For being two of the most physically gifted people on the PGA Tour, Dustin Johnson and his brother/caddie Austin sure have a lot of trouble with one of life’s most consistent realities: stairs.
DJ had a fateful run-in with a flight of stairs infamously just before the start of the 2017 Masters Tournament, which caused Johnson to ultimately withdraw from the first major championship of the season and miss nearly a month of action recovering.
On Tuesday at the Valspar Championship, it was Austin Johnson who drew some unwanted attention for a cast he was wearing on his hand as the result of a mishap on a flight of stairs when the duo arrived in Tampa.
“He had a bit of a run-in with a pair of stairs — kind of like I did — on Sunday night,” Dustin explained during his pre-tournament press conference. “Those stairs, man, they’ll get you. So, yeah, he boke a bone in his hand.”
Johnson reported that AJ had his hand put in a cast, which will make for a more eventful caddie experience this week where DJ will tee it up for the first time since 2010.
“He was carrying the stuff in the house after TPC on Sunday night and slipped going up the stairs,” Johnson said.
Other than the banged-up caddie, Johnson made some bold proclamations that ironically harkened back to his run-up to the 2017 Masters tournament, which was derailed by rental house stairs.
“Now is the closest I’ve been to (my 2017 form,)” he said. “I mean, back then that was probably the best form I’ve ever been in, and getting injured it’s taken a while to get back to that form.
“Obviously, I played very well in that stretch, but I wasn’t as comfortable as I was then, kind of throughout the whole bag. But it’s getting, it’s definitely the closest I’ve felt to that stage of my career.”
Johnson tees off alongside defending champion Paul Casey as well as Gary Woodland at 1:03 p.m. on Thursday.
