Hlas: In major encore, Zach Johnson is Open king

Legacy, meet cement.

Here is the list of those who have won both a Masters at Augusta National and a British Open at St. Andrews:

Sam Snead, Jack Nicklaus, Seve Ballesteros, Nick Faldo, Tiger Woods.

And Zach Johnson.

That's walking with kings. It also means that sometime in the future, the son of Cedar Rapids will probably one day be inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame.

But beyond that, what Johnson's playoff win Monday in the British Open did was forever change the way he'll be identified. You win at both Augusta and St. Andrews, and you're not regarded as a solid, consistent player who won a dozen PGA Tour events and made a whole lot of money with other high-finishes.

Nay, lads and lassies. You win an Open Championship at the Old Course atop a Masters from Augusta eight years back? You've held golf's two most-renowned thrones. You've been a king on two different continents.

'I'm grateful. I'm humbled. ... I'm honored,” Johnson said.

So are a lot of sports fans in Cedar Rapids and Iowa who have felt good to have him represent them against the rest of the world.

Johnson went from speechless to teary to both after he won a 3-man, 4-hole playoff Monday, and understandably so. But the reason he got to shed the tears of joy was because he was anything but emotional on the golf course.

He came to the final round three shots behind three co-leaders including the man he had to vanquish on the final playoff hole, Louis Oosthuizen. Who, by the way, won the Open the last time it was at St. Andrews.

Great accuracy off the tee, great wedge shots, and putting that was as good as he's done in a couple years propelled Johnson into the lead. He birdied seven of his first 11 holes. He fell a shot behind after a bogey on 17, but sank a 30-foot birdie putt on the final hole of regulation.

He waited 80 minutes as the other contenders finished play, then went to the playoff against Oosthuizen and Marc Leishman and birdied the first two holes, the second on a 20-foot putt that gave him a 1-shot lead.

The lead stayed in his possession. When Oosthuizen missed a 12-footer for birdie on No. 18, the final playoff hole, Johnson's ice turned into a happy puddle of tears. He had won another major. He had won the Claret Jug.

He was better than Jordan Spieth in a moment in which Spieth was the Boy King. In 2007 at Augusta, he was better than Woods when Tiger was still at the peak of his powers.

He has won 12 times on Tour, has a golf bag full of great moments in Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup play, and now this at 39: A final-round 66 and a playoff triumph at St. Andrews over the likes of Oosthuizen, Spieth, Jason Day, Adam Scott and Sergio Garcia, all of whom threatened to prevail Monday.

Two Mondays earlier, Spieth and Day showed their friendship and respect for Johnson by coming to Cedar Rapids to participate in his fundraising golf event for the stellar Kids On Course program he and his wife, Kim, founded several years ago. This year's Zach Johnson Foundation Classic raised about $835,000.

Six days later, Johnson was one stroke short of making a sudden-death playoff with Tom Gillis and eventual-champ Spieth at his beloved John Deere Classic. As Johnson was about to strike a putt at the 16th green, someone in a boat on the adjoining Rock River fired off an M-80 explosive, causing the player to leap in the air.

Video of that went viral, but nothing like what he did Monday across the Atlantic.

Johnson didn't birdie that hole or win that day in the Quad Cities. But with a look in his eye and a sound in his voice we have heard before, he insisted after his round that he would have no trouble shedding disappointment and recharging his battery for the British.

My experience in a decade-plus of covering this man is that when he says something, he means it. This spring, he said his game was getting where he wanted it to go.

He had a fifth-place, a sixth, and a tie for third in three of the four tourneys he played before the British. Now, he has added this huge title. His game has got where he wanted it to go, and then some.

Pro golf has 20-somethings who are the new ruling class. Rory McIlroy and Spieth combined to win the four previous majors. McIlroy is 26. Spieth turns 22 later this month. Johnson didn't become a PGA Tour member until he was 27.

His story once seemed almost absurd because it was so unlikely. He wasn't the No. 1 player on his Regis High School or Drake University teams. He stayed in a lot of Super 8s and ate of lot of Subway sandwiches while playing the Dakotas Tour and the Hooters Tour. He lacked the length off the tee of the majority of pros, and still does.

But that part of his career story is sort of fading. That's because his career story is of sustained excellence at golf's highest level, and is punctuated by the two championships that resonate the loudest on this planet.

'This is the birthplace of the game, and that jug means so much in sports,” Johnson said early Monday evening at a place in Scotland where golf excellence is recognized and revered.

Augusta, St. Andrews. Green jacket, Claret Jug.

Legacy, cement.

Comments: (319) 368-8840; mike.hlas@thegazette.com

Twitter: @Hlas