PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 18, 2022

Zach Johnson

Southern Hills Country Club

Flash Quotes

JULIUS MASON: U.S. Ryder Cup captain Zach Johnson is joining us at the 104th PGA Championship.

Zach, you are playing in your 20th PGA Championship. Can you take us back to 2007 and maybe refresh us on what you felt about maybe the weather, the course conditions, how the --

ZACH JOHNSON: Oh, yeah. Well, yes. That was one of the most trying -- clearly in the top one or two hottest weeks I've ever participated in.

I do remember the golf course. I had an affinity to it. I liked the bentgrass greens. I liked the hills. It kind of reminded me of a Midwest course even though there was some Bermuda wrapped in there.

I loved Southern Hills, even though I played it for two days. I remember it was hot. I remember I had a six-month-old and I stayed with another family, friends of ours, who had a one-year-old, and our power went out for almost 48 hours. So it was a trying week both on and off the golf course.

JULIUS MASON: Hard not to notice what's on your left ankle. Can you give us a health update?

ZACH JOHNSON: Yeah, I'm good. It's a contact sport, right? (Laughter) No, just a small sprain. The beauty of being where I'm at and the people I know and those I rely on, they've catered to me to the nth degree, so I'm fortunate to have great care, and I think I'm going to be good. I played nine holes yesterday for the first time since the incident, and could have gone more, so I guess that's a positive.

JULIUS MASON: On the Ryder Cup front, we know the first week of October will be the Year-to-Go activities in Italy. Is a lot on your plate right now with Ryder Cup activity?

ZACH JOHNSON: Currently there's not a whole lot. Whatever is on my plate is an occasional email, maybe an occasional small decision but fun ones.

Some would say the boring ones, but I think the boring ones are great. It's the little things that actually you can really sit back and enjoy the whole process of it.

But no, my focus right now obviously outside of playing golf has been to help Captain Love and then kind of get my body back in a position to compete.

Once October hits, I think it's almost -- we'll hit the accelerator a little bit, and I welcome that. I can't wait.

Q. How well do you have to play this week before we start writing the stories, oh, no, is Zach going to be on his own Ryder Cup team?

ZACH JOHNSON: Well, let's hope I do that this year and next year. That would be a great story. But like I said, I've got a great team that I rely on that helps me get to this point, whether you're talking about my coaches or whomever. The issue there, though, is all on my shoulders.

I have the capacity and the ability to do that. If that is a part of the scenario, we'll hit it head on. I understand what I'm up against, and that's the beauty of this game right now is that it's really, really good. If that's a difficulty, it's a great difficulty.

Q. Quick Ryder Cup if I may, follow-up question. We're at a place now with the captains where everybody who's been an assistant or vice captain has either been a captain or in your case will be a captain. It would seem to me that the choices you make for vices and the choices Davis makes for assistants at the Presidents Cup are going to telegraph to us who the next generation of Ryder Cup captains will be. Am I right about that? Is there pressure on you because of that or do you want to give us a hint?

ZACH JOHNSON: I can answer one part of that. There's no pressure on me in that regard. I think my number one responsibility when it comes to the leadership side of that, the VCs if you will on my end, Davis obviously has his own prerogative with the Presidents Cup, the responsibility for me is I want to create an atmosphere certainly number one for the players that is welcoming, that allows them to do what they can do and what they do best; that's play golf in a very free way.

But I think in order to do that, almost to couple that along the same vein, I want synergy within the leadership. I want those guys to want to be around each other. I want obviously communication to be a big part of that and ease of that, but I also want them to go into the room and have discussions where there's no negativity.

It's all positive, upbeat, and regardless of the situation, Friday of the tournament or a month or two leading up to it when we have a Zoom call. That's where I'm at.

Now, to answer another portion of your question, I want experience. I've already got one. I've got Steve Stricker, right, in both facets. Then yeah, I think there's a time when -- I've got five guys that I can lean on. There may be an opportunity there for somebody that hasn't sat in that seat yet.

But for the most part, the way I'm thinking is whoever sits in that seat, the Ryder Cup in general will not be foreign to them. I don't know where I'm going to go yet. I can't give you specifics.

But experience both on the golf course and as a leader will be paramount, and then also getting somebody in there that, again, the players enjoy and want to be around.

Q. Do you relish more being the captain on the away side or the home side, given that the American side has not won an away match since '93, I believe? Clearly you would take captaincy no matter what if you were offered it, and you were, but home or away, what would be your --

ZACH JOHNSON: I mean, you said it. If my peers, our Ryder Cup committee and the PGA of America says it's your time to do it, whatever year that -- whatever two years that falls on, I'm going to have to certainly think about it and more than anything welcome it.

Ideally for me, in the back of my mind, if this thing ever did come to fruition, yes, I would rather be a captain in Europe. I can give you a number of reasons.

Q. On the flipside, you as a player, Ryder Cup, won major championships, how much obviously does that factor into how you're going to look at the persona of the players that you're going to be picking in terms of what kind of characteristics they need to bring to the table?

ZACH JOHNSON: Well, that's the beauty of our game. Everybody is different. There's so many different personalities, different ways to go about doing it.

My responsibility is to try to find individuals, six that will sixth earn their berth; but take those six, utilize those six for my next six and create an atmosphere and environment where they all want to be together, they all want to bond together and band together and be a team together, whether it's here or there. That's my responsibility.

The innate qualities I have, I don't know if they're going to come out. They may manifest themselves in some ways. I guess the beauty of my captaincy is that I'm still relevant in a lot of ways.

I guess technically I could be relevant on the Champions Tour because a lot of those guys are my buddies. But that aside, I'm relevant out here still in the sense that I played a practice round with JT yesterday. We've had captains in the past that they don't get into that many tournaments anymore.

I think that's a positive. So I'm going to utilize my time out here, my experience, and certainly the relationships I've already established to formulate my team.

Q. For a long time it seemed like from the outside looking in, the U.S. didn't have a system that was continuous from year-to-year. Now it seems to me like they do. I'm curious if you think of yourself as a system captain, as in this is something that's rolled in maybe since the task force or whatever and that you are going to be standing on the shoulders of everything you guys have learned --

ZACH JOHNSON: Sure.

Q. And being a cog in the system rather than some radical-whatever.

ZACH JOHNSON: Yeah, I'm not going to ignore what was put together back then. You can't, because we do have, I would say, probably more of a template. But within that template there are systems that have been useful, that have been beneficial and effective.

Now, the nuance to that is everybody is different. I've got my own personality, Steve had his own personality, obviously Davis has his own personality, and I can't put enough merit into my own intuition and my own experience.

I think that's the beauty of having this leadership role is that you combine what we've established with the individual side of what I have and what I believe is imperative and beneficial, and it'll be a combo of all of that.

Q. Just a nuts-and-bolts thing, one of the first things Steve told me even before the pandemic was my big priority is getting guys to Whistling Straits beforehand, a huge deal. That's a much bigger challenge in Italy.

ZACH JOHNSON: Yeah.

Q. Is it something you're looking at, something you want to do?

ZACH JOHNSON: That's very coincidental. I've been talking about that a lot lately, not only in my own head but to others.

Yeah, in an ideal world, that's without question. The basic is this: We've seen videos of my peers coming here before this week. A lot of the young ones that have never seen the facility, and even some veterans that have come here to get their feet on the ground. That is an ideal situation. How we do that and when we do that is the question.

The beauty of where I'm at right now is I've got a phenomenal team that will help me work that out.

Q. In connection with what you said, how much of a challenge is verbalizing those conversations that you have in your head and being part of the team? You have to talk to them about everything, huh?

ZACH JOHNSON: I want the open lines of communication there. The individuals that I'm going to talk to, it's not going to be a surprise to them that I'm going to lean on them. You know a lot of these guys already; they're guys that understand what the Ryder Cup is all about.

I'd be foolish not to integrate my thoughts with other thoughts, specifically other former captains and players.

Q. So we were talking with Henrik about -- I won't say the work-life balance of a captain, but it's more like the work-work balance. How do you combine in the next 500 days being the captain and competing and trying to win?

ZACH JOHNSON: Yeah, I think I kind of speak in obvious terms here, and I've seen firsthand a number of instances, one in particular that really stands out, but as a golfer compartmentalizing things is a prerequisite. You have to be able to do that.

I think the best players in the world, especially those that do it over an extended period of time, are able to really compartmentalize inside the ropes from outside the ropes.

Obviously there's a correlation and a direct effect there. That's part of my being. That's the way I'm trained. That's the way I'm wired. That's one of my systems, if you will, I compartmentalize. And in doing that, I will rely on a lot of people to help me do it.

I've got a phenomenal team, whether you're talking about my wife, Kim, first, and then the trickle down to my coaches and my confidants, or if you're talking even a little bit outside of that or directly related with the PGA of America Ryder Cup team. I don't have an issue calling any one of them. And that's the beauty of what we've established is again, the communication is there, the trust is there, the encouragement is there, and the support is there.

I'm ready to tackle it head-on. I have no fear or worries in that regard.

Q. We've been talking to mostly the young guys from the team --

ZACH JOHNSON: Sure.

Q. It looks like the camaraderie, the attitude is still there, and the energy. What are the things you want to make sure you preserve, and what are the things that you're going to have to develop?

ZACH JOHNSON: Well, yeah, I think preservation is what we established over the last so many odd Ryder Cups is probably important. That's certainly what we had in Whistling Straits is important. This is going to be an entirely different team, bottom line.

Are there going to be some familiar faces? Sure. But the beauty of this tournament is that it's every two years and it has its own personality. It takes on its own drama on the golf course.

I kind of go back to the template we have, I can rely on. The people I have around me I can rely on. But the team is going to look vastly different. It could look vastly different from next June until September.

I'm not going to get caught up in what we've done, more or less what I know we can do, and again, putting together a team that I think can go over there and compete at a great level and welcome the difficulty in that.

Q. How much do you know about Italy? How much do you have to study from now until Rome? Italian food, Italian expressions, Italian cities?

ZACH JOHNSON: Well, No. 1, I'm a geography nerd, so I know the makeup of Italy. Two, I am a -- I don't know if I'm a foodie, but I don't eat to live, I live to eat. It's probably -- it depends how you look at it, not a great recipe to go over there because my guess is -- I eat until I'm uncomfortable, so that's going to happen quite a bit. That's a good thing, actually.

My parents have been there two or three times, my wife has been there twice. The consensus is it's their favorite country, outside of this great nation.

I cannot wait. I'm ecstatic about it. There's a lot to be done between now and then. I think we're day 499, 498 before the actual event, so this is a pretty long engagement party.

But again, that's okay. I know the makeup. I know you've got the Mediterranean down here, and I know that the Alps are up north and the beauty of that country is the people within it, so I'm excited to meet them.

Q. I figure if you let yourself imagine being Ryder Cup captain you would not have had the component of all of the complications of this time in golf, and you kind of being in an interesting middle spot of who's going to be eligible, who is --

ZACH JOHNSON: Sure.

Q. How do you approach that -- you mentioned uncomfortable eating. It kind of feels that way maybe.

ZACH JOHNSON: No, complexities are what you make of it. To me there's just so many unknowns. What I do know is that I've been donned this great seat. I've been given this opportunity.

Whatever complexities might happen from this point on, we'll tackle head on as a team and make the decisions as necessary, but I'm not -- I have zero concerns in that regard because I know when it comes down to it, my responsibility is having five vice captains around me help supporting me and my decision making and having 12 guys to represent this country the best way they know how, and that's with their golf clubs and high integrity.

Whatever happens outside of that is frankly irrelevant in my mind.

Q. Do you need to or do you feel the need to somewhat anticipate -- everyone talks about the camaraderie of the team and things like that, and there could be scenarios where some guys go, some don't, and it's just going to be potentially a fact of life that --

ZACH JOHNSON: You're speaking in hypotheticals and potentials. I like to speak in truths and facts. What I know now is that nothing has come to fruition right now, and we're still full steam ahead with what we have.

Bottom line is this: It's still 2022. There's a time between now and then. Again, what may happen at some point, we'll make decisions accordingly, and I know what we'll do is we'll keep golf first and keep the Ryder Cup first.

Q. Take us through when you sit out players in sessions. You've been in those conversations. It's a major thing in the first two days --

ZACH JOHNSON: Yeah, it's awful.

Q. There was a bigger time when Steve had to deliver the message to Patrick Reed that he wasn't going to be playing. How have you weighed that in your mind? It's a long time off from now, but your approach -- when you've sat out sessions, how did you feel about it? And then more importantly, how are you going to communicate that to players that you'll be captaining?

ZACH JOHNSON: Well, bottom line is this: As a competitor and as a golfer you don't want to sit. That's like I'm going to play the PGA Championship and I'm only going to play three rounds. You don't want to sit. It's just the nature of who you are and how you're wired.

But in this event, that's a part of it. Actually I'd say it's kind of the beauty of it, too, is the decision parts of that.

Now, I don't have any idea what's going to happen 500 days from now. What I do know is that again, I'm going to rely on the individuals around me. The communication and the expectations from my team will not be -- communication will be paramount, expectations will be laid out.

I'm going to try to avoid any curve balls even during that week but specifically leading up to it. What Steve established back in Whistling Straits was great. What Davis has done in the past was great. But we're all about 2023 in Europe, and it'll be its own animal, and we're going to tame it.

I don't know if that answers your question.