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SENTRY TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS

January 3, 2018

Dustin Johnson

Kapalua, Maui, Hawaii

JOHN BUSH: We would like to welcome Dustin Johnson to the interview room here at the Sentry Tournament of Champions. He's making his 8th career start here and he's our 2013 champion here.

Dustin, welcome back to Kapalua. If we can get some comments.

DUSTIN JOHNSON: Yeah, it's always, this is always a great place to start the year. Yeah, I enjoy coming back here. I've been here the last quite a few years now, so it's a place I really enjoy coming. What's not to like about Hawaii? This golf course, it's a good golf course for me, I like it. It's big, it's pretty long, I can hit a lot of drivers. So I enjoy it. I enjoy being here.

JOHN BUSH: You're playing tomorrow with Xander Schauffele fresh off of being the PGA TOUR Rookie of the Year. Comment about that pairing and about, have you been able to watch his game any during his rookie season.

DUSTIN JOHNSON: Yeah, I think we might have played once together maybe. Yeah, obviously he's a really good young player and had a great season last year. And so, yeah, it will be fun, it will be a good time.

JOHN BUSH: Start with some questions.

Q. When you look back to last season, I don't know how much you reflect, but do you remember that incredible run that you got on starting with L.A. or --
DUSTIN JOHNSON: I do.

Q. What stands out to you, I guess?
DUSTIN JOHNSON: Well, obviously, that stretch there where I was playing really well, I mean I played well at the beginning of the year, too. But winning in L.A. and then Mexico and Match Play, all three starts in a row, obviously playing probably the best golf of my career. And it wasn't like they were back-to-back weeks, there was a lot of space in between, so I really felt like I had my game really dialed in.

And then obviously I had the injury at Augusta. But that kind of threw me off there, I struggled for awhile after that. But I feel like the game's starting to get back to close to the form it was when I was playing so well there at the beginning of last year.

Q. You mentioned Augusta. How long did that linger in terms of just kind of being annoyed at that?
DUSTIN JOHNSON: Oh, probably for a good five months. It took a long time to recover from it, for sure.

Q. Do you ever go through anything like that that lingered that long in your career?
DUSTIN JOHNSON: No, I've never really had an injury, other than I had knee surgery in 2010, maybe, I think. But that was only six weeks or something that I was down, but it didn't really affect me at all. So that was a lot different than low back where it kind of, it really affected like my rotation through the ball.

Q. You mentioned you feel like you're close to that form that you got in on that run. What do you think that's missing, that little piece to get you to that level?
DUSTIN JOHNSON: Just some more practice. I feel like the swing's finally -- I'm seeing signs of I'm hitting the shots, they've got the right patterns, and I'm hitting the shots that I'm seeing. It's just more my cut's starting to come back where I'm hitting it with irons and with the driver. Where every shot's starting to cut again. So that's pretty much it. Just need a little more practice, need to really work on the wedges here the next few weeks to get ready for the big part of the season.

Q. You mentioned Xander before, but just the 20-something's, what's your take on all the profile and the attention they're getting and when you're still world No. 1, but sometimes you can be sort of overshadowed by what they're doing? What's your take on these young guys coming through chasing you down?
DUSTIN JOHNSON: No, it's great. It's great for the game of golf. We got a lot of great young players. I still feel like I'm a young player out here. This is my 11th year starting this year. But I feel like, yeah, there's a lot of great players, a lot of great talent and there's a lot of young talent. So it's fun to see, it's fun to watch, and I'm happy to be a part of it.

Q. You mentioned about dialing your wedges in. A lot was made last year of Justin Thomas and his list of goals for last season. Do you do that at the beginning of the season, write down goals, whatever they might be, to win or are they specific to one category, wedge play, for example?
DUSTIN JOHNSON: No, I just try to -- I've got a lot of -- I don't do really too many outcome goals, just more process. Obviously, improve wedge play, I need to improve my bunker play, get a little bit better with putting. But as far as outcome goals, I just want to, I feel like if I do the right things then the outcome is going to be there and I'm going to achieve all the goals that I want to.

Q. What was your favorite win last year and why?
DUSTIN JOHNSON: Probably L.A. The Genesis Open. And why, I mean, it was obviously the first of three in a row, but I had been so close there a bunch of times and so it was finally good to finally win there.

Q. What would be a great year for you this year? How would you classify it?
DUSTIN JOHNSON: I don't know. Ask me at the end of the year, I'll tell you if it's great or not.

Q. Why do you think it is -- and I heard this from a number of players who are here for the first time, first time playing the course they say, man, I don't see 22-under, I don't see a 25-under on this golf course.
DUSTIN JOHNSON: Yeah, I don't know, it was like that the first time I came here. The first time you play it, maybe it's a big golf course, the greens are really slopey and you kind of -- and, too, when you're playing practice rounds, the pins are always in some funny spots. But the more you play this golf course, the more you get used to it, the more you kind of know how to get yourself around it. Because sometimes it's one of those courses where you really got to be on right side of the pin, whether you're on the green or off the green, if you're on the right side you know you can still make pars. But there's a lot of opportunities for birdie. You got two holes that are somewhat drivable, four par-5s that you can reach. So it just all depends really. The greens are rolling pretty good, they're a little slow, so it's -- you can be a lot more aggressive. But I'm kind of with them though, I didn't see that many under the first time I came here either.

Q. You talked about this course fitting your game. Can you think of another course on TOUR that sets up as well for that ability for you to be aggressive?
DUSTIN JOHNSON: Yeah, all of them. I don't play any courses that I don't like, so.

Q. Loaded question here, but did you go to college for an education or to play golf?
DUSTIN JOHNSON: To play golf.

Q. Why did you stay so long?
DUSTIN JOHNSON: Well, because I enjoyed playing golf in college. And I still was trying to -- I just started, well, I started playing good towards the end of my sophomore year, and then I had a really good junior year. But for me there was no reason not to, there was no reason to leave early. I wasn't in any hurry.

Q. Was it hard to stay eligible?
DUSTIN JOHNSON: No, I had decent grades.

Q. What were they?
DUSTIN JOHNSON: I was like right around a 3.0. I was doing fine.

Q. How proud of your winning streak each year since coming out and how important is it to you to continue that?
DUSTIN JOHNSON: Yeah, I mean, it's definitely something that I'm very proud of. I want to absolutely continue it as long as I can and hopefully I'll continue it for a few years to come, but no, I think it just shows obviously it's not just a fluke that I'm playing well, I've been a pretty good player for a long time now out on TOUR and I want to continue that, keep continue to keep working hard and continue to have success out here.

Q. We saw a five-win season last year, we have seen a couple of those recently, but we haven't sort of seen someone with nine or 10 wins since Tiger's time. Do you see someone being able to, yourself included, to be able to do a 9-, 10-win season given the depth of the TOUR now?
DUSTIN JOHNSON: I believe so. I definitely think I can. Obviously I'm going to have to play very good golf, the guys out here, as you all know, there's a lot of really good players out here on TOUR and for me to do that I'm going to have to play some really good golf, but definitely capable of it.

JOHN BUSH: Dustin Johnson. Thank you, sir.

DUSTIN JOHNSON: Thank you.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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