In Dustin Johnson’s pre-tournament press conference at the Hyundai Tournament of Champions, he had some interesting answers to a few questions.
He revealed he doesn’t fear the second coming of Tiger Woods and is confident he’ll get his wins regardless how well Tiger plays, thinks the U.S. can match Europe’s talent level despite there being seven Europeans in the top 11 in the world rankings, believes its time for some younger players to win majors, and is working primarily on distance control with his wedges.
Some of the Q&A follows:
Q. Clearly the game needs Tiger playing well. I mean, from a sponsor's point of view if nothing else. But yet the other side of the coin is that if he gets back to the dominance that he once had, you fellas are not going to have the same freedom to win tournaments that you have experienced in recent years?
DUSTIN JOHNSON: “I hope he does. It doesn't bother me. I'm still going to win. Tiger is a great player, but you know, he doesn’t win every event, so that leaves a lot of other events I'll have a chance to win.
I think he'll do just fine. He's a great golfer and you know he's playing pretty good golf right now.”
Q. Would you agree with a lot of commentary right now that the best golfers in the world are found in Europe?
DUSTIN JOHNSON: “No. Both. You could say they are European, but most of them play over here. There's too many good American players to say that the best golfers in the world are in Europe.”
Q. Just a comment on I think 13 different players combined for 16 wins in their 20s in 2010. Do you kind of see a shift? Do you envision that same wave rolling in 2011 as far as young, new breed coming along?
DUSTIN JOHNSON: “Yeah, I think the young guys, we had a really good year this year. We won a lot of golf tournaments and that's what we have to keep doing. We have to keep winning golf tournaments, stepping up, and we need to win a few majors.”
Johnson said he’s working primarily on wedge play in practice, and more specifically distance control with wedges.
“Yeah, distance control. Usually my direction is very good, but working on direction and distance control. I made a lot of bogeys last year with a wedge in my hand; so eliminating that, which distance control will do that.
“But you know, wedges is just repetition. Just keep hitting numbers. Keep hitting the numbers that I want to and adjust from there. But the more wedge shots you hit, the better you are going to get with a wedge.”
