Johnson’s first quadruple bogey in a year dooms round at TPC Sawgrass

| Dustin Johnson managed to do something Saturday during the third round of The Players Championship that he hadn’t done in more than a year.

Johnson recorded a quadruple bogey.

The Coastal Carolina alumnus made an 8 on the par-4 10th hole at TPC Sawgrass and it contributed to a 3-over-par 75 that has Johnson playing predominantly for pride and an opportunity to gain some confidence in Sunday’s final round.

Johnson’s last quad came in early April 2014 in the first round of the Shell Houston Open en route to an 80 and subsequent withdrawal from the tournament.

Johnson was even par for his round and the tournament after making a pair of birdies and pair of bogeys on his front nine Saturday and pulled a 3-wood off the tee into trees on the left side of the 10th fairway.

Johnson described the rest.

“I had a shot and I could have gotten it up in the right bunker most likely,” he said. “I was just trying to hit it up to the right of the green. I had plenty of room in the trees; I just skulled it right into the bush. I had to kind of go over a bush and under a limb and I hit it a little thin right into the bush.

“I dropped and I didn’t have much room, but when I dropped it bounced backwards so I had a bush in my backswing – so great – then I hit the tree, then I was in a bush and I hit it in the bunker. I made a good up and down for an 8 though.”

Johnson immediately birdied the next hole – the 533-yard par-5 11th – by getting up and down from a bunker with a 7-foot putt, “then I had another debacle after that,” Johnson said.

Johnson made a double bogey on the 12th hole after slicing a 3-wood into trees, hitting a tree on his second shot and taking another drop from a bush that incurred another penalty stroke.

“The driver I hit down the middle almost every hole,” Johnson said. “I should have hit driver on both of those, I would have been fine.”

Following the double on 12, Johnson nearly recorded a hole-in-one on the 13th as his ball rolled a couple inches to the right of the cup, and he missed a 7-foot putt to settle for par.

Johnson birdied the par-4 15th hole with an 11-foot putt and 18th with a 14-footer to get a couple shots back down the stretch.

He’s playing more for his upcoming schedule on Sunday than he is a significant finish in The Players, where his best finish is a tie for 34th in 2010.

Johnson was looking this week for his seventh top-20 finish in his past nine tournaments.

“Obviously I’m out of it but I’d still like to have a good Sunday round,” said Johnson, who will have both his mother, Kandee, and fiancée, Paulina Gretzky, with him at TPC Sawgrass on Mother’s Day. “I feel like I’m playing well, it will give me a little confidence. It’s close to being real good. I hit a lot of really good shots just my misses were too bad.”

Johnson believes he can score well at TPC Sawgrass despite just one score in the 60s in 20 rounds. “I feel like I can,” he said. “I feel comfortable out here off the tees. There’s nothing that I don’t feel comfortable with, I just haven’t really put a good round together out here.

“It’s tough. It’s a tough course. If you get out of position at all it’s real easy to make a bogey.”

This story was originally published May 9, 2015 at 6:07 PM with the headline "Johnson’s first quadruple bogey in a year dooms round at TPC Sawgrass."