"I don't know. I hit it, thought I hit it pretty decent" 

  It was a familiar feeling for Dustin Johnson, golf's nearly man for his entire career. Moments earlier he was on the 18th green going through the routine every golfer goes through when analysing a putt: a bend of the knees to get level with the green, a brisk walk to see it from all angles. 

  He knew what to do, or at least he thought he did. He stood over it, drew the putter back and executed the swing. 

  Missed. 

  A gut punch, yes, but still an opportunity remained. Simply sink this putt and he's in an 18 hole play-off for the U.S. Open. It's maybe 4 feet - not a great deal of movement - hit it firm and straight and he's there. He rehearsed the putt once, twice, three times before extending his right arm so that the putter face now met the back of the ball. He brought his left hand across, resting it just atop his right before finally shuffling his feet to get comfortable.

  Again he drew the putter back. Again he executed the swing.

  Again he missed.

  His reaction was fairly muted. A small scowl met his face and his shoulders slumped slightly, but he was never one to show a great deal of emotion anyway. The nature of the defeat suggested it might leave a lasting impression; that Dustin Johnson would never be able to convince himself he could get over the hump. 

  Then St.Andrews came along, a course that would suit his game to a T. His ability to hit the ball in to the stratosphere made many of The Old Course's most formidable holes a formality; the 4th and 17th greens a mere stones throw away. 

  He held the lead after 36 holes playing a brand of golf that made him look invincible, mixing the brutish hitting off the tee with a deft touch around the greens. Then, as has so often been the case, his game fell apart when he needed it most. When seemingly every player around him was making birdie after birdie during the third round he couldn’t find one until the 15^th hole. Par followed par followed par followed par.

  His day would end on the sourest of notes - three straight bogeys on the final three holes left him completely out of contention going in to the final day. The collapse would continue in to the fourth round, at one point he bogeyed 6 out of 7 holes from the 16^th in the third round to the 4^th in the fourth round. Once more from a position of strength he had faded in to the background.

  It’s difficult to lay your finger on exactly what the issue is. When it’s so obvious that the physical tools are there to win Majors the only deduction you can make is it’s an issue he’s having mentally. Looking from the outside it seems that, when the stakes are the highest, he is unable to grind through hole after hole to stop his round getting away from him. When you think of some of the more mentally tough golfers on the tour, it’s often not the rounds of 62 they shot when everything was flowing perfectly, it’s those rounds of 68 or 70 that took every ounce of concentration they had. For whatever reason, Johnson isn’t able to do this yet. The jury is out on whether he can do it in the future.

  Of course, it is worth mentioning that had his putt to win the US Open reached its intended target then the ‘nearly man’ tag would be assigned to the next quality player yet to win a Major. These are the fine lines of sport at the top level. Maybe the missed putts say less about Johnson’s ability in the big moments than they do about the difficulty of putting in general. Maybe the US Open said more about Jordan Spieth than it did about Dustin Johnson. Maybe his problems over the final two rounds at The Open are more a testament to the course and the conditions than they are to his lack of bottle. Maybe he’s just unlucky. After all, he only missed out on a play-off at the 2010 PGA Championship after he was penalised two shots for grounding his club in a bunker.

  Maybe. Maybe. Maybe.

  Dustin Johnson is too good to have his career be one, big ‘maybe’.