Ben Coley expects Dustin Johnson to bounce back from another major near-miss at the Open.
Outstanding American on the brink of major glory
At just 27-years-old, Dustin Johnson could already be a three-time Major champion.
Three shots clear going into the final round of the 2010 US Open, a triple-bogey on the second signalled the start of his deraillment. He'd eventually finish in a share of eighth, five shots behind the winner Graeme McDowell.
Less than two months later, Johnson birdied holes 16 and 17 to take a one-shot lead to the tee of the final hole in the PGA Championship. One unspectacular tee-shot and 15 confusing minutes later, he'd fallen into a tie for fifth when he should've been preparing himself for a play-off with Bubba Watson and the eventual champion, Martin Kaymer.
And now, as the dust settles on Darren Clarke's emotional and deserved Open Championship success, Johnson is left to rue a miscued two-iron that sealed his fate; to be for now regarded as a near-miss merchant who can't seal the deal on Sundays.
There is some substance to that belief. Critics will also point to the 74 he shot when leading the 2010 AT&T National, one that saw him hang on by a single stroke when he looked set to saunter to success. They might also question his final round in the WGC-Cadillac at Doral back in March, when he found Nick Watney a single-stroke too good.
But Johnson knows how to win. He's done so on four occasions, more than any other player under 30-years-old on the PGA Tour.
He's done it the hard way, like when winning for the first time on Tour in the 2008 Turning Stone Resort Championship with a final-round 68, the third best score of the day.
He's done it the lucky way, like when he led after three rounds of the 2009 AT&T National and benefitted from freak weather that washed out the rest of the tournament.
The only thing missing is doing it the easy way. But is there such a thing in golf? Maybe we should ask Rory McIlroy whether winning the US Open by eight shots was easy. I suspect the response would be absolutely not.
So when you consider who to back for the fourth and final Major of the season, the PGA Championship, try to accentuate the positives.
Remember that Johnson is the first man since Tiger Woods to win during each of his first three seasons on the PGA Tour, straight after graduating from college. Remember that he's the only player in 20 years to retain the AT&T National. Remember that he's an exceptional player.
The man they call DJ currently ranks fourth on Tour in driving distance and 19th in greens in regulation. That's part of the reason why he tops the par-four scoring stats and sits second in birdie average. There are pages of stats that underline just how talented Dustin Johnson is.
There is, though, one stat that stands out above the others right now - Dustin Johnson leads the PGA Tour rankings in bouncing back.
That's a statistic that refers to how a player responds to a bogey or worse, so extrapolating the data to predict that he'll bounce-back from Major disappointments straight away might be ambitious.
But less than four weeks after Johnson fell foul of the ruling that might have cost him the PGA Championship, he gained the biggest and most impressive victory of his career in the BMW Championship at Cog Hill. Dustin Johnson bounced back in style.
Some say it's because he's not much of a thinker. Others say it's because he's a superb athlete who was born to make a sporting superstar. Let's stop the conjecture and take it from one of his Ryder Cup team-mates, Rickie Fowler:
"I wouldn't worry about Dustin. He'll be fine."
I don't intend to.
