Congratulations Zach Johnson. He won the British Open yesterday in a four-hole aggregate playoff against Marc Leishman and Louis Oosthuizen at the home of golf–the Old Course at St. Andrews, Scotland. It doesn’t get any better than that for such a great finish. Thirty-nine year old Zach Johnson thus added this to his other major win–The Masters in 2007. Now Zach has won a total of 12 PGA Tour tournaments, with this British Open win included. He has certainly established himself as one of the top pro golfers in the world. And he so humbly says, “I’m just a regular guy from Iowa.”
Besides the fact that this tournament was held at the historic St. Andrews, an unusual layout that the pros dearly love to play, this was a special major championship. New 21-year old sensation Jordan Spieth, from Dallas, Texas, was trying to make history by winning the Grand Slam when he fell one stroke short of gaining the playoff. The Grand Slam in golf is to win all four majors the same years: the Masters (April), U.S. Open (June), British Open (July), and PGA Championship (August). It’s never been done. Spieth was only the third pro golfer to ever win the first two majors–The Masters and the U.S. Open–in the same year and thus have a chance to win the third major of the year–the British Open.
Only Ben Hogan (1953), Jack Nicklaus (1972), and Tiger Woods (2002) had won the first two majors of the year coming into what is called “The Open.” Tiger Woods did win three majors in 2000, but not the first one of the year–the Masters. However, the indomitable Ben Hogan, the “wee ice mon” as the Scots loved to call him, did win the British Open in 1953 to become the only golfer who ever won all three of those majors in the same year. (He didn’t play in the PGA Championship that year.) So, Spieth was trying to tie Hogan’s record. Incidentally, Hogan was from right next door to Spieth’s home–Ft. Worth, Texas.
The tournament often has fowl weather that makes The Open even more dramatic. They had a 3.5 hour rain delay on Friday that prevented the field from finishing that second round. Then early on Saturday the wind gusted to 40 miles per hour, causing balls to not stay still on the greens. Thus, officials had to call for a wind delay, something you rarely see in professional golf. In fact, in my pro career I only experienced that once–at Las Vegas–in a total of almost 600 regular PGA Tour tournaments I played in my career. At this British Open, Saturday’s round had to be cancelled, and that’s why they had to play the third round on Sunday and the fourth and final round on Monday.
Long-hitting Dustin Johnson was leading the tournament after two rounds. He dramatically lost the U.S. Open to Jordan Spieth by one stroke due to three-putting from twelve feet on the 72nd, last hole. But Johnson couldn’t put it together again and finished back in the pack this time.
On Monday, Zach Johnson teed off earlier than the top leaders. It partially rained and the wind blew throughout the day. Zach made a 22-foot putt on the eighteenth and last hole of regulation play to post a 66 and wait and see if he might get in a playoff. The back nine at St. Andrews under such weather conditions is brutal. The seventeenth hole is known as the most difficult hole in championship golf. Leishman could have won except for missing two three-foot putts that back nine. But Spieth’s magical putter let him down even more as he three-putted five times in his second round and four-putted the eighth hole on Monday by knocking a 100-foot putt off the green. Like Zach Johnson, Louis Oosthuizen birdied the last hole to make the playoff. Good-swinging Jason Day, who keeps knocking at the door to win his first major, fell one stroke shy of the playoff by leaving his birdie try on the last hole on line but short.
I consider myself a golf swing analyst. My two favorite golf swings in professional golf are those of Zach Johnson and Louis Oosthuizen. Thus, how fitting for me that both would be in the playoff. Everyone says Oosthuizen’s swing is pure textbook–as good as it gets. Johnson’s swing is different. He has what I call a totally efficient, “choke-proof swing.” That is, there just isn’t anything that can go wrong with it. Thus, Zach can never hit a very bad shot. All of his misses are acceptable to most pretty good golfers.
That’s the way Ben Hogan played the game. He became great when he shortened his backswing. Zach has a short backswing with little wrist cock and a very abbreviated follow through in which he does not release the club and does not let the clubface turn over. That kind of a swing gets the job done under pressure. I think if I had my career to do over, I would swing that way. It’s not difficult to do. However, you may give up a little yardage off the tee. But the gain is that you hit more fairways and greens in regulation. Such a swing is a money machine, as Zack Johnson has proved with his 12 wins.
In the playoff, Zach started agressively by making birdie on the first two holes. Leishman pretty much took himself out of the competition by making a bogie. Oosthuizen’s putt on the fourth and final hole of the playoff missed as Zack Johnson won by one stroke.
There is a commraderie between many of the pros on the PGA Tour. An example was that Jordan Spieth, who reportedly attended a Jesuit highschool, waited at the course until his friend Zack Johnson won the playoff in order to congratulate him. Both Zack Johnson and Jordan Spieth are special guys.
In the televised media interview immediately after the tournament was finished, Zack Johnson cried and was such an emotional mess that he could hardly talk. One thing he said was that during that last round he sometimes was thinking of memorized Bible verses to help calm his nerves.
Zack Johnson is a vocal Christian. He has been a fixture in the PGA Tour Bible Study throughout his career on the regular Tour. He came from a Catholic home in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. But he says he became a committed Christian when he met his wife Kim, who was a devoted Baptist. Zack sometimes speaks at Christian outreach gatherings where he gives his Christian testimony. I’ve seen and heard him do it here during the Waste Management Phoenix Open, where I live.
Chalk up another major championship victory in professional golf for the PGA Tour Bible Study. Its regular members have won a whole bunch of major championships over the past four decades.
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