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Home  Reviews Transformations Zach Johnson's 'Masterful' victory
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Zach Johnson's 'Masterful' victory |
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Thursday, 19 July 2007 |
After Zach Johnson overtook Tiger Woods to win the Masters, he had an Easter message left to deliver on the true Master.
By Art Stricklin, Vice-President of Public Relations for Marketplace Chaplains USA in Dallas, Texas
For many golf fans, the final round of the Masters Tournament in Augusta, Georgia, is the high holy day of professional sports. It's a chance to worship all things green and beautiful in the aptly named Cathedral of Golf.
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| File Photo: Golf pro, Zach Johnson, in the National Golf Association Tournament in 2006. Read his PGA Profile. |
But for 2007 champion Zach Johnson, his stunning victory on April 8 was a chance to win the most prestigious of golf tournaments, the Masters, while worshiping the true Master.
Johnson rolled up a shocking two-shot victory over Tiger Woods for his first-ever major golf championship and his second win on the PGA Tour, then he promptly acknowledged on national TV and later to the worldwide sports media his reliance on Jesus Christ as his source of strength.
"Golf is really my ministry," Johnson said later in an exclusive interview with Sports Spectrum magazine. "I just spoke from the heart and let people know how I felt. I've always had a platform for Jesus; now I just have a bigger platform."
It's a platform Johnson is eager to share--as is his wife, Kim, and the golfer's team of coaches, family, and advisors, all who are Bible-believing Christians.
"I've said it 100 times and I'll say it again, I feel like I'm an instrument of God's work out here," Johnson said in 2004 after winning his first PGA Tour title, the BellSouth Classic in Atlanta. "God works through me, and I went with it. I get a little ahead of myself at times, and I go back to what got me here [God]. I mean, I leaned on Him and it was great."
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"As Christians we have a responsibility to get the word out, and that's what Zach was trying to do. I'm really proud of him for that,"
-PGA Tour player
Stewart Cink.
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So when Johnson used his larger worldwide platform to share his belief in the true Master after his golfing Masters win, it came as little surprise to his fellow Tour players who know him best.
"As Christians we have a responsibility to get the word out, and that's what Zach was trying to do. I'm really proud of him for that," said fellow PGA Tour player Stewart Cink.
"It would be like having the cure for the common cold and not telling anybody about it. We have a cure that has already helped a lot of people, and we need to tell people. That's our mission out here."
"That's awesome what Zach did at the Masters," added fellow Christian and two-time PGA Tour winner Aaron Baddeley. "He's one of my favorite people, and what he did at the Masters was incredible."
After beating Woods and the rest of the field at Augusta, Johnson said to commentator Jim Nantz in a nationally televised CBS-TV interview, "Because it's Easter today, I want to say, 'Thank You, Jesus.' "
Later, in his post-tournament interview in the massive Masters media building, still wearing his winner's Green Jacket, Johnson told the international press corps, "Being Easter, my goal was to glorify God, and hopefully I did that today." . .
Art Stricklin is the Vice-President of Public Relations for Marketplace Chaplains USA in Dallas, Texas.
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Words To Live By
"And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness. The unclean will not journey on it; it will be for those who walk in that Way; wicked fools will not go about on it." - The Bible: Isaiah 35:8-9
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