‘Normal guy’ succeeds with precision short game
Zach Johnson did not come to Napa to launch booming home runs. He’s a singles hitter, in baseball parlance, patiently knocking his golf ball down the fairway.
And then, with a wedge and putter in his hands? Watch out.
Johnson will make his inaugural appearance in the Safeway Open this week at Silverado Resort in Napa. His debut in the tournament offers a relevant reminder: It’s not always about power off the tee, even in this big-hitting era.
Johnson, 41, has 12 wins and more than $42 million in earnings in his PGA Tour career. Those are impressive, practically gaudy numbers for a golfer who once described himself as a normal guy from Iowa.
That was Johnson’s memorable line at Augusta National in 2007 after he won the Masters. He added the British Open title in 2015, giving him an abnormal distinction: two-time major champion.
Along the way, Johnson probably supplanted Jack Fleck as the most famous golfer from Iowa. Fleck, an unheralded club pro at the time, earned his spot in history when he stunned Ben Hogan in an 18-hole playoff to win the 1955 U.S. Open at the Olympic Club.
Johnson held off Tiger Woods to win the Masters, outlasted Jordan Spieth and Jason Day (among others) to take the British Open and has won 10 other times on tour. And he’s done it mostly because of his tremendous work on the greens.
Even so, putting excellence is not typically a lifelong habit. Hall of Famer Johnny Miller, this week’s tournament host, once talked about a player’s putting life and how even the best putters eventually stop rolling them into the hole.
Johnson hasn’t reached this point yet, but he acknowledged the power of good putting.
“I’m not going to sit here and say my putting’s phenomenal, because it’s not, or I’m the best putter, because I’m not,” he said during his news conference Tuesday at Silverado. “But it’s the one aspect of the game my team and I are going to have the most dialogue about, because it still is the most important part of the game. …
“Putting is the equalizer and certainly the thing that can further your career or your year.”
Johnson, by his standards, had an unspectacular 2016-17 season. He finished 40th on the money list, didn’t make the Tour Championship and didn’t earn a spot on the Presidents Cup team.
His statistics still reveal the formula that has earned him 76 top-10 finishes in his career. He ranked 140th on tour in driving distance but compensated with driving accuracy (22nd) and putting (26th).
Silverado’s North Course should suit Johnson well, because precision matters nearly as much as power.
“You could say some of the shot-making is that of a Hilton Head or Colonial,” Johnson said, “where you’ve got to be in the right side of the fairway versus the left side of the fairway, that kind of thing.”
Johnson added this tournament to his schedule because he didn’t want to go seven or eight consecutive weeks without playing. He tees off at 7:50 a.m. Thursday.