George White | |
Golf with George
April 9, 2007
George has been a journalist for close to 40 years. He wrote sports for the Houston Chronicle for 19 years and the Orlando Sentinel for 7 years. In 1994 he was one of the first people hired at the Golf Channel, were he started a career as an on-air talent, then moved over as one of the first writers of Golf Central and then their website. White retired from the Golf Channel after 12 years at the end of 2006. He will be writing a weekly column for GolfObserver.
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GolfObserver editors
Zach Johnson wins the Masters
Photo: © Hunter Martin/WireImage |
| Phil Mickelson slips the green jacket onto this year's winner Zach Johnson. |
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I suppose we all should be upset that Tiger Woods or Phil Mickelson or Retief Goosen didn't win the Masters. They are the premium golfers, so the thinking goes, not some kid from - where was it, Iowa? This one has a king-sized 'tilt' beside the entry of 2007.
Now, for the reality of it all - the suits at the Masters got exactly what they deserved. Is that good? Or bad?
Well, if Zach Johnson continues on and becomes a consistent winner, it's good. But if he slips back into business as usual - that is, a better-than-average player, ranked No. 56 in the world, one who had only one win coming into the Masters last week - it's bad.
Photo: © Sam Greenwood/WireImage |
| Zach Johnson now needs to validate his Masters victory. |
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In other words, Johnson now needs to validate this major championship by stepping forward and winning a couple or three times a year. He's 31 years old now, entering the years when a golfer is considered in his prime. It's time when he performs like a major champion, not just another big-time fluke. The last thing the Masters needs is another Paul Lawrie - remember Carnoustie? It doesn't need a Todd Hamilton or Steve Jones or Rich Beem. It needs a Zach Johnson who will go out and win another major - or least three of four of the better PGA Tour tournaments.
Sunday, thankfully, resembled more the Masters of old than the Masters of today. This was the U.S. Open redux, where a great defense was the best trait a golfer could have - you know, golf's version of the sacrifice bunt, the four-corners offense, the punt. You hoped for a par, settled in most cases for a bogey, and hoped you didn't get something worse.
That is not the Masters of the past. There would be no 65s on Sunday, no 30s on the back nine a la Jack Nicklaus of 1986. The words "stern examination" kept popping up, words that fit the Open perfectly. Somehow, the words "sell out" kept running through my mind. Has the Masters done a flip-flop, making it impossible for a 12- or 14-under to win? It used to be the perfect arena for someone to make a serious run through the numbers Sunday if his golf game were spot-on. What made it so appealing, though, was that certain knowledge that if he wasn't, a blow-up of magnificent proportions was bound to occur.
Augusta has been doozied up to where its newly found length is a monstrous 7,455 yards, made even more terrifying because those 7,455 are up and down such steep elevations.
Photo: © David Cannon/Getty Images | | Zach Johnson didn't overpower Augusta National like some others have over the years. |
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There's something hugely gratifying, though, about a short hitter bringing down the long knockers of the world. Zach only averaged 265 yards off the tee, placing him 30 yards behind the big bashers. Remember other short hitters like Jose Maria Olazabal, Mark O'Meara, Bernhard Langer an older Ben Crenshaw, even Nick Faldo, winning here in the past 15 years? Maybe there is still room at the Masters for the little guy who hits it straight and putts the lights out.
Zack's caddy, Damon Green, noted that the granite-hard conditions played into Johnson's wheelhouse. Why? Because Zach is normally a straight hitter, and a straight hitter is going to spend most of his time in the fairways. And being in the fairways enabled the ball to run and run, which allowed Johnson to hit 8- and 9-irons into many of the pins. That meant he could put spin on the shots into the green, and backspin causes the ball to settle quickly.
If the fairways had been soft, if the course were soaked as is so often the case at Augusta, it is debatable if Johnson could have won. His lack of power would probably have left him too far back on many of the holes to spin the ball. A 5- or 6-iron into the green would have left him too far from the hole.
How did Johnson win? He won because of his razor-sharp iron play, he won because of his putting, but most all he won because he didn't get rattled when the all-imposing figure of a hard-charging Woods suddenly loomed on the scoreboard. How often have you seen it happen, when Tiger slipped it into overdrive and the opposition began to topple like so many dominoes?
Photo: © Harry How/Getty Images |
| Zach Johnson after making birdie at 16 on Sunday. |
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"They say a giant has to fall at some point," said Johnson, "and maybe that's the case."
"You know, it's still very surreal in that respect. You can't - I was sitting in the locker room waiting for Tiger to hit his second shot on 18. Before he hit it, I'm like, 'He's done stranger things.' The guy's a phenom. "
"The next person to come along like him - who knows how long it's going to be? It makes it that much more gratifying knowing that I beat Tiger Woods."
He's 31, the same age as Tiger, and he's shown us flashes of brilliance. First of all, he made last year's Ryder Cup, and he performed well in that Ryder Cup. In his rookie season in 2004, he won almost $2.5 million, a record for first-year players.
Zach Johnson, though, basically has been a plodder most of his life, though he's been a consistently good plodder. He bounced around the backwoods, wherever he could pick up a game, wherever they would pay a young pro to play. He played in the heartland, turning up in some dusty, out-of-the-way place and scrounging around for a dollar here, a dollar there.
"My first event was in Lincoln, Nebraska," he recalled. "I don't remember where the second one was, but I played in Bellevue, Nebraska; I played in Kansas; Lawrence, Kansas. Geez, where else have I played - all over the Midwest, down into Missouri.
Photo: © Andrew Redington/Getty Images | | Johnson's caddy Damon Green was an important element in Johnson's Masters victory |
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"The Prairie Tour, that's good. You know, I remember the first check, my parents still have it in my room at home. First place was $2,500 I think, maybe $3,000 something like that."
He's just a golf-course rat who happened to wind up all alone on golf's biggest stage.
"I love to play a game for a living. I love to play this game for what it is, golf. I appreciate it. You know, I feel honored to play golf as my living. I'm a competitor and it just so happens I'm from the Midwest. It's not exactly the golf breeding ground."
So he's from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, a place much better known for its corn crops than for turning out champion golfers. So he hasn't won much on the PGA Tour. So he can't whip the ball out there 300 yards - after all, he didn't try to reach a par-5 in two shots all week.
All that, however, is merely food for idle thought. For one week at Augusta, no one on planet earth played golf like Zack Johnson.
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