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That is because Johnson won again in Georgia for the third time. Validating his Masters win from last month, Johnson was able to shot a final round 67 to force a playoff with Ryuji Imada, them beat him on the first hole when Imada hit his second shot into the lake in front of the 18th green. With the win Johnson has now made it a point that he is a true "Georgia Peach" and that the state of Georgia as turned into a nice annuity for him as he now has earned close to $4 million dollars out of his $9.3 million PGA Tour career earnings in ten events held in Georgia.
Now normally on this page we look at just one event and dissect how a player won or lost it but because of what happened in other events around the world we have to also look at them.
This week was such a rare week in Golf, in what happen in Japan plus the fact that in four main events, three of the four were won in playoffs and all of them were won by players that were either defending their title or they have won on that course before.
To begin with we give you a rarity of rare. In the Munsingwear Open KSB Cup, an official event on the Japan Tour a 15 year-old Ryo Ishikawa won the tournament. Now the Japanese Tour may not have the same caliber players that the PGA Tour has but it's still a recognize tour in which World Ranking points are given out, matter of fact Ishikaw got 16 points in his first ever start on the Japan Tour. Ishikawa, who lives in the town of Saitama and lives with his parents, a younger brother and a sister is just a freshman at the Suginami Gakuin High School in Tokyo. He shot a final round 66 for the one shot victory on the Tojigaoka Marine Hills Golf Club and becomes the youngest winner in probably all of professional golf.
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Over in Ireland Padraig Harrington became the first Irishman to win their national championship since John O'Leary won it in 1982. Harrington won in a one hole playoff over Bradley Dredge in front of 25,000 fellow countryman to win on a course that he won the JP McManus Invitational on two years ago.
Harrington had the luck of the draw working for him as he played in glorious sunshine on Thursday afternoon while those in the morning had wind and rain to contend with. On Friday those same unfortunate people had to play in gale force winds in the afternoon, but Harrington had a wind-free second round of 68. After his victory Harrington said that it was the fifth major for him and probably his most important win of his career.
It was Harrington's 11th victory on the European Tour as he won $500,000. The victory was the first leg of the million dollar double that the European Tour is giving out, if Harrington could win this week's BMW PGA Championship, the tour's most important event of the year he will get the million dollar bonus and make his two weeks work worth close to $2 million dollars, not bad.
Over on the LPGA Tour, Lorne Ochoa was also able to defend her title in the Sybase Classic as she shot a bogey-free final round of 68 for a three-shot win over Sarah Lee. With the win Ochoa validated her number one ranking that she got in passing Annika Sorenstam last month as she won for the 11th time on the LPGA Tour.
Lastly over in the Regions Charity Classic, Brad Bryant erased all of the hoopla generated by Seve Ballesteros as he staged another final day comeback to shot 64 and then make birdie on the third hole of a playoff to beat R.W. Eaks. It's the third straight week that someone has successfully defended there title on the Champions Tour but more importantly Bryant defended his Regions title and became the first multiple winner of the Regions Charity, ending a run in which 15 different winners have claimed the title. Bryant couldn't of picked a better week to win as it comes on the eve of the Champions Tour for major, the PGA Seniors at Kiawah Island.
As for Seve Ballesteros who made all the news as he played in his first Champions Tour event, he closed on Sunday with a 73, eight shots better than his second round 81. That still left him tied with Lee Trevino in last place at 16-over 216.
Keys to victory for Johnson
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For Johnson it's his third PGA Tour victory which in a strange twist has all come in the state of Georgia at the AT&T and the Masters. He also becomes just the third player to win the Masters and the AT&T Classic in the same year. The other two were Phil Mickelson last year and Tom Watson in 1981.
As for Johnson this win just validates how the TPC Sugarloaf has become his little annuity. That is because Johnson in just five events on the course has won $2.3 million (a quarter of his $9.6 PGA Tour career earnings) with two victories and a runner-up finish. The TPC Sugarloaf is the site of his first PGA Tour check. In just his 2nd PGA Tour start in 2002, Johnson found himself in contention going into the final round but stumbled to a 75 to finish up T17th, winning $57,000. At the time that was not only his biggest check as a golfer but more money than he had won playing on the Hooters and Prairie Golf Tour. A year later Johnson became the best player on the Nationwide Tour to win over $400,000 as he won twice and collected $494,000 and become the best on that tour. That gained him a PGA Tour card and four months later in just his 13 PGA Tour start won the AT&T Classic at Sugarloaf.
How did Johnson win this week:
- He hit lots of greens, 57 of them which was the most of anyone in the field.
- Since the tournament moved to Sugarloaf 11 years ago, Johnson becomes the fourth champion to lead the greens hit category.
- Johnson only missed four greens on the weekend.
- If hitting greens wasn't enough, on the one's that he missed he got it up and down 13 of 15 times. That was ranked 2nd for the week and proved to be a deadly combination that put him in the position to win.
- Another key to Johnson's win was playing the par 4s in 7 under, tied for the best in that category for the week.
- Johnson made only four bogeys the entire week and in a strange fact two of them were on par 5s.
Johnson's stats (with rank in parentheses):
Fairways hit: 44 of 56 ..... (T6th) Driving average: 301.1 ..... (43rd) Greens hit: 57 of 72 ....... (T1st) Putts: 117 (29.25 a rd) .... (T33rd) Putting breakdown: 0-putt greens: 0 1-putt greens: 29 2-putt greens: 41 3-putt greens: 2 Play on par 3s: -2 Play on par 4s: -7 Play on par 5s: -6 Eagles: 1 Birdies: 19 ................ (T5th) Scrambling: 13 of 15 (86.67%)... (2nd)
Scrambling measures how many times a player gets up and down for par or better on the holes where he missed the green in regulation.
What does this win mean for Johnson
- Now has four top-10 finishes for the season. He has 18 career top-10s in 103 professional starts and has finished in the top-25 42 times.
- Climbed to 13th in the World Golf Rankings. He began the year in 54th place.
- With the win Johnson becomes the fifth of the 8 champions at Sugarloaf to also win a major championship. Another strange highlight, in the 11 years that the AT&T have been held at Sugarloaf, Johnson becomes the third multiple winner behind Phil Mickelson and Scott McCarron.
- In another honor Johnson will get a special proclamation from the governor of Iowa on Thursday. This was already planned because of his Masters win but this victory will make that honor all the sweater.
- The two big question on everyone's minds has to be can Johnson be the only player to win three times in a year in Georgia? He will have his chance in September in the Tour Championship played at East Lake. In two previous visits he was 13th in 2004 and 16th last year.
- Lastly he becomes the fourth multiple winner on the PGA Tour joining the ranks alongside Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Vijay Singh. With Johnson claiming the year's first major he is in the running for Player-of-the-Year so the question now is, can Johnson win again this year.
Ryuji Imada - Why he lost
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Nothing like doing well in front of the home folks. Even though Ryuji Imada was born in Japan, he has some roots in Georgia as he went to the University of Georgia were he became a first-team All-American in 1999 as a freshman. He helped the Bulldogs to their first National Championship and finished runner-up to Luke Donald in the individual competition. Imada left after his sophomore season and got his Nationwide Tour card. He played on that tour for five years until he finished 3rd on the money list in 2004 which got him on the PGA Tour in 2005.
Imada's runner-up at the AT&T was his best finish, it was his fourth top-ten finish. With the finish it moved him to 31st on the money list with just under $1.1 million in earnings, guaranteeing his tour card for 2008.
Here are some other reasons for losing:
- Of course the 2nd shot in the water at 18 was the big key. This had to be disappointing for Imada who had played that hole in five under for the week.
- Many could point to his bogey at 14 but not making a seven footer at 17 for birdie made things hard on him.
- Johnson hit five less greens than Johnson did.
Imada's stats (with rank in parentheses):
Fairways hit: 34 of 56 ..... (T54th) Driving average: 290.6 ..... (61st) Greens hit: 52 of 72 ....... (T20th) Putts: 109 (27.25 a rd) .... (T3rd) Putting breakdown: 0-putt greens: 0 1-putt greens: 36 2-putt greens: 35 3-putt green: 1 Play on par 3s: -2 Play on par 4s: -4 Play on par 5s: -9 Eagles: 0 Birdies: 22 ................ (1st) Scrambling: 14 of 20 (70.00%) (T13th)
Scrambling measures how many times a player gets up and down for par or better on the holes where he missed the green in regulation.
What this means for Imada:
- Imada can now free-wheel the rest of the season now that he doesn't have to worry about his tour card in 2008. Imada can work on winning this year and improving his FedEx rankings so that he can make it to the Tour Championship.
