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He is the most accomplished member of that hall
of fame, now 69 members strong. And those in
attendance saw a side of Johnson rarely on display.
He got emotional during his acceptance speech, when
speaking about his family in attendance as well as
the man who got him started in golf as a 10-year-old,
Larry Gladson, the head pro at Elmcrest Country Club
in Cedar Rapids.
“The point is, like any parents that love you and
certainly want the best for you, they didn’t think that
was the wisest choice,” Johnson said of his decision to
pursue golf as a career. “Yes, I went against the grain.
But I had a dream.”
Johnson was never the No. 1 man on his golf teams at
Cedar Rapids Regis or Drake. But one thing nagged at
him as he neared graduation at Drake. Every year he
was ge�ng better.
“I’d always been trying to improve, trying to get
better, and just seeing where that progress could go,”
Johnson said. “I clearly wasn’t the best in high school
or here (at Drake). But there was improvement, and I
didn’t know where that would stop.”
So he jumped head first into pro golf, with the help
of several dozen investors in his home town. The
consensus, among those investors, was that they’d
love to help a young man chase his dream, foolhearty
as it was.
“Emotionally, all of us were hopeful he’d make it,” said
Patt Cobb, one of those investors, Johnson’s Pee Wee
baseball coach back in the day and now the chairman
of the Zach Johnson Foundation. “Intellectually, there
were not a lot of us that thought this kid was going to
be on the PGA Tour.”
But he got there, in 2004, winning for the first time
that year at the BellSouth Classic and never looking
back. He jumped from 126th to 49th in the World Golf
Rankings after that victory and has not been outside
the Top 50 since. He’s been ranked as high as No. 6
in the world and has spent 110 of the last 112 weeks
inside the Top 30.
“Congratulations to him for winning that award,” said
Tom Lehman, who also won an Open Championship
in 1986, was the Ryder Cup captain in 2006 when
Johnson made the team for the first time and is
playing in the Principal Charity Classic this week.
“What a fine person and an amazing human being.”
Ge�ng a little better is still Johnson’s mantra in his
13th season on the PGA Tour.
“I know what my resume says, but that’s still the way
I operate,” Johnson said. “I think if I get caught up in
what’s transpired inside the ropes, things outside the
ropes can go astray and that’s the last thing I want to
happen.”
And yes, mom and dad have bought into their oldest
son’s career of choice.
“I’m grateful for all my family,” Johnson said. “At some
point along the way, they trusted me that I had made
the right decision. “
Johnson, his wife, Kim, and their three children live in
Sea Island, Ga. But home is also where the heart is.
And Iowa will always he in Johnson’s heart.
“God gave me the ability to play this game,” Johnson
said. “I’m not going to slight that. I’m going to take full
advantage of that opportunity. If it’s just representing
the state of Iowa, that’s fantastic. This is where I’m
from. I don’t live here, but I’m a proud Iowan.”
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