Mystery Guest
Johnson Wagner, a little-known second-year pro, picks off the last Masters invite with a breakthrough victory in Houston
Good-luck color: Lime green worked for Johnson on the Nationwide Tour and in Sunday's clutch 71.
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Where did he come from, this man with two last names, neither of which, incidentally, is Hogan or Nicklaus? When the final round of the Shell Houston Open took on the form of a race, its finish line in Augusta, who would have bought even a show ticket on Johnson Wagner? Or Wagner Johnson?
His form chart suggested also-ran was the best bet, even in lieu of his head start, a one-stroke lead through 54 holes. He had missed six straight cuts earlier this year, tied for 78th and 64th in the preceding weeks and hadn't won on this level.
And the pressure, it induced nausea. "I thought I was going to get sick on myself out there a couple of times," he said. A PGA Tour victory, an invitation to the Masters, $1 million, those were the stakes. Those in pursuit, champions and major champions, many playing to secure their own Augusta invitations, considered the odds and no doubt felt better about their own chances against a man with eyes too wide to narrow the focus required on Sunday afternoons in this arena.
"It might be tough for somebody who had never been to Augusta before," said Bob Estes. "It might put more pressure on them, thinking, 'This is my chance.' "
Who could have known, other than Johnson Wagner himself? It occurred to him the previous Sunday, when he shot 69 in the final round of the Zurich Classic of New Orleans and realized that a simple change suggested by his teacher, Bobby Heins, was capable of leading him to places he had only dreamed about, to Augusta National and beyond. Sunday night from New Orleans, he phoned Heins, a former tour player and now the head pro at Old Oaks CC in Purchase, N.Y.
"You know what?" Wagner said to him. "Everything's in place. I've just got to go do it now."
Sooner prevailed over later for Wagner, 28 and in his second year on the PGA Tour. He went out and shot 16-under 272 to win the Shell Houston Open at Redstone GC in Humble, Texas, leading wire-to-wire and staving off late challenges by Geoff Ogilvy and Chad Campbell, among others. He made an 11-foot putt to save par on 17 and made another par from in front of the green on 18 to win by two, his succession of ensuing fist pumps evocative of Tiger Woods were it not for his lime-green shirt.
Lime green was his Friday color on the Nationwide Tour, where he won twice in 2006. "It was my good-luck color, my cut-making color, and it failed me last year," he said, recounting a year in which he missed 13 cuts in a 14-tournament stretch. "So I thought once I got in the hunt, it was going to be lime-green Sundays."
Those to whom he was introduced last week likely are hoping more lime-green Sundays are in his future. His smile is broad and of a scale that comfortably fits his 6-foot-3, 230-pound frame. He is engaging and polite and enjoys the attention a weekend stage provides him to banter with the media. Asked what he received for his GEICO Insurance endorsement, he replied, "Unlimited gecko headcovers for my driver, which I like," he said. "I want the caveman to caddie for me."
As for his first name, he does have one, incidentally. It's Montford. He has an uncle with the same name, who was called Monty, Wagner's father, Tommy, said, "So we just started calling him Johnson."
Johnson was named after his grand-father, Montford T. Johnson, or M.T., as he was known. Wagner's golf lineage can be traced to M.T., who was a former secretary of the USGA and once served as chairman of the USGA's implements and ball committee. M.T. Johnson was also the official who called a two-shot penalty on Denis Watson for waiting too long for a putt to drop on the eighth hole in the first round of the 1985 U.S. Open (Watson finished one stroke behind winner Andy North).
