When it comes to suffering back injuries, let’s just say Dustin Johnson has an interesting history.
There was the whole “jet ski” saga in 2012 that may have been a coverup for a PGA Tour suspension. Then in 2017, he reportedly fell down some steps at his Augusta rental home, causing him to withdraw on the eve of the Masters as the overwhelming favourite. And now? Well, we’ll let everyone interpret what he said on Wednesday ahead of the 2023 PGA Championship in their own way.
Johnson began his pre-tournament press conference at Oak Hill by answering why he got off to a slow start this year when he withdrew from the Saudi International in February with another back injury. There wasn’t much detail provided at the time so intrepid AP reporter Doug Ferguson followed up during DJ’s press conference at Oak Hill.
Here’s how the entertaining exchange went down:
Q. What did you do to your back?
DUSTIN JOHNSON: Just pulled a muscle in my lower back.
Q. Swinging a club or lifting up a kid?
DUSTIN JOHNSON: Yeah, lifting up a kid, just a bigger kid (laughter).
OK then … It’s even more awkward/amusing when you watch the video of it:
DJ with an amusing explanation for his back injury earlier this year pic.twitter.com/oQVcQMPza1
— Brendan Porath (@BrendanPorath) May 17, 2023
Again, we’ll keep it clean here and leave everyone to their own conclusions with this one.
As you can hear in the clip, Ferguson then says, “I’m done,” before the reporter asking the next question adds, “I don’t know how I can follow that.”
From there, though, it was a pretty typical presser with DJ talking about the course, his game and LIV Golf among other things. In any event, his back is feeling pretty darn good after winning another $U4 million at last week’s LIV Golf Tulsa event. Lifting an even bigger trophy come Sunday shouldn’t be an issue.
