LOS ANGELES — Resilience is not one of the 14 clubs in a golfer’s bag, but it might be a player’s most important tool during a competitive round that means something.
Like, say, winning a U.S. Open.
Two of the key figures in the 123rd U.S. Open this week at Los Angeles Country Club showed significant signs of resilience on Friday that may just lead one of them to victory by California sunset Sunday.
Dustin Johnson, who doesn’t get enough credit for his resilience, barely had time to digest his breakfast before he was smacked in the face with a quadruple bogey on the second hole of the second round on Friday morning.
That one hole nearly undid all the good he did in the opening round Thursday, during which he shot a 6-under 64 to stand just two shots out of the lead. Johnson went from 6-under and in fourth place to 2-under and in 15th place in a matter of eight golf shots on that second hole, but rallied to get back to 6-under by the end of the second round and is just four shots behind second-round leader Rickie Fowler.
As Johnson has done so often in his career, he recovered immediately, with a bounce-back birdie on No. 3. And, in the big picture, his even-par day has kept him well in contention when he could have collapsed.
Rory McIlroy’s adversity was a bit different from Johnson’s in that the 34-year-old Northern Irishman has been stuck on four career major championships for going on 10 years. His last victory in a major was the 2014 PGA.
On the golf course, that has become a rather debilitating, annoying pebble in his golf shoe.
Off the course, his well-publicized involvement in the PGA Tour’s battle against LIV Golf has been a similar irritant.
Sources have told The Post that McIlroy was “asked’’ by the PGA Tour to become its unofficial player spokesperson against the rival Saudi-backed tour only to be blindsided like everyone else last week by the shocking announcement of an alliance between the PGA Tour and LIV. One source told The Post on Friday word is that McIlroy is strongly considering resigning his post on the PGA Tour’s Player Advisory Council because he’s so disgusted at being hung out to dry by the tour and its secretive alliance with LIV.
That surely has everything to do with why McIlroy has uncharacteristically gone out of his way to avoid the media this week, canceling his scheduled pre-tournament Tuesday interview and then bolting from the scorer’s tent into the clubhouse without speaking to reporters Thursday — though he had shot 65 and the USGA had requested he do interviews.
After his round on Friday, McIlroy agreed to speak to reporters, but only after his agent told a USGA official, “If he gets one question about LIV, he’s ending the interview.’’
On the golf course, McIlroy, like Johnson, showed terrific resilience, following a 37 on his first nine holes (the back nine) with a 30 on his final nine, with six birdies, to get to 8-under and two shots out of the lead.
So, here McIlroy is again, in contention to win his fifth major and end his nine-year drought. With each hole, each shot, the pressure will mount this weekend, because all eyes are on the player who has done everything in the game over the past nine years — except winning that fifth major championship.
“I started thinking about winning this thing when I came here on Monday,’’ McIlroy said. “No one wants me to win another major more than I do. The desire is obviously there. I’ve been trying and I’ve come close over the past nine years or whatever it is, and I keep coming back.
“I feel like I’ve showed a lot of resilience in my career, a lot of ups and downs, and I keep coming back. And whether that means that I get rewarded or I get punched in the gut or whatever it is, I’ll always keep coming back.’’
So, too, does Johnson, whose volatile history with U.S. Opens continued on Friday with that snowman on No. 2.
“Making a quad on No. 2 definitely didn’t get the day started off kind of how I envisioned it starting,’’ Johnson said. “It could have easily gone the other way.’’
But he didn’t let it.
In the 2010 Open at Pebble Beach, Johnson lost a three-shot lead in the final round when he took triple bogey on the second hole, opening the door for Graeme McDowell to win.
In 2015, Johnson three-putted the 72nd hole at Chambers Bay to lose the Open to Jordan Spieth by a shot.
In 2016, Johnson bounced back and won the Open at Oakmont, his first of two career major championship titles (he also won the 2020 Masters).
Johnson has been here and has done this, so that helped settle him down Friday morning when things became unglued early in the round.
“Obviously, with two majors,’’ Johnson said, “I know what it takes to win.’’
ncG1vNJzZmimqaW8tMCNnKamZ2Jlf3R7j29mam9fp7yzxYymmqKkoqTGbrDUrKuipl2fvKm60qilZqqZnLW1ecinZK6rXaS9prqMoaynrF2ZwqZ506hkq52jnrmqsc2cnGg%3D