Zach Johnson's timing, like his golf, is impeccable.
Johnson won the 2007 Masters with an uncanny display of course management and short game skills at Augusta National Golf Club. With golf's greatest players in pursuit, including four-time Masters winner Tiger Woods, Johnson demonstrated the kind of poise and craft that Augusta National has always demanded of its champions.
When Johnson returns this year to the site of his greatest victory, he will be surrounded not only by his contemporaries but also significant chapters from the tournament's past - and likely its future.
The 2008 Masters marks the 50th anniversary of Arnold Palmer's first of four victories at Augusta National. It also marks 50 years since Amen Corner got its name. Gary Player will be competing in his 51st Masters, breaking the record for most consecutive appearances he shares with Palmer.
Palmer won the Masters every other year beginning in 1958 and ending in 1964. Only Jack Nicklaus has won more Green Jackets than Palmer and Woods, who each have four. Woods will attempt to move past Palmer and begin his quest to achieve golf's Grand Slam, something that has not been achieved since 1930 when Bobby Jones, co-founder of Augusta National, accomplished one of the rarest of all sports feats.
Woods held all four major trophies at the same time when he won the Masters in 2001 after winning the U.S. Open, British Open and PGA Championship the year before. Now he's targeting all four in the same year and the golf world will be watching when his challenge begins at Augusta National.
By his own admission, Woods is playing the finest golf of his career and he will attempt to start another winning streak at Augusta National as he attempts to move closer to the record of six Masters titles held by Nicklaus.
Woods has always believed the Grand Slam is achievable. He has often said the key is for a golfer to be at his best at the precise moment of the four majors. At least in Woods' case, who has demonstrated his skills time and again, the quest for the Grand Slam is all about timing.
Johnson, as the Masters champion, will be a central figure in the proceedings at the Masters. "I'm looking forward to defending this year," Johnson said.
Personally and professionally, winning the Masters has been everything Johnson imagined it would be. All the attention and the demands have been hectic at times but Johnson, never one to complain about anything, isn't about to start now.
"It's been all good," he said.
Johnson's 289 total was two strokes better than three golfers - Woods and two South Africans, Retief Goosen and Rory Sabbatini. Johnson's performance was highlighted by an 11-under-par total on the par 5 holes. Johnson did it with accuracy and finesse instead of power. His precision was a sight to behold.
Johnson, playing in his third Masters, conquered the par 5 holes. He never once attempted to go for the green on any of the par 5s in two shots. Instead, he relied on his wedge game to get him close and then closed the deal with his putter. Johnson perfected his game plan on the three practice days before the start of the tournament Armed with the knowledge that it would be risky for him to attempt to reach the par 5 holes in two shots, he relied instead on his solid wedge play.
“For me, I've got to take advantage of those par 5s,” Johnson said. “And certainly, if I have the right club in my hand, I'll go for it in two; and if I don't, I‘ve got a wedge.”
What Johnson has going for him in the absence of enormous distance off the tee is accuracy - he ranked fourth last year in fairways hit at 73 percent on the PGA Tour - and an unerring short game. He will rely on the same formula this year.
“As far as my shot-making goes, wedges are going to be the answer, there's no question about that,” he said. “I think outside of that, it will be getting my driver in the fairway."
Amen Corner is truly unique, not only to golf, but to all sports. There are few, if any, places that, with a mere mention, invoke the kind of images produced by those two words.
For all its splendor and beauty, it is also a place that challenges every fiber of a champion golfer's being. To win the Masters means to find a way to navigate Amen Corner for four straight days. And there is no shortcut.
It was in 1958 that legendary golf writer Herbert Warren Wind coined the phrase "Amen Corner" in reference to the 11th green, the par 3 12th hole and the par 5 13th. Writing in the April 21 edition of Sports Illustrated, Wind was describing the critical portion of the golf course where Palmer had achieved his victory. Wind borrowed the phrase from an old jazz recording, "Shoutin’ in that Amen Corner."
It was at the 12th that Palmer needed a ruling after his tee shot became embedded in the final round. Palmer played two balls and it was later ruled, as he was playing the 15th hole, that his par with the second constituted his score. Palmer had previously scored an eagle 3 at No. 13.
Palmer said recently there was no doubt in his mind what the rule was.
"I felt like I knew," he said. "I was very positive as to what the result would be. There was never a question in my mind that I wasn't right. Until (official) John Winters came out on the 15th fairway and said, "Arnold, you are absolutely right.' I was confident that I was right and I played with that confidence."
There is an irony in Palmer waiting two holes to find out what his score would be at Amen Corner on that occasion 50 years ago. Today, the greater tendency is to anticipate what Amen Corner will bring as the golfers walk out to the first tee at Augusta National.
"It's one of the more challenging three holes I think you'll ever play," Woods said. "It's more difficult than people think."
Phil Mickelson said the increased length in recent years at the par 4 11th hole, now 505 yards, and the 13th, now 510, has changed the mind-set at a critical juncture of the round.
"Amen Corner has gotten a lot tougher the last few years, specifically No. 11 has become a very difficult hole," said Phil Mickelson, the Masters champion in 2004 and 2006.
"No.13, you always look at it as a birdie hole but it's become a more difficult birdie over the last few years. No. 11 has become, I think, one of the two toughest holes on the golf course. With the fairway moved well over to the left, it now brings the water more in play. It's a lot longer and that's a very tough par. I think that and No. 7 are the two toughest pars now on the golf course and I would probably say No. 11 is the toughest."
The 12th hole, Mickelson said, is most difficult when the wind is blowing and the green is firm.
"If you make pars (at the 11th and 12th), that's kind of the goal," he said.
Johnson said it's difficult not to look ahead to Amen Corner "a little bit." But he added a warning.
"Augusta National has so much teeth that if you start thinking too far ahead, the hole that you're on or the shot that you're presented with at that time is going to bite you," Johnson said. "You really can't look too far into the future. You've got to stay in the present."
That's never a problem for Johnson, a Masters champion with impeccable timing.
Vartan Kupelian is the golf writer at The Detroit News.
