The PGA Tour’s 10 Biggest Disappointments of 2021/22
By Bill Felber
9. Zach Johnson
How much worse? (0.773 strokes)
The former Masters and British Open Champion is in his mid-40s now, so a performance decline should be no surprise. In fact, Johnson hasn’t been the same player for four years, and 2022 merely accelerated the decline.
Johnson saw his scoring average rise by more than three-quarters of a stroke in 2022, from 70.401 to 71.174 strokes. That was a departure from a consistent recent norm of around 70.35 strokes, and dropped him to 136th on the scoring chart.
Here’s Johnson’s chart.
2020-21 2021-22 Change
Off The Tee -0.215 -0.338 -0.123
Approaches 0.085 -0.159 -0.244
Around the Green 0.105 0.111 0.006
Putting 0.667 0.183 -0.484
His play off the tee has never been a strength; Johnson’s game has risen and fallen by his work on and around the greens. In 2022, most of Zach Johnson’s problems stemmed from his loss of touch with the putter.
Just one season ago, Johnson made up two-thirds of a stroke on the field thanks to his play on the greens. That gave him the fifth largest putting advantage on the PGA Tour, behind only Louis Oosthuizen, J.T. Poston, Ian Poulter, and Patrick Reed.
But in 2022, Johnson’s putting performance turned almost neutral, and he ranked 58th in Strokes Gained Putting. His game provided no other asset to fall back on.