The best golfer from every U.S. state

South Carolina: Dustin Johnson

Though still in the heart of his prime, it doesn’t feel too premature to call 33-year old Dustin Johnson the best golfer to ever come out of South Carolina. The Columbia native was born there in 1984 and stayed there throughout much of his youth, even attending college out on the coast at Coastal Carolina University. In 2007, he really started to come on as an amateur player, winning the Northeast Amateur Championship and Monroe Invitational before turning pro late that year. He then earned his PGA Tour card in 2008 and hasn’t looked back.

Johnson has won a tournament in every season that he’s been on the PGA Tour, starting with his first win at the end of 2008 with a victory at the Turning Stone Resort Championship. For some time, however, the big monkey that was on Johnson’s back was his performance in majors. He wasn’t a player who would outright collapse, but he was a player that would always fall short of the win when he needed one to get over that. That finally happened in 2016 as he was able to capture the U.S. Open. That’s still his only major to date, but when you consider that he has a top-five in each of the other three, more are surely to come.

What’s more, Johnson has 18 wins on the PGA Tour to his credit already. And considering that he’s currently the No. 1 ranked golfer in the world, he’s clearly at his peak and ready to add to that. So though Betsy Rawls and Beth Daniel are greats, Johnson has usurped them in South Carolina.