When Tiger Woods failed to jar his approach shot on the 72nd hole of this year's Masters, Zach Johnson won the tournament while sitting in front of a TV in the clubhouse. At the sight of Woods's ball falling harmlessly onto the green, Johnson dropped his head onto the shoulder of his longtime agent, Brad Buffoni, and they shared a little hug. Then, with a surge of nervous energy, Johnson popped out of his chair. "What do I do now?" he asked, to no one in particular.
Luckily, Augusta National's general manager, Jim Armstrong, was hovering nearby. He briskly talked Johnson through the evening's schedule, a precisely choreographed series of ceremonies, interviews and celebrations. While they spoke Johnson drifted over to his locker, pulling out the slightly frayed pair of running shoes that he had worn to the course. "Keep the golf shoes on," Armstrong told him, politely but firmly.
Johnson, 31, certainly needed the counsel. The Masters has long been the private playpen of golf's aristocracy. As Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson combined to win five of the six previous green jackets, they had become well-attuned to the Masters's Sunday-night rituals, as did their sprawling entourages. Before conquering Augusta National, Johnson was a very good player quietly amassing a nice resume. Nothing could have prepared him, or those around him, for the intensity of the overnight stardom that he slipped into along with his new blazer. "I feel that I played some pretty decent golf for four days, and then my life got turned upside down," Johnson says. After a pause, he is careful to add, "But in a good way."
Winning a first major championship is life-altering for any golfer, but Johnson picked a particularly fraught time for his breakthrough, given that he and his wife, Kim, had welcomed their first child, Will, just three months earlier and that Zach is in the final year of all his endorsement contracts, making him the hottest free agent this side of Cameron Diaz. Corporate commodity and beleaguered dad are just two of the roles Johnson has played in the frenzied two months since the Masters. Among the others? Media darling, occasional talk-radio punch line and aw-shucks local-boy-made-good. What do I do now? Johnson is still figuring out the answer to that first, instinctive question.
Six weeks after the Masters, Johnson won his third career tournament, the AT&T Classic, looking at ease during a taut final round and a sudden-death playoff. After giving him a congratulatory hug, Kim asked, "Are you trying to kill me?" When he called Buffoni following the win, Zach's first words were, "I'm sorry."
