Pop quiz: Who played with Justin Rose in the fourth round of the 2025 Masters? Surely you remember Rose’s round — a stirring 10-birdie 66 that propelled him into a playoff with Rory McIlroy — but do you recall the player riding shotgun with him?
Stumped?
It was…Zach Johnson, the Masters winner from 2007, way back when Dubya was still in office and Avril Lavigne was burning up the charts. Rose’s sensational play overshadowed his playing partner’s; Johnson shot a one-under 71 and tied for 8th with three others. But let us not overlook that the 49-year-old Johnson landing a fifth-from-final group tee time on Masters Sunday was an accomplishment in itself.
“I still feel like I have it,” Johnson said after signing his card that lovely Sunday evening. “I don’t know if pride is the right [word], whatever you want to call it.”
Pride, grit, determination, savvy, guile. Many words work.
Long, though, does not.
At least not by Tour standards. Johnson’s 284.8-yard driving distance average this season is about 16 yards behind the Tour average, meaning every time he tees it up — 12 times on the PGA Tour this year — he has needed, or at least tried, to be highly tactical about (1) where he plays, and (2) how he plays. That’s how you stay afloat in a league where some of the competition is half your age and also 40 yards ahead of you.
Enter this week’s tournament, the John Deere Classic at TPC Deere Run in Johnson’s home state of Iowa. Johnson, who is making his 23rd career start at the Deere, is to this event what Fred Couples is to the Masters, or peanut butter is to jelly. They just go well together. Johnson was born and raised in Cedar Rapids, about a 90-minute drive west of Deere Run. He attended Drake University, in central Iowa, and in his mini-tour days was staked by a small group of supporters from his hometown. Johnson is as rooted to the state as its cornfields.
Same goes for Johnson and this golf course.
“It’s going to sound strange, but my feet feel comfortable here,” Johnson said Wednesday. “I grew up on bentgrass fairways, bentgrass greens. I had a lengthy putting session yesterday and kind of just — I’m not suggesting I’m going to putt great this week — but felt like, man, here we go. It’s hard to summarize that.”
We got you, ZJ. Johnson has played every Deere since 2002. From 2009-17, he recorded seven top-5 finishes, including a win in 2012 and runners-up in 2009, ’13 and ’14. He has signed for 14 rounds of 65 or better. He’s not the official host of the tournament but he might as well be. After attending his own foundation’s golf event in Cedar Rapids on Monday, Johnson scooted over to the Deere on Tuesday for a two-hour putting session and some physio work. That evening, he was in the house with some corporate bigwigs at Deere’s headquarters — “rubbing shoulders, shaking hands with friends I’ve known forever,” he said. It that’s kind of week for Johnson. If he’s not playing or practicing, you’ll probably find him signing something or hugging someone.
But back to the golf course. Johnson hasn’t thrived here only because it’s a home game — TPC Deere Run favors his style of play; its doglegs, narrow corridors and firm fairways reward placement more than they do power. His two decades of experience here also don’t hurt. “I know where not to go given the conditions,” Johnson said. “I feel like I’ve had every wind. Feel like I’ve had every element thrown at me here. Wet, dry, windy, whatever, I’ve had it.
He wasn’t finished.
“I feel like I can navigate it in a pretty opportune manner. That doesn’t mean it’s going to happen. I still have to execute. I think my game is at a point where execution is really the only — is really the main thing I got to focus on, and I love that. Every aspect of my game has been pretty solid. Everybody that knows me and knows me well, it’s boring, but I love boring. I’m really good at being boring. So I love boring golf.”
OK, now we’re getting somewhere! Boring golf may not play well in this era of long-haired long drivers and YouTube matches teased with look-at-me! thumbnails, but for Johnson, his back-to-basics style has powered an incredibly long and prosperous run. This year hasn’t been all roses — he’s missed five cuts and has just three top-25 finishes — but he hasn’t been irrelevant, either. He’s 103rd in the FedEx standings and still in the top 200 in the world ranking, which is more than can said of three other 49-year-olds whose names will sound familiar: Ian Poulter, Henrik Stenson and, yep…Tiger Woods.
“There is nothing in my game that’s like flashy, never has been, right?” Johnson said this week. “When my putter is manageable or working pretty well, then [my game] can show. I tend to hit a ton of fairways, a lot of greens, and so comes down to putting.”
Johnson picks his spots, too. It’s no coincidence that this season he found his way onto the tee sheets at, to name three venues, Waialae, PGA National and Detroit G.C., all of which value accuracy and short-game wizardry. Johnson also knows what he doesn’t do well. For one, playing in heat. “A lot of the guys love that,” he said. “Augusta, man, we haven’t had a week of whatever it was, 72 to 77 degrees every day, in a long time, so my body was comfortable.” Boom, top-10 finish.
When you’re nearing the half-century mark, that’s job No. 1: taking care of yourself. “I pay attention probably now more so to the physical side of me more so than the technical side,” he said. “And I don’t mind that. It’s just the evolution of the game and the evolution of where I’m at as a pro.”
Johnson will be eligible for the PGA Tour Champions next year, though he doesn’t sound like he’s in a hurry to get out there. “That’s an option,” he said. “It’s nice knowing that there will be an outlet for me if I want to go that direction and still compete.”
But for the time being, his focus is on the PGA Tour, his age be damned. “I know I’m the oldest guy,” he said. “[But] when I get to the 1st tee, fortunately it doesn’t really matter. Still feel like I can do it. I just tend to hit my second shots first.”
