Former Masters champion Zach Johnson was having an unremarkable Masters at Augusta National this week.
He opened with a two-over 74 and then, on Friday, was even par for his second round through 11 holes.
Then things got really messy.
On the par-3 12th, Johnson yanked his tee shot into the trees left of the green and had to re-tee. He missed his next shot right of the green, leaving him a difficult chip that he left six feet below the hole for double bogey. Johnson missed that and then tapped in for triple, drawing jeers from patrons back behind the tee box.
“F— off,” Johnson said, in a moment that was caught on camera and quickly made the rounds on social media.
(Editor’s note: The video below includes strong language).
Was Johnson snapping back at the patrons?
“I’m not familiar with any social media thing out there,” he said when asked about the incident after his round.
When a reporter said that there was speculation that Johnson’s profanity was directed at patrons, he said: “I swore at the patrons? That’s laughable. That’s completely laughable. I can’t hear the patrons, number one. Number two, I just made a triple-bogey on the 12th hole that, evidently, is going to make me miss the cut, which at the time, I knew was pretty sensitive in the sense that I needed to keep making pars.”
Johnson then apologized before claiming the F-bomb was directed at himself for making triple, and not at the fans, who were “actually 154 [yards] away.”
He added, “If I’ve said anything, which I’m not going to deny, especially if it’s on camera, one, I apologize, and two, it was fully directed towards myself entirely because I can’t hear anything behind me.”
Johnson played the closing six holes in even par to finish with a four-over 75. At seven over for the week, he is projected to miss the cut by one.
