By Doug Milne
Courtesy of Boca Raton Tribune
With spring in the air, what better time for someone green on PGA TOUR Champions to take this week’ gold at the James Hardie Pro Football Hall of Fame Invitational.
Less than two weeks after his 50th birthday on February 24, Iowa native Zach Johnson came into his first Champions Tour event hot…and stayed hot. After opening with rounds of 70-66 to take a 1-stroke lead into the final round at 8-under 136, the 12-time PGA TOUR winner closed with a 3-under 69 to finish four strokes clear of the field at 11-under 205.
“It’s humbling…humbling just to get to this point,” Johnson said. “If you would have told me I’d be here at 50 years old, the hypothetical part of that is so incredible that I would have said you’re crazy. So, staying in modest shape to play with these guys – because it’s still really good, highly competitive golf on a phenomenal track – I have to say I’m humbled.”
After following a bogey at No. 3 with two birdies on Nos. 4 and 7 on his outgoing nine to reach 9-under, Johnson led by two at the turn. With additional birdies coming at 12 and 16, the Cedar Rapids native would claim the largest margin of victory on the Champions Tour since Steven Alker won the 2025 Simmons Bank Championship by seven strokes.
“I’ve got a great ensemble of individuals that push me, make me better and frustrate me in a good way, which is awesome. We’re in this together,” Johnson said. “I know they say it’s an individual game, but it’s the furthest thing from it. I’ve got so much admiration for all those team members of mine, my coaches, my partnerships…everybody included.”
Johnson becomes 22nd player to claim his first PGA TOUR Champions victory in his maiden start, and first since Richard Bland achieved the feat at the 2024 KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship.
With his win, Johnson becomes the fourth-youngest winner in PGA TOUR Champions history (50 years, 12 days). As the winner, he picks up first-place money of $330,000.
“I am extremely excited, and I have been excited,” Johnson said. “The first moment I stepped foot on this premises, I was like ‘Hey, this is special’. It’s all so well done, and to share this with my family is everything.”
Johnson, winner of the 2007 Masters Tournament and 2015 Open Championship, missed just two of 14 fairways off the tee and found all but three greens in regulation Sunday.
Johnson’s win at the James Hardie Invitational comes 10 years, 7 months, 16 days since his most recent TOUR event at the 2015 Open Championship.
“If my body’s willing and able which, at this point is the half of it, I’m going to keep competing out here,” Johnson said. “I’ve got the freedom at home to do so. My wife is amazing like that, so I’m going to keep working.”
In his first James Hardie Pro Football Hall of Fame Invitational, 2025 Charles Schwab Cup champion and Player of the Year Stewart Cink posted scores of 67-72-70 to finish T2 at 7-under 209.
Cink was vying for a third-consecutive Champions Tour victory, dating to the end of last season’s victory at the Charles Schwab Cup Championship. In the first event this season, he claimed a second straight title at the Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai.
Beginning the final round just a stroke off Johnson’s lead, Florida native and former Florida State University Seminole George McNeill closed with a even-par 72 to claim a share of second with Cink at 7-under 209.
McNeill’s most recent of two PGA TOUR titles came 14 years ago at the Puerto Rico Open which, incidentally, was contested this week opposite the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
After an opening-round 7-over 79, World Golf Hall of Fame Member Padraig Harrington rallied with rounds of 66-65 to finish T4 at 6-under 210. En route to his bogey-free round Sunday, Harrington birdied two of his last three holes.
Jamie Donaldson of Wales, one of this week’s three Open Qualifiers, took advantage of opportunity by way of three sub-par scores, 70-71-69 to finish T4 at 6-under 210.
“It was great, so nice to come out here and Monday qualify,” Donaldson said. “It’s a long way to come for us Europeans, and then you’re practicing to go to the Monday qualifier and hoping to play well enough to get through. It was a great feeling to get in. To come here and play in America has been brilliant. The events are run so well. So, yeah, it was nice to play well and finish well.”
In his bid to defend last year’s James Hardie Invitational title, Argentina’s Angel Cabrera posted rounds of 78-71-70 to finish T35 at 3-over 219.