2016 was major breakthrough for Dustin Johnson

Dustin Johnson has been here before, sort of.

In a decade-long PGA Tour career that has seen him win at least one tournament every year since his rookie season, the Irmo native has rarely had what anyone would call an off-year. He’s won 12 times in nine seasons, a record that was good enough for him to be named The State’s Professional Athlete of the Year in 2010.

But 2016? This was something special, even for the 32-year-old superstar, and easily made him the slam-dunk choice for The State’s Pro Athlete prize again.

First, and most obviously, was his victory in the U.S. Open Championship at brutal Oakmont Country Club near Pittsburgh. After a string of near-misses in majors that saddled him with the dreaded “best player never to win a major” label, Johnson cruised to victory, winning by a comfortable three shots – even while playing the final stretch of holes not knowing if he’d incurred a one-shot penalty mid-round.

Where others might’ve obsessed over the question, and perhaps faded at the end, the man known as “DJ” pulled away.

“One of the biggest highlights, especially this year for me, is getting that first major, especially since I’ve been so close so many times,” Johnson said at year’s end.

That victory, as it turned out, was just the start of a year that would earn him PGA Tour Player of the Year honors. Besides the Open, Johnson won the WGC-Bridgestone (a World Golf Championship event) and the BMW Championship, part of the Tour’s FedEx Cup playoffs. In total, he cashed checks for more than $9 million, best in professional golf, while leading the Tour in scoring average and top-10 finishes.

In the season-ending Tour Championship, only Johnson’s final-round 73 allowed Rory McIlroy to edge him for the $10 million FedEx Cup payday.

“They’re great honors,” Johnson said of the Player of the Year, Arnold Palmer Award (for leading the money list) and Byron Nelson Award (adjusted scoring average). “I don’t know if I ever even dreamed that this would be happening.

“But obviously it was a great season. I worked really hard on all parts of my game this whole year, and I’m going to continue to do that.”

So what was the difference in 2016 between an already outstanding player, and a dominant one?

Ask David Winkle, president of Hambric Sports Management and Johnson’s long-time agent. He flashes back to the spring of this year, when after a relaxed pro-am round before the Northern Trust Open with his future mother-in-law, Janet Jones Gretzky (wife of hockey legend Wayne Gretzky), future brother-in-law Tristan Gretzky and an executive with Northern Trust, Johnson headed not to lunch, but to the driving range – this despite a light rain.

There, as Winkle watched, Johnson hit an endless series of wedge shots while a representative of TrackMan, a launch monitor that measures shot distances, charted his results. “Dustin said, ‘I want to know how far I hit half-, three-quarter- and full shots (with his wedges),’ ” Winkle said later.

“He was ‘dialing in’ his wedges,” Winkle said. “He had talked about doing that before, but now you could see him getting better, ball by ball and shot by shot. A light went on that day.”

When the session ended, Johnson asked Winkle to order a TrackMan for his personal use. It was, the agent said, the advent of a new, more studious Johnson – and bad news for his PGA Tour competition.

“I felt all along (in 2016) DJ was trending toward something big,” Winkle said, “a monster season, a major or multiple (ones). He was leaving shots on the course (with wedges) and he said, ‘Time to do something about it.’ And he has.”

For those who’ve followed Johnson since his high school days at Dutch Fork, his junior golf career in S.C. Junior Golf Association events and his All-American success at Coastal Carolina University, such stories elicit an “at last” reaction. For much of his first years in golf, Johnson was a combination of immense talent coupled with a laissez-faire attitude that produced terrific highs – and astonishing lows.

“He was never a bad kid; he just got into stupid situations,” said Chris Miller, head of the SCJGA and a former coach of Johnson’s in high school.”

Those situations included a well-reported case where Johnson and a group of teens, led by the older brother of one of the group, were involved in home break-ins. The theft of a gun later used in a murder by the older brother was a black mark on Johnson’s record before he was pardoned for his involvement.

Most of the time, Johnson’s transgressions involved skipping school, a habit that left him with no place to go for college until his grandmother, the late Carole Jones, persuaded Coastal Carolina coach Allen Terrell to take a chance on the talented youngster. Talk about a payoff. Today, Terrell runs the Dustin Johnson Golf School in Myrtle Beach.

“Dustin’s biggest hurdle was being accountable, after not having to be,” Terrell said.

That still was an issue in the early years of Johnson’s PGA Tour career. Twice, he sat out portions of seasons, each time claiming to be taking time off for attitude adjustments while rumors circulated of unannounced PGA Tour suspensions for drug use. Just before his first appearance in the Masters, Johnson was stopped for DUI in Myrtle Beach.

And then there was his pre-2016 history in majors. Starting at the 2010 U.S. Open, where he blew a sizeable lead on Sunday, Johnson had lost a chance at a playoff for that year’s PGA Championship (the famed “bunkergate” episode); had hit a shot out of bounds late in a British Open; and then, worst of all, three-putted away the 2015 U.S. Open on the final hole. In each case, critics panned Johnson’s apparent failure to focus when it mattered.

But while critics cited his apparent failures in the clutch, those closest to him pointed to Johnson’s unflappability even in harsh disappointment. And, even more telling, his recent attention to the details of improving an already potent golf game.

Friends call the birth of his son, Tatum (with Gretzky’s daughter, Paulina, now Johnson’s fiancee) as a breakthrough in his new maturity.

“I think a child changes anyone’s life,” said childhood buddy Steven Hartwig, now assistant professional at the Country Club of Lexington and also a father. “You wake up and realize what you have, what’s in front of you.”

Terrell agreed.

“Knowing some of the things he’s been through, and now seeing everything transpire, with folks getting to know that he’s a good guy, and his success with little Tatum – that’ll always be my fondest memory,” he said.

Long-time Columbia teaching professional Jimmy Koosa, a mentor to the young Johnson in sessions at Koosa’s Weed Hill Driving Range in Irmo, said the sometimes “wild child” was always smarter than he was given credit for being. Now, he said, Johnson has added a growing maturity to the mix.

“It’s hard not to be impressed with his golf; he’s the best in the world, I think, and I believe he can play dominant golf into his mid-40s or more,” Koosa said. “But I think I’m more impressed with where he is in his life.”

That also plays out on the golf course. When Johnson three-putted the final hole of the 2015 Open at Chambers Bay, Wash., to hand Jordan Spieth the title, he, the Gretzkys, brother and caddie Austin Johnson and Winkle rode away from the course still stunned – until DJ broke the silence.

“Guys,” he said, “it’s just golf.”

“He’s been there before, and one of the things about great athletes, they have to learn to handle things that happen,” Koosa said. “If they do, they can become great. That’s what we’re seeing Dustin do.”

And, Johnson said, what he believes he can continue doing going forward.

“Obviously, my expectations going into next year are going to be very high,” he said, “and that’s going to drive me to keep working hard and doing exactly what I’m doing now – because it’s working.”

Chances are the 2016 Pro Athlete of the Year award won’t be DJ’s last.

This story was originally published December 24, 2016 at 9:58 PM with the headline "2016 was major breakthrough for Dustin Johnson."