We’re one week into 2018 and Dustin Johnson may already have the drive of the year sewn up.
Golf is a great pastime, in theory. Fresh air, exercise and peace and quiet are all the positive things they put on the brochure to entice suckers in. However, once you go out there and start slicing drives, finding water traps, sand bunkers and inevitability, rage-snapping clubs over your knee, you may realise the good walk spoiled is not all its cracked up to be.
Then you see those guys who make it look so effortless and it only enrages you more. They always find the fairway, the don’t two-putt when they’re less than 10 yards to the pin, they avoid the sand and the water and worst of all, they actually don’t find the whole experience miserable.
You know, talented fuckers like Dustin Johnson.
I’m actually kinda mad Dustin isn’t tapping this in with his driver. Just go driver-driver for the eagle.
— Shane Bacon (@shanebacon) January 8, 2018
You know why pars exist in golf? They provide a score to aim for. Ideally, you want to be making par, but really good players might get a birdie or even an eagle.
What you don’t see too often is an albatross, which is three under par. It’s a rare bird and a rare score.
With some heavy wind assistance, Johnson threatened to score an albatross at the 382-yard par-4 sixth at the Tournament of Champions at Kapalua on Saturday. Remarkably, this wasn’t even his best hole-in-one attempt on a par-4 that weekend.
Always beware with @DJohnsonPGA on the tee …#QuickHits pic.twitter.com/xdHniB4uVg
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) January 6, 2018
The very next day, Johnson pulled off an absolute wonderdrive on the 433-yard 12th hole. Already leading by five strokes, Johnson rattled his driver on the par 4 and ended up just inches from the pin.
His reaction to his incredible almost dropping in the hole was incredibly subdued.
“I missed it a little. Hit it a little thin. Came up a little short.”
With a driver in his hand, @DJohnsonPGA is always a threat to make #MustSeeMoments.https://t.co/WTEt4CnETP pic.twitter.com/POfKprk3n5
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) January 8, 2018
Unsurprisingly, Johnson became a 17-time PGA TOUR winner on Sunday. He breezed through the tournament, winning it by a whopping eight shots.
