Unlikely champ Johnson's career could be taking off

Few people picked Zach Johnson to come out on top of the scramble for the Green Jacket Sunday, but he's now won twice in three years on the PGA TOUR and played in a Ryder Cup. With his solid foundation, he could be poised for greatness.

By Helen Ross, PGATOUR.com Chief of Correspondents

AUGUSTA, Ga. -- The shadows were lengthening over the emerald green fairways as Zach Johnson walked out of the scorer's cabin Sunday evening.

He kissed his wife, hugged assorted family members and friends and climbed onto the podium where CBS announcer Bill McAtee was waiting. Two groups still had to finish their rounds at Augusta National before he would officially be the Masters champion.

"I feel like I should start preaching," Johnson said as he turned to the throng of patrons gathered behind the 18th green. "You know, it is Easter."

The somewhat bewildered smile on the face of this soft-spoken man of faith from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, said it all, though. So did the way he kissed the cheek and nibbled the tiny fingers of his 14-week-old son, Will, when the interview was done.

"It was an amazing experience," Johnson would later say. "Physically, mentally, I'm fatigued, drained. But obviously, seeing my family, seeing my wife and my boy and my father and brother. ? I was just an emotional wreck. I was a slob.

"I was trying to stay in the present still, and realizing it's not over. There are still chances for guys to make birdies and go into a playoff. That's where I was trying to keep my mind in that sort of time frame."

Among the unlikeliest of Masters champions, Johnson earned his 40-regular Green Jacket Sunday by holding off the game's No. 1 player, Tiger Woods, as well as two-time U.S. Open champion Retief Goosen. To name a few, that is.

The 31-year-old Johnson won the Masters, only his second victory on the PGA TOUR, by matching the day's low round of 69 and taking control with three birdies in a four-hole stretch on Augusta National's magnificent and murderous back nine.

Johnson held a two-stroke advantage when he finished his final round. Woods was two groups behind with two chances to even the score, but after that dramatic eagle at the 13th hole the four-time Masters champion could do nothing but make pars.

"It's very surreal in that respect," Johnson said. "I was sitting in the locker room waiting for Tiger to hit his second shot on 18. Before he hit it, I'm like he's done stranger things. The guy's a phenom.

"The next person to come along like him -- who knows how long it's going to be. It makes that much more gratifying knowing that I beat Tiger Woods, there's no question about it."

Johnson only dreamed of a day like this when his long-time friend -- and ironically, Sunday's playing partner -- Vaughn Taylor managed to score several tickets for him to attend the 2002 Masters.

Johnson remembers watching Phil Mickelson, who would help him into the Green Jacket on Sunday afternoon, play that day. Mostly, though, he just wandered Augusta National's rolling fairways and thought about what it would be like to play there someday.

"I told myself, I would never come here unless I played," Johnson remembered. "I had the opportunity, so it's like I'm going to come, not question. We came out on Monday, and I walked the course. I didn't really watch much play.

"My mouth was agape. I was in Augusta. You don't see that on the mini-tours."

And Johnson has played them all -- in Lincoln, Neb., and Lawrence, Kan., and many other parts of the Midwest, where he was born and raised. His parents still have the poster board check from his first victory in his bedroom back home in Cedar Rapids.

"First place was $2,500, I think," Johnson, the 2003 Nationwide Tour Player of the Year, said. "Maybe $3,000, something like that."

For the record, he won $1.305 million on Sunday, a mind-boggling sum for him and the group of investors who sponsored him in the early days after he graduated from Drake with a degree in business administration.

"They started as a business, just kind of guys that were financing me, and then it turned into a business family," Johnson said. "They are unbelievable men and women, and the whole town of Cedar Rapids, for that matter, Elm Crest Country Club. That's where it all began."

Where it will all go is anybody's guess. Johnson played in his first Ryder Cup last year. He's now won twice in just over three years on the PGA TOUR. He's blessed with a supportive family -- he lists his parents as his heroes -- and a wife he calls his ?rock.?

"I'm not so sure I believed in this, but I know she did," Johnson said at the Green Jacket ceremony. "And last but not least, being Easter Sunday, thank you, Jesus," he added without a trace of self-consciousness in his voice.

Taylor said his good friend made "big-time" putts on Sunday -- particularly the pressure-packed birdies on the 13th, 14th and 16th holes. The Augusta native told his friend to stay strong as the two walked up the 18th fairway on the biggest afternoon of either man's life.

"He showed it in the Ryder Cup," Taylor said. "He's one of the toughest guys I know. He's short in stature and not a long hitter, but he's just downright tough.

"Somewhere along the way, he got it into another gear, Where he's improved is his putting. His attitude is one of the best out there. His aura, his outlook on life. ...

"If he's not Superman, who is he? He's Superman's brother, maybe."