How do you feel 49 in PGA Tour

Pop quiz: Who played with Justin Rose In the fourth round of 2025 masters? Surely you remember the Rose Round-A 10-Birdie 66 stimulus that pushed it into a play off with Rory Mcilroy – But do you remember the player riding a gun with him?

Stalled?

It was…Zach JohnsonThe winner of the masters from 2007, the return when Dubya was still in office and Avril Lavigne was burning in the tables. The sensational game of Rose in the shadow of his play partner; Johnson shot one under 71 and was tied up for him 8 with three others. But let’s not bypass that 49-year-old Johnson, who landed for a fifth-fifth time, on Sunday of the masters on Sunday was an achievement in itself.

“I still feel like I have it,” Johnson said after signing his card that lovely evening on Sunday. “I don’t know if pride is right (the word), whatever you want to call it.”

Pride, grit, determination, brain, guile. Many words work.

LongHowever, it doesn’t.

At least not by tour standards. The average of the direction distance 284.8-Johnson’s Oborn this season is about 16 yards after average tournament, it means every time it takes it-12 times in PGA Tour this year-it needs, or at least proven, to be very tactical for (1) where it plays, and (2) HOW He plays. So stay in the sea in a league where some of the competition are half of your age and also 40 yards in front of you.

Sign in to this week’s tour, John Deere Classic at TPC Deere Run in Johnson’s state of Iowa. Johnson, who is making his 23rd career start in Deere, is for this event what Fred couples is for masters, or the peanut butter is for jelly. They just go well together. Johnson was born and grew up in Cedar Rapids, around a 90-minute car west of Deere Run. He attended Drake University, in Central Iowa, and in his days the mini-Turne was collected by a small group of supporters from his hometown. Johnson is so rooted for the state as his corn fields.

The same is true for Johnson and this golf course.

“It will sound weird, but my feet feel comfortable here,” Johnson said Wednesday. “I grew up in bentgrass fairways, greens bentgrass. I had a long session by setting it up yesterday and a right kind – I am not suggesting I would do well this week – but I felt like, man, we go. Harden to summarize it.”

We have you, Ms. Johnson has been playing every Deere since 2002. From 2009-17, he recorded seven Top-5 conclusions, including a winner in 2012 and runners in 2009, ’13 and ’14. He has signed for 14 rounds of 65 or better. He is not the official host of the tournament, but he can also be. After participating in his Cedar Rapids Foundation Golf event on Monday, Johnson Skati in Deere on Tuesday for a two-hour session and some physics work. That evening, he was home with some corporate bigwigs at Deere’s headquarters – “rubbing the shoulders, shaking hands with friends I have known forever,” he said. This is a kind of week for Johnson. If he is not playing or practicing, you will surely find it by signing something or hugging someone.

But again in the golf course. Johnson has not flourished here just because it is a home game – the TPC Deere Run favors his play style; Its doglegs, narrow corridors and firms firms reward the placement more than they make power. His two decades here also does not hurt. “I know where to not go considering the conditions,” Johnson said. “I feel like I had any smell. I feel like I had every element thrown to me here. Wet, dry, windy, whatever, I had it.

It didn’t end.

“I feel like I can navigate it in a very convenient way. That doesn’t mean it will happen. I still have to execute. I think my game is at a point where execution is really the only one – it’s really the main thing I have to focus, and I love it. Aspectdo my game is pretty well. Really good getting bored.

Ok, now we’re going somewhere! Boring golf May not play well in this era of long hair drivers and youtube matches clash with look-at-me! Thumbnails, but for Johnson, his back-basics style has strengthened a very long and prosperous run. This year not all roses have been-he has lost five cuts and there are only three Top-25-end ends he has not been insignificant. He is the 103rd in the FedEx rankings and still in the top 200 places in the world rankings, which is more than the other 49-year-olds whose names will sound known: Ian Poulter, Henrik Stenson and, yes … Tiger Woods.

“There is nothing in my game that is like heated. Has never been, right?” Johnson said this week. “When my layer is manageable or it works quite well, then (my game) can show. I tend to hit a ton of roads, many greens, and thus descends for setting.”

Johnson also chooses his points. It is no coincidence that this season he found his way to Tee sheets, to mention three places, Waalae, PGA National and Detroit GC, all these values ​​and the magician of the short game. Johnson also knows what he NOT Do well. For one, playing in heat. “Many of the boys love him,” he said. “Augusta, man, we didn’t have a week from whatever it was, 72 to 77 degrees every day, in a long time, so my body was comfortable.” Bum, Top-10 conclusion.

When you are close to the sign of half a century, this is work no. 1: Caring for yourself. “I pay attention to probably now more on the physical side of me more than the technical side,” he said. “And I don’t care about that. Just just the evolution of the game and the evolution of the place where I am a professional.”

Johnson will be entitled to PGA Tour Champions next year, though he does not sound like he is in a hurry to get there. “This is an option,” he said. “Nice good to know that there will be an outlet for me if I want to go in that direction and compete yet.”

But at the moment, his concentration is in PGA Tour, his age to be cursed. “I know I’m the older boy,” he said. “(But) when I go to 1, luckily doesn’t matter. I still feel like I can do it. I just tend to hit my second shots first.”