What Dustin Johnson is providing to Myrtle Beach area juniors that makes him envious
Dustin Johnson got his first look at his golf school’s new 4,000-square-foot performance center Thursday at the TPC Myrtle Beach, and he’s envious of the junior golfers who will now have access to it.
It’s something he wishes he had both growing up and during his four years from 2003-07 at Coastal Carolina University.
“It’s incredible and it means everything to me to be able to present juniors with an opportunity to have the best and greatest equipment in golf and all the tools they need to get better if they want to,” Johnson said. “It’s an incredible opportunity for me, Myrtle Beach and for all the juniors in this area.
“. . . For me it’s great to give back to the junior golf community and the Myrtle Beach community because I feel this is a place that had a very big impact on my career. To have my golf school here at TPC Myrtle Beach is very fitting.”
The Dustin Johnson Golf School’s director, Johnson’s former coach at CCU, Allen Terrell, has been teaching out of the TPC since 2000 when he became CCU’s head men’s golf coach and Johnson’s name was added to the school in 2013.
Terrell estimates the total cost of building the performance center to be about $750,000.
It includes indoor hitting bays, a golf-specific workout room, the newest golf instruction technology and meeting rooms.
“This is exactly how I would do it if I was going to do it so coach did a great job,” Johnson said. “There’s really nothing more you need in here. So I’m very proud of it and for me to come see it, it’s definitely more than what I expected.”
Terrell designed the facility and Johnson approved a few increases in spending to make it bigger and better. “He just kept asking me and I kept giving him approval to make it bigger,” Johnson said.
“Every time I called him it got 1,000 square feet bigger,” Terrell joked.
Johnson’s school serves as a philanthropic vehicle for him. He said he puts any profits from the school back into it and some of its students.
Individual lessons at Johnson’s school can be as high as $160 per hour, but junior golfers in need can receive assistance through the Dustin Johnson Foundation, which is also based at the golf school.
Students or prospective students can apply for a reduced lesson fee, and Terrell said the foundation spent approximately $60,000 on lesson scholarships in 2018. “We don’t give it away but we definitely get it to where it’s manageable for the families because we don’t want money to stop a kid from getting into the game, and that’s obviously a hurdle already,” Terrell said. “So we’re hoping we can help rectify that for some families. . . . I’m sure the word is going to be getting out that there is that opportunity here.”
The golf school has a pair of three-day summer camps for $200 each in June and July, for which junior golfers can enroll without equipment, and beginning in April the school will have clinics one day a week that won’t require juniors to have clubs. “If they want to come to the clinic we’re going to help them with that. We have a whole closet here full of junior golf equipment,” Terrell said. “We just want them to come, and if they show an interest and a little bit of commitment – not a ton – we’ll actually provide them with free clubs. Some kids need new equipment and can’t afford it and it will actually help their games, so in those situations we’ll take care of their equipment costs for them.
“We don’t want it to be money and we don’t want it to be equipment. Dustin, through his generosity through the foundation covers that. That’s his main initiative.”
The summer camps serve as a feeder event for the golf school, and Terrell hopes to identify players with promise, including some who may not otherwise have the means.
In addition to having the soon-to-be No. 1 pro in the world – Johnson will regain the No. 1 spot in the Official World Golf Ranking next week – DJ’s golf school can also boast the No. 1 junior in the world.
Akshay Bhatia of Wake Forest, N.C., who is the seventh-ranked male amateur in the world, is coached at the facility by Terrell and is participating in the fourth annual Dustin Johnson World Junior Golf Championship this weekend at the TPC.
Since turning pro, Johnson, 34, has won 20 PGA Tour events, including the 2016 U.S. Open and the WGC–Mexico Championship on Sunday. Johnson has already won twice worldwide this month, capturing the European Tour’s Saudi International on Feb. 3 in Saudi Arabia.
He said he has been searching for the quality in his game that led to three consecutive PGA Tour victories entering the 2017 Masters but escaped him after he injured his back falling on stairs on the eve of the tournament, leading to his withdrawal.
He has won six times since and authored an additional six top-three finishes, but said this past week was the first time he felt he regained the early 2017 level of play. The catalyst was a move away from the ball in his stance he discovered on the practice range last Monday.
“I finally realized last week in Mexico what I was doing wrong and started doing it right,” said Johnson, whose next event will be The Players Championship from March 14-17. “All it was, was setup. . . . I won three times last year and I played fine, but in my mind I was struggling because it didn’t feel right. I want to have control over my golf ball and feel confident standing over it.”
This story was originally published February 28, 2019 at 3:39 PM.
