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Thursday, May 17, 2007
Johnson adjusts to altered course
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
In fairness to Zach Johnson, it takes something to become a big story in Sugarloaf. The bar has been set too high.
A porn star runs a brothel off the ninth fairway. (Lisa Ann Taylor. She got all of that one.)
A quarterback keeps a few of his clubhouse-broken pit bulls in the yard. (Do marshals raise “Hush, y’all” signs before a dogfight?)
But Zach Johnson — Masters champion?
Pffttt.
So maybe it wasn’t a surprise Thursday when Johnson — less than six weeks removed from dumping Tiger Woods, being splashed on magazine covers and visiting Oprah — finished his opening round of the AT&T Classic at 1 under par to polite applause from a modest gallery.
This tournament, moved from its prior on-deck spot before the Masters, lost a bit of its zing. Only one of the world’s top 10 players is here. As it turns out, Henrik Stenson can’t even draw Swedes to Duluth.
Zach Johnson is the second-highest ranked player here (15th). The last time he shot a round of golf in the state, he won the globe’s biggest tournament in Augusta. It was a life-changing moment for a relative obscurity from Cedar Rapids, Iowa. It led to talk shows, name recognition and “job security” (his wife’s words).
But his following for Thursday’s first round (maybe a few dozen fans) remained a distant second to the freak show that is John Daly (a couple of hundred).
Just as well. This celebrity stuff can wear a guy.
“Honestly, the biggest change is that it just hasn’t stopped,” Johnson said. “It’s still kind of overwhelming, and very surreal. About the only time I’m really comfortable is either when I’m with my family, and only my family, or inside the ropes. That’s my comfort zone. At the same time, whatever issues or problems or decisions or requests we’ve had have been good ones, and we’ll take anything on. It’s been awesome.”
Those first days after winning the Masters by two strokes were a talk show blur. Letterman. Regis and Kelly. Oprah. All of the ESPNs. (Alas, he couldn’t save “Cold Pizza.”)
Barack Obama introduced himself to Johnson and said, “I’m a big fan.”
The Iowa House and Senate honored him. The governor phoned him. The Des Moines Register still offers a poster to download on its Web site. You would have thought Joe Jackson just walked out of a cornfield.
“That first week, we just kept looking at each other, saying, ‘What just happened?’?” said Johnson’s wife, Kim, as she lugged a baby carrier from the car. (Their 4-month-old son, Will, also made the trip.)
“Even now, it’s hard to believe what happened. I mean, I never doubted he had the ability to win the Masters. But the fact it actually happened was a surprise.”
But the demands — from media, sponsors, family and friends — have been sudden and intense. Johnson says the attention hasn’t changed him but it forced him into an unforeseen position.
“I’ve learned to say no,” he said. “I don’t like to do that, but it’s not humanly possible for me to say yes to everything.”
The welcomed tradeoff for all of this is obvious: money. His earnings for his first six tournaments this year was $194,901. His earnings for the past five: $1.8 million.
“The best thing about this is the job security, because we know he has a place to play for the next five years,” said Kim Johnson, alluding to the exemption for winning a major. “That’s what people don’t realize about golf. Just because you’re on the Ryder Cup team and you’ve won a golf tournament, it doesn’t mean you’re set.”
Had this not worked out, she said, “I guess it would’ve been back to the Nationwide Tour.” Or she could’ve gone back to her social-services job in Orlando.
But that’s not happening. Not now. Even if Johnson isn’t yet among the tour’s elite, it said something when he followed up a potentially draining Masters experience with a sixth-place finish in the Verizon Heritage in Hilton Head.
His putting will need to improve from Thursday to climb the leaderboard. But there’s no reason to think he can’t win here. His only two victories have come in Georgia: the Masters and the 2004 BellSouth.
Another win, and he might even raise an eyebrow at Sugarloaf.
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Braves need more pitching
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
The baseball axiom: You can never have enough pitching.
The Bobby Cox axiom: “When you think you’ve got enough pitching, better get some more.”
The Braves convened for spring training thinking/hoping they had just enough pitching. Their bullpen looked great with the three closers, and their rotation seemed to have just enough arms — in theory. Reality, alas, has been rather different.
Mike Hampton didn’t make it out of camp. Lance Cormier hasn’t yet gotten healthy.
Mark Redman has already proved why he wasn’t on anyone’s roster in February. Kyle Davies wouldn’t still be working in a good rotation. Chuck James hasn’t been bad, but neither has he been as good as he was last year.
And now the bullpen: Bob Wickman has been on the DL. Mike Gonzalez just went on the DL.
The Braves have been very good these first seven weeks. They’ve run neck-and-neck with the Mets, which is hugely impressive. To still be running neck-and-neck (or even, dare we say, ahead) in August, they’ll have to find another arm, probably more than one.
The rotation as constituted cannot carry a team over 162 games. The bullpen is deep enough to get by so long as two of the three closers are available, but the biggest reason the Braves won 24 of their first 36 was their capacity to close down games from the seventh inning on. If you shorten the bullpen, you lengthen the game. If you lengthen enough games, you’ll start losing some.
The Braves have positioned themselves to have a truly memorable season, but adjustments are needed going forward. They won’t be simple adjustments. The first name on every team’s list when the Braves call to inquire about pitching will be Jarrod Saltalamacchia. And there’s the tangle: How do you get a good enough arm to make a difference while holding on to your best prospect?
Perhaps John Malone has some ideas.
Permalink | Comments (60) | Categories: Mark Bradley, Quick Hit
