HAVEN, Wis. -- Golfers hate to cop to any form of weakness, so it is fruitless to ask Dustin Johnson if his breakdowns in major championships haunt him. Even if he lost sleep over his wayward swings at the worst possible times, why would he ever admit that for public consumption?
In moments of doubt, competitive athletes often hide behind the walls they erect between the inquisitive masses and the naked truth. Golfers need to be more careful than most. They play a game designed to torture you, to break your spirit in half, and acknowledging that tee-to-green ghosts and goblins exist is the equivalent of inviting them to join you on the 72nd green.
So Johnson, the first-round leader at Whistling Straits with a 6-under 66, isn't about to say he is burdened by the past when he puts himself in position -- again -- to secure his first major victory. He isn't about to do what Sergio Garcia did at Augusta National in 2012, when Garcia threw up his hands and made this rare admission: He said he was not qualified to win any of golf's four biggest tournaments.
"In 13 years," Garcia said then, "I've come to the conclusion that I need to play for second or third place."
Johnson, 31, is taking a route closer to the one a 32-year-old Phil Mickelson took after the Masters in 2002, when Lefty announced that he'd seen the movie "The Rookie," that he'd connected with Dennis Quaid's portrayal of Jim Morris, the high school-coach-turned-big leaguer, and that he'd decided his new perspective left him happy to be playing a game he loved.
Of course, Mickelson wasn't being completely honest with his audience or himself. He's human, after all, and what human being wouldn't be bothered by endless questions about failure, especially when a workplace rival (Tiger Woods) was succeeding at an unprecedented pace? Truth was, Mickelson's 0-for-39 in the majors was killing him, at least until he ended his 0-for-46 at the Masters two years later.
For those scoring at home, Johnson is now 0-for-26. It's worth nothing because he's back in control at the PGA Championship, and because the freakish talent LeBron James brings to basketball and Mike Trout brings to baseball is the same kind the 6-foot-4 Johnson brings to golf.
But this sport isn't about talent as much as it's about resolve, and deep down Johnson isn't sure he has enough resolve to win a big one. How could he be? He's never done it. At The Open two years ago, Lee Westwood played the fool when he carried the lead into his Saturday evening news conference and claimed the following:
"Even though I haven't won a major, I know what it takes to win one."
Westwood shot 75 the next day and finished 4 strokes behind Mickelson.
Up front, everyone understands that Johnson has the physical tools to win this PGA Championship. His strength and swing speed turn par-5s into your local pitch and putt, just as they did Thursday on the 569-yard 16th, on which Johnson hit the green with a 4-iron from 240 yards out and sank the 25-foot eagle putt. "Today was pretty easy," Johnson would say.
This impossible game can look simpler than an open-book exam when Johnson has it rolling for two or three rounds in a major. But at some point over the weekend, Johnson beats himself in ways that even his celebrated teacher, Butch Harmon, can't patch up on the range.
Johnson is 27 under par in seven Thursday and Friday rounds at the majors this year, and 4 over in six Saturday, Sunday and Monday (at St. Andrews) rounds after that. And hey, golf fans know his résumé by now.
Leading by 3 at the 2010 U.S. Open after 54 holes, Johnson managed a triple-bogey and double-bogey in his first three holes and shot 82. Two months later, right here at Whistling Straits, Johnson grounded his club illegally on the last hole, absorbed a 2-shot penalty and lost a spot in the playoff because he didn't bother to read the locker room notices advising that every patch of sand -- even if trampled by trash-discarding fans -- would be considered a bunker.
Johnson doubled the 14th hole of The Open on lousy 2-iron shot a year later, all but presenting the Claret Jug to Darren Clarke. But that was nothing compared to Johnson's summer at Chambers Bay and St. Andrews. He missed a 4-footer as part of his three-putt disaster on the 72nd hole of the U.S. Open, making a Grand Slam hopeful out of Jordan Spieth, and then needed 150 strokes over the closing two rounds at St. Andrews after requiring a mere 134 over the first 36 holes.
Asked Wednesday about these most unfortunate developments, Johnson referenced the child he fathered with his fiancée, Paulina Gretzky. "Having a son makes everything so much more easy," he said. "You don't worry about golf as much."
He claimed he thought about the sandstorm he kicked up at Whistling Straits five years ago only when asked about it. He admitted that his oh-fer in the majors is "frustrating sometimes," but wouldn't take it any deeper than that. "I try not to let it bother me," Johnson said.
Chances are, those attempts have failed. In 1992, after winning the U.S. Open, Tom Kite spoke for every tormented big-name golfer who had consistently denied the obvious before finally breaking through.
"It was bugging the living daylights out of me," Kite said then. "I really feel good about Tom Kite and his career and everything going for me, but the only thing most people wanted to talk about was, 'You've done all those other things, how come you've never won a major?'"
Now Johnson is walking in Kite's pre-Pebble Beach shoes. Johnson just became the first player in the Masters era to shoot 66 or better in the opening round of three majors in a single season, and one of the contenders playing in his group, Jason Day -- another guy who hasn't won a big one -- said the slugger is "putting himself in positions where 95, 99 percent of the players that are playing this week aren't there."
But in the end, Johnson will need more than raw power to close the deal at Whistling Straits. "So it's hard to win majors," he said the other day. "It really is."
It's especially hard when you're not sure if you have the grit and determination to win one. Whether he admits it publicly or not, Dustin Johnson's most formidable opponent over the next three days will be himself. And guess what?
His record says DJ is the underdog in that fight.