PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland — Four summers ago, a 37-year-old and undefeated Dustin Johnson chugged champagne after leading the Americans to victory at the Whistling Straits Ryder Cup. The two-time major winner was on top of the world, firmly believed to be a mainstay at the highest levels of the game for years to come.

Now, here at Royal Portrush, a 41-year-old Johnson is utilizing his last automatic exemption into the Open Championship, and he made his first major cut of the year with a 2-under 69 on Friday. Once world No. 1 and the face of the American game, Johnson has largely faded into obscurity, a LIV Golf contract that made him generationally wealthy perhaps softening the blow. The next Ryder Cup looms, just two months away, and Johnson is several miracles away from even being in consideration.

So on Friday, when Johnson made the weekend with a storm of three birdies in his final four holes to finish at even par (and 34th in the tournament), it allowed him to take something resembling a sigh of relief.

That could be why Johnson — a player who is still loved by galleries but doesn’t win them over with his visibility these days — stopped to speak. For a few brief moments, he addressed the state of his game, his status with the breakaway tour he joined three years ago, and the event that brought him immense joy throughout his 18-year career.

“Believe me, I would love to play on the Ryder Cup team,” Johnson said to The Athletic. “Obviously, the Ryder Cup is one of my favorite events on the planet. So, yeah, it’s going to suck watching it from home. I just haven’t played well enough this year. If I had played better, then, I think I’d have a serious consideration of being on the team, but you never know. A really good weekend could change things.”

To even make that statement about a come-from-behind victory that would solve Johnson’s Ryder Cup stalemate, he first had to make the weekend here at Portrush. A lost ball on No. 18 and a closing double to post 73 on Thursday didn’t help his cause. Neither did missing short-range putts on Nos. 12, 13 and 14 on Friday.

Johnson shot 2 under on Friday to make the cut at the Open. (Glyn Kirk / AFP via Getty Images)

The two-time major champion showed signs of life in the final moments of his second round. Standing one shot outside the projected cut line on No. 15 after back-to-back bogeys, Johnson hammered a driver, 294 yards down the fairway. He converted for birdie. Then he sunk a seven-footer to save an important par at the always potentially calamitous 16th. Standing on the fairway on No. 17, Johnson and his caddie shooed a group of cameramen out of his sight line, only for him to hit his approach shot before they could fully scamper away. Johnson’s wedge shot landed 11 feet from the pin, and he drained the putt.

On No. 18, the Dustin Johnson of old flashed his might. From 175 yards, the American’s ball never left its target. It caught the fabric of the flagstick, prompting a roar from the giant wraparound grandstand.

Walking up to mark his ball, perched just 1 foot, 9 inches from the cup, Johnson turned to his brother and caddie, Austin. “That’ll work,” he said with a grin.

“On 12, 13 and 14, I hit some good shots and really good putts and just missed short ones there. I’m playing well. I mean, I was playing well coming into here. I’ve had good practice, just need to clean it up off the tee a little bit. I’m hitting good iron shots, I’ve just got to give myself chances,” Johnson said.

Since announcing his defection to LIV in 2022, Johnson’s slippage in the sport has been somewhat of an unspoken tragedy. Now and again, his vintage one-liners resurface on social media feeds and conjure memories of his star power. He has found form sporadically on the 54-hole tour, though there are only three top-10s on LIV this year. But on the biggest stages of the sport — the ones he looked like he could dominate for another decade back when he firmly held the world No. 1 spot — Johnson has been disappearing. This year was the first time he missed the cut in three majors.

“The PGA … it was just the worst I’ve ever putted in my whole career as a professional,” Johnson said.

Johnson’s LIV defection coincided with his major championship woes. Whether that’s correlation or causation, he shut down the possibility of him playing his golf anywhere else on Friday: “I’ll be with them for a few more years. I’m with them for a few more years, really pleased with how it’s going. I think it’s only getting better, and I’m looking forward to what’s to come.”

Dustin Johnson hits the flag on 18. He ends the day at even par. pic.twitter.com/3CRa48ZaNL

— The Open (@TheOpen) July 18, 2025

Johnson’s time as a staple in these major championship fields is ticking, and he knows it. LIV Golf does not currently earn world golf ranking points, so effectively, he needs current results, not past finishes, to solidify his standing in the majors. Johnson’s last top-10 in a major came at the 2023 U.S. Open at Los Angeles Country Club.

He’ll have an invitation to the Masters for life with his past champion status. But Johnson needed a special exemption for a tee time at this year’s PGA Championship, and his 10-year exemption for winning the 2016 U.S. Open expires after next year. Johnson can still qualify his way into the U.S. Open and the Open Championship, both of which now offer one spot to the top LIV golfer not otherwise qualified. But if Johnson doesn’t earn that, he can also do it the old-fashioned way — by playing in a one-off qualifier.

“I’m going to qualify through good play. I doubt I would do the qualifier. But you never know. I mean, if it works out in the schedule, and I’m not in the Open, I want to play here, and I want to be here playing. So I would definitely think about it,” Johnson said.

“But if I play well and I play how I should, I’ll be in the Open next year.”

(Top photo: Christian Petersen / Getty Images)