Dustin Johnson is Mr. Myrtle Beach this week. He was inducted into the Myrtle Beach Golf Hall of Fame, opened a new facility at his golf school at TPC Myrtle Beach, and this weekend will play host to his World Junior Golf Championship at TPC Myrtle. As he was making the rounds in his old stomping grounds, GOLF.com caught up with the 20-time PGA Tour winner and world No. 3. Here’s how DJ feels about the new rules, his place in golf history, and what advice he’d give his 18-year-old self.
With your win at the WGC-Mexico this past week, you joined Tiger and Jack as the only golfers to win a PGA Tour event in each of your first 12 seasons. You also are now one of seven golfers to have ever won a PGA Tour event in 12 consecutive years. Do you think much about your place in golf history?
It’s really cool just to be mentioned with those names. Every single one of them is incredible golfers. Just to be mentioned in the same sentence with any of those names. This is great and obviously it’s a very big accomplishment. I’m very proud of myself for that.
Of the three majors that you haven’t won (the Masters, PGA Championship, and British Open), which one do you most want on your mantle?
It would definitely be the Masters. Growing up so close to Augusta in Columbia which is just up the road. When I was a kid growing up, we were always putting to win the Masters. For me, that would probably be the best one. Just growing up so close and going to Augusta as a kid, in college, and in the practice rounds walking around. That one always has a special place in my heart.
If you could get in a time machine and go back and give your 18-year-old self some advice, what would you tell him?
I wouldn’t have listened so it wouldn’t have mattered. At that age it’s still about having fun. What was very important for me was going to college and spending the four years at Coastal Carolina. That was very important for my career growing as a person and growing as a golfer. That was a big part of why I am who I am today.
Many of your peers, including Rickie Fowler and Justin Thomas, have been less than receptive to the new rules. Where do you stand on the changes?
They’re so new that we’re still kind of getting used to them. They’re not really too big of changes. I think most of them are pretty good. The dropping one [dropping from knee height] is a little weird just because we’re not used to it and it looks a little funny. But I think the rules changes are good. In six months, no one will be talking about them.
This week you were inducted into the Myrtle Beach Golf Hall of Fame alongside Hootie and the Blowfish. Twenty years ago you couldn’t have seen that day coming, right?
For me, just to be included in there is incredible. I’m trying to follow in their footsteps, obviously in just a different way with my junior golf tournament and my golf school here at TPC Myrtle Beach. I give back to this community as much as I can.
