Johnson's disciplined approach to par-5s pays off
Zach Johnson was standing in the middle of the par-5 13th fairway with a 4-iron in his hand. He had only 196 yards to reach the green. He was locked in a four-way tie for the lead on Sunday at the Masters -- a substantial fact that Johnson was intentionally unaware of at the time.
Everyone watching was surely thinking the same thing: You've got to go for it -- this is no time to lay up. Johnson, however, put the long iron back in the bag and pulled his wedge.
"I received about eight text messages after he didn't go for it on No. 13," said Jamie Bremel, Johnson's college coach at Drake. "All along the lines of 'What!? Is he playing for second?' "
Johnson was, in fact, playing by the rules he established for himself before the tournament started. And despite the attractive yardage on 13, the ground under his feet on the canted fairway didn't jibe with his plan.
"He had a very set plan in place," said Dr. Morris Pickens, Johnson's sports psychologist. "Unless he had an iron in his hand off a level lie, he wasn't going to go. He never had that combination on 13 or 15 where he had an iron in his hand off a level lie."
So Johnson laid up as he had all week. He hit his third shot close and made birdie to claim the lead he never relinquished.
"I was taking six out of the equation," Johnson said of the risk involved in clearing the tributary of Rae's Creek that fronts the 13th green. "So I thought my wedge game is good, there's just no reason to do it. Get me inside 10 feet, I have a chance of making the putt. It was pretty easy to back off."
Easier said than done. At Augusta National, where the Masters Tournament is annually won and lost based largely on par-5 performance, Johnson never went for a single one of them in two. Yet on his 16 opportunities, he went 11-under par by playing the proper angles, hitting the right wedges and sinking the makeable putts. It was a model of efficiency that should serve as a blueprint for every shorter hitter trying to handle what is widely considered a bomber's paradise.
"I think it gives guys like that the mindset that there's more than one way to skin a cat," Pickens said. "Tim Clark had proven that the year before. Mike Weir (in 2003). I think more people will probably pay attention to that and think in terms of 'I don't have to always go for No. 2 or No. 13.' "
Not that Johnson is the first player with modest power to try the conservative approach. Twenty years earlier, Larry Mize won a green jacket by going for a par-5 in two only once. Mize, however, only went 2-under on the par-5s in 1987.
"Zach is very aware of his own limitations," Pickens said. "Obviously his game is not similar to Tiger's, but there have been other guys who have won here, and how did they do it?"
Johnson mapped out his plan with his caddie, Damon Green, during the practice rounds. They eschewed the one-dimensional approach of considering length alone. They studied the width, and determined which landing areas offered the best approaches to which pins.
"It wasn't necessarily that he wasn't going to go for a par-5 all week," Pickens said. "He totally trusted in his wedges, and he knew where to lay up in terms of yardage and angle. He figured out not only did I want this yardage, but I need to be attacking from this side of the fairway. He knew in his mind he could make birdie by the way he dissected the course."
That's all well and good, but when the adrenaline kicks in Sunday on the back nine and the par-5s sit so tantalizingly reachable while the world's No. 1 player is charging two groups behind, holding firm to a blueprint is no easy task. That's where Johnson displayed a rare discipline.
"Most people make a decision on a par-5 on the spur of the moment, based on how they are in relation to par or the field," Pickens said. "Other players are more disciplined and take the approach of 'if this, then this.' It's almost set in stone. That makes it where it's not an emotional decision, and you don't want to get into that out on the golf course."
Johnson admits the cold and difficult conditions last April favored his brand of golf, leveling the playing field to some degree.
"I can't overpower a golf course," he said. "So when I can get run in the fairway, then it's going to help me as far as getting some loft in my hands into those greens. Put us all closer together."
Johnson won't fall into the trap that's brought down players who tinker too much with their swings to try to pick up a couple of extra yards at the expense of accuracy.
"He's got to get better at his wedge game, because that's his type of game," said Mike Bender, Johnson's swing coach. "He knows that. And he's so well-grounded that he's not going to be one of those guys that tries to change a lot. He has to remind himself of that. Everybody wants to hit farther, even the people who already hit it far. Just remind yourself that my strength is this and I have to play within my strength."
Johnson has proved that course management can work even on the one golf course where he never thought he would win.
"I thought it was too big a golf course," he said. "It never plays short there. So many holes where the higher and further you hit it, the easier it is."
He showed that by playing smart and disciplined, however, any course can be brought down to size.
