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WGC HSBC CHAMPIONS

October 25, 2017

Dustin Johnson

Shanghai, China

CHRIS REIMER: We want to welcome Dustin Johnson here to the interview room here at the World Golf Championships - HSBC Champions. Five-time World Golf Championships winner and winner of this event, as well. Also a holder of all four World Golf Championships trophies, the only player to ever do that.

So Dustin, coming in after a brief break, how is the game and how excited are you to be back here in Shanghai?

DUSTIN JOHNSON: Yeah, always excited to come here. I've had a lot of success in this tournament. It's something I look forward to.

The game, it's getting there. I had three weeks off, so a little rusty. But hopefully I knocked all the rust off today. I hit a couple good shots. Not very many but a couple.

Q. You seem to be very excited about this wedge you had in your bag yesterday. What is it and what do you like about it? Is it new?
DUSTIN JOHNSON: Yeah, it's a new one that just came out. It's got the high toe kind of look -- what? Yeah, my new TaylorMade wedge (laughter) I don't even know what the name of it is honestly. It just came out. I just got it like last Wednesday, Tuesday or something.

But yeah, it's good. I mean, it works good. It's really good off the bunkers.

Q. What does the height do?
DUSTIN JOHNSON: Moves the centre of gravity up. Helps when you're in the rough, too, when you open the face in the rough, get a little more club.

Q. Very different forecast to the last couple years. Are you looking at a possible 20-under again or perhaps a bit less this time?
DUSTIN JOHNSON: I don't know. I haven't looked at the weather. Does it look nice? It all depends, too, on the wind. The golf course, it's pretty soft. It's not like -- it's not really soft or it's not firm. You can definitely shoot some good scores.

Don't know exactly what the winning score will be. But yeah, you could -- I think I'd like to be in the house at 20. That would be just fine. I'd sit and watch everybody play for the four days for sure.

Q. A couple of tournaments ago in the UK had the UK's tallest man playing in the Pro-Am, he was 7-7. Can you tell me, what point does tall become too tall, and why?
DUSTIN JOHNSON: Yeah, 7-7 seems pretty tall. Yeah, that driver would have to be quite long. You'd probably have to go over -- isn't there a limit on how long it can be?

Q. 48 inches is what you're allowed but you can get a medical exemption.
DUSTIN JOHNSON: Yeah, he would need one of those medical exemptions. I would imagine that's going to be too tall to play golf. But I don't know, I mean, I guess the tallest golfer right now that plays professionally would probably be Chris Wood maybe? He's pretty tall.

But yeah, I would say that would be too tall. 7-7 would be too tall. But I don't really know why. I don't know. It just seems like he's a long way from the golf ball.

Q. What do you think you have to do this week to contend? What aspect of your game do you have to focus on around here on this golf course?
DUSTIN JOHNSON: I mean, I think kind of everything, but driving it in the fairway is going to be a big deal this week. The rough's not like real deep but it's tough to control the ball coming out of it.

So for me it's going to be driving it in the fairway.

Q. They are going to try a shot clock in Austria on The European Tour next June, a one-shot penalty if you go over 50 seconds and 40 seconds for playing partners. Wonder if you see that as a big problem in America, as well, and if you would like to see it tried over there?
DUSTIN JOHNSON: Yeah, absolutely. I think it would be very interesting. You'd see a lot of guys getting penalties on our tour. Yeah, that would be quite fun, actually. I'd have plenty of time but there's a lot of guys that wouldn't. They would be getting a penalty on every hole.

Q. Have you ever suffered an injury due to having a golf club in your hand?
DUSTIN JOHNSON: I don't think so.

Q. What is it about either the way you swing or work out or whatever that you think has allowed you to stay injury-free, minus --
DUSTIN JOHNSON: I mean, obviously other than things that I've done to myself.

Q. There's a lot of injuries going on it seems like and you're kind of immune to it.
DUSTIN JOHNSON: Yeah, but knock-on-wood. I think obviously training is a big part of it. But you know, I don't overdo it, either, as far as practicing or swinging. I'm not like Vijay hitting a thousand balls a day or practicing eight hours a day or anything like that.

You know, I kind of -- I think I'm really good at listening to my body, and when it tells me I need to stop, I stop.

Q. What did you do for the three weeks before you got here?
DUSTIN JOHNSON: Didn't play golf. Just hung out with the family. I trained a good bit. I was in the gym with Joey-D every day. Hung out with the family. Went fishing. Only got to fish once. That was very disappointing.

CHRIS REIMER: Did you catch anything?

DUSTIN JOHNSON: Yeah, I caught a bunch of fish. But the weather, the ocean, it was too tough or I'd have gone out a lot more.

Q. Where were you in your game, if you look back, you didn't have a great week here last year when Hideki ran away with it, but did you see yourself kind of trending to what you did in the spring at this point last year? The way you opened at Bridgestone, missed the cut at the PGA, FedExCup was pretty good.
DUSTIN JOHNSON: Yeah, I felt like, well, going back to like 2016, I had a really, really good year, especially in the beginning, I played really solid pretty much every week. Then won the U.S. Open and then won Bridgestone and I won BMW. I was playing pretty well.

The only week that I think -- did I miss the cut in the PGA in 2016? Okay, so that would probably be the -- yeah, that was at Baltusrol. That would be the only -- that was probably the only bad week I had of 2016.

But yeah, my game, it just improved and I felt like I consistently was playing good. In the off-season, I felt like I had a good off-season just with practicing and playing. Yeah, I felt like 2017, this year, was going to be a really good year.

Q. Considering the top three now in the World Ranking is American golfers, the last time that the Americans had that domination, probably you have to trace back to Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Steve Stricker; not just only on the World Ranking but also other international tournaments, the Americans are also dominating. Do you think that right now at this moment or this year is at the peak level of American golfers now in world golf?
DUSTIN JOHNSON: Yeah, I mean, obviously the top three ranked right now are American. I think, you know, there's a lot of really good young American players, myself included.

You know, I think, but if you look, though, through the Top-20, I don't think we have too many Americans, not like it has been in the past. But yeah, I mean, obviously at the very top, there's three really good American golfers. But at this time next year, it could be different. So you just never know.

But I feel like we have some really solid, really good players right now.

Q. Are there more and more people saying you look like Wolverine with the style you are wearing right now?
DUSTIN JOHNSON: No, that's the first one. But sure, I like it. I'll take it. Yeah, absolutely.

Q. I'm not interested in names here but of the really strong 12 guys you had on that Presidents Cup team, how many do you think qualify for The Ryder Cup?
DUSTIN JOHNSON: How many qualify?

Q. How many do you think will be on the next team, from a perspective of it just seems like there's a lot of good players right now.
DUSTIN JOHNSON: I'm trying to think, I would say eight to ten would be on the team. I don't know. That would be my guess. Between eight and ten of them.

CHRIS REIMER: Dustin, thank you for joining us. Good luck this week.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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