American Dustin Johnson had a close-up view of Rory McIlroy at the US Open last week and now he has come to have a good look at Europe too. Out-scored by 15 shots when they went head-to-head in the first two rounds at Congressional, Johnson is playing his next three contest in Germany, England and Sweden.
The first of them is the BMW International Open starting tomorrow, where the day after celebrating his 27th birthday he goes up against one of the three players still ahead of McIlroy on the world rankings. That is home favorite Martin Kaymer, victor of the title in 2008 and the world number one until first Lee Westwood and then Luke Donald went back ahead of him.
Johnson's next event will be The Open at Sandwich on July 14-17 and the week after that he will make his second consecutive appearance at the Scandinavian Masters. Much has been made of the fact that there have been no American winners in the last five majors - that has not happen since The Masters began in 1934.
He led last year's US Open by three with a round of go, but opened the door to Graeme McDowell by crashing to an 82, then at the US PGA he was all set for a play-off when he was given a two-shot penalty for foundation his club on sand at the last hole. That play-off, of course, was won by Kaymer, but the 26-year-old has gone off the boil in the past few months while making some swing modify.
He fails to spot the cut in The Masters for the fourth straight year - they are the only four times he has played it - and was 39th on Sunday. Paul Casey and Sergio Garcia are among the others who have made the trip over from Washington, Garcia's seventh place finish his best in a major since he was runner-up to Padraig Harrington at the 2008 US PGA.