AUGUSTA, Ga. -- The four-day "Survivor" episode that was the 71st Masters Tournament produced an appropriate winner.

Zach Johnson, whose determination took him from the Drake University golf team to the Hooters Tour to the Nationwide Tour and finally the PGA Tour, donned the green jacket of the Augusta National Golf Club early Sunday evening.

Johnson shot a 3-under-par 69 in Sunday's final round to post a 1-over total for the tournament to defeat a trio of players, including four-time Masters champion Tiger Woods, by two shots.

"This is very surreal, very, very surreal," Johnson said. "I've dreamt about it for years. I didn't think it would be this year, but I put a lot of work into it."

This Masters tested the players' wills as much as their skills. Johnson's 289 total for 72 holes, compiled over a chilly, windy four days at Augusta National, is the highest winning score since Jack Burke shot the same score in capturing the 1956 Masters.

"Zach's proven he's a very level-headed golfer," said Rory Sabbatini, who finished tied for second with Woods and Retief Goosen. "He's also proven he's very tenacious."

Johnson showed his tenacity by producing his biggest shots down the stretch, with more heralded players like Woods, Goosen and Justin Rose chasing him.

Johnson birdied three holes in a four-hole span on the second nine to take control. He led by as many as three strokes, getting to even par with a birdie at No. 16.

He looked at the leaderboard for the first time while standing on the No. 17 tee and proceeded to bogey the hole. He refused to fold, though, making a par save at No. 18 -- he chipped to within six inches after missing the green with his approach shot -- to remain two shots ahead.

"I just trusted what I was doing," Johnson said of his chip shot at No. 18. "I chipped a bunch preparing for this week. I got a good read on it, and it worked out in my favor."

Johnson played in the third to last group, finishing in front of Woods, Justin Rose, Padraig Harrington and 54-hole leader Stuart Appleby.

Knowing the score they were chasing, Rose and Woods had chances to catch Johnson. Rose birdied Nos. 15 and 16 to get to 2-over and stood on No. 17 tee knowing a birdie in each of his last two holes would force a playoff.

Rose proceeded to slice his tee shot into the trees right of the 17th fairway. The ball ricocheted off a Georgia pine and landed in the 15th fairway. He smashed his second shot back across the 17th fairway and made double bogey. He went on to finish in a tie for fifth with Jerry Kelly, three shots behind Johnson.

Woods, meanwhile, stumbled at No. 15, while Johnson was still playing No. 18. Woods hit his second shot at the par-5 into the water hazard fronting the green. Yet he saved par and played No. 16 knowing he was two shots off the lead.

But second shots at Nos. 16 and 17 doomed him. He missed a 12-foot birdie putt at the par-3 16th hole and hit his approach shot at the par-4 17th into the bunker fronting the green.

"Honestly, what the hell just happened?" Woods yelled to his caddie following the shot. "It was downwind."

Woods' shot at a second Tiger Slam went down, too. He came in the winner of the 2006 British Open and PGA Championship. A Masters victory would have left him needing only to win the U.S. Open to complete the unofficial grand slam.

Woods has held all four major championship titles at the same time previously in his career. He won the U.S. Open, British Open and PGA Championship in 2000 followed by the 2001 Masters. This feat, not considered a true grand slam because the victories failed to come in the same calendar year, was dubbed the Tiger Slam.

A Zach slam is unlikely. Then again, he earned the nickname "Back-to-back-to-back" Zach by winning three consecutive events on the Hooters Tour in 2001.

Johnson spent 2001 and 2002 on the Hooters Tour, a national mini-tour many players use as a springboard to the PGA Tour's main developmental circuit, the Nationwide Tour. He won two Nationwide events in 2003 and earned PGA Tour playing privileges starting in 2004.

Those privileges did not guarantee him a spot in PGA Tour events, though, and he went to Atlanta in March 2004 to play in a Monday qualifier, the winner of which earned a place in the field for the BellSouth Classic.

Johnson went on to win that event at the TPC at Sugarloaf, his only victory on golf's biggest stage. Until Sunday, that is.

"Today was a day of perseverance and patience," Johnson said during the champion's press conference. "I felt like my game was good coming into today. I felt like I had a chance to move up the board. I had a lot of people give me some good words of wisdom over the last week. And it being Easter Sunday, I felt like there was another power walking with me and guiding me."