Dustin Johnson says he 'can grind for another six years' before stepping away

OAKMONT, Pa. (AP) — So much about Dustin Johnson returning to Oakmont is about reliving past glory. He won his first major championship at the U.S. Open under extreme and bizarre conditions that allowed him to exorcise so many demons in the majors and become the best player in the world.

That was nine years ago.

The question now is how much golf he has left.

“I think I've got another six years in me,” Johnson said, contemplating the question only briefly before coming up with a most arbitrary number. “I can grind for another six years. And then I'm going fishing.”

Recent results would suggest he already has one line in the water.

Johnson already has a Hall of Fame career with his 24 titles on the PGA Tour, two majors, the only player to sweep the World Golf Championships, one of only five players to have been No. 1 in the world for more than 100 weeks. He turns 41 in two weeks.

Why grind?

“Because I want to get back,” he said. “Because I know I've still got it.”

Johnson was the biggest name to sign with Saudi-funded LIV Golf in 2022 when the golf world was turned upside down. He was on the fringe of contention that summer at St. Andrews and the next year in the U.S. Open at Los Angeles Country Club. He won in each of the first three years on the rival circuit of short fields (54 players) and short weeks (54 holes).

The last 16 months have made him feel like an afterthought. He has not finished among the top three on LIV in his last 20 events. He has missed the cut in five of his last seven majors. He tied for 10th last week on LIV, which he considered progress.

“I feel like my game's been really close," he said. “I haven't really got a lot out of it. So it was definitely nice to have a nice finish last week. I played good every day. I didn’t ... you know, still kind of giving away some shots. I need to clean that up a little bit."

There is rarely any urgency to anything Johnson does, and that six-year window comes with a caveat. He has two more years left on his 10-year exemption from winning at Oakmont in 2016. Next month will be his last free pass to the British Open from his 2020 Masters victory. He needed a special invitation to the PGA Championship this year.

Johnson has played only one non-major since joining LIV. That was the Saudi International at the end of last year. He missed the cut.

Yes, Oakmont seems like a long time ago.

Few players have endured more misfortune in the majors and have been able to shake it off. There was the 82 in the final round at Pebble Beach in the 2010 U.S. Open. He was knocked out of a playoff at Whistling Straits that year in the PGA Championship for setting his 4-iron into sand where spectators had been sitting. That was deemed to be a bunker.

He had a 12-foot eagle putt to win the 2015 U.S. Open at Chambers Bay, only for it to slide some 4 feet by on a green that had hardly any grass. He missed the birdie putt and finished one behind Jordan Spieth.

His mental toughness is underrated. Imagine playing the last seven holes of a U.S. Open not knowing the score because the USGA was trying to decide whether to penalize him for a ball that moved on the fifth green of the final round at Oakmont. Johnson played on, not giving it another thought, winning by three after he was assessed one penalty shot in scoring.

“That Sunday was a little weird,” he said.

Chaos would have been another word to describe it. That's not in Johnson's vocabulary even though it seems like it should be.

Ask almost any PGA Tour loyalist which LIV player they miss seeing, and Johnson's name is at the top of the list.

“There have been two guys since 2010 that I thought in full flight, I loved watching them play. And it was Rory (McIlroy) and DJ,” Adam Scott said.

Scott recalled a morning round at Riviera in the cool Pacific air. They were playing the 13th, which bends to the left around the eucalyptus trees. Scott hit a perfect draw. Johnson unloaded his high cut over the trees, a carry of nearly 310 yards in the heavy air.

“I just thought, ‘That is insane.’ Just the freedom he played with and the freedom of the swing and athleticism,” Scott said. “And then he gets up and hit a three-finger 7-iron, super soft, a buttery shot after pounding one. Super impressive.”

Those were the days. Those are the memories, all while Johnson is trying to believe he can create new ones. He is running out of time.

And that's OK.

When not on LIV — and not fishing — he is home with his two boys, Tatum and River. The latter was born on the Monday before Johnson's U.S. Open title defense at Erin Hills. He says he would have withdrawn if he wasn't the defending champion. He missed the cut.

Back then, a missed cut at a major was rare.

Now he is searching for a good week of driving, like he had at Oakmont in 2016. He is playing with Spieth, his longtime partner at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. Those were fun days.

“It's always good to play majors. It's the only time to see the other guys,” Johnson said. “We've got a good group in LIV, but I don't get to see everybody. Hopefully, things will kind of come back together somehow.”

Within six years? Johnson was asked if he could see himself on the PGA Tour Champions if it ever got sorted out.

“I've always said if I'm playing the Champions tour, something really, really went wrong," he said, breaking into a big smile before adding, “But with me, there's always that chance.”

AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf

Dustin Johnson tees off on the 13th hole during a practice round ahead of the U.S. Open golf tournament at Oakmont Country Club Tuesday, June 10, 2025, in Oakmont, Pa. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Dustin Johnson watches his ball on the 12th hole during a practice round ahead of the U.S. Open golf tournament at Oakmont Country Club Tuesday, June 10, 2025, in Oakmont, Pa. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

Dustin Johnson hits from the 12th fairway during a practice round ahead of the U.S. Open golf tournament at Oakmont Country Club Tuesday, June 10, 2025, in Oakmont, Pa. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Dustin Johnson tees off on the 15th hole during a practice round ahead of the U.S. Open golf tournament at Oakmont Country Club Tuesday, June 10, 2025, in Oakmont, Pa. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Dustin Johnson tees off on the 13th hole during a practice round ahead of the U.S. Open golf tournament at Oakmont Country Club Tuesday, June 10, 2025, in Oakmont, Pa. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

Dustin Johnson, left, and Phil Mickelson talk as they walk down the 12th fairway during a practice round ahead of the U.S. Open golf tournament at Oakmont Country Club Tuesday, June 10, 2025, in Oakmont, Pa. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

Dustin Johnson, right, and Phil Mickelson talk as they walk down the 12th fairway during a practice round ahead of the U.S. Open golf tournament at Oakmont Country Club Tuesday, June 10, 2025, in Oakmont, Pa. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Sluggish December hiring concluded a year of weak employment gains that have frustrated job seekers even though layoffs and unemployment have remained low.

Employers added just 50,000 jobs last month, nearly unchanged from a downwardly revised figure of 56,000 in November, the Labor Department said Friday. The unemployment rate slipped to 4.4%, its first decline since June, from 4.5% in November, a figure also revised lower.

The data suggests that businesses are reluctant to add workers even as economic growth has picked up. Many companies hired aggressively after the pandemic and no longer need to fill more jobs. Others have held back due to widespread uncertainty caused by President Donald Trump’s shifting tariff policies, elevated inflation, and the spread of artificial intelligence, which could alter or even replace some jobs.

Still, economists were encouraged by the drop in the unemployment rate, which had risen in the previous four straight reports. It had also alarmed officials at the Federal Reserve, prompting three cuts to the central bank's key interest rate last year. The decline lowered the odds of another rate reduction in January, economists said.

“The labor market looks to have stabilized, but at a slower pace of employment growth,” Blerina Uruci, chief economist at T. Rowe Price, said. There is no urgency for the Fed to cut rates further, for now."

Some Federal Reserve officials are concerned that inflation remains above their target of 2% annual growth, and hasn't improved since 2024. They support keeping rates where they are to combat inflation. Others, however, are more worried that hiring has nearly ground to a halt and have supported lowering borrowing costs to spur spending and growth.

November's job gain was revised slightly lower, from 64,000 to 56,000, while October's now shows a much steeper drop, with a loss of 173,000 positions, down from previous estimates of a 105,000 decline. The government revises the jobs figures as it receives more survey responses from businesses.

The economy has now lost an average of 22,000 jobs a month in the past three months, the government said. A year ago, in December 2024, it had gained 209,000 a month. Most of those losses reflect the purge of government workers by Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency.

Nearly all the jobs added in December were in the health care and restaurant and hotel industries. Health care added 38,500 jobs, while restaurants and hotels gained 47,000. Governments — mostly at the state and local level — added 13,000.

Manufacturing, construction and retail companies all shed jobs. Retailers cut 25,000 positions, a sign that holiday hiring has been weaker than previous years. Manufacturers have shed jobs every month since April, when Trump announced sweeping tariffs intended to boost manufacturing.

Wall Street and Washington are looking closely at Friday's report as it's the first clean reading on the labor market in three months. The government didn’t issue a report in October because of the six-week government shutdown, and November’s data was distorted by the closure, which lasted until Nov. 12.

The hiring slowdown reflects more than just a reluctance by companies to add jobs. With an aging population and a sharp drop in immigration, the economy doesn't need to create as many jobs as it has in the past to keep the unemployment rate steady. As a result, a gain of 50,000 jobs is not as clear a sign of weakness as it would have been in previous years.

And layoffs are still low, a sign firms aren't rapidly cutting jobs, as typically happens in a recession. The “low-hire, low-fire” job market does mean current workers have some job security, though those without jobs can have a tougher time.

Ernesto Castro, 44, has applied for hundreds of jobs since leaving his last in May. Yet the Los Angeles resident has gotten just three initial interviews, and only one follow-up, after which he heard nothing.

With nearly a decade of experience providing customer support for software companies, Castro expected to find a new job pretty quickly as he did in 2024.

“I should be in a good position,” Castro said. “It’s been awful.”

He worries that more companies are turning to artificial intelligence to help clients learn to use new software. He hears ads from tech companies that urge companies to slash workers that provide the kind of services he has in his previous jobs. His contacts in the industry say that employees are increasingly reluctant to switch jobs amid all the uncertainty, which leaves fewer open jobs for others.

He is now looking into starting his own software company, and is also exploring project management roles.

December’s report caps a year of sluggish hiring, particularly after April's “liberation day” tariff announcement by Trump. The economy generated an average of 111,000 jobs a month in the first three months of 2025. But that pace dropped to just 11,000 in the three months ended in August, before rebounding slightly to 22,000 in November.

Last year, the economy gained just 584,000 jobs, sharply lower than that more than 2 million added in 2024. It's the smallest annual gain since the COVID-19 pandemic decimated the job market in 2020.

Subdued hiring underscores a key conundrum surrounding the economy as it enters 2026: Growth has picked up to healthy levels, yet hiring has weakened noticeably and the unemployment rate has increased in the last four jobs reports.

Most economists expect hiring will accelerate this year as growth remains solid, and Trump's tax cut legislation is expected to produce large tax refunds this spring. Yet economists acknowledge there are other possibilities: Weak job gains could drag down future growth. Or the economy could keep expanding at a healthy clip, while automation and the spread of artificial intelligence reduces the need for more jobs.

Productivity, or output per hour worked, a measure of worker efficiency, has improved in the past three years and jumped nearly 5% in the July-September quarter. That means companies can produce more without adding jobs. Over time, it should also boost worker pay.

Even with such sluggish job gains, the economy has continued to expand, with growth reaching a 4.3% annual rate in last year's July-September quarter, the best in two years. Strong consumer spending helped drive the gain. The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta forecasts that growth could slow to a still-solid 2.7% in the final three months of last year.

FILE - A hiring sign is displayed at a grocery store in Northbrook, Ill., Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)