The first breakup to make noise was Rory McIlroy and Caroline Wozniacki, followed by Jason Dufner and Amanda Boyd and, most recently, Tiger Woods and Lindsey Vonn.
Those relationships were at the top of the list in terms of power couples, but the breakups started to shake things up. Although McIlroy and Woods are currently single, there are still a few big couples on tour.
Jason and Ellie Day received an “Honorable Mention” in the “Top Power Couples on the PGA Tour.”
In order to be a power couple, the golfer’s spouse didn’t have to be famous before they started dating, but it doesn’t hurt. That spouse just needs to bring enough attention to herself that, by being associated with the golfer, she, in turn, became famous.