In the immediate moments after last year’s U.S. Open Dustin Johnson, hand in hand with his fiancée, Paulina Gretzky, walked up the steep hill away from Chambers Bay’s 18th green.
He’d just lost the U.S. Open.
A mixture of stunned silence and appreciative applause blanketed the moon-like landscape as Johnson brushed past reporters on his way to the makeshift locker room.
“When I saw the photo of him shaking hands [with playing partner Jason Day], that look in his eyes you could see the pain,” said Johnson’s longtime trainer, Joey Diovisalvi.
It was an entirely predictable reaction to three-putting the 72nd hole of a major championship from 12 feet to lose by a stroke.