Dustin Johnson Recalls His Masters Nerves: 'I Barely Ate Anything'

You would think professional golfers who qualify for The Masters would have nerves of steel. But Dustin Johnson just had nerves. Lots of them.

Johnson is especially known for being unflappable, but he described a very different side of him during the final day of the 2020 event.

“I had come down to have some coffee and my breakfast, and I had a really hard time eating my breakfast,” Johnson said, via Golf.com. “I barely ate anything.”

These are the words of a man who held a four-shot lead heading into the final round, but the insecurities continued well after his light breakfast.

“I was really nervous, too, on the first tee.” Johnson said. “Obviously I’ve got the (54-hole) lead in the Masters for the first time. I mean, I was feelin’ it.”

Everything seemed to correct itself after Johnson used a 3-wood to place his ball into the fairway. He then took two putts to make par -- and then sailed from there.

Eventually, he finished with a 20-under par 268 and set a 72-hole tournament record at Augusta National, breaking those previously held by Tiger Woods (1997) and Jordan Spieth (2015).

This year's Masters is slated for April 8-11, and Johnson will likely be more confident and settled this time around. Who knows? He may even resume his normal eating habits at breakfast, and perhaps the champions dinner -- which he also mostly missed last year, but for all the right reasons.

“I don’t even know if I ate. I can’t remember. I know I had a few cocktails,” he told Golf.com.