Dustin Johnson has spent the build-up to this year's PGA Championship enjoying quality time with his wife, Paulina Gretzky.
Johnson, 39, is pictured in a photo Gretzky posted on Instagram earlier this week showing the couple out on a boat. The post comes almost a year to the day since the LIV Golf player unexpectedly mentioned his wife during a pre-tournament press conference at Oak Hill Country Club.
Previewing the US PGA, the former world number one faced questions about his slow start to the season on the breakaway tour. The American had only finished in the top ten twice across the first five events before winning LIV Golf Tulsa days before arriving in New York.
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Asked bluntly by one journalist what took him so long to start playing well, Johnson explained: "I mean, I was ready at the start of the season. Going in, I was going out to play Saudi International, and I tweaked my back right before that.
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"So I didn't hit balls for a few weeks until right before I went and played Mexico. It's just taken me a while to get back, get the patterns right, and just get my body moving right.
"Developed some bad habits, and it's just golf; things happen. Swinging it well, feeling good, got confidence. That's always helpful coming into a major." A follow-up question asked how he managed to hurt his back.
Dustin Johnson tried his best to avoid expanding on his back issue but eventually relented to the enjoyment of everyone in attendance at the press conference (Getty Images)"Just pulled a muscle in my lower back," Johnson responded, only to be pushed for the exact moment it happened. "Swinging a club or lifting up a kid?" the reporter replied.
Johnson agreed to a degree with the latter explanation after replying a firm "No" to the former before chuckling to himself. As that grin stretched across his face, Johnson tilted his head from one side to another before concurring.
"Yeah, lifting up a kid," he said before clarifying, "just a bigger kid." The laughter soon spread throughout the press room as those present began to work out the innuendo. Johnson awkwardly swayed from one foot to the other, standing at the podium while looking around the room after realising what he had just said.
"I'm done!" the journalist who pushed for the response exclaimed. The next person in line to ask a question also remarked: "I don't know how to follow that up."
Gretzky and Johnson have been together for over a decade since beginning dating in early 2013, four years after they first met. They got engaged that August after the golfer proposed to the daughter of Wayne Gretzky, the greatest ice hockey player of all time.
The couple welcomed their first child, Tatum, in September 2015 and had a second son, River, in June 2017. After an up-and-down 2018, when rumours circulated that they had broken up, they remained together and finally married in April 2022.
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