	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

THE BARCLAYS

August 27, 2011

Dustin Johnson

EDISON, NEW JERSEY

LAURA HILL: Kind of a weird week but you came out on top and now you're No. 1 in the FedExCup standings. Let's get your reaction and we'll go straight to questions.
DUSTIN JOHNSON: It feels great. I feel like I've played pretty well all year but just haven't quite been able to get that win. The putter has been lacking a little bit. This week I finally rolled some putts, so this feels really good.

Q. Can you just describe the bunker shot?
DUSTIN JOHNSON: This is the first time I've been in a bunker all week. Walking into it, I'm like, this is the first time I've been in a bunker all week. So.
I kind of didn't know what to expect, but I was one for one out of the bunkers, and you know, my bunker game this year has not been superb. But to me, it seems like the harder the shots, the better I hit it. So it wasn't an easy bunker shot. I hit a pretty good follow through, and just came out just right and went in the hole.

Q. What has Joe done for you? You started working with him at the Byron Nelson; correct?
DUSTIN JOHNSON: Yes.

Q. Has he given you anything in terms of confidence?
DUSTIN JOHNSON: He knows -- I mean, it's definitely helped. It's nice to have a guy on the bag, that especially he's been in situations many a times, working for Fred for so long, he kind of knows what to say and obviously there's trust. The maybe thing is we get along.
We get along very well. You spend a lot of time with your caddie, so it's important to like him. If you don't like him, you're not going to relax very well.

Q. Any kick in the ass, pardon my French --
DUSTIN JOHNSON: You don't really have to do that with me very much. I kick my own self.

Q. Given everything that's going on, what were you guys preparing for today, were you thinking about stoppages or what did you guys have in mind?
DUSTIN JOHNSON: We didn't really know. Coming into the day, we thought that it's not going to be great but the weather guys, they weren't really sure, anything could happen, we could have played nine and got stopped or played them all. We got lucky. The weather held up for us long enough.

Q. Was there any part that when it started, when it started raining quite hard on the fifth that you started thinking, we may not finish today?
DUSTIN JOHNSON: Well, I knew there wasn't supposed to be thunderstorms for a while, so obviously the way I got started, I was hoping that we were going to keep continuing on playing. But you know, it never really crossed my mind. I was just worried about, I just kept telling myself, one shot at a time. A lot of times, I get ahead of myself a lot and just tried to stay patient and just focus on the shot I was hitting.

Q. And secondly, for all of the talk about your length, I wonder if you could talk about your putting, especially 7 and 9, those two?
DUSTIN JOHNSON: Well, yeah, 7 I made -- that was probably the longest one I made this week. It was probably 25 to 30 feet, coming down the hill. I had a good line on it. I knew I just had to get it start there had and like I said, I've been working hard on my putting, not necessarily making putts but just getting it started online, because I read the greens very well. And you know, so to me a putt, you can't control if the ball goes in but you can control where you start it. I've just been working on starting it where I'm looking.

Q. Joe LaCava said you worked hard here starting Monday morning on your putting; is that more effort than you've been putting in lately or have you been grinding on it for a while?
DUSTIN JOHNSON: I've been grinding on it for a while, but the work had not really paid off. It was nice to see this week my hard work has paid off and I'm starting to roll the putter again. Not even great, just like I should.

Q. Making all of those pars on the back nine, it would have been easy to get frustrated but you seemed to just keep your composure. Is that something, any lessons from the British Open or other near misses you've learned just to keep going and not worry about it?
DUSTIN JOHNSON: Yeah, like I said, just wanted to be patient. I was patient all day. The front nine, the putts were rolling in. The back nine, I hit some good shots. You know, just the putter, it wasn't that I hit bad putts. I just had a lot of tricky putts that were hard to read these greens, if you get on the wrong side of the hole, you know, it's tough to read them.

Q. I think you're the last dude to win 54-hole tournament at Pebble a couple years ago. Imagine this one probably feels a little more different and satisfying, and you had to go out and finish it under the gun with a pretty darned good two-man duel with Kuchar.
DUSTIN JOHNSON: Today we knew it was going to be 54 holes. It was a little bit different. Today was Sunday. At Pebble I didn't know it was going to be 54 holes.
Yeah, it was definitely a lot different. Today was kind of do-or-die. So it was definitely nice to go out and play with Kuch. He played great. We both played really well on the front nine. I mean, it was -- it was back and forth the whole front nine. Seemed like we birdied every hole.
You know, the back nine slowed down a little bit, but it was definitely a fun day. Kuch played great, and then we had a good time out there.

Q. With so many low scores, was it a little surprising the difference turned out to be two bogeys by Matt, especially how well he was playing, and you had all pars there on the back nine. Is it surprising the way that turned out?
DUSTIN JOHNSON: You know, the back nine, the pins were tucked pretty good, and so it was hard to get it close to them. So it seemed like when you did get it close, you didn't have a put that you could read. Like if it breaks left but you started right edge, it's going to go right; if you start it center, it's going to go left. So I had a few putts like that.
You know, it's just tough to make those.

Q. I think you went 29, 29 and 30 on the front nine.
DUSTIN JOHNSON: Yeah, I played the front pretty well (laughter).
I don't know what it is about the front but I played pretty well on the front. I wish we could have just keep playing the front nine, I would have done really well this week.

Q. What about the logistics, how are you getting up to Boston?
DUSTIN JOHNSON: I'm going home. As soon as I leave right from this seat right here, I'm going to the airport.

Q. You're going to be able to get out, it's not closed?
DUSTIN JOHNSON: No, I'm going to be able to get out, if I don't take too long. (Laughter).

Q. After you had seen the course, finished your Pro-Am round, were you pretty certain at how vulnerable it was, did you think that these kind of numbers for everybody and you were available and did you expect this?
DUSTIN JOHNSON: It's a course you haven't seen before. So it's not -- you can't really go, all right, this is what it's going to take to win. We have not had an event here, so it's tough to say, oh, I'm going to go out and shoot 64 every day.
You would like to, but you know, you just don't know how it's going to play, and you know, playing in the Pro-Am, it was actually starting to firm up Wednesday afternoon, and we didn't really know what the weather was going to do.
But you know, obviously the course being soft is going to play a lot more vulnerable than it is playing a little bit firm.

Q. At Kapalua this year, I remember a question came up on what to expect from Tiger and your answer was, doesn't matter to me, I'm going to get mine; I'm going to get my share. Did you expect to wait until the last week in August to get yours and was there any part of you that was starting to get a little bit concerned?
DUSTIN JOHNSON: Well, I was never concerned. More frustrated than anything. Because I felt like I played some really good golf this year. Just have not been able to quite get it done. And it wasn't that my golf game was bad. Just the putts I needed to make, I just had not been able to make them and this week I felt like I didn't do anything crazy with the putter. I just made the ones I was supposed to.

Q. After the PGA, people started calling Keegan Bradley the best young American player. Does that get you fired up at all?
DUSTIN JOHNSON: I don't care. I play golf. I don't really read the press too much. But it doesn't really matter. I think I'm a pretty good, young American player.
LAURA HILL: Dustin, congratulations. Save travels.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297