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Zach Johnson ready for next stage of career on PGA Tour Champions

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BOCA RATON — Zach Johnson started his maiden voyage on the PGA Tour Champions on March 6 at 11:36 a.m. when driver struck ball in the first round of the James Hardie Pro Football Hall of Fame Invitational, providing the answer to a question he has received all week.

“Most of the guys are like,” Johnson said, “‘You’re just here for the pro-am, because you’re not 50 yet, right?’ ”

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Wrong.

The two-time major champion and 12-time PGA Tour winner turned 50 on Feb. 24, even though his boyish looks would get him carded if he bought beer at Publix. But age is a relative term depending upon which major U.S. golf tour you’re playing.

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“Somebody told me I was the oldest guy on (the PGA) Tour the last two years, with the exception of two tournaments,” Johnson said, referring to Padraig Harrington and Davis Love III. “That’s pretty brutal.”

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Photos of PGA Tour Champions Pro Football Hall of Fame tournament

NFL Hall of Fame inductee Drew Brees watches his tee shot on the first hole during the opening round of the James Hardie Pro Football Hall of Fame Invitational at The Old Course at Broken Sound Club on Friday, March 6, 2026, in Boca Raton, FL.

Johnson was officially the third-youngest player on the Broken Sound Club’s Old Course on Friday, behind Ben Crane (March 6) and Jupiter resident Ryan Armour (Feb. 27), each also making their debuts.

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Once again, the 50-and-older circuit has provided its players with a fountain-of-youth quality.

“It’s like being a ‘rook’ all over again,” Johnson said. “I welcome it. (Paul) Stankowski told me when you’re in your late 40s, you feel so old (on the PGA Tour), and then you get out here and it’s the only profession where you go from being old to young. There may be some truth in that, so I welcome it.”

The ball doesn’t know how old you are, or so the saying goes. Johnson hopes to re-capture the magic that helped the Cedar Rapids, Iowa native win the 2007 Masters and the 2015 British Open while earning a nifty $50 million on the PGA Tour.

He started Friday with a birdie, not long after JHI officials presented him with a cake on the first tee to mark the occasion. Johnson will have a chance to win his first start after shooting 2-under 70. He’s tied for ninth place, four behind leader Ricardo Gonzalez (66).

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Zach Johnson captained American team at 2023 Ryder Cup

Zach Johnson poses for a photo with staff members in front of a cake welcoming him and Ben Crane to the PGA Tour Champions during the first round of the James Hardie Pro Football Hall of Fame Invitational at The Old Course at Broken Sound Club on Friday, March 6, 2026, in Boca Raton, FL.

Johnson’s game and demeanor earned him the honor of captaining the U.S. team in the 2023 Ryder Cup, a road loss to the Europeans in Italy. These days, Johnson only worries about his game to see if he can produce the same results when we first heard of his game by winning the final three events on the now-defunct Hooters Tour in 2001.

His lack of distance – he famously won the Masters in cold conditions by laying up on every par-5 and playing them in a combined 11-under – won’t be a burden on the PGA Tour Champions. Neither will his positive attitude.

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“I’m going with both feet in,” Johnson said. “I’m going to compete against guys who have always been one, two, three, four, five, six years older than me. And 25 years ago, they were still that age gap, and they beat me a lot. So, why am I to assume that it’s going to be that easy? These guys are good.”

Zach Johnson plays his tee shot on the first hole in his first tournament on the PGA Tour Champions during the opening round of the James Hardie Pro Football Hall of Fame Invitational at The Old Course at Broken Sound Club on Friday, March 6, 2026, in Boca Raton, FL.

Johnson is tournament sharpened – he has played in at least 12 PGA Tour events each of the last 22 years, including being a regular at the Honda/Cognizant tournament at PGA National. The downside is he has had just one top-10 finish in the last two years, a T8 at last year’s Masters.

“It’s not going to be given to me, right?” Johnson said. “I’ve got to go out and earn it. That’s the beauty of golf, right? Your scorecard, there’s no subjectivity to it.

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“If I am healthy enough and swinging well enough, I feel like I can put myself in a place to have a chance on Sunday. Now, I haven’t had a chance on Sunday in quite some time. I am accustomed to it, but it’s just been a minute.”

Johnson’s reputation is such there have been talks — “very, very preliminary,” he cautions — about him one day hosting a PGA Tour Champions event. For years, he has hosted the Zach Johnson Foundation Classic in Cedar Rapids, his foundation’s largest annual fundraiser, which features pros and celebrities and whose proceeds benefit programs such as Kids on Course.

Hosting another tournament will come in time. Friday was about starting a new journey for a player who has been doing this job for more than 25 years.

So far, so good.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: PGA Tour Champions welcomes two-time Majors champion Zach Johnson

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