The Hlog

Masters Monday

AUGUSTA, GA. -- Was it only a year ago that Zach Johnson won the Masters?

Almost. Johnson set the golf world on its ear last April 8. Today (Monday, April 7) begins a whole lot of focus on Cedar Rapids native Johnson as he gets tens of thousands eyeballs and questions his way as the defending Masters champ.

Your Gazette sportswriter guy is here once again, by way of Cincinnati and Savannah, and over 100 miles in a rental car. When I got to Augusta on Tuesday of last year's Masters week, Johnson was able to go about his business without much hubbub.

He gave me 10 minutes of one-on-one time that day, something that will be virtually impossible this year because of the interest in the defending champ.

Unlike last year, The Gazette won't be the only Iowa media outlet here this time around. That's OK. I'm still not quite ready to say I knew Johnson would win the Masters before last year's tourney started, so you could say we were kind of lucky.

Heck, one of my co-workers questioned the merit of coming here last year before I left Cedar Rapids, saying he thought we had pretty much told the Zach Johnson story. He was right, to a degree.

I'm glad I came, though. It turned out that Johnson's story had a fairly significant chapter to add to it. In the last year, a whole lot of people around the nation and beyond have told Johnson's tale.

One of the better comprehensive pieces on Johnson was in Sunday's Augusta Chronicle, which had a Masters special section about as thick as the Augusta phone book. Here's the link:

Augusta Chronicle on Zach

Oh, note the newspaper that Dave and Julie Johnson are holding up in one of several photos the Augusta newspaper came all the way to Cedar Rapids to get. That would be The Gazette.

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