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Valero Texas Open: Dustin Johnson Withdraws Ahead of Masters

By Tim Letcher

AUSTIN, TEXAS - MARCH 26: Dustin Johnson of the United States plays his shot on the sixth tee in his match against Kevin Na of the United States during the third round of the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play at Austin Country Club on March 26, 2021 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images)
AUSTIN, TEXAS - MARCH 26: Dustin Johnson of the United States plays his shot on the sixth tee in his match against Kevin Na of the United States during the third round of the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play at Austin Country Club on March 26, 2021 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images) /
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Dustin Johnson was slated to play in this week’s Valero Texas Open, coming off of a not-so-great performance at last week’s WGC-Match Play event in Austin. Instead, DJ announced on Monday that he has withdrawn from this week’s event.

It appeared that Johnson would use the Texas Open as a prelude to his title defense at next week’s Masters. However, on Monday, Johnson put out a statement saying that he would spend the week at home preparing for next week’s Masters.

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DJ played at the WGC-Match Play last week in Austin and appeared to be staying in Texas after going 1-1-1 over three days at the Match Play. Instead, he will fly home, allowing Ryan Brehm to enter this week’s field.

There are two ways to go about preparing for a major championship. Some players believe in playing the week before the major to fine-tune anything that might need fixing in their games. Other players prefer to take the week off to get even more prepared for the layout and challenges that the course at the major will present.

In this particular instance, it’s probably a good thing for DJ to take a week off. He didn’t seem like himself last week, including an incident with Kevin Na during one of his matches in Austin.

DJ dominated the Masters in November and is still the top-ranked player in the world. He will be the favorite next week, even though he’s not playing his best right now.

In his last three events, DJ has finished T28 (WGC-Match Play), T48 (The Players Championship) and T54 (WGC-Workday Championship). He did have a T8 at the Genesis Invitational in February.

Next. WGC-Match Play: Winners and Losers from Austin. dark

The decision to take the week off is probably the right thing for DJ to do at this point. He wants to be ready at Augusta next week and getting back home, and not playing three weeks in a row, allows him to do just that.

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