Dustin Johnson wants to take on Tiger Woods down the stretch at Riviera

Dustin Johnson, fresh off a stunning T2 finish after losing the lead in Sunday’s Pebble Beach finale, heads this week to Riviera Country Club and the first of three straight title defenses leading up to the Masters, as well as a potential showdown with tourney host Tiger Woods.

“Absolutely,” the world’s No. 1 golfer would like to go head-to-head with Woods with everything on the line on Sunday at the Genesis Open, Johnson told SB Nation during a Monday phone interview.

“I just don’t know if he wants to see that,” Johnson jokingly added about Woods, who will be making his second official PGA Tour start after returning to competition three weeks ago following multiple back surgeries. “It would be good for TV, good for everybody, and a lot of fun.”

Woods will have to shore up his play off the tee if he’s to have any chance of contending, let alone battling Johnson down the stretch. Though Woods played his first tour event as a 16-year-old amateur at Riviera, it’s a track on which he has never won. Indeed, with his first top-20 outcome since 2015 within reach at the Farmers Insurance Open, Woods had to settle for a share of 23rd place, thanks largely to drives that found only 17 of 56 fairways all week at Torrey Pines.

Johnson, who predicted Woods would make the cut this week, took note of the driving woes.

“He looked to be in good form in San Diego, though he could have driven it a hair straighter,” said the winner of 17 tour events, including the 2016 U.S.Open. “The rest of his game looked pretty good and he’ll figure out the driver.”

Johnson, for his part, is bullish on his own skills, despite failing to wrap up a victory for the seventh time in 12 tries when entering the final round with a share of a 54-hole lead or better, according to the Associated Press. He blamed being “a little off” with his wedges, a few putts early in the round that “just burned the edges,” and getting caught in between clubs for much of the day for coming up short.

“I got a little frustrated that I didn’t win because I felt like I should have,” said Johnson. “Even with not having my best stuff, I felt like I still should have been a lot closer.”

Johnson chalked up losing to journeyman Ted Potter Jr. by three shots as “just one of those days” when things weren’t going his way.

Even so, Johnson, who kicked off his 2018 campaign with an eight-shot win at the tour’s first contest of the new year, the Tournament of Champions, believes his game is in “really good form,” which should send shudders through the ranks.

His colleagues certainly remember Johnson was playing the best golf of his career — with those three wins at the Genesis and the two WGC tilts (the Mexico Championship and Match Play) — before hurting his back and having to withdraw from last year’s Masters.

“That was definitely a bummer,” he said about the fall down some steps that forced his WD.

Johnson said he was excited to get back to Augusta, but first things first.

“I’ve got three tournaments in a row where I’m defending the title,” he noted. “I’ll start worrying about Augusta the week after match play ends.”

In the meantime, the new spokesperson for BODYARMOR spent Monday in Los Angeles shooting a commercial, and was looking forward to flying under the radar at this week’s clash.

“Tiger hasn’t played in such a long time so he’ll obviously get a lot of attention,” said Johnson. “It takes the pressure off me.”