Dustin Johnson | Jim Cowsert-Imagn Images

Former world No. 1 golfer is quickly descending into irrelevancy

By Jack Dougherty | Last updated Feb 20, 2025 8:01 AM ET

When was the last time you heard anything about Dustin Johnson? Unless you're closely following LIV Golf, odds are the answer is a long time ago.

Johnson has been a substandard golfer for a full year. Since winning LIV Golf Las Vegas last February, the 40-year-old American has played in 17 tournaments worldwide. He has one top-10 finish in those 17 events, and he finished outside the top 30 in seven of his 13 LIV starts in that span. Keep in mind LIV tournaments feature only 54 players, so finishing worse than 30th on LIV is akin to finishing worse than 85th in a full-field PGA Tour event.

Johnson hasn't played much better in major championships, either. In four major starts last season, Johnson missed the cut at the Masters and U.S. Open, finished T31 at the Open Championship and finished T43 at the PGA Championship.

After a full offseason of more than four months to improve and reignite his game, Johnson returned to LIV Golf this month and finished T44 and T31 in two starts.

Incredible state of affairs. Dustin Johnson is currently priced as an underdog at LIV Adelaide to...52-year-old Richard Bland pic.twitter.com/AOZPpWqKO6
— Joseph LaMagna (@JosephLaMagna) February 13, 2025

Johnson is consistently losing strokes on approach and with his putting, and 2024 was the worst season of his career in terms of gaining strokes with his distance from off the tee. He ranked below average in driving distance in three of the four majors he played last year. That's a concerning trend for a former No. 1 player in the world who dominated the PGA Tour with his driver and irons in his heyday.

Johnson doesn't seem interested in returning to the elite tier in golf, but it's hard to blame him. The South Carolina native won 24 PGA Tour events and two major championships in his career in addition to banking more than $75M in on-course earnings. And that was all before signing a contract that guaranteed him as much as $150M to join LIV. Johnson has one of the best (and most lucrative) golf careers of all time, and he seems content if it ends without another win.

Unfortunately for Johnson, the end might be near. DJ can play in the Masters as long as he wants thanks to his victory in 2020, but he's only exempt for the PGA Championship and Open Championship through 2025 and U.S. Open through 2026.

This is a pivotal season for Johnson if he wants to lock in his spot for future majors and stay relevant in professional golf, but the way his game is trending, he might fade into obscurity before we even realize it.

Jack Dougherty

Jack Dougherty has been writing professionally since 2015, contributing to publications such as GoPSUSports. com, Centre Daily Times, Associated Press, and Sportscasting. com

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