ST. LOUIS (AP) — 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."
