"Mama Carole's boy" tearing up the PGA Tour, and other tidbits

Behind every great PGA Tour player is a nervous, excited grandmother who text-messages, computer-watches and paces during every tournament.

Okay, so there’s maybe ONE player who matches that description: former Coastal Carolina (and Dutch Fork High) star Dustin Johnson, who as we speak is on pace to capture PGA Tour rookie of the year honors, especially after Sunday’s tie for seventh at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am.

If the voting were left up to Myrtle Beach’s Carole Jones -- “Mama Carole” to the 23-year-old Johnson -- it would be a runaway.

“I could not be prouder,” Jones said Sunday in an e-mail to your friendly golf correspondent. “He is a good player and a gentleman and the coolest player ever! Now on to next weekend.”

The effervescent Jones concluded her regularly messages the same way as always: “Hugs, Carole.”

In fact, Johnson’s best finish of 2008 -- worth a season’s-best $193,500, which boosted him to $432,706 after just four tournaments -- could’ve been even better. He was tied for third place at 7-under-par heading into Sunday’s finale at Pebble Beach, and was in the day’s final group with co-leaders Vijay Singh and Dudley Hart, both at 9-under.

Johnson’s closing 73 (after rounds of 73-68-68) dropped him out of contention, but he wasn’t alone, as Steve Lowery, tied for fifth at the day’s start, rallied with a final 68, then outlasted the faltering Singh (71) in a one-hole playoff.

Along the way, Johnson demonstrated the talent that made him the only 2006-07 collegian to make it through PGA Tour Q-school, recording a pair eagles (one on a par-4) during his Friday and Saturday rounds while making his fourth straight cut.

This from the PGATour.com Web site prior to Sunday’s round:

“Johnson is the ultimate wild card. (He) is already 4-for-4 in making cuts in his rookie season on Tour, and his incredible length off the tee has been under-documented. If Johnson rallies from two shots down, will anyone really be shocked? (Certainly not Mama Carole). This kid can hit some wonderful shots, and it would be a disappointment if he doesn’t go on to win multiple times on Tour.”

Say amen, Carole.

Jones isn’t the only person who follows Johnson these days; far from it. His father, Scott, who caddied for Dustin during Q-school, also monitors his son’s play every Thursday-Sunday. So does Coastal Carolina coach Allen Terrell, who has been to the West Coast to offer instruction. And so do plenty of Midlands players who watched Johnson grow and develop -- not without some career-threatening moments of youthful indiscretion, including one memorable brush with the law that landed him briefly in jail, as have been chronicled in this and other newspapers.

But his time at Coastal seems to have screwed Johnson’s head on straight -- time will be the ultimate judge of that -- and having Jones around to love him and occasionally scold him, plus Terrell’s tough-love approach as his coach, have produced a player of prodigious skills and promise. Mark it down: Dustin Johnson will, indeed, win multiple PGA Tour titles and play in majors before he’s done.

But that’s for the future. Right now, Carole Jones is a self-admitted mess: living and dying with every shot via the long-distance perspective of the Internet. This week, I asked her to tell what that was like. She can do it better than I can:

“Well, I text him every morning and he texts me back, and every day when he finishes, the same. I talk to him about three times. His dad talks to him every night. (Columbia/Irmo instructor) Jimmy Koosa texts him every morning and talks to him every night ...

“I set up my computer in the morning for the PGA Tour leader board and the live hole. It is slow, and I walk around nervously, will sometimes walk outside and get a breath of fresh air, but run back to check. I will not answer the phone. When it’s on TV, I am looking at it and listening to it AND the background audio from the computer.

“... friends and family have brought me calls from people I haven’t seen in years. My college roommate came (Sunday) from New Bern, N.C., just to watch with me. People that Dustin stayed with (during tournaments) as an amateur are still keeping up with him and call me. He has a fan club in Minnesota (!).

“My neighbor goes to Applebee’s every day (during a tournament) at 5 p.m. to meet a bunch of guys ... he called CBS to complain about them not showing Dustin. I do not even know this guy except to speak. ... My brother in Mexico called to tell me he bought a bar where the (Mayakoba Golf Classic at Riviera Maya, Feb. 21-24) is going to be played, and they were all screaming in the background in their (Mexican) accent(s): ‘Dustin Johnson!’ He can take all his friends at no charge and they will welcome him: another fan club. It goes on and on.”

Understand, though, while Dustin Johnson is already proving to be skilled beyond his years as a professional player, to Carole Jones he’s still her little grandson, as she recounts in the following:

“I talked to him last night and he was at the airport getting to (Los Angeles, for this week’s Northern Trust Open, the former L.A. Open). ... The Mama Carole in me said, ‘Do you have a place to stay?’ His answer was, ‘Yes, ma’am, I have a hotel room.’ I have got to stop that, but I did it for so long that I can’t help but worry about my precious boy.”

Hey, if Johnson was your kid, or especially your grandkid, admit it: you’d be the same way.

NOTING THE TOUR.

Waiting for an opponent. Columbia's Jonathan Byrd failed to make the cut at the AT&T, but he held onto enough of his Official World Golf Ranking to lock up a spot in the World Golf Championships/Accenture Match Play Championship, which will be played at The Gallery at Dove Mountain in Marana, Ariz., the same week as the Tour’s visit to Mexico.

Byrd, who was 59th prior to the AT&T, is No. 62 in the updated rankings released Monday morning. The top 64 face off in match play, battling through six rounds (think the NCAA Basketball Tournament, only golf instead of hoops) to the finals. Sweden’s Henrik Stenson (married to a former USC women’s golfer, by the way) is the defending champion.

The former Clemson All-American will have to wait until Friday at 7 p.m. to find out who he’ll meet in the first round, though. The field won’t be finalized until players commit or withdraw by the usual PGA Tour deadline of 5 p.m., at which point the remaining highest-ranked 64 players will be matched up.

If every player in the rankings played, Byrd at No. 62 would be facing No. 3 Steve Stricker. But Brett Wetterich (No. 45) is already rumored to be planning to withdraw due to injury, and others could skip the weekend. That, in turn, would move Byrd up in the field. The only players he is assured of NOT facing in the first round are No. 1 Tiger Woods and No. 2 Phil Mickelson -- and anyone ranked lower than 62nd.

So he’s go that going for him, which is good (sorry, "Caddyshack"). ...

Another MDF. D.J. Trahan, whose win at the FBR makes him the leader among S.C.-connection players in the FedEx Cup standings and on the money list (but not in the OWGR), became the latest of the state’s players to fall into the PGA Tour’s “twilight zone,” joining Byrd, Lucas Glover, Kyle Thompson and Tommy Gainey.

Trahan, who shot even-par for three rounds at the AT&T, made the cut but, under the controversial new Tour rule, was not among those playing the final round because the 54-hole cut for the top 70 and ties took in 78 or more players. This year, whenever that happens, the field to play the final round(s) is trimmed back to the next number less than 70; everyone else (10 players including Trahan) gets credit for a made cut and earns last-place money ($12.540 this week) and FedEx Cup points (52), and a wave goodbye.

They call that MDF, which stands for “made cut, did not finish.” One suspects the players who have been caught in that trap have come up with another meaning for MDF, one we probably can’t print here.

BOB GILLESPIE

Comments

[Bob Brancato]

You're right Bob. The kid had a nice week! Looks like an up and comer.
Nice article.

Regards,

Bob

[pods observer]

Saw this guy Johnson in a prop-am, he does not seem to have full etiquette and respect for other players yet, also dissrespected the course when he drove the cart over the 18" boundary lines to drive to the back tees. He's probably just still a bit immature.