3
Can DJ retain his title?
The good news for
Dustin Johnson fans is
that his form suggests
he can most definitely
retain his title. We say
this because he’s World
No.1, he’s won three
titles this season, and
six times in the last 12
months. He tops the
PGA Tour’s greens in
regulation, strokes
gained - tee to green
and total strokes gained
statistics and leads its
FedEx Cup standings.
He has finished tied 4th,
tied 2nd and 1st in the
last three US Opens.And he has successfully
defended a title in the
past (winning the AT&T
National Pro-Am at
Pebble Beach in 2009
and 2010).
The bad news for
Dustin Johnson fans is
that the game’s history
suggests he is
extremely unlikely to lift
the US Open trophy for
the second year
running. In the last 20
years only Tiger Woods
(1999 and 2000 US
PGA, 2001 and 2002
Masters, 2005 and
2006 Open and 2006and 2007 US PGA) and
Padraig Harrington
(2007 and 2008 Open)
have managed to retain
a major championship,
And you need to go
back to 1989 to discover
the last time a golfer
successfully defended
his US Open title. Worse
still, in the 27 US Opens
that have passed since
Curtis Strange’s back-
to-back wins, only one
defending US Open
Champion has managed
to finish in the top 10,
while eight have missed
the cut.1990 Curtis Strange T21
1991 Hale Irwin T11
1992 Payne Stewart T51
1993 Tom Kite MC
1994 Lee Janzen MC
1995 Ernie Els MC
1996 Corey Pavin T4 0
1997 Steve Jones T60
1998 Ernie ElsT491999 Lee Janzen T4 6
2000 Payne Stewart DNP*
2001 Tiger Woods T12
2002 Retief GoosenMC
2003 Tiger Woods T20
2004 Jim Furyk T4 8
2005 Retief GoosenT11
2006 Michael Campbell MC
2007 Geoff OgilvyT4 22008 Angel Cabrera MC
2009 Tiger Woods T6
2010 Lucas Glover T58
2011 Graeme McDowell T14
2012 Rory McIlroy MC
2013 Webb Simpson T32
2014 Justin Rose T12
2015 Martin Kaymer MC
2016 Jordan Spieth T37GRAVEYARD OF CHAMPIONS
*Payne Stewart passed away before he could defend his title.Top 5 = 0 6-10MC 11-2041-60 21-40POOR
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