Dustin Johnson

Unbothered by the controversy around LIV Golf, Dustin Johnson is atop the leaderboard at St. Andrews.

LIV Golf and its divisive nature continue to hover on the horizon like a storm, and those associated with the Saudi-backed group have had their reputations and standings tainted in the eyes of a contingent of the sport. "If I can just keep out of the bunkers and just keep playing kind of smart golf where, when I have a good number and a club that I can get it close to the hole, I can be aggressive. To Johnson, for better and worse, it’s all Connect Four. When it comes to this championship, through two days at least, he’s got two in a row. “I've played a lot of golf since then, and that was a long time ago. Wherever you fall on the spectrum, Johnson doesn’t give a damn. There’s a belief that the poise and simplicity that have fueled his consistency backfires at the big stages. These championships require something extra, a recalibration of the situation and the moment, and Johnson has been unable—or perhaps unwilling—to break his cadence. It’s not that Johnson lacks a cognitive understanding. So explain to us how Dustin Johnson, a man who laughs in the face of nuance, is contending at the Open Championship? On that front, Johnson showed he’s still up for a fight. He can manufacture shots when he needs to, he can play this game on the ground and just as importantly he knows the difference between offense and defense. “You could play every day here for a year and you would just scratch the surface of what you can know about this place,” asserted Cameron Young, and that was after he shot an eight-under 64 on Thursday.

Dustin Johnson made a number of tweaks to his gear for the 150th Open Championship. This is a look inside his golf bag at St Andrews.

Instead of opting for a driving iron like many players this week, he decided to put his traditional blade 3-iron back in the bag and removed the 24° Stealth 9-wood that he has been using during the season. Another underrated element is Dustin’s wedge setup which only relies on two wedges beyond his set pitching wedge. The biggest change to Dustin’s setup is towards the top end of his iron set.

Former world No. 1 Dustin Johnson went on an absolute tear in his second-round Saturday at St. Andrews. The 38-year-old American posted a 5-under 67 to ...

Earlier this year, Johnson shocked the golf world when he became the first big-name golfer to throw his name in the LIV Golf series mix — signing a reported contract worth around $125 million. "If you're not rooting for Dustin Johnson to win The Open and throw the golf world into absolute chaos what are you even rooting for?" The golf world took to Twitter to react to Johnson's stellar performance in Round 2 at the 150th Open Championship.

Dynamite Dustin Johnson is the R&A's worst nightmare - the Open organisers will be loathe to anoint an LIV rebel as their Champion Golfer at St Andrews · Those ...

Also among the 24 rebels, Sergio Garcia shot five birdies and an eagle in an excellent 66 that lifted him to three under. Among those LIV players to miss the cut was Jediah Morgan on 11 over. But I think there's a way to resolve it that benefits everybody.' An intriguing element of that will be in how he handles the weekend pressure, having led through 36 holes here in 2015 before he imploded. All I try to do is focus on myself and the golf. 'I think there's a way to resolve this.