Earlier this year Dustin Johnson scored a milestone victory when he won for the 20th time on the PGA Tour at the WGC-Mexico Championship. That magical number will earn him a lifetime exemption once he completes 15 years of tour service, of which he’s just three shy. A day after winning in Mexico — his sixth WGC title — Johnson was in Toronto for a corporate outing and spoke with SCOREGolf editor Jason Logan about his career to date.

When you joined the PGA Tour in 2008 did you ever think you’d have 20 career victories before you turned 35? No. I mean I really don’t know because joining the tour right out of college, I think I was very fortunate. I got through all three stages of Q-School, got my card my first try, and came out my first year and had some success very early. Then I kind of struggled for a while in my rookie season and I ended up missing a putt in the first playoff event on the 36th hole. I had a three-footer and lipped it out. That was to make the cut and make the top 125 so I would have kept my card. I ended up just missing out. But back then we had the Fall Series which counted for that year. So I had three weeks off and I went home and practised really hard because I knew I needed to come out in the fall and play really well and I ended up winning the first event in the fall [Turning Stone Resort Championship] for my first tour victory. Since then, obviously you don’t really know how it’s going to go, because getting one win is very difficult out on tour and for me to have 20 and win 12 consecutive years is a very big achievement. I can’t say that when I came on tour that I imagined this. I mean, you can imagine it, but I didn’t know I would actually do it.

Who would you say has been most influential on your success over the years? I’d have to give credit to my whole team. I’ve got a great team around me. Starting with my manager, David Winkle, my college coach, Allen Terrell, Butch Harmon, who has helped me a lot with my golf game. My brother, who has been on my bag for the last five years, maybe six, we’ve had a lot of success. I work a lot with Claude Harmon, Butch’s son. My family. Wayne (Gretzky) has been a big influence on me. Just being able to pick his brain because obviously he’s the greatest ever to play a sport. So understanding what he did and why he was so successful has definitely helped me.

Who among your peers did you gravitate to when you were a young guy and who among those has taught you the most? Probably the person I’ve spent the most time with is Phil Mickelson. He’s definitely been a big influence on me, just being able to talk to him. I actually played golf with him right after I got my tour card, or maybe while I was in Q-School when I was out in California, and since then we’ve played a lot of golf together. More watching what he does, seeing how he interacts with the fans and other people and how he does everything has definitely been a big help.

How would you say your game has evolved over the years, especially over the last six or seven years? It’s a big learning process. The first few years it took me a while to figure out the best way to do things and what works for me. Everyone is going to be different. I feel like I’ve found a pretty good recipe and it’s working well and I try to stick to it as best I can. I have a trainer who has helped me a ton, Joey D., and that’s been a big part of my success, is my training, staying fit. Travelling all over the world, playing five out of six weeks, and then winning in my sixth week (in Mexico) out on the road, a lot of that has to do with my physical shape. Being able to be healthy and have energy is a big part of my success on the golf course.

Most amateur golfers would love to know how to hit a draw and you made a conscious decision a few years ago to go almost exclusively with a fade. Why was that so vital? I used to play only a draw. I wouldn’t hit a fade unless I had to go around a tree. When I started working with Butch, within the first day of working with him we started working on hitting a fade. And it took a few years before I would hit a fade from the fairway with nothing in front of me to a flag. It took a long time practising. And then a few years ago, in December, I was out at Sherwood (Country Club), I had just gotten the new driver from TaylorMade, and I was struggling with the draw I was hitting. I was hitting the ball all over the place. It wasn’t spinning enough and I kept adding loft trying to get the spin rate right but it just got to where I felt like I couldn’t control it. So I hit a few cuts on the range and I was like, ‘Ooh, that’s flying pretty nice.’ So I played the next few days where I hit cuts with just everything, from driver to wedges, the whole time playing three days in a row. And I played really well and liked it. And from then on I just started playing a fade.