Dustin Johnson Will Play This Weekend at the PGA, but He’s Not Sure What’s Next

When asked where he’ll play next year with LIV Golf’s future up in the air, he said “your guess is as good as mine.”

Dustin Johnson got into this PGA Championship via special invitation and made it to the weekend. | James Lang-Imagn Images

NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa. — Dustin Johnson knows where he will be this weekend and that is what he is focused on at the moment.

Next year? Not so sure.

Johnson, the two-time major champion and one of LIV Golf’s biggest early signings, was a surprise invite to this year’s PGA Championship, the second-lowest-ranked player in the field aside from the 20 PGA of America club pros and 48-year-old European Ryder Cup captain Luke Donald.

As a former No. 1-ranked player in the world (now 471st) who also had a 12–9 record across five Ryder Cups and is exempt for next month’s U.S. Open, the invite might not have been so surprising—especially when you consider the PGA of America granted 33 special invitations.

Johnson’s game has fallen off over the past two years, which made his par-70 effort on Friday a welcome result in difficult conditions, one good enough to make the 36-hole cut and play the weekend.

But asked where he will be next year in the wake of the Public Investment Fund’s recent announcement that it will no longer be subsidizing the LIV Golf League beyond 2026, Johnson could only say that he has confidence in LIV CEO Scott O’Neil.

“I think Scott’s doing a good job,” Johnson said. “I think your guess is as good as mine with what happens next year.”

Johnson, 41, has never seemed too worried about any of it, always eliciting a vibe that suggests he will deal with whatever comes.

As it applies to his golf game, Johnson simply says his ability to drive the ball has been holding him back.

Dustin Johnson's driver has let him down this year. | Bill Streicher-Imagn Images

“I’m happy with my game, honestly,” he said. “Not very thrilled with my driver. Everything else feels really good. I’m rolling it well, short game is good and obviously it’s difficult around these greens. It’s hard to judge the last few shots I hit, seemed really nice and that I hit better shots than where they ended up.

“But it’s just tough. Everybody’s dealing with it. The wind will be blowing and then all of a sudden all the way down a little bit, and that’s the difference 10 or 15 yards out here and that’s a big deal.”

Dustin Johnson is signed for more years with LIV Golf—if it continues

Johnson’s original LIV deal ended at the end of 2025 but he and the league announced a “multi-year” extension in January. After winning 24 times on the PGA Tour, Johnson had three LIV victories in his first three years but none in either of the last two.

This year, his best finish on LIV Golf is a tie for 10th in Singapore.

On Friday, he hit just four of 14 fairways and he ranks 106th in the field in strokes-gained off the tee. But his par-70 effort that included three birdies and three bogeys followed an opening-round 72 and got him in at 142, 2 over par.

Perhaps not to the level he would prefer, but still not bad for someone who wasn’t sure he’d even be playing here until getting a call from the PGA of America on May 4.

Johnson, as he did last year, wrote a letter to the PGA of America requesting the invite, and it keeps his major streak alive dating to the 2017 Masters, where he was the pre-tournament favorite but withdrew on the day of the first round due to a back injury suffered in his rental home. Johnson was No. 1 in the world at that point, part of his 135 weeks on top, a number that ranks fourth all time behind Tiger Woods, Greg Norman and Scottie Scheffler.

A year prior, Johnson had won the U.S. Open at Oakmont, which came with a 10-year exemption through this year at Shinnecock. His 2020 Masters victory means a lifetime invite to Augusta National.

Johnson has just two top-10s in majors since joining LIV Golf and missed three cuts last year. But he still believes he can compete with the best.

Asked what he’d do if there were no LIV next year, he said: “You have to ask me when it comes to that. I have no f------ idea right now. I’ve got two more rounds to play. That is the only thing I’m thinking about it.

“I don’t look too far ahead. I’ve got a lot of good golf in there. Feel great. Body feels good.”

And then it came back to that troublesome driver.

“All it takes is one,” he said. “I know as crazy as that sounds, but it’s like one swing where I feel like what I need to. And I feel like it’s back, but I just haven’t felt that yet. It’s coming, though. I’ve just got to keep hitting them until it comes.”