Zach Johnson

For other people named Zach Johnson, see Zach Johnson (disambiguation).

Zach Johnson
Johnson in April 2007 at Harbour Town
Personal information
Full name	Zachary Harris Johnson
Born	(1976-02-24) February 24, 1976 Iowa City, Iowa, U.S.
Height	5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)
Weight	160 lb (73 kg; 11 st)
Nationality	United States
Residence	St. Simons Island, Georgia, U.S.
Spouse	Kim Johnson (m. 2003)
Children	Will, Wyatt, Abby Jane
Career
College	Drake University
Turned professional	1998
Current tour(s)	PGA Tour (joined 2004)
Former tour(s)	Nationwide Tour Hooters Tour
Professional wins	23
Number of wins by tour
PGA Tour	9
Web.com Tour	2
Other	12
Best results in Major Championships (Wins: 1)
Masters Tournament	Won: 2007
U.S. Open	T30: 2011
The Open Championship	T9: 2012
PGA Championship	T3: 2010
Achievements and awards
Nationwide Tour leading money winner	2003
Nationwide Tour Player of the Year	2003

Zachary Harris Johnson (born February 24, 1976) is an American professional golfer who has had nine victories on the PGA Tour, including one major championship, the 2007 Masters.

Early life

The son of a chiropractor, Johnson was born in Iowa City, Iowa and raised in Cedar Rapids, the oldest of Dave and Julie Johnson's three children. Playing many sports as a youth (baseball, basketball, football, and soccer), Johnson took up golf at age 10 and developed his skills at Elmcrest Country Club. He played number-two on the Regis High School golf team and led them to an Iowa 3A state championship in 1992, his sophomore year.

Following graduation from high school in 1994, Johnson enrolled at Drake University in Des Moines. As the number-two player on the Drake golf team, he led the Bulldogs to three NCAA regional meets and two Missouri Valley championships. Johnson's uncle, Tom Harris, qualified for the 1975 NAIA national tournament. Johnson has admitted to not being the best player on his high school or college team, but was quoted in his Masters speech saying, "I just kept getting better every year."^{[citation needed]}

Professional career

Johnson turned professional in 1998 and played on the developmental tour circuit, including the now-defunct Prairie Golf Tour, the Buy.com Tour (later the Nationwide Tour and Web.com Tour), and the Hooters Tour, where he won the final three regular-season events in 2001. In 2003, he topped the money list on the Nationwide Tour with then record earnings of $494,882, earning an automatic promotion to the PGA Tour. He won his first PGA Tour event at the 2004 BellSouth Classic outside of Atlanta when he finished one stroke ahead of Mark Hensby. In 2006, Johnson recorded a number of impressive results including two runner-up places and finishing third at the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship. As a result of this, Johnson qualified for the U.S. Ryder Cup team for the first time in 2006, finishing 9th on the U.S. points list.

On April 8, 2007, Johnson won the Masters Tournament in Augusta by a margin of 2 strokes over Tiger Woods, Retief Goosen, and Rory Sabbatini. It was his first major title. His score of 289 (+1) tied Sam Snead (1954) and Jack Burke Jr. (1956) for the highest winning score at the Masters. His victory took him from #56 to #15 in the world rankings; he was the first outside the top 50 in the world rankings to win the Masters in the history of the rankings. After winning, he mentioned his Christian faith and thanked God, saying "This being Easter, I cannot help but believe my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ was walking with me. I owe this to Him."

Six weeks after winning the Masters, Johnson won for the third time on tour at the 2007 AT&T Classic in a playoff over Ryuji Imada. Following the win, Johnson moved to a career-best 13th in the world rankings. His next PGA Tour victory, and first outside the state of Georgia, came at the 2008 Valero Texas Open, where he finished with rounds of 62 and 64 over the weekend to finish two strokes ahead of a chasing pack of players.

Johnson won the Sony Open in Hawaii in January 2009 for his fifth victory on the PGA Tour, and successfully defended his title at the Valero Texas Open in May with a playoff victory over James Driscoll. With a third-round 60, Johnson became the first player to shoot 60 twice on the PGA Tour, having done so previously at the 2007 Tour Championship. The win was Johnson's sixth on tour. Other highlights in 2009 include a tie for 2nd place at the John Deere Classic and a solo 3rd place finish at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. He finished the season ranked a career best fourth on the money list.

In 2010, Johnson started the season solidly on the PGA Tour, making ten of his first eleven cuts without any significant results. Then in June 2010, Johnson won the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial, his seventh PGA Tour victory. Johnson only missed two cuts all year en route to qualifying for the season ending Tour Championship and the 2010 U.S. Ryder Cup team, his second appearance in the event.

In 2012, Johnson won the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial for the second time in his career. He made a five foot putt on the last hole for what appeared to be a three shot victory, but a ruling on the final hole resulted in a two-stroke penalty. Fortunately, it did not affect the outcome of the tournament, with the only difference being Johnson signing for a 6 instead of a 4 on the final hole, with Johnson winning by a single stroke over Jason Dufner. He jumped to 3rd in the FedEx Cup standings and returned to the world top 20 with this victory.

Johnson moved to second in the FedEx Cup standings with a playoff win on July 15, 2012, at the John Deere Classic. Johnson defeated Troy Matteson, who started the day up four shots on Johnson and had led the tournament since the first round, with a birdie on the second hole of their playoff. Johnson also started the day behind three-time defending champion Steve Stricker, who was three shots behind Matteson. It was Johnson's second win on the year after winning at Colonial Country Club. Mike Bender, Johnson's swing coach, also caddied for the week while usual caddie Damon Green played in the U.S. Senior Open.

At the 2012 Open Championship, played at Royal Lytham & St Annes Golf Club in Lancashire, England, Johnson finished at even par for the tournament (280), tied for ninth, seven shots behind winner Ernie Els. In his eight previous Open appearances, Johnson had never finished better than 16th.

Johnson is one of only two players (the other being Phil Mickelson) to have twice shot a round of 60 on the PGA Tour.

Personal life

Johnson and his wife, Kim, were members of First Baptist Church in Orlando. Johnson was raised a Catholic, but joined his wife's church prior to their marriage in 2003. They have two sons, Will and Wyatt, and one daughter, Abby Jane. They lived in Lake Mary, Florida and now reside in St. Simons, Georgia.

On September 4, 2007, Johnson led the singing of "Take Me Out To The Ballgame" during the seventh-inning stretch of the Chicago Cubs baseball game at Wrigley Field.

In May 2011, the Zach Johnson Foundation donated to both Van Buren Elementary School and Harrison Elementary School in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. This is a part of an educational program titled "Kids on Course".

Professional wins (23)

PGA Tour wins (9)

Legend

Major championships (1)

Other PGA Tour (8)

No.	Date	Tournament	Winning score	To par	Margin of victory	Runner(s)-up
1	Apr 4, 2004	BellSouth Classic	69-66-68-72=275	–13	1 stroke	Mark Hensby
2	Apr 8, 2007	Masters Tournament	71-73-76-69=289	+1	2 strokes	Retief Goosen, Rory Sabbatini, Tiger Woods
3	May 20, 2007	AT&T Classic	71-66-69-67=273	–15	Playoff	Ryuji Imada
4	Oct 12, 2008	Valero Texas Open	69-66-62-64=261	–19	2 strokes	Charlie Wi, Tim Wilkinson, Mark Wilson
5	Jan 18, 2009	Sony Open in Hawaii	69-65-66-65=265	–15	2 strokes	Adam Scott, David Toms
6	May 17, 2009	Valero Texas Open	68-67-60-70=265	–15	Playoff	James Driscoll
7	May 30, 2010	Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial	65-66-64-64=259	–21	3 strokes	Brian Davis
8	May 27, 2012	Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial	64-67-65-72=268	–12	1 stroke	Jason Dufner
9	Jul 15, 2012	John Deere Classic	68-65-66-65=264	–20	Playoff	Troy Matteson

PGA Tour playoff record (3–0)

No.	Year	Tournament	Opponent(s)	Result
1	2007	AT&T Classic	Ryuji Imada	Won with birdie on first extra hole
2	2009	Valero Texas Open	James Driscoll	Won with birdie on first extra hole
3	2012	John Deere Classic	Troy Matteson	Won with birdie on second extra hole

Nationwide Tour wins (2)

No.	Date	Tournament	Winning score	To par	Margin of victory	Runner-up
1	Apr 27, 2003	Rheem Classic	65-70-71-66=272	–8	Playoff 1	Steve Haskins
2	Sep 7, 2003	Envirocare Utah Classic	68-69-65-65=267	–21	1 stroke	Bobby Gage

¹ Defeated Haskins with birdie on first extra hole.

Other wins (12)

• 1998 1 Prairie Golf Tour event
• 1999 2 Prairie Golf Tour events
• 2001 Iowa Open, Greater Cedar Rapids Open, 3 NGA Hooters Tour events
• 2002 Iowa Open, 1 NGA Hooters Tour event
• 2006 Wendy's 3-Tour Challenge (with Stewart Cink and Scott Verplank)
• 2011 CVS Caremark Charity Classic (with Matt Kuchar)

Major championships

Wins (1)

Year	Championship	54 holes	Winning score	To par	Margin	Runners-up
2007	Masters Tournament	2 shot deficit	71-73-76-69=289	+1	2 strokes	Retief Goosen, Rory Sabbatini, Tiger Woods

Results timeline

Tournament	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013
The Masters	DNP	CUT	T32	1	T20	CUT	42	CUT	T32	T35
U.S. Open	T48	CUT	CUT	T45	CUT	CUT	T77	T30	T41
The Open Championship	CUT	CUT	CUT	T20	T51	T47	T76	T16	T9
PGA Championship	T37	T17	CUT	CUT	CUT	T10	T3	T59	70

DNP = did not play
CUT = missed the half-way cut
"T" = tied
Green background for wins. Yellow background for top-10.

Summary

• Starts – 36
• Wins – 1
• 2nd place finishes – 0
• 3rd place finishes – 1
• Top 3 finishes – 2
• Top 5 finishes – 2
• Top 10 finishes – 4
• Top 25 finishes – 8
• Missed cuts – 13
• Most consecutive cuts made – 8

Results in World Golf Championship events

Tournament	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008
Accenture Match Play Championship	DNP	R64	3	R64	R64
Cadillac Championship	10	T43	T45	T9	T9
Bridgestone Invitational	T22	T9	T36	T11	T16

Tournament	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013
Accenture Match Play Championship	R32	R32	R64	R64	R64
Cadillac Championship	T53	T37	T24	T17	T47
Bridgestone Invitational	T15	T33	T6	T40
HSBC Champions	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP

DNP = Did not play
QF, R16, R32, R64 = Round in which player lost in match play
"T" = tied
Yellow background for top-10.
Note that the HSBC Champions did not become a WGC event until 2009.

PGA Tour career summary

Year	Wins (Majors)	Earnings ($)	Rank
2004	1	2,417,685	19
2005	0	1,796,441	39
2006	0	2,452,250	24
2007	2 (1)	3,922,338	8
2008	1	1,615,123	53
2009	2	4,714,813	4
2010	1	2,916,993	19
2011	0	1,880,406	44
2012	2	4,504,244	6
Career*	9 (1)	26,277,293	21

* As of the 2012 season.

U.S. national team appearances

Professional

• Presidents Cup: 2007 (winners), 2009 (winners)
• Ryder Cup: 2006, 2010, 2012
• World Cup: 2005

See also

• 2003 Nationwide Tour graduates
• List of golfers with most PGA Tour wins

External links

• Official website
• Zach Johnson at the PGA Tour official site
• Zach Johnson at the Official World Golf Ranking official site
• Augusta.com - Out of the Ordinary - profile - April 6, 2008
• Golf.com - Zach Johnson is the talk of the town - April 2008
• Xavier Foundation.org - Zach Johnson - Fall 2004