Zach Johnson hangs onto lead at wild Mitsubishi Electric Classic
The nontraditional scoring method being used at the Mitsubishi Electric Classic has created the sort of turmoil on the leaderboard that the organizers craved to set it apart.
First-round leader Zach Johnson has 28 points, leaving him three ahead of Retief Goosen on Saturday after 36 holes at TPC Sugarloaf in Duluth. A dozen players enter the final day within 10 points of the lead, leaving the outcome far from decided.
All indications point to a Sunday afternoon shootout.
“The best explanation is a birdie and a bogey usually equals even par on the PGA Tour,” Johnson said. “But here it’s plus-1, so there’s a little bit of an incentive to be a little more aggressive.”
This PGA Tour Champions tournament is being played under the Modified Stableford Scoring system. Eagles are worth 5 points, birdies are worth 2 points and pars are worth 0. A bogey counts minus-1 and a double bogey (or worse) counts minus-3.
“You have to make birdies. It’s all about those points,” Goosen said. “You tend to be a little more aggressive because you know how many points a birdie is than a par.”
Johnson and Goosen each scored 13 points Saturday; under traditional scoring, they each would have posted a 66.
“I don’t know what it feels like, really,” Goosen said. “You’re just trying to birdie every hole.”
Tied for third with 21 points is the trio of former Georgia Tech All-American David Duval and PGA Tour Champions rookies Ben Crane, Rory Sabbatini and George McNeill.
Sabbatini, who scored 12 points Saturday, is playing in only his second senior tournament. The six-time PGA Tour winner talked Friday about “needing to knock some rust off my game,” but emerged strong with a string of four straight birdies. The South African had seven birdies and two bogeys, a 67 by the scorecard.
Duval, 54, a four-time All-American at Georgia Tech, scored 11 points and vaulted eight places up the board after pouring in a long eagle putt on the 18th hole. The 5-pointer put Duval in contention for his first senior win; he had finished no better than a tie for 14th in five previous starts this season. Duval won the 1999 BellSouth Classic at TPC Sugarloaf and was ranked No. 1in the world that year.
Alex Cjeka is alone in seventh with 20 points. Tied for eighth with 19 points are Soren Kjeldsen of Denmark and four-time major champion Ernie Els.
Lurking in a tie for 10th with 18 points are three-time Mitsubishi Electric champion Stephen Ames (2017, 2023, 2024) and 2014 Mitsubishi champion Miguel Angel Jimenez, the oldest contender on the board at 62.
Ames jumped into contention by scoring 16 points Saturday, starting with an eagle on No. 10, his first hole. He added six birdies and one bogey, a 65 by stroke play.
Both Johnson and Goosen have positive histories at Sugarloaf. Johnson won the BellSouth Classic here in 2004 — his first career PGA Tour victory — and again in 2007. Goosen was the BellSouth Classic champion in 2002. Both went on to claim major championships; Johnson won the 2007 Masters and 2015 British Open, and Goosen won the U.S. Open in 2001 and 2004.
Johnson has already won one time this year on the Champions Tour, but admitted he still feels some anxiety.
“On the first hole today, I hit a really bad putt and I turned to my caddie and said, ‘Man, got some little butterflies going right there,’” Johnson admitted. “That’s kind of nice, you know? It just means you care. So that’s competition. That’s why we practice. That’s why we do what we do, to have those opportunities and moments where it’s like, I’ve got to execute right now. I thoroughly enjoy that part of my work.”
Surprises: South African Darren Fichardt, who had to qualify Monday to get in the field, is tied for 12th with 17 points. Brandt Jobe, another Monday qualifier, had nine points and moved into a tie for 20th.
Course data: The average score for the day was 71.78, slightly higher than the 71.55 from the first round. There was only one eagle on the par-5 18th hole, but there were 40 birdies and only six bogeys or higher. There were eight eagles on the day, including a hole-out from the bunker on the par-5 10th hole from past champion Scott McCarron.
Sunday’s start: The first groups will start on both sides at 10:53 a.m. The final group of Johnson, Goosen and Sabbatini goes off at 1:05 p.m. Final round TV coverage will begin at 3 p.m. on Golf Channel.
About the Author
Stan Awtrey has been covering sports for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution since 1977. He currently writes about high school sports, Georgia State University athletics and golf.
