Dustin Johnson has won eight PGA tournaments but has not competed since August. He is set to return and promises to be a more mature and competitive player. His personal growth is due in part to his relationship with hockey Hall of Famer Wayne Gretzky.
The 30-year-old Johnson is engaged to Gretzky's daughter Paulina and the two had their first child on Tuesday. Now that the baby is born, Johnson will return to the links.
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“Over these past four or five months I’ve really grown up and I am starting to become the person I want my kids to look up to," Johnson said in an interview with Golf.com.
Johnson has battled injuries since 2012 and has not played since last summer when he suspended by the PGA Tour for failing a third test for recreational drugs, two of which were for cocaine. Johnson has disputed that he was suspended, saying that he took a personal hiatus.
"I did not have a problem," he told Golf.com when asked about cocaine use. "It’s just something I’m not going to get into. I have issues. But that’s not the issue."
Gretzky has been a mentor for Johnson, who has said he and Paulina just want to live a simple life.
"I tell Dustin, ‘You can’t replace golf or what you do and bring to the sport. Make sure you understand that, and don’t mess that up,'" Gretzky told Golf.com.
Gretzky has been instrumental in boosting Johnson's confidence on the course, bolstering his eventual return to competitive play.
While playing at Sherwood Country Club near Los Angeles last October, Gretzky told Johnson he would shoot a course record — and he did. Johnson shot a 61 to break the record, shot a 63 the following day and then shot a 61 the next day.
“I wish I was playing in a golf tournament," Johnson quipped after the third day.
Paulina is one of five children raised by Gretzky and his wife, Janet, over their 26-year marriage. Janet Gretzky is not concerned about Johnson's party reputation.
"Maybe he wasn’t comfortable in his own skin before," she told Golfd.com. "Maybe he felt a little alone out there. He’d go off with certain people and groups, and you don’t understand if they’re really your friends. Now, there’s no mistaking. Paulina loves him to death. We love him and support him. We don’t judge him. No one is perfect. What is perfect is if you can do it the right way.
"Whether he made a few mistakes, that’s not my business. What the outcome is, that’s my business."