AJC > Sports > Columnists > Archives > 2007 > May > 20 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USImada misses, but ‘second is second’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Furman Bisher
Look at it this way. It was like a College Bowl. Drake took on Georgia and Georgia Tech, and Drake handled them both, even though it did run into overtime. Thus, Zach Johnson, representing Drake, began the fourth round of the AT&T Classic three strokes behind Ryuji Imada of Georgia and Troy Matteson of Georgia Tech. In the end it boiled down to a playoff between Johnson and Imada; it was made easy for Johnson when Imada’s second shot found water on the exciting, exhilarating 18th hole.
Zach Johnson was like the “home” team. He had won this telephone classic when it was BellSouth, on this same course, three years ago. Now, it was the AT&T Classic, but it still rang the same, and from the tenor of the cheers and hurrahs, this was his gallery.
Last year, he was second to Phil Mickelson, but Lefty was almost out of sight. He won here with a 13-stroke lead, 28 under par, but second place is still second. Then came Augusta, Johnson boldly faced off against Tiger Woods, and Johnson now owns a green jacket. Three times a winner on the PGA Tour, three times in Georgia, and with any luck at all, he’ll get his chance at another when the Tour Championship is played at East Lake in September.
So there you have the winner. It was a day for scoring. There were 20 rounds in the 60s, and that didn’t include three of the leaders, Matt Kuchar, Matteson and Camilo Villegas, all of whom hung close, but couldn’t break 70. The course was playing like a kitten. If you didn’t score early, you got passed like a buggy on the freeway.
Zach Johnson victory conferences are old shoe in Georgia now. The fascination factor rides with Imada, the Japanese who played two years at Georgia, honing his game with a career in mind. Think of leaving home at the age of 14, traveling halfway around the world to go to golf school. Knowing at that tender age that you were pledging your life to golf. If homesickness beset him, he never admitted it.
“I grew up watching the Masters and the U.S. Opens and all those tournaments on television in Japan, and coming to America was my dream. I knew what I wanted to do, play golf, learn English and one day, play on the PGA Tour,” he said, and here he was. “After high school, I took two years off, not sure which way to go. I played all right in amateur tournaments, then I decided what I wanted to do. I had met Chris Haack [the Georgia golf coach], and I called him, so I came to Georgia.”
And there he finished second to Luke Donald of Northwestern when Georgia won its first NCAA Championship. His Bulldog loyalty was represented in the red shirt he wore on the course Sunday, and he met the situation with remarkable cool. The kid is loaded with savvy, and I use the term “kid” rather loosely. In terms of tour golf, he is a kid, but the “kid” is 30 years old, and this was his closest brush with winning. It all came down to the tee shot on the long and winding 18th hole in the playoff. His drive came to rest in thick grass on the edge of the fairway. Johnson lay clear in the fairway. “Good enough for me to take the chance,” he said.
Imada dwelt quite a time considering the second shot, and eventually settled on the club, then gave it as full a swing as his 5-foot, 8-inch body could put into it. “I’m not going to second guess it. I knew I had to get across the water because Zach was going to make better than par. I should have won it on 17. I had a six-foot [birdie] putt and missed it.”
One disturbing message reached him by television, blaring out of a residence near the 17th green. “I heard somebody yell, ‘Zach, Zach.’ I knew he had made birdie on 18,” and he knew he was in Johnson country.
“I missed the putt, and that’s that. Let’s not talk about all that. Second is second.”
And the thought is registered here that Ryuji Imada will be a winner down the road. The story is the early maturity of a mere boy who knows at the age of 14 what career he will pursue, and brings it off. We shall hear more of Imada, and surely more of Zach Johnson, who has now virtually turned the state of Georgia into his lucrative personal investment.
Permalink | Comments (4) | Post your comment | Categories: Furman Bisher, Golf
Comments
By BOB
May 20, 2007 9:13 PM | Link to this
I AM PLEASED TO SEE THAT YOU FINALLY
REALIZED THAT ZACH JOHNSON WAS IN THE
TOURNAMENT EVEN THO YOU WANT TO GIVE
MOST CREDIT TO THE SECOND PLACE PLAYER.
YOU WILL ALSO SEE A LOT MORE OF ZACH
IN THE UPCOMING TOURNAMENTS.
By Course Mgmt
May 21, 2007 9:21 AM | Link to this
Ryuji was in a playoff against a guy who just won the Masters by laying up on the par 5’s, so what does Ryuji do when he’s laying one with a sketchy downhill lie in the 1st cut of rough on a par 5 with water front and left of the green? he tries a miraculous 5 wood shot - i saw Mickelson try the same thing on the same hole except with a 3 wood - Mickelson found the water as well - Ryuji will learn from that mistake and come back strong
By Native
May 21, 2007 4:21 PM | Link to this
Mr. Bisher- Atlanta has a lot going on and the Braves rule when it comes to pro baseball, but can you please broaden the lense a little??? Emory University’s baseball team — which has been ranked #4 in the nation for Div. III all year — just won the Regional Championship and a spot to the CWS. AJC should give hearty congratulations and PR to the Emory Eagles for this outstanding effort! (You know Top D III teams are better than many DI and DII conferences and the Jackets and Bulldogs welcome the baseball talent !) Thanks!
By REFMan
May 21, 2007 5:48 PM | Link to this
Hey BOB that’s because Ryuji is a Georgia Bulldog, and this is an Atlanta Paper & all.