KAPALUA, Hawaii – Dustin Johnson knew he screwed up pretty soon after it happened.
He hit his tee shot left of the fairway into a native area and by the time he got there a marshal had already marked the spot and told him where the ball was.
Johnson looked down and saw a TaylorMade ball and whacked it out of the thick stuff.
Then he walked up about 20 yards and saw his actual golf ball, untouched since the tee shot.
“That’s what made me realize it wasn’t mine,” Johnson said.
He was assessed a two-stroke penalty and took a double-bogey 6 on the hole en route to his first ever over-par round in the Tournament of Champions. Johnson shot 1-over 74 Friday in Round 2 at Kapalua’s Plantation Course while picking up the first penalty of 2019 for violating Rule 6.3c(1) – “A player must not make a stroke at a wrong ball.”
Johnson lumbered out of the scoring trailer after signing his card, chucked a post-round dip out of his bottom lip and took a swig of water before explaining what happened.
“I could see the (TaylorMade) logo on the side so obviously I just assumed it was mine,” Johnson said. “That won’t ever happen again.”
Johnson chalked it up to bad luck and said he didn’t blame the marshall who pointed him toward the wrong ball.
“It’s not his fault,” Johnson said. “Just gotta keep going on about my day. Hopefully it gets better and it didn’t.”
Johnson enters Saturday’s third round at T-12, 5-under overall and seven shots back of leader Gary Woodland.
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