Johnson’s top-10 reign ends after seven years

It’s been a great ride but Dustin Johnson’s seven-year reign inside the world’s top-10 has come to an end with Sam Burns’ move to World No.10 following his win at the Valspar Championship on Sunday.

As recently as mid-2021 Johnson was still number one in the world before a string of middling results and movement from other younger players saw him fall from grace.

Johnson made a permanent move inside the top-10 following his WGC – Cadillac Championship win in March 2015 (Credit: www.golffile.ie)

The 37-year-old flirted with the top-10 several times before finally taking a permanent place after winning the WGC – Cadillac Championship in March 2015.

Johnson subsequently rose to World No.1 where he spent a total of 135 weeks and sits in third place behind Tiger Woods (683 weeks) and Greg Norman (331 weeks). The only currently active player that is anywhere close to Johnson is Rory McIlroy with 106 weeks.

At 32, McIlroy is now the oldest player inside the world top-10.

Of course, this isn’t the end of Johnson’s tenure as a top-10 golfer. Tiger Woods clawed his way back from 674th to 5th in the world from 2017 to 2019 so anything is possible but the wins need to start flowing for Johnson if he is ever to get back to the heights of the past seven years.