Zach Johnson
Residence: Lake Mary, Florida
DOB: 24/02/1976
Zach took up golf aged 10 and honed his skills at the Elmcrest Country Club, Iowa. He played as #2 on the Regis High School golf team and led them to the Iowa 3A State Championship in 1992 during his sophomore year. Following graduation from high school in 1994, he enrolled at Drake University in Des Moines. He has always made no issue of the fact that he was neither the best player at High School or University but just tried to get better every year. Despite being the #2 player on the Drake golf team, he led the Bulldogs to 3 NCAA regional meets and 2 Missouri Valley championships.
Johnson turned professional in 1998 and played on the developmental tour circuit, including the Nationwide and Hooters Tours, where he won the final 3 regular-season events in 2001. In 2003, he topped the money list on the Nationwide Tour with record earnings of $494,882, thus giving him automatic promotion to the PGA Tour for the 2004 season.
He won his first PGA Tour event in his rookie year at the 2004 BellSouth Classic. The gallery at BellSouth Classic included a group of 10 businessmen from Iowa who gave Zach the initial financial support early in his career. Some were seeing him play as a pro for the first time. Saying that "It started out as a business, but it ended up as a business family," of his relationship with them. "It's unbelievable having them here."
In 2007, Johnson won the Masters Tournament at The Augusta National by a margin of 2 strokes over Tiger Woods, Retief Goosen, and Rory Sabbatini. His victory took him from #56 to #15 in the World Rankings. Incidentally he was the first player outside the top 50 to win The Masters since the ranking began.
Zach is a deeply religious man and has a real passion for music. On September 4, 2007, he led the singing of "Take Me out to the Ballgame" during the 7th Inning Stretch of a Chicago Cubs baseball game.
2008 was mediocre in comparison to previous seasons on the PGA Tour. Only a single top-10 finish showing for his efforts until mid October, Zach came from nowhere to win the Valero Texas Open. A fantastic 62 in the 4rd round catapulted him up the leader board and equally good 64 under pressure in the final round consolidated his victory. Zach must wish that the season was starting after this week as he followed this 62 with another at Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open.