DUSTIN Johnson need have no fear of ending up in the same bunker that cost him victory in the 2010 PGA Championship at Whistling Straits.

This is because there is now a grandstand down the right side of the 18th fairway for this week’s season-ending Major where five years ago one of the most controversial endings to one of the big four tournaments unfolded.

The American stood on the 72nd tee of the course laid out along the Lake Michigan shoreline in Wisconsin enjoying a one-shot lead as he sought to bury the demons of leading into the last day of the US Open that year before shooting an 82 to end in a tie for eighth.

However on this sunny Sunday afternoon in August, Johnson proceeded to send his drive well to the right some 20 yards inside the roped off spectator viewing area. Johnson’s ball came to rest in one of the nearly 1000 bunkers on the Whistling Straits golf resort.

There were notices all around the clubhouse that week to state any sand area on the course was to be treated as a bunker and when Johnson arrived at his ball he found it lying in a sand area strewn with empty drink bottles and candy wrappers.

He proceeded to ground his 4-iron not once but twice, before hitting his approach shot short and left. By the time he got to the green, chaos reigned and the PGA of America were into damage control mode.

Instead of standing over a par putt to win a first Major, Johnson was slapped with a two-shot penalty under Rule 13-4, “Ball in Hazard”, and was staring at holing a putt for double bogey.

Johnson hadn’t read the rules, but in fairness, he and the majority of those present never even recognised he was in a bunker.

Five years later and Johnson’s moved on. “Shit happens,” he says. “Never once have I woken up since that day in 2010 to think that was a bunker. There were beer cans and all sorts of rubbish in this so-called bunker so how was I to know it was a bunker? But then everybody remembers what happened there on 18. They forget I birdied 16 and 17 to get a one-shot lead. So I’ve got what it takes. I’ve just got to get it done.”

It will be Johnson’s 27th Major start when he returns this week to Whistling Straits, where Scotland’s Marc Warren, Stephen Gallacher, Colin Montgomerie, Russell Knox and Richie Ramsay will be amongst his rivals. He has played among the final three groups on the weekend in each of the past five Majors only to see glory slip through his fingers. While some see a golfer snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, the 31-year-old sees it is all part of the learning process.

“I feel like my game is in really good shape, every part of my game both physical and mental,” he says. “I like it. I like having a chance to win on Sunday. That’s why I play the game. The more times I am in the situation, the better chance I’ve got. So if I just keep putting myself in the situation, it’s going to work out.

“I like my chances at any venue but going back to Whistling Straits where I went so close to winning a Major, definitely gives me a lot of confidence. All I can do is put myself into a position where I have a chance to win on Sunday.

“I haven’t been back to Whistling Straits since 2010 but having played so well last month in The Open at St Andrews and having given myself a great shot at winning at Chambers Bay, it’s all positive for me. It wasn’t like when I was at Whistling Straits I was playing bad or swinging it bad.”