Step aside duffers, score one for Iowa

It’s not easy to win The Masters when you’re from Iowa.

Look at me.

And I was a pretty good stick back in the day – the day, in this case, being one Monday back in early June 1976 when I shot 2 over at Dodge Park Golf Course in Council Bluffs and beat the captain of my pro-am team by six strokes.

That’s right, our team captain.

A pro.

But before you pass judgment, consider this: Even though most courses open in April and close in October, the golf season in Iowa is only about three months long once you factor in a couple of weeks off for early spring flooding, three weeks of downtime for late spring tornadoes and another month or so of staying indoors during for those stifling, mosquito-infested, midsummer days when it’s too humid to even go fishing.

I remember my senior year in high school when I walked off the course after only four holes of our sectional tournament in the middle of a driving blizzard, only to find all of the coaches huddled in the restaurant swapping jokes and swigging hot coffee.

My point, I guess, is that there’s a reason why Jack Fleck – until last weekend, at least – was the only golfer from Iowa most people could remember.

My weather-challenged home state has never been considered much of a nesting ground for professional golfers, which made Zach Johnson’s unlikely victory in The Masters on Sunday such a treat for displaced Iowans everywhere.

I had a couple of old college friends call shortly after Johnson had polished off Tiger Woods and the rest of the field at Augusta National to make sure I had been watching.

We shared our amazement at Johnson’s accomplishment and ran through a rather short list of other golfing greats from the Hawkeye State.

Actually, we came up with only three, other than Fleck, the former municipal-course pro from Davenport, who beat the legendary Ben Hogan in an 18-hole playoff to win the 1955 U.S. Open at the Olympic Club in San Francisco.

And, in all honestly, they weren’t all that great.

Lonnie Nielsen, from Belle Plaine, is bumping it around on the Champions Tour after accumulating a mere $119,416 on the PGA Tour, where he ranks 784th in career earnings.

Dave Rummells, who, like Johnson, hails from Cedar Rapids, ranks No. 289 on the PGA’s all-time money list with $1,909,430 in earnings, but has played nothing but Nationwide Tour events this year.

And Steve Spray? Well, the name says it all.

Ah, but now we have Zach Johnson, as in Zach Johnson, Masters Champion and humble young man from Iowa, who endeared himself to the world during a post-tournament television interview on Sunday when he said, “I’m from Cedar Rapids, Iowa. That’s about it. I’m a normal guy.”

Hey, I’ve been to Cedar Rapids, Iowa … I think.

And I was so pumped about his victory I even called the golf coach at Drake University, Johnson’s alma mater, to see how the school was dealing with its new notoriety.

“I’ve been getting a lot of calls, that’s for sure,” said Scott Bohlender, who took over the Bulldogs’ program the year after Johnson left.

And what will Johnson’s victory do for recruiting?

“Actually, we’ve been selling him for several years, now,” Bohlender said. “He went from being the player of the year on the Hooters Tour to being the player of the year on the Nationwide Tour and now he’s won almost $2 million on the PGA Tour, for two years in a row.

“Obviously, his Masters win puts a lot of legitimacy on what we’ve been telling kids – which is they can come here and learn to play in all kinds of weather conditions and learn to hit every kind of golf shot. When you leave Drake, you’re going to be that much better prepared than somebody who’d been practicing in 80-degree weather with no wind and no rain for four years.”

That’s a sales pitch?

Well, it obviously worked on Johnson, who spent four years at Drake as the Bulldogs’ No. 2 or No. 3 player behind golfers who have yet to become even Steve Spray.

His Masters victory could not have been scripted any better, although I could have done without the religious references in his post-tournament TV interview.

I know it was Easter Sunday, but I’m not sure how much that had to do with the way this year’s Masters played out.

I guess I could ask Bradley Dredge, who shot a final-round 83.

But why?

It was Zach Johnson’s story, and I’m sticking to it.