Whether or not Zach Johnson actually did tell the gallery at The Masters to F off after his triple bogey six on the par-3 12th hole during Friday’s action, nobody gave him the benefit of the doubt.
That tells you all you need to know about the perception surrounding the latest losing Ryder Cup captain.
Johnson did his best to quell the controversy after an on-course mic picked up his profane outburst.
“I swore at the patrons? That’s laughable. That’s completely laughable. I can’t hear the patrons, number one. Number two, I just made a triple bogey on the 12th hole. That evidently was gonna make me miss the cut, which at the time, I kind of knew it was pretty sensitive in the sense that I needed to keep making pars.
If I’ve said anything, which I’m not going to deny especially if it’s on camera, one, I apologize, and two, it was fully directed towards myself entirely. Because I can’t hear anything behind me. Does that make sense?”
This comes only a couple of months after Johnson berated the gallery at the Phoenix Open, telling them to shut up.
So if you daisy chain that incident to what looks like what happened at The Masters, it’s reasonable to connect the dots that Johnson just doesn’t like the people he’s playing golf in front of. On the other hand, his explanation is completely reasonable, because I’m sure many of us have told ourselves to F off after a bad putt or a bad hole on the links. I ain’t too proud to admit it.
Golf is hard. Champion Golfer of the Year Brian Harman just shot a 47 on nine holes at Augusta National. It’s a wicked game. More often than not, a good walk (or cart ride) spoiled. Just gotta hope you’re with your pals while you hack, chunk and perpetually two-putt your way to the clubhouse.
I’m inclined to believe Johnson here. Since I haven’t actually played at Augusta, I’ll take his word for it that you can’t hear the patrons on the 12th tee box from the 12th green. Uncertain how that’s possible, but Johnson said it with such conviction that if it weren’t true, and could easily be debunked by any other golfer teeing it up this week, he’d just be digging himself an even bigger hole.
What hurts more here is the fact that Johnson, despite that triple bogey, only missed the cut by a single stroke. This year’s Masters has seen some of the toughest, windiest conditions in the tournament’s illustrious history. The breeze is expected to die down over the weekend, so we should see a few more fireworks coming down the stretch of Masters Sunday. Thank goodness. Give me a close to par score at the U.S. Open or even The Open Championship. At The Masters, I want myriad iggle opportunities on the par 5s to add to the drama.
Kind of sucks for Johnson that his rather exceptional career is marred by the recent Ryder Cup flop, fan-related incidents (true or not) such as this, and honestly, I don’t think many people have forgotten his rant about the conditions at Shinnecock Hills during the 2018 U.S. Open.
It’s more funny than anything else to me, and it’s not like he was wrong.
Whatevs. Hang in there, ZJ.
