Golf: Johnson going in "right direction" after pre-Masters fall report

By Frank Pingue

AUGUSTA, Georgia (Reuters) - World number one Dustin Johnson made progress toward competing in the U.S. Masters on Thursday after injuring his back during a freak fall on a staircase, according to a Golf Digest report.

Johnson's status for the year's first major was put in doubt late on Wednesday after he landed hard on his lower back inside an Augusta rental home.

"We got him to the point where he got mobility," Johnson's trainer, Joey Diovisalvi, said in the report.

"He was up and moving around and definitely going in the right direction. He was very much in an under control point going to bed last night."

Diovisalvi said Johnson, the tournament favourite this week after winning each of his last three events, was walking around with more mobility and took a couple of practice swings slowly without a club.

According to the report, Johnson, who is in Augusta with his fiancee Paulina Gretzky and their son Tatum, was upbeat that he would be able to compete this week.

"He told us, 'I'm going to do everything I can to go out and play tomorrow,'" Diovisalvi said in the report. "That basically is his attitude. He was playing with Tatum. Life sometimes happens. He's not angry or upset, I'd say more discouraged."

Johnson was scheduled to tee off in the final group at 2:03 p.m. ET (1803 GMT) with fellow Americans Bubba Watson and Jimmy Walker.

(Editing by Mark Heinrich)