Dustin Johnson crosses the pond in bid to stem European flow

American Dustin Johnson had a close-up view of Rory McIlroy at the US Open last week and now he has come to have a good look at Europe too.

Out-scored by 15 shots when they went head-to-head in the first two rounds at Congressional, Johnson is playing his next three tournaments in Germany, England and Sweden. The first of them is the BMW International Open starting tomorrow, where he goes up against one of the three players still ahead of McIlroy on the world rankings.

That is home favourite Martin Kaymer, winner of the title in 2008 and the world number one until first Lee Westwood and then Luke Donald went back ahead of him.

Johnson's next event will be The Open at Sandwich on July 14-17 and the week after that he will make his second successive appearance at the Scandinavian Masters. Much has been made of the fact that there have been no American winners in the last five majors - that has not happened since The Masters began in 1934.

Paul Casey and Sergio Garcia are among the others who have made the trip over from Washington, Garcia's seventh place finish his best in a major since he was runner-up to Padraig Harrington at the 2008 US PGA.