MASTERS TOURNAMENT

April 13, 2025

Zach Johnson

Quick Quotes

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Q. Zach, how proud are you of your performance coming back and finishing like you did?

ZACH JOHNSON: I mean, yeah. I still feel like I have it. I don't know if pride is the right thing, proud, whatever you want to call it.

I mean, the competitor in me is still frustrated with 17. If it goes a half a foot further or a foot shorter, I'm probably making a par at worst. That's Augusta. That's how precise you have to be.

That's where my mind goes. But it's so fresh right now to really encompass the whole week. Tons of positives. But I've been seeing it. I think I said that the other day. I felt like I had probably my B game today, B plus game today; yesterday was an A, obviously.

So you can't have it every day. A lot of positives. I'll just sum it up as a lot of positives. I'm still trying hard to process.

Q. Can you talk about the moment on 18, Justin wants you to go, you're a Masters champion, that's tradition --

ZACH JOHNSON: No, he did not. He said, Zach, I want you to do what you want to do, but I would love more time. So I'm like, heck yeah, I'm going. I asked. He would not.

I don't consider myself that intelligent, but I'm glad I had the awareness to say, hey, I need to get out of the way. And it's 18 green and it's Sunday at the Masters.

Given what that man did today, it was -- it didn't matter who it is, you're going to do that. But he's a buddy, so I was very happy that I was able to go and get out of the way.

Q. Could you tell us what you saw --

ZACH JOHNSON: That's what you're talking about, right?

Q. Yeah. Could you tell us what you saw from him?

ZACH JOHNSON: I saw a man that was bold, very, very bold today. I mean, he made 10 birdies, and he didn't know about the 10 birdies until we were signing our scorecard. I didn't either. You're just writing numbers down, right?

I don't know how many guys have made 10 birdies in 18 holes here, but I'm going to assume it's not many. It was really, really, really, really impressive. When he got himself in a predicament, he was wise on what not to do.

A couple tee shots on the back, other than that, man, he's shooting zero. He had a good tee shot on 17 and he had a bad kick, an unfortunate kick, and then hit a great pitch. But it was impressive. What you witnessed on 18 is storybook, absolute storybook.

Q. As a competitor when you're down seven as he was with five holes to play, what's the thought process to mount a comeback like he did?

ZACH JOHNSON: He was down seven with five holes?

Q. Yeah, Rory was at 14, he was at 7.

ZACH JOHNSON: Oh, I guess I didn't realize that.

Q. Do you look at scoreboards --

ZACH JOHNSON: No, I'm not looking at much. I would if I was knowingly near the lead, I'm going to take a gander every now and then. But no, there's too much golf ahead. Maybe Fooch did. Maybe he did. I don't know if they scoreboard watch. But whatever they did, it worked.

Q. What does it say that you are down seven, whether he was looking or not, to stage a comeback like that?

ZACH JOHNSON: I think the reality of the situation is it's Augusta National on Sunday on the back nine and there are plenty of opportunities and plenty of danger. You don't have anything -- you don't have any other choice but to stay present, and Justin did a phenomenal job of that. Phenomenal job. Shoot, he almost made eagle on 15.

So yeah, whatever recipe or whatever sort of protocol that he decided to go with, it was spectacular.