Consistency is paying off for Zach Johnson

Zach Johnson wasn’t sure of himself, so like any good golfer he called his caddie over to get the numbers right.

“Hey Damon,” he called out to Damon Green, Johnson’s caddie for 10 years. “How many times have I won – 11 or 10?”

The answer, officially, is 11 – 12 if you count the hole-out on the final hole in the World Challenge to help him beat Tiger Woods at his tournament in December.

Johnson has been on a tear since last summer when he lost in a playoff to Jordan Spieth at the John Deere Classic. He finished out 2013 with seven top-eight finishes in his last eight starts, including a victory at the BMW Championship, tie for fourth at the British Open and tie for eighth at the PGA.

Then after his dramatic hole-out wedge on the 72nd hole at Sherwood Country Club to put him and Woods in a playoff that he won, Johnson opened 2014 with an impressive victory at Kapalua, where his wedge dominance once again prevailed over the big hitters.

That victory moved him to No. 6 in the world at the time – his highest career ranking. He’s already had three top-10s this year.

“From a confidence standpoint, I’ve never really been this confident in what I’m doing this consistently in forever,” he said. “It really started last summer for me. The beginning of the year is just an extension of last year.”

Johnson ranks 10th among active PGA Tour players in all-time wins – sandwiched between Justin Leonard and Steve Stricker with 12 and Adam Scott at 10. His sustained success may come as more of a surprise to some than his Masters victory in 2007. After Johnson declared himself just a normal guy from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, when he accepted the green jacket, national columnist Rick Reilly famously questioned how that major triumph would ultimately stack up.

“I think Zach Johnson – in 10 years – has a real chance to be your server at Olive Garden,” Reilly said then. It’s a comment he’s good-naturedly eaten crow for as Johnson’s wins keep piling up.

That he’s one of the tour’s most consistent champions 11 years removed from stepping up as former top player on both the Hooters and Nationwide tours isn’t a shock to Johnson.

“It doesn’t surprise me, yet I would never have guessed it,” he said. “Does that make sense?

“When it comes to big-picture, futuristic ideas, I’ve never really got caught up in that. I’m not going to get caught up in it now. That’s really the bottom line. I’ve assembled a great team and I’ve assembled a pretty good game plan and certainly decent practice habits that I try to polish and improve. Our objective is to improve each day.”

At age 38, Johnson is still improving.

“Somebody asked me earlier about Augusta and it’s still surreal,” he said. “I pulled Mike (Bender) aside, my coach, and said that was seven years ago. How did I win that tournament seven years ago? I’m so much better now than I was then.”

Johnson hasn’t finished better than 20th at Augusta since, but if the right conditions coincide with Masters Week in what has been an unusually volatile winter in Georgia, his precise wedge game and putting could work to his advantage.

“It was just one of those weeks,” he said. “2007 was a fluke in a sense because of conditions. I would love to see those conditions again, though I wouldn’t want to experience it again because it was so cold. But it was good for me because the course played exceptionally hard and you had to hit your wedges good. The par-5s, some of the big guys couldn’t get home in two.”

Should Johnson ride his current form to add another major victory to his growing portfolio, the conversation may grow from Olive Garden to Hall of Fame.