TEEING OFF

Five things to look for on the professional golf scene:

1. Zach Johnson will be back at Augusta National Golf Club next month to defend a Masters title that few could have predicted he would own, including the self-proclaimed ordinary guy from Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Johnson, who turned 32 last month, was a one-tournament winner in three previous years on the PGA Tour, before the Masters. He already had a reputation though. He could handle it in the clutch -- 14 top-10 finishes those first three years -- and he showed it when he earned a spot on the 2006 Ryder Cup team.

Then Johnson broke through last April at the Masters, with a 69 on Sunday that beat Tiger Woods, Retief Goosen and Rory Sabbatini by two shots. His one-over-par total of 289 was the highest winning score in 51 years, but Johnson wasn’t picky.

“It’s been a nice roller coaster and we’re excited to be on it,” he said in a conference call this week.

There are four par-five holes at 7,445-yard Augusta National, and in four rounds last year, Johnson played them in 11 under par, utilizing a conservative strategy. He laid up all 16 times. For a guy who packs three wedges -- 60-degree, a 54-degree and a 48-degree -- it was sound strategy that probably won’t change.

Of course, that also means Johnson played all the other holes in a combined 12 over. Can he do that again?

“I think it becomes imperative to score well on those other holes,” he said..

“Now, for me, I’ve got to score well on the par fives. The course is so long and it has become very much an approach-shot golf course in my opinion, that the more wedges I can get in my hands, the better off I can score.”

Johnson isn’t playing this week at the PODS Championship, but he’s figuring to be at Bay Hill next week to continue his Masters preparation.

2. He’s 28 under par in the three tournaments he has played this year, but the biggest number for Scott Verplank as he heads into the PODS is this one: 27 consecutive rounds of par or better, the best streak on the PGA Tour.

Verplank, who tied for 18th at the Mercedes, tied for 22nd at the Hope and tied for fifth at the Northern Trust Open, is having one of his regularly consistent years because his short game remains reliable at 43.

He doesn’t hit it long -- ranking 160th in driving distance -- but Verplank is first in fairways hit, sixth in greens hit, second in sand saves and 20th in putting.

3. Minus the fanfare with his previous client, Greg Nared, the former William Morris agent for Michelle Wie, is back in business with his own company in Portland and represents LPGA Tour rising star Nicole Castrale. Nared split with Wie last fall.

Castrale, 28, who was born in Glendale and played four years at USC, was a member of the U.S. team that won the Solheim Cup last year, sinking the putt that clinched the victory in singles. Castrale also has a rare distinction as one of the few to stand up to Lorena Ochoa last year, beating her in a playoff at the Ginn Tribute.

4. Quick, what’s Sandy Lyle’s claim to fame? This is the 20-year anniversary of his victory at the 1988 Masters, when he hit a seven-iron out of a fairway bunker and birdied the 18th hole to beat Mark Calcavecchia.

Lyle, who also won the 1985 British Open at Royal St. George’s (by one shot over Payne Stewart), turned 50 last month and he’s making his Champions Tour debut this week at the Toshiba Classic at Newport Beach Country Club.

Lyle might know that 12 players have won their first event on the over-50 tour. Bernhard Langer, John Cook and Jeff Sluman are also in the field and playing their first full Champions Tour season.

5. Any more of what happened the last two weeks to Mark Brown in India and he’s going to be moving from New Zealand. First he won the SAIL Open on the Asian Tour and then last week he won the Johnnie Walker Classic.

Not bad for the 33-year-old who retired from the Australasian Tour and Canadian Tour for three years, then un-retired, started on the Asian Tour last year and had four top 10s.

Said Brown: “My golfing career has been mostly down . . . but not the last two weeks.”

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STAT OF THE WEEK

Ernie Els’ victory at the Honda Classic was not only his biggest comeback in his PGA Tour career -- three shots behind after 54 holes -- but it was also his first PGA Tour victory in the U.S. since the 2004 Memorial, and that’s a span of 56 events covering three years, eight months and 26 days.

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A SLICE OF LIFE

Ernie Els, after winning the Honda Classic, on giving credit to sports psychologist Bob Rotella:

‘He basically just wants me to be Ernie Els again, to be kind of like the “Big Easy” again. I’ve been a little bit uptight and a little grumpy.’