Zach Johnson Foundation Classic about more than golf

Monday’s Zach Johnson Foundation Classic at Elmcrest Country Club has its usual array of professional golfers.

There’s Davis Love III, winner of 21 PGA Tour events and the 1997 PGA Championship. There’s Stewart Cink, who has eight Tour victories, won the British Open in 2009 and once spent more than 40 weeks ranked among the Top 10 golfers in the world.

Love, though, is 58 and unlikely to win any more titles. Cink is 49 and still playing great golf. He finished tied for seventh at the Valspar Championship in March and on Sunday wrapped up a 6-under 24th-place finish at the 3M Championship in Blaine, Minn.

But his winning days may be behind him, too — until he turns 50 and plays on the Champions Tour.

But the ZJFC always has been about more than the golfers on the course. It’s about giving back to the community where Zach Johnson grew up and has never forgotten.

Still, the field of 18 pros isn’t too bad.

It also includes Tony Finau, who just happened to win the aforementioned 3M Championship on Sunday. He shot rounds of 67, 68, 65 and 67 to finish at 17-under, three shots in front of Sunjae Im and Emiliano Grillo.

This was the third career title for the 32-year-old from Salt Lake City.

To say Finau is hot right now is a hefty understatement. Sports are, after all, a “what have you done for me lately” endeavor. Finau has done plenty lately.

He was ranked 17th in the world coming into the 3M Championship — the highest ranked pro in Monday’s classic, and owns Top 10 finishes at the RBC Canadian Open (second) in June, Mexico Open (tied for second) and Charles Schwab Challenge (tied for fourth) in May.

He missed the cut at the U.S. Open in June, but bounced back to finish 13th at the Travelers Championship and 28th at the British Open.

Before Sunday, he ranked 37th on the Tour with just over $2.6 million in earnings. He picked up another $1.35 million on Sunday.

Not a bad guy to keep an eye on Monday if you venture out to Elmcrest.

There’s others, too.

J.T. Poston of Hickory, N.C., finished in a tie for 11th Sunday, shooting rounds of 71, 69, 64 and 72. That 64 tied the second-best round of the weekend.

The 29-year-old Poston, golf fans will recall, won the John Deere Classic earlier this month in Silvis, Ill. He missed the cut at the British Open, but finished second at the Travelers Championship the weekend before winning the JDC.

He was ranked 63rd in the world before the weekend and had won nearly $3 million this year.

That’s a pretty hot streak, too.

Other pros to keep an eye on Monday include Luke List, a 37-year-old from Seattle who ranks 68th in the world and won the Farmers Insurance Open in January; and Denny McCarthy, a 29-year-old from Takoma Park, Md., who ranks 89th in the world but has placed in the Top 10 in three of his last four starts, including a tie for sixth at the John Deere Classic.

And there’s always the host, of course. The 46-year-old Johnson isn’t having a stellar season — his best finish is a tie for 13th at the Valero Texas Open and he has missed the cut in five of his last eight starts — but he still has 12 PGA Tour wins, a Masters green jacket and a British Open Claret Jug and more than $48 million in career earnings.

You may not see the likes of Scottie Scheffler, Cameron Smith or Rory McIlroy on Monday, but the golf will be good and the cause will be even better.

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