Dustin Johnson’s late surge at LIV Golf Korea showed his game may be turning, even after illness and a slow start nearly buried him.
Dustin Johnson didn’t win LIV Golf Korea, but he may have found something more important ... proof that his game isn’t done barking yet.
Johnson arrived in Busan sitting 27th in the LIV Golf standings with just one top-10 finish this season.
For a two-time major champion and one of LIV’s biggest names, that’s not exactly the standard.
Then the week started ugly. Johnson played the first two rounds at even par, made eight bogeys and battled illness just to get through Thursday and Friday.
Then the switch flipped.
Over the final 36 holes, Johnson didn’t drop a single shot. He climbed all the way to 10-under for the tournament and finished fourth, only two shots outside the playoff between Joaquin Niemann and Talor Gooch.
It was his first top-five finish since Indianapolis last year and easily his strongest LIV performance in months.
The bigger takeaway wasn’t just the number on the leaderboard. It was how Johnson looked getting there.
When Johnson is driving it well, everything changes.
That has always been the engine of his game. He said afterward that his ball striking finally feels consistent again, especially off the tee, which allows him to stop obsessing over the driver and sharpen the rest of his bag.
That matters because the conversation around Johnson has gotten louder. Since leaving the PGA Tour for LIV Golf in 2022, he has won three LIV events, but the dominance has faded.
He didn’t win individually in 2025, and he hasn’t posted a top-five finish in a major since the 2020 Masters.
Fair or not, people have wondered if the edge was gone.
Korea didn’t answer everything, but it pushed back hard. Johnson was sick, started slow and still nearly crashed the playoff.
For LIV Golf, a dangerous Dustin Johnson is good business. For the rest of the field, it’s a warning.
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