Two Zach Johnsons will tee it up at PGA

ST. LOUIS — Before he hits a single shot at the PGA Championship, Zach Johnson already has made a name for himself.

Yes, that Zach Johnson.

And the other Zach Johnson, too.

Yes, there are two of them roaming the grounds at Bellerive Country Club this week.

One needs no introduction. That would be the two-time major winner, Zach Johnson of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, a 12-time winner on the PGA Tour who has racked up more than $44 million in winnings.

The other? Well, he’s not quite a household name. He is Zach Johnson of Farmington, Utah, who works as the assistant pro at Davis Park Golf Course in the suburbs of Salt Lake City. He is one of 20 club pros who qualified into the 156man field, and will be, for at least two days, in the same playing field with Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, Dustin Johnson and, yes, Zach Johnson.

Tournament organizers called the club pro recently and asked him whether it was OK for him to go by “Zach J. Johnson” for the week to eliminate confusion.

“I don’t think they called and asked him first,” Zach J. said of his namesake. “It was more like: ‘Here’s what you’re going by. Hopefully you’ll like it.’”

And if Zach H. Johnson hadn’t won the 2007 Masters and 2015 British Open, would he be going by “Zach H” this week?

“I doubt it,” he said. “Maybe I’d be ‘Z’.”

Zach J. Johnson, 35, is a graduate of Southern Utah — the only college that offered him a chance to play golf — and spent his first few years after college Zach J. Johnson — not the more famous Zach Johnson, who has won two majors — walks down the eighth fairway with caddie Taylor Laybourne during practice for the PGA Championship. Zach J. Johnson is a club pro from Utah who qualified for this year’s tournament at Bellerive Country Club in Saint Louis. When: Thursday-Sunday Where: Bellerive Country Club, St. Louis Course: 7,547 yards, par-72 TV SCHEDULE Thursday-Friday: p.m., TNT Saturday-Sunday: 11 a.m.-2 p.m., TNT; 2-7 p.m., CBS 2-8 playing on mini-tours in the area. He tried Q school from 2006 to ’09.

It wasn’t clicking, Johnson said, “and I figured out that if I wanted to have a family and get on with life, that being a touring pro wasn’t going to be for me.”

He had a good friend, Pete Stone, on the mini-tours, and Pete’s dad was the head pro at Davis Park.

“I’d always ask him, ‘When is your dad going to give me a job?’” Johnson said.

Eventually, Brad Stone hired Johnson to a four-days-a-week gig as the starter, working the early shift. He worked his way up the ladder, and became an assistant pro — one of the thousands of taken-for-granted grinders who keep golf shops running across America each day.

“Good professionals, they wear a lot of hats,” Brad Stone said. “It’s everything from running tournaments to public relations, to playing and teaching

and all those things. You’re judged on all that, and sometimes all the hours our assistants work, there’s a lot of sacrifice, especially if you’re going to play a lot.”

Stone wants his assistants to play, and now Johnson is part of a special tradition: The Masters lets its past champions tee it up; the U.S. and British Opens are open to qualifiers; the PGA Championship reserves spots for the men who sell the shirts and give the lessons.

This week, Johnson will undoubtedly get a chance to meet his favorite PGA Tour pros: Woods and Sergio Garcia. And, of course, plans are in the works for a photo op with the other Zach Johnson.

That Zach Johnson was watching the PGA pro qualifying tournament back in June, pulling for a buddy, fellow Iowan Sean McCarty, who finished second and also will be at Bellerive.

Suddenly, Johnson saw his own name pop up on the leaderboard.

And that’s how this tale of Johnson & Johnson began.

“I tweeted out something about Sean, and then I plugged Zach Johnson, as well,” the two-time major winner said, before pausing for a second to consider what had just come out of his mouth. “Zach Johnson. It’s weird to say that.”