Allergies plaguing Zach Johnson at highly inopportune times

Zach Johnson has had two bad days of golf this year at two highly inopportune times, and mentioned the same thing after each.

After his second-round 80 caused him to miss the 36-hole cut at the Masters last month, Johnson said:

“I'm not feeling well. My allergies are just kicking my butt right now. That's not my excuse. That's far from an excuse. But it's so congested. It's hard to keep my eyes open.”

After his third-round 68 propelled him to a two-shot lead Saturday in the Quail Hollow Championship, Johnson said "My allergies have been frustrating. I didn't realize I had them."

Sunday, he shot a 76 to tumble to a tie for 11th place. It wasn't the most pleasant day for him, all-around.

"You know, I don't like making excuses," he said, "but I've got a massive headache, and my vision was not great out there today, which was frustrating. But I'll learn from it certainly and figure out what happened and hopefully I'll be better the next time around.

"Honestly I think what it is is at my age now I'm starting to develop allergies. It's behind my eyes, that sort of thing. I don't know what or why. I'm not saying that's the sole purpose behind everything. I think I got a little impact early and rushed it a little bit. But all in all, I mean, it's disappointing."

If it's any consolation or inspiration to Johnson, golf icon Tiger Woods has also been plagued by allergies.

"The weather will affect him differently than the other guys because Tiger is allergic to every thing on the golf course," his father, Earl Woods, said in 2003. "He has taken allergy shots as a kid and he has developed a resistance to everything. But … in the spring, that pollen gets to him."

Maybe the pollen count will be less at this week's venue, the TPC of Sawgrass near Jacksonville, Fla., where Tiger, Zach and nearly other elite male golfer in the world will congregate this week for The Players  Championship.

In this story at Medicinenet.com, the worst U.S. cities for spring pollen are listed. Charlotte, the site of the Quail Hollow Championship, is third. Augusta, Ga., is 10th.

The worst is Louisville, Ky., which explains why all those horses were sneezing during Saturday's Kentucky Derby.