Zach Johnson beguiled by history and ‘purity’ of The Open

Zach Johnson did not need to win The Open Championship to fall in love with it but lifting the Claret Jug a year ago helped him to really understand the significance of golf’s oldest tournament.

The 40-year-old American took membership of an exclusive club 12 months ago when he joined Sam Snead, Jack Nicklaus, Nick Faldo, Seve Ballesteros, and Tiger Woods as the only golfers to have won majors at both St Andrews and Augusta National.

While the Green Jacket of a Masters champion is his for life, possession of the Claret Jug lasts just 12 months, but for a golfer who respects the game’s history as much as Johnson clearly does, his time with one of sport’s oldest and most iconic trophies were moments to cherish.

Having seen off Marc Leishman and Louis Oosthuizen in a play-off at the Home of Golf as the rain-affected 2015 Open dragged into a Monday finish, the Iowan slept on the plane home with the auld silver jug cradled in his arms and yesterday he said the trophy had been held in equal esteem by all who had come into contact with it since.

“Just seeing family and friends and sponsors and fans of golf embrace it has been pretty awesome. That thing has a lot of, well, weight to it in the sense that it represents golf and sports, as far as I’m concerned.”

It is why Johnson said of this week’s title defence at Royal Troon on Scotland’s west coast: “I don’t really need inspiration or motivation to play in this golf tournament. This is one of the highlights on my calendar every year and always has been, prior to even winning it, certainly.”

For a golfer raised in America’s mid-west, about as far removed from links golf as anyone could be, Johnson speaks with reverence about the seaside game, including his Open debut here at Troon a dozen summers ago.

He missed the cut but said yesterday: “My main memory was it was immediate, certainly my love for it, but more than that, it was immediate, what it required out of me. You know, I think this tournament, especially when I leave it, it magnifies my weaknesses more than any other tournament, but it also magnifies your strengths. And I say that because you have to have every shot.

“Clearly, you’ve got to hit it low in the Open Championship or links golf, but you’ve got to hit high, too. You’ve got to get that ball in the air. You’ve got to use the wind. You’ve got to fight the wind depending on the situation. So you’ve got to use sort of every shot in your arsenal, and that was immediate. I could tell right off the bat.

“Part of it is just the lies you have. They’re so tight, so you have to be crisp and precise. And I think that’s perfect.”

A lot has changed in the sport since Johnson first acquainted himself with links golf in 2004, not least the apparent decline of his contemporary Woods’s dominance, the 14-time major winner replaced at the top of the elite game by a phalanx of stars, many of them athletic specimens who can hit the ball considerably further than this year’s defending champion.

Johnson’s victory last year, secured with a final-round 66 that was completed with a 30-foot putt on the 72nd hole to force his way into a play-off, proved there was more than one way to win a tournament. But the world number 18 disputes the notion that courses such as St Andrews or Troon limit the powers of big hitters such as Rory McIlroy, world number one Jason Day or current US Open champion Dustin Johnson.

“I don’t know if there’s any course that negates that, because I just think it’s a weapon you have in your arsenal that you can use when given the opportunity,” he said.

“Links, yes, you do have to know how to navigate and kind of plot your way around these courses, especially when it’s dry.

“I don’t know if it necessarily negates anything. I just think the beauty of this tournament and this style of links golf is you’ve got to have everything. You’ve got to hit your driver high. You’ve got to hit it low. You’ve got to hit it left. You’ve got to hit it right. And that goes with every golf club in your bag. You’ve got to hold it, you’ve got to use the wind.

“You’ve got to do everything. The greens are not fast, and everyone’s like, ‘Well, it’s probably easy to putt’. They’re not easy to putt. There are subtle breaks. A solid putt typically gets rewarded whether it’s on a speed or whether it’s a four-footer. I just think it’s beautiful in that regard. It’s not rocket science out there. It’s what you see is what you get, tee it up.... But this tournament more than any, I think it’s purity.”