Nick Dougherty pays tribute to Dustin Johnson's mental strength to win US Open at Oakmont

By Nick Dougherty

Nick Dougherty was impressed by the resilience shown by Dustin Johnson as he finally claimed his maiden major championship with a superb final round at the US Open.

Dustin Johnson has come so close to winning majors over the last few seasons, but we saw something in him at Oakmont that may have been missing before.

The resilience he showed, the belief in himself after doing something like he achieved, he should go on from strength to strength.

Image: Dustin Johnson showed the resilience he needed to get over the line at a major

He does drive the ball so well, he's arguably the best in the world with the driver right now with Rory McIlroy and Jason Day as well, but the fact he is also dynamite with his wedges made it inevitable that he was going to get himself in the winners' circle.

Unfortunately, the final day was soured by the incident on the fifth green, and it's hard to believe the USGA waited seven holes before informing Dustin he might get a one-shot penalty.

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Image: Johnson kept his composure despite the threat of a one-shot penalty

I think the world of golf, not just the fans at home, but the other players listen when the big names like McIlroy and Jordan Spieth sound off about these things.

They can appreciate as major winners how hard it was to get across the line and they'd appreciate what Dustin was going through.

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Thankfully for everyone involved, especially the USGA, Dustin played some phenomenal golf down the stretch
Nick Dougherty

He's been through the wringer when it comes to heartache at major championships, so to put that on him, and the way it affected the other players out there, it took away from what was a magnificent US Open.

Thankfully for everyone involved, especially the USGA, Dustin went and played some phenomenal golf down the stretch because if he'd have come down the stretch and ended up winning by one, whatever the outcome, there was no good outcome for the game of golf, so thankfully Dustin delivered.

Image: Johnson celebrates his US Open success with his brother and caddie Austin

Shane Lowry couldn't quite get it done on the final day, but he'll learn from this and he's done his Ryder Cup prospects the world of good this week.

There is so much to admire about Shane. He did a lot of great things this week, he achieved a lot and contended in a major championship.

Final leaderboard

116th US Open

These are milestones in his career and he will be there again and, inevitably, the next time he is there he will deal with it better because he has got more experience.

But after a fantastic US Open, it's such a shame we're talking a lot about the USGA as well as Dustin's first major victory after all those near-misses.

It was a brilliant story already, all these players with a chance to win, and we didn't really know which way it was going to go and to throw a spanner in the works like that was unnecessary.

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