[PHOTO: Chris Trotman/LIV Golf]

Perhaps the main reason LIV Golf still gets so much crap from ardent PGA Tour golf fans – more than the cringey Cleeks hype videos, dodgy CW broadcasts in America and Greg Norman – is that, deep down, they miss these guys. OK, OK. Maybe, not the Pat Perezes of the world, but the one-name dudes like Brooks, Bryson, Phil and DJ. Love ‘em or love to hate ‘em, professional golf was so much better when we got to watch them duke it out on a weekly basis.

If you’re not ready to admit that just yet, check out the debut of episode of YouTube golfluencer Grant Horvat’s new series, 2v2, which pits Horvat and Phil Mickelson against Dustin Johnson and his brother/caddie Austin Johnson with big bragging rights on the line. The video is a nice reminder of the pair’s charisma, especially when they begin reminiscing about their Tuesday matches when both were working with Butch Harmon. Phil says DJ got the “pretty significant” better of him over the years, but believe it or not, that was because of some clever psychological warfare on the part of DJ. We’ll let them explain:

“I figured out real quick, though,” DJ says. “We’d be warming up and we’d get to drivers. We’d be hitting them and Phil’s just striping them… So I’d make sure I’d leave the range first and get over on the first tee, and I’d just hit it as hard as f–king I could. I’d send one because I knew he just couldn’t stand it so he was gonna come out of his shoes. And then he starts hitting them like this [DJ splays his arms out to the left and right].”

For a guy best known for his it-is-what-is persona, that’s pretty sharp. Not only was DJ able to read Phil’s faults like a book, he also implemented a strategy to exploit them. There’s never been consensus whether there’s more to DJ than his swing-hard-hit-ball-far caveman schtick, but this suggests there is. Even Phil, who has spent considerably more time losing to Johnson than the rest of us, says so.

“DJ plays into this of, ‘I don’t know what’s going on,’” he explains. “But DJ is a smart, cunning individual. He just plays it off better than anybody else.”

There you have it, folks. The former world No.1 in your rearview mirror is smarter than he initially appears.