The Hlog

Masters Tuesday: Johnson's Night to Host, And Be Toasted

AUGUSTA, Ga. -- On a wall in the stately clubhouse of Augusta National Golf Club are 43 portraits. They are the men who have won the Masters since the tournament began in 1934.

The newest addition to the collection is one of Zach Johnson, holding a golf ball in his extended right hand. It was his pose after his tap-in on the final hole of his win here last year.

The permanent Masters trophy is made of over 900 pieces of silver. It depicts the clubhouse and carries the names of the 43 champions. Johnson's, obviously, was added since last April.

This week, Johnson gained access to the Champions Room for the first time. That's the locker room on the second floor of the clubhouse that's off limits to all but, of course, Masters champions.

It has small lockers made of oak, and brass nameplates. The room isn't very big, but every golfer here who has never won this tourney wants to one day be able to climb the spiral staircase from the ground floor, and get a friendly greeting from the security guard standing sentry as he's welcomed inside.

Masters Club Room -- Private. That's what the plaque on the door to the room says. Like everything else here, the words are to be taken literally.

A display cabinet in the room changes every year, always honoring the current champion.

But what may bring Johnson the clearest reality that he is forever a Masters champion is what occurred Tuesday night when he hosted the annual Champions Dinner.

"He'll look and see the champions that are there tonight," two-time Masters winner Ben Crenshaw (1984, 1995) said Tuesday, "and he'll get a look at his future.

"That's what's so much fun, because he'll know tonight that he'll be a champion for the rest of his days.

"When you see (1957 champion) Doug Ford at age 86, Bob Goalby (79 years old, and the 1968 winner), he'll get a glimpse tonight of what it means. Which is the neatest thing."

Arnold Palmer, 78, was in attendance. So were 70-somethings Billy Casper, Gary Player and Charles Coody. Jack Nicklaus, 68, too.

Crenshaw said Johnson "will know that this is a distinctively different championship here. It's something, the feeling of winning here and returning here. Sometimes it gets a deeper emotion over the years. It has that capacity."