Club pro 1 shot better than other Z. Johnson
ST. LOUIS – All he wanted was to be the best Zach Johnson he could be. Turns out, he was the best Zach Johnson in golf Friday.
There are two players going by the same name this week at the PGA Championship: Zach Johnson of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the two-time major winner, and Zach Johnson from Davis Park Golf Course in Utah, who was one of the 20 club pros to qualify into the year’s final major.
In the second round, the club pro shot 69 and the two-time major winner shot 70. The 69 wasn’t good enough to keep Utah’s Zach Johnson here for the weekend, but going under par was certainly not a bad way to wrap up his first stay at the PGA.
“The memories are countless,” said Johnson of Utah, who has gone by Zach J. Johnson on all the scorecards and placards this week to eliminate confusion. “Just that walk up 18, my caddie and I just kind of put our arms around each other and soaked it all in. We don’t get to do this every day.”
Many of the memories came, of course, in meetings with the “other” Zach Johnson.
They played a practice round together, took lots of pictures and ran into each other in the locker room after the first round.
“He shot 66, I shot 76,” Zach J. Johnson said of their first-day scores. “I said, ‘Tomorrow, give me five a side and we’ll have a game.’”
He didn’t need the strokes. “Today, I found a way to relax and just try and play golf,” Johnson said. “So, very pleased with the result of today’s round. It was fun.”
All wrapped up
Rickie Fowler isn’t looking for sympathy points. Turns out, he really doesn’t need them.
Fowler has been playing taped up this week because of an oblique strain he suffered last week at Firestone.
He says having his motion slightly restricted by the tape is actually helping, forcing him to make his swing more compact and gather all his speed at the bottom.
Fowler stood at 7 under par for the tournament, three behind leader Gary Woodland, when a thunderstorm hit Friday in the middle of Fowler’s round.
He had been keeping quiet about the injury but Dottie Pepper mentioned it on the TNT broadcast, and it was out there for the world to know.
Club pro survives
Ben Kern was the lone club pro among 20 who teed it up this week with a chance to make the cut, thanks to a birdie at 18 that left him at par for the championship. With about half the field on the course when a rain delay stopped play, the cut line was holding at even.
The 34-year-old Kern is no stranger to the Midwest, having starred at Kansas State during his college days. He now teaches and plays out of Georgetown Country Club in Texas.
“I know deep down I’ve got a little bit of game left,” Kern said.