Downwind Royal Troon’s opening stretch seems almost defenceless against the power of the latest player to join the elite who have won the sport’s major championships and Dustin Johnson knows it.
If he keeps it on line the new US Open champion could be putting for eagles on as many as four of the first six holes and he seems in a mood to try to take advantage of the opportunities presented, with only the dangerous bunkering on the second giving him any pause for thought.
“At the first I can drive it up right next to the green and the same on three, I can get it there if it's downwind,” he said.
“On two I just try to keep it just short of those far bunkers, so either driver or three-wood, just depending on the wind. Four (a 555-yard par five) is driver. If it's helping, it's a driver and a 5-iron.”
In assembling that list he omitted to mention the 601 yard sixth, but testing as it is for mere mortals it, too, is comfortably reachable in two for Johnson, as most par fives are.
Yet he knows that is only a part of the equation at this venue and probably not the crucial one.
“Links courses are just how they are. Their defence is the bunker, so for me it's all about just navigating the bunkers,” Johnson observed.
“The rough’s not too bad. In spots it's very playable, so just knowing where to hit it and not driving it in a bunker, that's the biggest key. If you can stay out of the bunkers this week, I think you're going to do pretty well.”
Part of an American contingent which comprises exactly one third of the 156-strong field, Johnson is the most fancied of them to maintain a record of dominance which stretches back close to 70 years since South African Bobby Locke was the last non-American to win the Open at this venue and Johnson reckons it was their touch around the greens rather than any capacity to bomb the course into submission, that was crucial.
“If you look at the winners the last few times, they're all good players, all good putters. I think that's the big key around here is you have to putt it well,” he said of a list that comprises Arnold Palmer (1962), Tom Weiskopf (1973), Tom Watson (1982), Mark Calcavecchia (1989), Justin Leonard (1997) and Todd Hamilton (2004).
“The greens are rolling good and they're at a good pace to make a lot of putts, so I think that's the key, but I mean that's the key in every major. It has no difference in whether you're playing here or in the U.S. I mean, one of the big things is you've got to putt it well.”
Since no professional players are incapable of doing so that tends to come down to belief and Johnson is not short of that at the moment.
“I felt like I've been playing well all year, so for it to finally pay off and get my first major at the U.S. Open and go out and win again at the WGC was obviously big, and I've got a lot of confidence in the game,” he said.
“I feel like I've been playing really well. It's definitely a little bit different coming out and not trying to win that first major. That's the biggest difference is I'm not trying to get my first victory at a major.”
That psychological hurdle overcome there seems no false bravado in his claim that: “I always feel like I'm the best player in the world, but that's just me.”
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