AUGUSTA, Ga. – Dustin Johnson, the world’s top-ranked golfer and the betting favorite to win the Masters, may be unable to compete when the tournament begins Thursday after he apparently fell down stairs at his rental home Wednesday.
Johnson’s agent, David Winkle, issued a statement saying that around 3 p.m. Wednesday, Johnson took a hard fall down a flight of stairs and landed on his lower back. He was told to “remain immobile” and begin taking anti-inflammatories.
“He landed very hard on his lower back and is now resting, although quite uncomfortably,” Winkle said in his statement.
Johnson, the hottest player on the PGA Tour, is scheduled to tee off at 2:03 p.m. in the final group of the first round. He has won his past three starts – the World Golf Championships Match Play, the Mexico Championship and the Genesis Open at Riviera – to rise to the world’s No. 1 ranking. Last year, he won his first major, the U.S. Open at Oakmont, and arrived here poised to add to that accomplishment.
Statement from Dustin Johnson’s manger regarding injury to his back. pic.twitter.com/QsPMOJtSMC
— Rex Hoggard (@RexHoggardGC) April 5, 2017
“I feel like my game’s really solid right now,” Johnson said at a media session Tuesday. “I feel like I’ve been working hard on it and I feel like I’m playing really well. It’s a lot of fun.”
Johnson was primed for success at Augusta National, too. Not only did absolute downpours on Wednesday soften the course – which, at least in the early going, would favor long hitters such as Johnson – but he now has a record of success in the Masters. After failing to crack the top 10 in his first six appearances here, he finished tied for sixth in 2015 and tied for fourth last year. Add that to his recent run in majors – top-seven finishes in six of the past eight – and he was certainly supposed to be one of the most watched figures in the field.
But Johnson, 32, has also had his share of problems in his past. In 2012, he withdrew before the Masters began after Winkle said he strained his back lifting a Jet Ski. In 2014, he announced that he was taking a leave of absence from the Tour to “seek professional help for personal challenges I have faced,” he said at the time. He never specified what those might have been, and though reports surfaced that he was, in fact, suspended, he didn’t confirm that, and the PGA Tour does not comment on suspensions.
Should Johnson be unable to compete, the Masters will be down yet another star. Tiger Woods, a four-time Masters champion, announced last week that he had to withdraw because of lingering problems with his back.
(c) 2017, The Washington Post · Barry Svrluga
