Dustin Johnson makes admission about being ‘lazy’ that completely changed his golf career

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With golf being such a hard game, anytime you take your foot off the gas and drop the levels you’re going to get caught out and that’s exactly what happened to Dustin Johnson.

‘DJ’ is now over on the LIV Golf tour and playing out his career below the level we’re used to seeing him.

However, while on the PGA Tour, Johnson won 24 events, including two majors, and was a regular fixture in the USA Ryder Cup squad as well.

Getting to that level takes talent and hard work and while Johnson has had both in abundance, it’s not always been a smooth run.

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In fact, speaking to the Golf Digest, Johnson has recalled the exact moment in his career he got a bit too carried away.

Dustin Johnson says why he got lazy when he first joined the PGA Tour

With golf on the PGA Tour being the best of the best regularly competing and battling it out, it’s hard to keep the focus all the time.

However, for Dustin Johnson, that lack of focus came very early in his career and he admitted he very nearly lost his PGA Tour card because of it.

“I would say probably, college obviously I put in a lot of time. So I missed a putt about a three to four footer, on the last hole, I horse shoed a putt to make the cut in the first playoff event in 2008. And because I missed the cut, I wasn’t able to play the next week. So I wasn’t thrilled about that. So I went back worked with coach for a month, worked really hard, then the next event I came out and won Turningstone the next month,” Johnson said.

“From there I kept on working at it. I got on TOUR, my first five events I played well, had a lot of success. But then I think I got a bit lazy, like this is easy, don’t have to put in as much work.

“Didn’t play well for the rest of the year and then that was kind of the turning point when I didn’t get top 125 in the FedEx Cup, had to play well in the fall just to keep my card so I went and worked my butt off and won the first fall event.”

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Dustin Johnson’s career on the PGA Tour in numbers

Make no mistake, Dustin Johnson is one of the best golfers of the modern era and it’s almost sad to see him playing so poorly compared to his best level.

Indeed, for a period on the PGA Tour, he looked like someone who might go on to do the grand slam and get above 40 wins, such was his talent.

With only a few chances left for ‘DJ’ to show his stuff in the majors, we’ve very much seen the best of him now.

However, when he does stop playing, he’s nothing to be ashamed of and can look back on a brilliant career after seemingly turning it around as a youngster.