No ordinary winner

AUGUSTA, GA. — Zach Johnson made his own history Sunday and put Tiger Woods’ history on hold.

Johnson compared it, biblically, to David’s famous bump and run.

“As they say, the giant’s got to fall at some point,” he said.

Johnson held off a back-nine charge by Woods, golf’s jolly green jacket giant, to win the 71st Masters at Augusta National. He finished at one-over-par 289 overall, matching the highest score to win the event, but it mattered little to the soft-spoken man from Iowa who was a lot steadier on the course than he was in his acceptance speech before golf lords.

In the fog of victory, Johnson would mistakenly call Augusta National Chairman Billy Payne “commissioner” and do a lot of things a confessed “emotional wreck” would do in this position.

Johnson won by shooting three-under 69 on Sunday, with the roar of Woods’ gallery trailing him two groups behind.

The final account had Johnson prevailing by two shots over Woods, Retief Goosen and Rory Sabbatini -- each of whom finished three-over 291.

Jerry Kelly and Justin Rose ended up at four-over 292, which is a bit misleading because Rose, playing a hole behind Johnson, had the chance to track the leader down before he made double bogey at No. 17.

Rose got off to a bad start on the 17th when his tee shot hit a tree and caromed into the 15th fairway. He also bogeyed the hole Saturday.

“I just believed all day that I was going to do something special, and I fancied myself coming down the stretch,” the Englishman said. “But the 17th cost me this week.”

Phil Mickelson, the defending champion, shot five-over 77 and finished tied for 24th at 11-over 299.

Scoring conditions improved Sunday, with the cold winds that plagued early-round play largely subsiding, but the 75.9 scoring average was the fourth-highest in Masters history.

Johnson won with his wife, Kim, coaxing him down the back nine.

“I’m not so sure I believed in this, but she did,” Johnson said.

He even thanked his 14-week-old son, Will, who had no clue what daddy had just done.

Johnson is from Iowa, and this quickly became an “aw-shucks” story. He introduced himself to a larger world as though he were a plastics salesman.

“I’m Zach Johnson from Cedar Rapids,” he said. “That’s about it. I’m a normal guy.”

Not Sunday he wasn’t.

Picture this scene:

Johnson was standing over his third shot at the par-five 15th. He didn’t know at the time he had a four-shot lead over Woods because he swore he wasn’t keeping track -- “Ignorance is bliss,” he said.

When he heard the roar from behind, though, Johnson assumed Woods had made eagle three at No. 13.

He was correct.

Damon Green, Johnson’s caddie, told Johnson at the No. 16 tee box that he had a two-shot lead with three to play.

Johnson proceeded to hit a six-iron to the par-three green and make birdie on a hole he had bogeyed the three previous days.

Johnson slipped up with a bogey at 17 but made a delicate up-and-down chip for a tap-in par at the 18th to get to the clubhouse at one-over.

Johnson said it was tough to keep his emotions in check with Woods still on the course.

Woods missed a chance to make up ground at the par-five 15th, settling for par after hitting his second shot in the water, and he also missed a birdie putt at No. 16, the hole he famously chipped in from two years ago.

He came to 17 needing a birdie-birdie finish to tie, but his second shot went awry, which prompted Woods to say, “Honestly, what the hell just happened?”

When Woods could manage only par, Johnson had all but clinched the tournament, unless Woods made an improbable eagle two at 18.

“He’s done stranger things,” Johnson said. “The guy’s a phenom.”

Woods actually did an ordinary thing, making par at 18.

He finished with a very uneven par 72. He did not shoot a round under par in four days. Twice, he had bogey-bogey finishes on the last two holes.

“So four bogeys in the last two holes basically cost me the tournament,” Woods said.

Johnson’s win wasn’t a slam dunk, but it was about layups.

His 16 bogeys for the week were the most for a Masters champion, but he played the four par-fives at 11 under with an interesting strategy.

“I did not go for any green in two this week,” Johnson said. “I had my limitations, if you will.”

You might call that just good, common, Midwestern sense.

Still, no fortuneteller could have predicted this.

Johnson had never finished in the top 15 of a major. In two previous Masters visits, he missed the cut and, last year, finished tied for 32nd.

Johnson and Woods are the same age, 31, but are otherwise separated by light-years.

Woods has won 56 PGA Tour events and 12 professional majors in his career, including four Masters titles.

Johnson had one previous PGA victory, in 2004 at the BellSouth, which is played in Atlanta but, in the golf sense, is a million miles from Augusta.

With the aid of some Cedar Rapids businessmen who helped subsidize his career, Johnson worked up through the junior circuit, playing in places such as Lincoln, Neb., and Lawrence, Kan.

His first year on the Nationwide Tour, in 2000, Johnson earned $10,280.

When he won his last three events on the Hooters Tour in 2001, his nickname became “Back-to-Back-to-Back-Zach.”

“I thought those were the best days of my life,” Johnson said. “Chicken wings and everything.”

Johnson kept improving and, in 2004, earned his PGA Tour card, but no one outside his support group gave him much of a chance here.

For one day, though, on golf’s hallowed grounds, Johnson found his footing.

He shot the best number and made it stand up.

He didn’t blink and, for once, Tiger did.

Johnson joined a long list of unexpected Masters winners that includes Larry Mize, Charles Coody, Doug Ford and Gay Brewer.

Johnson uprooted the historical trends. For the first time since Nick Faldo in 1990, the Masters winner did not come out of the final pairing.

For the first time in his career, Woods held a lead on Sunday in a major and lost it.

In fact, most assumed it was game over when Woods took the outright lead at three over on the front nine.

Every half-century, apparently, a golfer from Iowa beats a legend.

In 1955, Iowa’s Jack Fleck shocked Ben Hogan to win the U.S. Open at Olympic Club.

“I do not know much about his career,” Johnson said. “But I do know he is the name in Iowa as far as golf goes,” Johnson said. “That’s pretty special putting my name up next to his.”

At some point, as Johnson says, giants have to fall.

chris.dufresne@latimes.com

*

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

CHAMPIONS

2007 -- Zach Johnson

2006 -- Phil Mickelson

2005 -- x-Tiger Woods

2004 -- Phil Mickelson

2003 -- x-Mike Weir

2002 -- Tiger Woods

2001 -- Tiger Woods

2000 -- Vijay Singh

1999 -- Jose Maria Olazabal

1998 -- Mark O’Meara

1997 -- Tiger Woods

1996 -- Nick Faldo

1995 -- Ben Crenshaw

1994 -- Jose Maria Olazabal

1993 -- Bernhard Langer

1992 -- Fred Couples

1991 -- Ian Woosnam

1990 -- x-Nick Faldo

1989 -- x-Nick Faldo

1988 -- Sandy Lyle

1987 -- x-Larry Mize

1986 -- Jack Nicklaus

1985 -- Bernhard Langer

1984 -- Ben Crenshaw

1983 -- Seve Ballesteros

1982 -- x-Craig Stadler

1981 -- Tom Watson

1980 -- Seve Ballesteros

1979 -- x-Fuzzy Zoeller

1978 -- Gary Player

1977 -- Tom Watson

1976 -- Raymond Floyd

1975 -- Jack Nicklaus

1974 -- Gary Player

1973 -- Tommy Aaron

1972 -- Jack Nicklaus

1971 -- Charles Coody

1970 -- x-Billy Casper

1969 -- George Archer

1968 -- Bob Goalby

1967 -- Gay Brewer Jr.

1966 -- x-Jack Nicklaus

1965 -- Jack Nicklaus

1964 -- Arnold Palmer

1963 -- Jack Nicklaus

1962 -- x-Arnold Palmer

1961 -- Gary Player

1960 -- Arnold Palmer

1959 -- Art Wall Jr.

1958 -- Arnold Palmer

1957 -- Doug Ford

1956 -- Jack Burke Jr.

1955 -- Cary Middlecoff

1954 -- x-Sam Snead

1953 -- Ben Hogan

1952 -- Sam Snead

1951 -- Ben Hogan

1950 -- Jimmy Demaret

1949 -- Sam Snead

1948 -- Claude Harmon

1947 -- Jimmy Demaret

1946 -- Herman Keiser

1945 -- No tournament, WWII

1944 -- No tournament, WWII

1943 -- No tournament, WWII

1942 -- x-Byron Nelson

1941 -- Craig Wood

1940 -- Jimmy Demaret

1939 -- Ralph Guldahl

1938 -- Henry Picard

1937 -- Byron Nelson

1936 -- Horton Smith

1935 -- x-Gene Sarazen

1934 -- Horton Smith

x -- won playoff

*

FINAL SCORES

72-hole scores from Augusta National Golf Club, Augusta, Ga. (7,445 yards, par 72):

*--* 289 (+1) -- $1,305,000

*--*

Zach Johnson...71-73-76-69

*--* 291 (+3) -- $541,333

*--*

Rory Sabbatini...73-76-73-69

Retief Goosen...76-76-70-69

Tiger Woods...73-74-72-72

*--* 292 (+4) -- $275,500

*--*

Jerry Kelly...75-69-78-70

Justin Rose...69-75-75-73

*--* 293 (+5) -- $233,812

*--*

Padraig Harrington...77-68-75-73

Stuart Appleby...75-70-73-75

*--* 294 (+6) -- $210,250

*--*

David Toms...70-78-74-72

*--* 295 (+7) -- $181,250

*--*

Paul Casey...79-68-77-71

Luke Donald...73-74-75-73

Vaughn Taylor...71-72-77-75

*--* 296 (+8) -- $135,937

*--*

Ian Poulter...75-75-76-70

Vijay Singh...73-71-79-73

Tim Clark...71-71-80-74

Jim Furyk...75-71-76-74

*--* 297 (+9) -- $108,750

*--*

Stewart Cink...77-75-75-70

Tom Pernice Jr....75-72-79-71

Henrik Stenson...72-76-77-72

*--* 298 (+10) -- $84,462

*--*

Mike Weir...75-72-80-71

John Rollins...77-74-76-71

Mark Calcavecchia...76-71-78-73

Lucas Glover...74-71-79-74

*--* 299 (+11) -- $63,800

*--*

Stephen Ames...76-74-77-72

Geoff Ogilvy...75-70-81-73

Phil Mickelson...76-73-73-77

*--* 300 (+12) -- $53,650

*--*

Adam Scott...74-78-76-72

Davis Love III...72-77-77-74

K.J. Choi...75-75-74-76

*--* 301 (+13) -- $43,085

*--*

Fred Couples...76-76-78-71

Robert Karlsson...77-73-79-72

Yong-Eun Yang...75-74-78-74

Charles Howell III...75-77-75-74

Scott Verplank...73-77-76-75

Lee Westwood...79-73-72-77

Dean Wilson...75-72-76-78

*--* 302 (+14) -- $31,900

*--*

Angel Cabrera...77-75-79-71

Tim Herron...72-75-83-72

J.J. Henry...71-78-77-76

Brett Wetterich...69-73-83-77

Rod Pampling...77-75-74-76

Jeev Milkha Singh...72-75-76-79

*--* 303 (+15) -- $26,825

*--*

Sandy Lyle...79-73-80-71

*--* 304 (+16) -- $22,533

*--*

Shingo Katayama...79-72-80-73

Miguel Angel Jimenez...79-73-76-76

David Howell...70-75-82-77

Jose Maria Olazabal...74-75-78-77

Bradley Dredge...75-70-76-83

*--* 305 (+17) -- $18,560

*--*

Jeff Sluman...76-75-79-75

Craig Stadler...74-73-79-79

*--* 306 (+18) -- $17,835

*--*

Brett Quigley...76-76-79-75

*--* 307 (+19) -- $17,255

*--*

Carl Pettersson...76-76-79-76

Aaron Baddeley...79-72-76-80

*--* 308 (+20) -- $16,820

*--*

Rich Beem...71-81-75-81

*--* 309 (+21) -- $16,530

*--*

Ben Crenshaw...76-74-84-75

Trevor Immelman...74-77-81-77

Niclas Fasth...77-75-77-80

*--* 310 (+22) -- $16,240

*--*

Arron Oberholser...74-76-84-76

*--* 311 (+23) -- $16,095

*--*

Billy Mayfair...76-75-83-77

*--* 313 (+25) -- $15,950

*--*

Fuzzy Zoeller...74-78-79-82

Source: Associated Press

*

Historic weekend at Augusta National ... in the worst way

Zach Johnson...71-73-76-69, 289 (+1)

Rory Sabbatini...73-76-73-69, 291 (+3)

Retief Goosen...76-76-70-69, 291 (+3)

Tiger Woods...73-74-72-72, 291 (+3)

* Complete results...D6

Sam Snead (1954)...289

Jack Burke (1956)...289

Zach Johnson (2007)...289

Jack Nicklaus* (1966)...288

* won in a playoff

1936 (Round 1)...78.6052

1956 (Round 3)...78.5678

1956 (Round 4)...78.2677

2007 (Round 3)...77.3560

1982 (Round 1)...77.3275

*

Source: Associated Press Los Angeles Times