Hlas: Zach Johnson embraces Rory, Jordan, fans

HAVEN, Wis. - You're playing in this week's PGA Championship and you're pretty serious about winning. Would you:

a) Want to avoid being paired in the first two rounds with the two top players in golf's world rankings knowing a humongous crowd will follow you from the first tee to the 18th green?

b) Happily accept having Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spieth as your playing partners knowing things will get congested on the shore of Lake Michigan?

It's a safe bet a large percentage of the 154 players not named McIlroy or Spieth would choose the former. Zach Johnson, who will play at 1:20 p.m. Thursday and 8:05 a.m. Friday with No. 1 McIlroy and No. 2 Spieth, welcomes the latter.

'I embrace that,” Johnson said Tuesday at his press conference here at Whistling Straits. 'To me, the more the merrier. I've always said that. Over the last few years I've said that.

'When you have a few (fans) over here and a few over there ... the peripherals come into play because there's movement. But if it's just lined with people, it's almost like tunnel vision. It's almost easier.”

That reply may go a little way to explain why Johnson has two wins in majors, including last month's British Open. He didn't win at St. Andrews by being squeamish in the spotlight.

'I feel like I've experienced it all,” Johnson said. 'The Tiger (Woods) crowds are basically second to none as far as numbers and I would say audio.

'I can remember I played the first two days with Tiger and Rory in New York (in 2012, at The Barclays). If you can get through those two days ...”

It was ironic that Johnson mentioned Woods. Two hours before Johnson met with the media, Woods did so to a packed interview room. There was just a smattering of reporters at Johnson's press session in the same room.

Woods is 278th in the world rankings and hasn't won a major since the 2008 U.S. Open. But if anyone has a gallery as large or larger in the first two rounds than McIlroy-Spieth-Johnson, it will be Woods with Martin Kaymer and Keegan Bradley.

That said, Johnson's threesome will have more juice. Spieth wants to win his third major of the year on U.S. soil and overtake McIlroy for No. 1. Defending PGA champion McIlroy wants to make a triumphant return from an ankle injury in early July that kept him from defending his British Open title.

Johnson? After McIlroy won the last two majors of 2014 and Spieth won the first two of 2015, Johnson wouldn't mind winning his second-straight.

'You get a taste of one, you want another one,” he said. 'You get a taste of two, I can tell you, you still want another one.”

Speaking of a taste, Johnson got some attention a couple weeks ago when he tweeted a photo of him pretending to eat an ear of corn out of his British Open trophy, the Claret Jug. It was taken at his home in St. Simons Island, Ga., but was a nod to his Iowa roots.

'That was just a nice picture because basically of where I'm from,” Johnson said. 'I'm from the heartland, corn country. And it is sweet corn season back home.

The Wanamaker Trophy that goes to the winner of the PGA isn't a cup. It can't hold Iowa corn, or Texas wheat, or Northern Ireland barley. But three players representing those places will play together Thursday and Friday, with a combined eight wins in majors.

Spieth (5 1/2-to-1) and McIroy (9-1) have the lowest odds at a popular offshore betting site. Johnson is at 40-1. But he was 80-1 to win the British at the same site the day before that tourney began.

'I'm excited about Thursday and Friday,” Johnson said. 'I get to play with two good friends.”

No shrinking from the moment out of this guy. But that's not news, is it?

Comments: mike.hlas@thegazette.com