During the weekend at the open championship, Dustin Johnson is thinking about his future

Portrush, Northern Ireland – There are four of them, a 37 -year -old and unbeaten champagne touched champagne after driving the Americans to the victory at the Ryder Whistling Straits Cup. The major double winner was at the top of the world, firmly believed to be a pillar at the highest level of the game for the years to come.

Now, here in Royal Portrush, a 41-year-old Johnson uses his last automatic exemption in the open championship, and he made his first major cup of the year with a 2-mine of 69 Friday. Formerly 1 world n ° 1 and the face of the American game, Johnson has greatly faded in the dark, a golf contract liv which made him rich in generation and perhaps softening the blow. The next Ryder Cup is looming, just two months old, and Johnson is in several miracles, even in consideration.

On Friday, when Johnson did the weekend with a storm of three birdies in his last four holes to finish even at the peer (and 34th in the tournament), it allowed him to take something resembling a sigh of relief.

This could be the reason why Johnson – a player who is still loved by the galleries but who does not win them with his visibility these days – stopped to speak. During a few short moments, he addressed his game, his status with the rupture tour he joined three years ago, and the event that brought him immense joy throughout his 18 -year career.

“Believe me, I would like to play in the Ryder Cup team,” Johnson told Athletics. “Obviously, the Ryder Cup is one of my favorite events on the planet. So, yes, it will suck it from my home. I have not played well this year. If I had played better, then, I think I would have a serious consideration of being in the team, but you never know. A very good weekend could change things.”

To even make this declaration on an upcoming victory that would resolve the dead end of the Ryder Cup of Johnson, he first had to do the weekend here in Portrush. A bullet lost on n ° 18 and a closing double at Post 73 Thursday did not help its cause. Friday, n ° 12, 13 and 14 also did not miss at n ° 12, 13 and 14.

The double major champion has shown signs of life in the last moments of his second round. Standing a blow outside the cutting line scheduled for n ° 15 after consecutive bogeys, Johnson hammered a driver, at 294 yards on the Fairway. He converted to Birdie. Then he sank a seven feet to save an important peer in the 16th potentially potentially calamous. Standing on the fairway on n ° 17, Johnson and his shopping cart chased a group of cameramans out of his line of view, only for him to strike his approach shot before they could go completely away. Johnson’s corner landed 11 feet from the spindle, and he drained the putt.

At n ° 18, the old Dustin Johnson made a little power. From 175 meters, the American ball never left its target. He caught the fabric of the flag, causing a roar of the enveloping giant tribune.

By walking to mark his ball, perched at only 1 foot, 9 inches of the cup, Johnson turned to his brother and Caddy, Austin. “It will work,” he said with a smile.

“The 12, 13 and 14 years old, I struck good shots and very good putts and I missed short there. I play well. I mean, I played well when I had good practices, I just need to clean it a little from the tee.

Since the announcement of his defection in Liv in 2022, Johnson’s shift in sport has been in a way a tacit tragedy. From time to time, its vintage one-liners are surfaced on social media flows and evoke memories of its star power. He found a sporadic form on the 54 -hole tour, although there are only three top 10 on Liv this year. But on the biggest stages of sport – those to whom he seemed to be able to dominate for another decade when he firmly held place in the world n ° 1 – Johnson has disappeared. This year has been the first time he has missed the cup in three majors.

“The PGA … It was just the worst that I never put in my entire career as a professional,” said Johnson.

The defection of the LIV of Johnson coincided with his major championship problems. Whether it’s a correlation or a causality, he closed the possibility that he plays his golf elsewhere on Friday: “I will be with them for a few years.

Dustin Johnson strikes the flag on the 18th. He ended the same day at the peer. pic.twitter.com/3cra48zanl

– The Open (@theopen) July 18, 2025

Johnson’s time as a basis in these main championship fields is checking, and he knows it. Liv Golf does not currently earn world classification points, therefore effectively, it needs current results, and not past finishes, to solidify its position in the majors. Johnson’s latest top 10 in an adult arrived at the US Open 2023 at Los Angeles Country Club.

He will have an invitation to Masters for Life with his status as past champion. But Johnson needed a special exemption for a TEE time in this year’s PGA championship, and its 10 -year exemption for the 2016 US Open victory expires after next year. Johnson can always qualify in the US Open and the open championship, which now offer a place to the unqualified Liv Top golfer. But if Johnson does not win this, he can also do it old -fashioned – playing in a single qualifier.

“I’m going to qualify by a good game. I doubt that I do the qualifier. But you never know. I mean, if it works in the calendar, and I’m not in the open air, I want to play here, and I want to be playing here. So I would certainly think about it,” said Johnson.

“But if I play well and play how I should, I will be open next year.”

(Top Photo: Christian Petersen / Getty Images)