Hlas: Zach Johnson had more fun in Scotland than Wisconsin

HAVEN, Wis. - That's life (that's life), that's what all the people say

You're ridin' high in April, shot down in May

Switch April and May with July and August, and that Frank Sinatra song applies to Zach Johnson. He won the British Open last month. But a few weeks later at the next major championship on golf's calendar, it looked extremely likely late Friday afternoon that Johnson would miss the 36-hole cut at the PGA Championship.

Amid the thousands of spectators who watched the threesome of Jordan Spieth, Rory McIlroy and Johnson Friday at Whistling Straits was Green Bay Packers star quarterback Aaron Rodgers.

Rodgers and his loyal Wisconsin subjects were wowed by Spieth, who carded a second-round 67 and played his way near the top of the leaderboard at the tournament's halfway point. He already owns two major wins this year, and looked Friday like he's fully invested in the pursuit of a third.

The other 2015 major was seized by Johnson at St. Andrews, but his competitive golf weekend is over.

Things started so well for him Friday morning. Brilliantly, in fact. He made birdie putts ranging from 9 to 18 feet on each of the first three holes he played, Nos. 10 through 12. That got him from 3-over-par to even, and put him on the right side of the cut line.

But consecutive bogeys on the 18th and 1st holes jumped him back up to 2-over, and no more birdies followed. His fate was sealed when he bogeyed No. 9, his final hole of the day. His even-par 72 didn't move the needle after an opening-round 75.

It was more of the same from Thursday. Johnson's driving was not up to his usual accurate standards.

'That's my strength,” he said, 'and it was not my strength this week. Very frustrating.

'I've got to go back to the drawing board, but it wasn't very good. Very frustrated with it. You can kind of figure it out when you're missing in one direction, but when you're missing it both directions, it's difficult.”

Perhaps the moment that best symbolized Johnson's tourney came at the No. 1 green.

He began the hole with a tee shot into a fairway bunker, and eventually faced a 25-foot putt for par. The putt came to rest on the lip of the cup.

Johnson dawdled a good 30 seconds, hoping for a tremor or something that would cause the ball to drop off the edge and into the jar. Spieth even joined him near the hole to offer moral support. But the good vibration never came, and he took his bogey.

The ball died at the edge. When you're playing well, they don't die until they've dropped in the hole.

Three holes earlier at No. 16, Johnson's 26-foot putt for birdie rolled over Spieth's ball-marking coin and came to rest at the edge of the cup.

But it wasn't bad luck or another revolution or two of the golf ball that kept him from playing through the weekend. He hit just 12 of 28 fairways in regulation for a woeful 42.9 percent that ranked way, way down the list among the 156-player field.

Johnson came here ranked fourth in the PGA Tour in that category at 72.18 percent.

'I was frustrated with my driver last week (at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational, where he tied for 33rd place),” Johnson said. 'It's not any different this week. The frustrations.”

Tuesday, Johnson will be in Chicago to promote the Sept. 17-20 BMW Classic FedExCup event in Lake Forest, Ill., that he won in 2013, He will throw the ceremonial first pitch and sing 'Take Me Out to the Ballgame” during the seventh-inning stretch at that night's Detroit Tigers-Chicago Cubs game at Wrigley Field.

He returns to golf in two weeks when the FedExCup playoff begin. The winner of the Cup gets $10 million.

The four playoff tourneys aren't major championships. But ... $10 million to the winner.

'Yeah, they matter a great deal,” Johnson said.

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