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Dustin Johnson's Got Game 94 C A R M E L M A G A Z I N E • W I N T E R 2 0 2 1 A Great Golf Talent Matures Into a Super star B Y A L A N S H I P N U C K L ocal golf fans have long understood the paradox of Dustin Johnson. In 2009, he won the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am by four shots, at the tender age of 24. A long-hitting, telegenic star was born. The next year he won it again, and four months later, the U.S. Open returned to Pebble Beach. Through 54 holes, Johnson had a 3-stroke lead, and it appeared the golf world had found its successor to Tiger Woods. "He is a generational talent," said Johnson's swing coach, Butch Harmon. But on that fateful Sunday, Johnson went out and shot a disastrous 82, his bid ending early, with a slapstick triple bogey on the second hole and then a lost ball on the third. Thus began an eventful decade in which Johnson's numerous PGA Tour victories were overshadowed by spectacular crack-ups in the game's most impor tant tournaments, the major championships. Now, at long last, Johnson has become the player we always expected. His victory at a historic 2020 Masters—conducted in November for the first time because of COVID-19—washed away many of the past disap- pointments and highlighted his remarkable evolution as both a player and person. When the 2021 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am arrives, Johnson will be not only the game's most dominant force but also the most univer- sally beloved superduperstar. The Dustin Johnson who blew the 2010 U.S. Open was a noted partier and skirt chaser who coasted on his prodigious natural talent. Now he is a dedicated family man obsessed with maximizing his endless potential. How did Johnson reinvent himself? It began when he fell for Paulina Gretzky, the glamorous daughter of a hockey great. (Wayne Gretzky is now DJ's annual partner at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.) They began dating in 2013 and were engaged by year's end. By January 2014, Paulina was pregnant. A few months later, Johnson took a six-month "leave of absence" to address "personal challenges" that followed the revelations that he had failed multiple drug tests. One of the most influential mem- bers of his inner circle, trainer Joey Diovisalvi, saw significant personal growth during Johnson's time away from the game. "I think for a long time, Dustin had been struggling with the question: 'Who loves me and believes in me, not as a golfer but as a person?'" Diovisalvi says. "In that period of reflection, he came to discover that Paulina and her family were his sanctuary. In the hardest of times, they had Dustin Johnson hits his sand shot to the 10th green during his practice round for the Masters at Augusta National Golf Club in November 2020. Photo: Tribune Content Agency LLC / Alamy Stock Photo