Mainstream America has a hero in Johnson
Zach Johnson said after Saturday's round that he would try not to get emotional about being in contention in the Masters Tournament.
All he wanted to worry about before Sunday's round was making sure his 14-week-old son's diapers got changed.
"He slept in (today), and I got up with the baby," said Johnson's wife, Kim.
After a final round that defines his career by winning a green jacket, Johnson couldn't help but let those emotions out.
The humble 31-year-old broke down when his family and friends surrounded him behind the scorer's cabin.
"I just can't believe it. I'm still in disbelief," said Kim, who held the couple's baby, Will, while the champ spent a long moment kissing his forehead.
A guy who calls himself "as normal as they come," Johnson is from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where he was raised on pork chops and sweet corn (perhaps next year's Champions Dinner), and where the residents were shoveling snow earlier this week.
He wasn't the best player on his high school golf team. He wasn't the best on his college team at Drake University, either. And it took him a while to earn anything coming up through the Hooters and Buy.com tours.
"Looking back, it's amazing where I came from," he said. "It's all so surreal."
Johnson began playing golf at age 10. By the time he graduated from Drake in 1998, he didn't want to get a job, and he didn't want to go back to school.
"His mother and I, at first, we were not very pumped about him trying to turn professional," said David Johnson, Zach's father, who made a hole-in-one Thursday on the par-3 fourth hole at Forest Hills.
"This is all really sort of a blur right now. It hasn't sunk in yet."
Johnson battled with guys like Vaughn Taylor on the Hooters Tour for several years, where he was being presented $2,500 and $3,000 checks by Hooters girls.
"I thought those were the best days of my life right there, chicken wings and everything," Johnson said.
"Every goal he has set, he's achieved it," said Gabe Johnson, Zach's younger brother. "I had a good feeling about this week after Thursday, when he was putting pretty well."
Part of his putting routine involves a ball marker with the words "Trust your line" written on one side, and the words "One shot at a time" on the other, along with a Bible verse from Proverbs.
Johnson said he felt he was helped by his family and friends, and by his faith. Appropriately, he won on Easter Sunday.
"I had a lot of people giving me some good words of wisdom this week," he said.
All that wisdom and hard work paid off for Johnson, and culminated when he was able to see his son in his wife's arms.
"It wouldn't have mattered if I had shot an 85 today," Johnson said. "He'd react the same."
Reach Steve Sanders at (706) 823-3216 or steven.l.sanders@augustachronicle.com.
