AKRON, Ohio -- Ten days after surviving a USGA on-course rules fiasco to win his first major championship, Dustin Johnson has no regrets.
Other players have insisted that if officials told them on the 12th tee that a ruling from the fifth green was still unresolved, they would've refused to continue playing until it was.
Johnson never even considered that idea.
"It didn't matter either way," he said, looking back on his U.S. Open win prior to this week's WGC-Bridgestone Invitational. "I was playing golf, and I didn't want to be bothered by it at that moment, so I said we'd figure it out when I got done."
Others have maintained that if officials told them in the scoring trailer that they must penalize themselves a stroke for a violation they didn't believe they'd committed, they would've raised a stink over that resolution.
Johnson just wanted to get it over with.
"I wanted to get my trophy, so I didn't care really," he admitted. "But if it would have been a situation where I would have either won or maybe possibly tied or had to go into a playoff, then yeah, there probably would have been a lot more discussion."
It all fits the DJ attitude, which can be summarized thusly: Shrug it off when things go wrong, smile when they go right.
After so many close calls without a major title over the previous half-dozen years -- so many instances of shrugging off what went wrong -- he finally smiled after this one.
Speaking publicly for the first time since his win, Johnson recalled a whirlwind night that had him flying with his family from Oakmont Country Club to their home in South Florida, arriving at 3:30 a.m. ET and unloading the car until after 4. Before finally going to bed that night, he left the U.S. Open trophy on the kitchen counter, knowing it would be there to greet him when he awoke in the morning.
"Gave me a smile a little bit," he said.
Hey, when things are going right, it's what he does.
Johnson was still smiling on Wednesday as he spoke not only about winning his first major, but trying to parlay that success into even more going forward.
"Now I know I've got it for sure," he explained. "I felt like I had it before, but it never worked out. But now I really know I've got what it takes to get it done. That's definitely a very good thing to have."
He then paused and briefly stopped smiling.
"There's always that thing in the back of your head [asking] you, 'Do you really have what it takes?' But now I know."
If those words sound familiar, that's because they echo the sentiments of Jason Day last year.
After a lengthy struggle of his own to break through for his initial major title, Day capitalized on his PGA Championship triumph with wins in two of his next three starts and three more this year.
The weight of a major-less career lifted from his shoulders, it isn't difficult to imagine Johnson expanding on his most recent success with a similar resurgence.
"Well, I hope so," he said. "I felt like my putting was holding me back, but I feel like I've worked really hard and it's getting better. I putted really good on Sunday at the U.S. Open. You know, that was really the only thing that was the difference between me winning four or five times this year and finishing in a lot of top-5s.
"I feel like that's getting better, so I'm going to continue to work on it, continue to try to get it better, and I think I'll hopefully win a lot more."
Ask any of his fellow elite pros and they'll all insist that Johnson owns as much -- if not more -- talent than anybody on the PGA Tour. He owns a shooting guard's body, a wide receiver's hands and plays a brand of golf that relies on power without all of the inconsistencies that often come with it.
Now he's armed with at least two more powerful tools: momentum and confidence.
It all explains why, just prior to his first start after winning his first major, Johnson was all smiles.
That's what happens when things are going right for him.
