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Like last year, this happened over breakfast at the Masters. Like last year, everyone was talking about Tiger Woods and the 12th hole.
Everything else was different on Sunday at a Masters like no other, including the man who donned a green jacket for the first – and probably not the last – time. Dustin Johnson didn’t just win the Masters, he wiped out an Augusta National run that ended up playing a lot easier in November than it ever did in April.
Johnson did so with the nonchalance of a player who could have been at the local muni for a Sunday game with his pals. And it did it without the usual stress of an April Sunday, when roars echo through the tall pines and players suddenly get very nervous about more than the slippery greens.
Now the question becomes: what will the Masters look like in just five months?
There will be azaleas in bloom, that’s for sure. We missed them this year, even though the course looked spectacular and fans watching TV got to see parts of the golf course they didn’t know existed.
And there could be fans, something that Masters was missing – and sorely lacking. With Augusta National’s greatness on display in the final round, the Master just isn’t quite as tall without the fans bringing as much to the tournament as the tricky tee shot of No.12 that led to a 10 surprising for Woods on the same hole where he took command last year.
No roars. No buzz. Just a relentless march to a victory that was decided long before Johnson made a final birdie on par 5 15th.
To be sure, Johnson would likely have kept the four-stroke lead he brought in the final round. although the place was crowded. He was in perfect control of his game and the golf course all week, and the only real question was whether he would break the Masters all-time record – which he ended up doing with two shots with a final round from 68.
But that day there was no charge from behind to fear. No real drama, even when the lead is reduced to a single stroke over the top nine and things briefly got interesting.
It’s not that the other players have given up, far from it. But that there wasn’t a little extra to push them forward like Woods did last year when he seemed fueled by the crowd going crazy all around him in the back nine.
“For all of us chasing DJs, there are no fans or nothing to make this moment even more difficult, to have the buzz, to have adrenaline, to have a little more pressure on him who won’t be here this year, “Justin Thomas said a day earlier.
When Johnson tapped for a par of 18 for a five-stroke win, there weren’t huge crowds around the final green like a year earlier for Woods. No big party from Johnson either, who clenched his fist, smiled and gave his younger brother Austin a brief hug after winning his second Major Championship.
He made it look like a walk in a really beautiful park, although he admitted to being nervous all day and almost cried on the 18th when he saw his brother tear himself apart. As he left the final green he was congratulated by the former winners, including Bubba Watson in his own green jacket.
“I’ve always dreamed of having one,” he told Watson. “Now I have one.
Johnson will have a shot at getting another one, starting just 144 days from Sunday. For now, Augusta national officials expect the Masters 2021 to go ahead as planned in April, although it may look different.
The coronavirus has joined the weather this year as perhaps the only two things green jackets can’t control.
“Hopefully we will see better conditions regarding this virus, but April is less than five months away,” Masters chairman Fred Ridley said. “So there is certainly no guarantee of that.
In the end, the Masters got a real champion, even though he came seven months later than expected. Johnson is the best player in the world, and now that he has a Masters and a US Open title, it’s hard to think he won’t be dominating golf for a while.
That he won it without fans won’t be the memory Johnson takes away from him.
“I feel the same whether the fans are here or not,” Johnson said. “I like having them here. They bring excitement, especially when they encourage you, they can train you. I miss them and hope we can see them in April. “
That’s everyone’s hope, of course, as it would mean things would be closer than usual. And if there is one thing that will be remembered about the Masters 2020, it is that there was not much normal about it.
Except the green jacket Woods put around Johnson’s shoulders looks just as good in November as it would have in April.
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Tim Dahlberg is a national sports columnist for the Associated Press. Write to him at [email protected] or http://twitter.com/timdahlberg
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