Zach Johnson

Zachary Harris Johnson was born on February 24, 1976, in Iowa City, Iowa, and grew up in Cedar Rapids as the oldest of three children. His father was a chiropractor. Johnson played baseball, basketball, football, and soccer as a kid before picking up golf at age ten, honing his game at Elmcrest Country Club. He was the number-two player on the Regis High School golf team, which won the Iowa 3A state championship in 1992 during his sophomore year.

After graduating high school in 1994, he attended Drake University in Des Moines, where he was again the number-two player on the golf team, helping the Bulldogs reach three NCAA regional meets and win two Missouri Valley Conference titles. His uncle, Tom Harris, had qualified for the 1975 NAIA national tournament. Johnson turned professional in 1998 and worked his way up through developmental tours, including the Prairie Golf Tour, the Buy.com Tour (now the Korn Ferry Tour), and the Hooters Tour.

On the Hooters Tour in 2001, he won the final three regular-season events. In 2003, he topped the Nationwide Tour money list with a then-record $494,882, earning automatic promotion to the PGA Tour. His first PGA Tour win came in 2004 at the BellSouth Classic near Atlanta, beating Mark Hensby by one stroke. In 2006, he posted two runner-up finishes and a third at the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship, which helped him qualify for the U.S. Ryder Cup team for the first time, finishing ninth on the points list.

Johnson captured his first major at the 2007 Masters in Augusta, winning by two strokes over Tiger Woods, Retief Goosen, and Rory Sabbatini. His winning score of 289 (+1) tied Sam Snead (1954) and Jack Burke Jr. (1956) for the highest winning score in Masters history. The victory vaulted him from 56th to 15th in the world rankings, making him the first player outside the top 50 to win the Masters since the rankings began in 1986. I owe this to Him.” Six weeks later, he won the AT&T Classic in a playoff over Ryuji Imada, moving to 13th in the world. His next PGA Tour victory, and his first outside Georgia, came at the 2008 Valero Texas Open, where weekend rounds of 62 and 64 gave him a two-stroke win. In January 2009, Johnson won the Sony Open in Hawaii for his fifth PGA Tour title, then successfully defended his Valero Texas Open crown in May with a playoff victory over James Driscoll. During that event, he shot a third-round 60, becoming the first player to shoot 60 twice on the PGA Tour (he had also done so at the 2007 Tour Championship). That win was his sixth. Other 2009 highlights included a tie for second at the John Deere Classic and a solo third at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. He finished the season a career-best fourth on the money list. In 2010, he made ten of his first eleven cuts before winning the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial in June for his seventh PGA Tour victory. He missed only two cuts all year and qualified for both the Tour Championship and the 2010 U.S. Ryder Cup team, his second appearance. Johnson won the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial again in 2012. On the final hole, he made a five-foot putt for what appeared to be a three-shot victory, but a ruling resulted in a two-stroke penalty. He signed for a double-bogey instead of a par, winning by one stroke over Jason Dufner. The win moved him to third in the FedEx Cup standings and back into the world top 20. On July 15, 2012, he won the John Deere Classic in a playoff over Troy Matteson, birdieing the second extra hole. Matteson had led since the first round and started the final day four shots ahead of Johnson, who also trailed three-time defending champion Steve Stricker. Johnson’s swing coach, Mike Bender, caddied for him that week while his usual caddie, Damon Green, played in the U.S. Senior Open. At the 2012 Open Championship at Royal Lytham & St Annes, Johnson finished tied for ninth at even par, seven shots behind winner Ernie Els. In 2013, Johnson lost his John Deere Classic title in a three-man sudden-death playoff to Jordan Spieth on the fifth extra hole. Johnson had a one-shot lead on the final hole of regulation but bogeyed, and in the playoff, he had a chance to win on the second extra hole but missed the putt. Spieth won with a par after Johnson hit his second shot into the water and made bogey. The following week at the 2013 Open Championship at Muirfield, Johnson opened with a five-under 66 to hold a one-stroke lead over Rafa Cabrera-Bello and Mark O’Meara.