Dustin Johnson almost took out the camera guy on top of the tower today at the WGC event in Doral. If that guy wasn’t paying attention before, he is now.

After failing to crack the 60′s for four days at the Tour Championship this past weekend, Dustin Johnson was told by his caddy, Joe LaCava that he was quitting in order to loop for none other than El Tigre himself.

Some might question the wisdom of leaving the bag of an up and coming young player for the #49 ranked Woods, but rumors are that LaCava was not a huge fan of Dustin Johnson’s relaxed attitude and practice regimen.  Could this be what Tiger needs in order to get kickstarted back up the rankings?

At least Dustin Johnson has a sense of humor about last year’s PGA Championship.  He’s now selling “What Bunker?” T-shirts on his website for a mere $30.

Late yesterday, Ian Poulter sprinted from the 17th tee all the way to the green, putted out, and then teed off on 18 while his playing partner Dustin Johnson was still on the green and Phil Mickelson’s group was just walking off the 18th tee.  Why the rush?

By putting a ball in play on the 18th, Poulter and Johnson were able to finish their round even though the horn sounded to end play.  If the horn had sounded while they were still playing the 17th, they would have had to show up for a 7:30ish tee time this morning, play one hole, and then hang around for a few hours to start their 4th round.

I think DJ owes Poulter a drink for getting him a few extra hours of sleep this morning.

It’s official.  People that bet on golf are idiots.  Tiger Woods is currently 10-1 to win the Masters this week.  He was the odds on favorite to win this week until Phil Mickelson won in Houston over the weekend.  He dropped from 8-1 to 10-1 while Phil did the reverse.

Seriously, what the hell are people thinking?  I’m not saying that Tiger should be 100-1, but 10-1?   That’s nuts.  Tiger hasn’t done anything recently that would warrant those odds.  If he had finished well at the Bob Hope, I could see it.  But a T24 performance doesn’t bode well for his chances at Augusta.

Here’s the list of Tiger’s 2011 stats:

There isn’t anything on that list that screams “Favorite to win the Masters”.  He’s averaging 289 off the tee and only finding the fairway 47% of the time.  He’s going to have to improve one of those stats significantly this week to contend.

How are some of the other big names faring in the betting?  As previously mentioned, Phil’s win in Houston has made him the favorite at 8-1.  World #1 Martin Kaymer is 18-1.  How anybody could follow golf for the past year and a half and think that Tiger is basically twice as likely to win the Masters as Martin Kaymer is beyond me.  Dustin Johnson is 12-1 and Nick Watney (probably the hottest golfer on the planet in 2011) is 15-1.

You can never count Tiger out of a golf tournament.  But he hasn’t won since 2009 and so far this year he’s clearly not playing like somebody who’s going to win the Masters.  Stranger things have happened, but it seems like your money would be better placed elsewhere.

Masters betting odds from Golf.com:

Here are the Tropicana’s Masters odds for the top favorites:

Phil Mickelson: 8 to 1

Tiger Woods: 10 to 1

Dustin Johnson: 12 to 1

Nick Watney: 15 to 1

Lee Westwood: 15 to 1

Martin Kaymer: 18 to 1

Matt Kuchar: 18 to 1

Rory McIlroy: 20 to 1

Graeme McDowell: 25 to 1

Luke Donald: 25 to 1

Esposito said Las Vegas casinos have been seeing enough action to drop the odds on these players:

Bubba Watson: 25 to 1

Ricky Barnes: 35 to 1

Rickie Fowler: 35 to 1

Outside of Woods (2006 champion) and Mickelson (2010 champion), recent Masters winners aren’t considered strong contenders:

2009 champion Angel Cabrera: 100 to 1

2008 champion Trevor Immelman: 100 to 1

2007 champion Zach Johnson: 80 to 1

The field (all the players not given individual odds) is 10 to 1.

[Image Flickr/Keith Allison]

Yesterday, the South Carolina Dept of Public Safety released the dashcam footage of Dustin Johnson’s DUI arrest in 2009.  Last week, Johnson’s DUI charge was dropped and he instead plead guilty to Reckless Driving.

When Johnson was arrested, his bail was set at $2247 which is the amount recommended for people arrested with a BAC higher than .16 (the legal limit is .08).  It’s pretty clear from the video that he shouldn’t have been driving.

On a side note, how do you get released from jail 22 minutes after being booked for DUI?

The Golf Channel has announced that they’ve removed obnoxious reporter extraordinaire Jim Gray from Northern Trust Open coverage this week.  Apparently Gray decided that it would be a good idea to ask Dustin Johnson about being late to his tee time yesterday morning in the middle of his round.

Johnson’s caddy, Bobby Brown, rightfully took issue with Gray’s actions and ultimately ended up “profanely” complaining to reporters about the interruption after the round.  Playing partners Steve Stricker and DA Points were also agitated by the interruption from Gray.

If there’s one thing you don’t do as a reporter at a golf tournament, it’s interrupt players during their round.  This isn’t Gray’s first problem with a player.  Last August he was involved in a heated exchange with Corey Pavin.  And of course he’s probably best known for his interrogation/argument interview with Pete Rose in 1999.

I wouldn’t be surprised if this was the end of Gray’s involvement with the Golf Channel.  I’m not sure if he was there previously, but Gray is not currently listed on the Golf Channel’s “On-air Talent” page.

With six seconds to spare before being disqualified, Dustin Johnson arrived on the first tee of the Northern Trust Open yesterday for his 7:32 AM tee time.  Players have 5 minutes to arrive for their tee time before being DQ’d.  Johnson’s caddie had told him that the tee time 8:12, which was actually the tee time for the previous day’s pro-am.

Luckily, Johnson was in the middle of his warm-up routine on the range when a PGA Tour official came running over to let him know that he was late for his tee time.  He was assessed a 2-stroke penalty for his tardiness, which started his round on a sour note:

I was pretty (ticked) off on No. 1 and No. 2… and 3, and 4 and 5.

Johnson eventually calmed down and shot a 73.  The penalty definitely hurt him on the course, but it was a better outcome than a DQ (although that worked out pretty well for Jim Furyk last year).

[Image Rob Hayashida/Sandbox8.com]

Well this one is getting wierder.  Dustin Johnson is denying that he’s dating Natalie Gulbis and says that rumors he withdrew from the Sony Open because his girlfriend found out about the relationship with Gulbis on TV are false.

In fact Johnson states that he broke up with Amanda Caulder several months ago and has not been dating anybody since then.  Maybe he should tell that to Natalie?

Assuming that Johnson isn’t going home to deal with his domestic situation, it begs the question of what actually caused the last minute withdrawal from the Sony Open?

[Image Flickr/Keith Allison]

[Update - Johnson is denying that he's dating Natalie Gulbis and says he broke up with Amanda Caulder several months ago]

Yesterday afternoon Golf.com reported that Dustin Johnson was pulling out of this week’s Sony Open.  He didn’t provide a specific explanation of the reason for the last-minute withdrawal:

I’ve got to go take care of some things at home.  Something came up.

Now, ProGolfTalk (and Tim Rosaforte on the Golf Channel) is speculating that the “something” is Johnson going home to tell his long term live-in girlfriend Amanda Caulder that she’s getting the boot for Natalie Gulbis.  It does seem to add up since this was the first time that Gulbis has made the Golf Channel’s telecast and Johnson refused to confirm or deny the relationship even after Gulbis confirmed it.

[Image flickr/thegordons]