[ad_1]
Returning to the tournament where he had a decade of success and became a de facto ambassador, Zach Johnson was asked what aspect of his game he was working on before this week's John Deere Classic.
"I would not even know where to start," Johnson told reporters on Tuesday.
It was a lean year for the double major champion. Johnson finished seventh at the RSM Classic in November, but this remains his most recent top 10 of the Tour. He missed 4 of the 14 deletions since the calendar that rocked in 2019, with a result in T-16 at RBC Heritage in April, the only time he ranked among the top 20. This has resulted in a steady decline in world rankings for the generally consistent veteran, who last week left the world's top 100 for the first time since 2004.
Johnson is often ranked # 108, often one of the top ranked players in the Quad Cities, every year, which represents a drop of more than 40 places since the month of January. With only four weeks left in the regular season, he is 140th in FedExCup points, and he's likely to miss out on the 125-player playoffs for the first time since his 2007 debut.
"The 2019 season has been a lot frustrated because of the work I've done and the lack of concrete results," Johnson said. "Mentally, I have not been so precise, and my practice has probably not been as strategic as necessary."
Full field departure times of the classic John Deere
Complete cover of the John Deere Classic
Johnson described his recent practice as "more analytic and evaluative" than improvement-oriented, which resulted in periods of time and sweat that ultimately did not allow his game to progress. But he teamed up with his team before the US Open, where he finished T-58, and returns to TPC Deere Run, rested and ready to pounce on one of his favorite sites.
Johnson's record at Deere is nothing short of extraordinary: a win in 2012, three runners-up and seven top five in nine years. Returning to a T-2 finish in 2009, he averaged 4 points below average for each of his 40 competitive rounds. From 2012 to 2015, he had only a score above 68 while he finished no worse than a tie for third place.
A native of Iowa making his debut in the tournament, Johnson will need all the good vibrations to correct a difficult situation that has been going on for months. But less than four years after leaving Open in St. Andrews, he remains optimistic that there are still plenty of low rounds in the bag.
"I always think my best golf is in front of me, I do not know how to say it differently," said Johnson. "I mean, I'm 43. I know, again, the realist who is in me understands that there are probably things that, no matter how well I balance, at which point point I can do it, my age can be one But I'm not going to use that as an excuse, it's not going to happen. "
[ad_2]
Source link