Cool caddie could guide Zach Johnson to next Green Jacket

Zach Johnson and caddie Damon Green make a formidable pairing.

Zach Johnson will arrive at Augusta in three weeks, quietly confident he is ready to win his second Green Jacket.

The 2007 Masters champion has hardly put a foot wrong since finishing sixth in The Open Championship last year, notching up six Top-10 finishes in his next seven tournaments after Muirfield.

He won the BMW Championship in September, beat the host in a play-off at Tiger Woods’ Northwestern Mutual Golf Challenge in December, then won the Hyundai Tournament of Champions at the start of this year.

Of all the players who have got into double-figures in tournament wins on the US Tour, Johnson would probably be most fans’ choice to be the unlikeliest to have made that number.

But he is, without doubt, a shining example for aspiring youngsters with his work ethic and mental ability to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear!

Johnson admits: “I was certainly pretty average in terms of distance off the tee when I came out here.

“But it was also one of my strengths because I’m pretty straight.

“That said, I knew when I made the Tour that every aspect of my game needed to improve.

“My iron play had been average at best. My wedges, especially, average at best.”

But Johnson set about becoming one of the game’s best players by concentrating on the mental side of the game as much as practising on the range.

The man from Iowa continues: “One of my best stats at the start of my career was my ability to bounce back.

“If I had a bad hole or two, I usually came back with a birdie. I think I ranked No 1 in that regard.

“Mentally, I’m able to fight through setbacks, and I don’t like to give up.

“I never have, as far as I can remember.”

Johnson will not lack confidence when he arrives at Augusta, no matter what happens between now and the start of the tournament.

“I won’t be thinking explicitly about when I won The Masters,” he insists.

“But it is always a confidence booster going back to a place where you have done it.

“My caddie, Damon Green, never allows me to get too far ahead of myself.

“He’s a pretty low-key guy, which is great for me because some of my tendencies like walking pretty fast out there can lead to doing things too fast.

“Damon stops me from doing that.

“So he helps a lot in that respect, making sure I settle down, relax, stay calm.”

By his own admission, Johnson has never been a player who gets too high with the highs, or too low with the lows.

For The Masters, which is more of a marathon than a sprint, he looks good value at 28-1.