Dustin Johnson opts to make changes rather than play in Charlotte

Dustin Johnson of Myrtle Beach had the Quail Hollow Championship penciled into his schedule for the first few months of the year, but last week decided to remove his name from the field of committed players and is not among those in a strong field at Quail Hollow Club this week.
According to Johnson's swing coach, Coastal Carolina director of golf Allen Terrell, Johnson isn't satisfied with his game and wants to improve upon it before next week's $9.5 million Players Championship.
Johnson made the decision late last week and informed Terrell on Thursday he was planning to skip the Charlotte event. ``He said, `I'm not happy with my game and I want to spend some time working on it and I want to get ready for The Players,' '' Terrell said.
It's a bit surprising that Johnson would skip the Quail Hollow Championship since he professes to like the course and its one of the three tournaments that his friends and family in Columbia and Myrtle Beach can easily drive to _ the Masters and Verizon Heritage being the other two. But he's apparently serious about making a fairly significant change to his grip that could make him a more consistent player.
Terrell said Johnson has always compensated for a characteristic in his grip that can promote a closed face at impact. ``I think he's tired of working around that and wants to change things,'' Terrell said. ``He's tired of that whole cycle where he has weeks he can't strike the ball like he wants to. I think he wants to get set up better to have a better chance of the club being square at impact.''
Johnson worked on his game late last week with his caddie, Bobby Brown, in town. He attended an outing for TaylorMade at Reynolds Plantation in Georgia on Monday and was expected to be back to the beach Tuesday to continue working on his game some more with Terrell.
Terrell said he thought it would take 30 to 60 days for the grip change to become second nature to Johnson, but Johnson thinks he can expedite the process. ``I shouldn't have challenged him because he said he could do it quicker than that,'' Terrell said. ``If anybody can do it, he can.''