Dustin Time

Dustin Johnson stood on the 18th tee at Pebble Beach with some significant milestones within his grasp. One towering, majestic tee shot later, the most important birdie of his young life became a mere formality.

Johnson, one of the most talented young bombers in golf’s burgeoning 20-something set, completed his third career win with a routine up-and-down birdie from the greenside bunker for a closing 74 that allowed him to fend off David Duval and J.B. Holmes and win the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. But it all started with the tee shot, one that Johnson considers one of the toughest in all of golf.

“The only thing that mattered was that hole,” Johnson said. “So I just was really focused on hitting a good tee ball there. I knew if I got myself in a good position off the tee then I would have a great chance to make birdie on that hole.

“All you can ask for is a chance to win on the last hole.”

“The tee shot he hit on 18 was all world," playing partner Paul Goydos said. "I mean, that’s never straight and narrow where he’s hitting the ball, consider he has to make 4 to win the golf tournament. Pretty impressive.”

Knowing he had a winning birdie in his hip pocket, Johnson used his walk down the impossibly gorgeous, sun-splashed 18th fairway to bask in the moment, an opportunity he was denied last year, when he learned he had won via a Monday morning phone call informing him that the final round had been officially rained out.

“Walking down that 18th hole with all the fans out there was just unbelievable, especially with the clear day," Johnson said. "It’s one of the most beautiful holes in golf.”

Johnson is using his success there to build a beautiful resume and work his way onto some exclusive short lists. He and Sean O’Hair are the only players currently in their 20s with three PGA Tour wins. He’s only the sixth player in history to win back-to-back at Pebble Beach, joining Sam Snead, Cary Middlecoff, Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson and Mark O’Meara. Four of those players are Hall of Famers, and O’Meara’s likely to join them some day. Johnson is the first player since Tiger Woods to win in each of his first three seasons out of college.

You can also add him to the short list of contenders when the Tour returns to Pebble for the U.S. Open in June. He’s certainly not going to rule himself out.

“As long as I keep playing the way I’m playing, I don’t think there’s anything that I can’t do,” he said. “It’s all up to me. You know, I’ve got to keep working hard and keep practicing hard, and, you know, good things will come.”

Not that he’ll be playing the same course in June, mind you. “It’s a totally different golf course then. It’s gonna play different. Hopefully it’ll be firm and fast. The rough’s gonna be three times as long as it is right now knowing the USGA.

“So it’s gonna play very difficult, I think, especially, you know, a thick rougher and firm and fast greens. You’re gonna have to be very careful about where you hit your approach shots.”

Hell Hole

The par-5 14th hole at Pebble Beach offered a sneak preview of what we can expect in June -- a severely penal, treacherous green, sadistic pin position, scores that would embarrass a 30-handicapper. Or even embarrass me.

Yesterday, there were three 9s on the hole in the span of a couple of hours. Alex Prugh and Bryce Molder cost themselves some money with their misadventures, but Goydos cost himself a win. Goydos arrived at 14 with a one-shot lead but departed in shame after 10 minutes of butchery -- one chip released across the other side of the green, while another rolled back down the slope and stopped near where it had started. Throw in a three-putt, including a missed comebacker for a snowman, and you have a tidy, tournament-costing 9.

“It wasn’t like I didn’t try in all nine shots,” the hard-luck Goydos said. “The ninth one I really wasn’t all that excited about. You know, just everything I did on that hole didn’t work out.”

It wasn’t the first time that Goydos had played great golf for 71 holes or so, only to have a single hole, or a single swing, cost him the tournament. “You know, at some point in time we need to play 72 holes,” he said.

Double D

David Duval’s long march back from golf purgatory continues. Duval closed with a 69 that was almost good enough to get him into a playoff with a shot at his first win since the 2001 British Open. The win didn’t come, but the result did nothing to damage Duval’s re-emerging confidence.

“I’m just pleased to get out of my golf game over the course of four days again what I feel like I should be getting out of it,” he said. “I feel very comfortable and very confident in what I’m doing. And, you know, also, in a kind of strange way, it makes me proud. I feel like I kind of have given the folks who have given me starts this year good firepower for why they did it. That makes me feel good, too.

“I got more satisfaction today out of hitting the golf shots through the course of 18 holes and controlling my golf ball in, you know, not extremely hard conditions, but somewhat difficult conditions.”

Who’s No. 3?

The top two draws in golf will be elsewhere when this week’s WGC Accenture Match Play Championship tees off. After speculation that Tiger Woods would return to action, the world’s top player will continue his self-imposed absence, while Phil Mickelson will be on a pre-planned family vacation.

Those who expected to see Woods this week were ignoring one salient detail. Accenture was one of the first sponsors to bail on Tiger when his scandal broke.

Mickelson posted his first top 10 of the year at Pebble Beach, finishing T8 with a final-round 71. Despite his lackluster start to the season, Lefty pronounced himself “close” to returning to the winner’s circle.