It’s been 31 years since a U.S. team won the Ryder Cup on European soil. Can an overlooked champion break the streak?
Thankless is one way to describe the assignment. If a Ryder Cup team wins, the team is celebrated. If a Ryder Cup team loses, the captain is blamed. Corey Pavin can still be ridiculed for the U.S. team wearing ill-fated rain gear at Celtic Manor in 2010. It’s all fair game.
When Johnson won at St. Andrews in 2015, a 21-year-old Jordan Spieth — who had seen his pursuit of a Grand Slam end that day in the Valley of Sin — snaked through the crowd near 18 green, calling out, “Zach! Zach!” Breaking through a pack of bodies, Spieth wrapped Johnson in a congratulatory hug, then stepped aside to give him the stage.“I’m telling you, people are excited to play for Zach,” says Brian Harman, 36,. “He’s one of those guys who is easy to like, easy to root for.
The next spring, Johnson Monday qualified into the 2002 BellSouth Classic outside Atlanta, his second PGA Tour event. He made the cut, then crept up the leaderboard, eventually appearing on the weekend broadcast in a Ralph Lauren polo and an unstructured Titleist hat. On the 72nd hole, with Johnny Miller openly rooting for him on-air, Johnson stuck his approach on 18.
The following year, as a PGA Tour rookie, Johnson returned to the BellSouth Classic and avenged his three-putt. He beat Mark Hensby by a stroke, posting a victory in his 13th career tour start. First-place prize: $810,000. Johnson was 28.“I specifically remember telling a few other players then, ‘Hey, this guy is gonna be really good,’” Hensby says. “Now, did I think he was gonna be that good? Win two major championships and how-many-ever PGA Tour events? No, absolutely not. Never.
Zach Johnson is in Rome this week as United States captain for the 2023 Ryder Cup — what feels like an epochal moment for one of the game’s oft-ignored figures.
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