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April 9, 2007

Welcome to our mailbox which is here to give you the chance to air your views on all subjects golf, including the Masters just ended.
Will we see more of Zach Johnson, the 31-year-old Iowa surprise package, whose Midas touch on Sunday enabled him to upstage Tiger Woods and so many other more highly-touted players at the Masters?
Or have we here another Rich Beem or Shaun Micheel?
That might be the big question to arise following Sunday’s dramatic see-saw finish that saw Woods, Retief Goosen and Rory Sabbatini all hold the lead on their own before super solid Johnson swept past them to win.
Both came out of the American blue to win a major – in each of their cases, the PGA – only to quietly disappear and despite making brief appearances on US PGA leaderboards from time to time, neither, as yet, has come close to winning again.
Golf365 doesn’t think so.
The difference with Johnson is that he’s come into top level golf with a culture of winning.
He was Player of the Year on the Hooters Tour in 2001 and the Nationwide Tour in 2003 after multiple victories on both.
He’d only won the BellSouth Classic on the US PGA Tour before Sunday, but he had played good enough golf to become only the second player in history to surpass $2m in his rookie year in 2004.
He made the US Ryder Cup team last year, and although the US was thrashed, he was one of its few members not to be beaten, winning one match and halving two.
Not a bad CV, I’d say.
But how do you see his future?
Is he another one of those major winner never to be heard from again, or is this the real McCoy with a hole bunch more wins up his sleeve.
You tell us.
Cheers for now
The Editor