Notebook: Johnson has three big wins, all in April

Zach Johnson earned his first Nationwide Tour win, his first PGA TOUR victory and his first major title in the fourth month of the season. Plus, the eagles were flying Sunday, Jeev Milkha Singh ties a dubious scoring record, and more.

By Joe Chemycz, PGA TOUR Staff

AUGUSTA, Ga. -- Zach Johnson posted a final-round 69 to win his first Masters title. Johnson's win is only the second PGA TOUR title of his career (2004 BellSouth Classic).

Maybe it's the month of April that Zach Johnson likes so much. The Drake University graduate earned his first Nationwide Tour victory on April 27, 2003, at the Rheem Classic in Fort Smith, Ark. He then won his first PGA TOUR title on April 4, 2004, at the BellSouth Classic in Duluth, Ga. Now, he collects his first major championship title on April 8.

Zach Johnson's winning score of 289 matches the highest in Masters history, the last time coming 51 years ago. Sam Snead won in 289 at 1 over, while Jack Burke did the same in 1956.

Zach Johnson becomes the first Nationwide Tour graduate to win the Masters Tournament. His win is the 11th major championship by a former Nationwide Tour player. The other 10 are Ernie Els (1994 and 1997 U.S. Open), Jim Furyk ( 2003 U.S. Open), John Daly (1995 British Open), Tom Lehman (1996 British Open), David Duval (2001 British Open), John Daly (1991 PGA Championship), David Toms (2001 PGA Championship) and Shaun Micheel (2003 PGA Championship).

Zach Johnson's third-round 76 ties the third-highest single round by a Masters winner. The last player to shoot a 76 in a round and go on to win was Jack Nicklaus, 1966, second round. The highest single rounds by a Masters winner were the 77s posted by Sam Snead (third round of 1952) and Nick Faldo (third round of 1989).

Jeev Milka Singh went into the record books Sunday with his quadruple-bogey 8 on the par-4 first hole. Singh tied the highest score ever recorded at the 455-yard hole. Olin Browne (1998), Scott Simpson (1998) and Billy Casper (2001) are the only others to make a snowman at No. 1.

This week's difficult scoring conditions resulted in a total scoring average of 75.881 and made this the fourth toughest Masters in history. The only three higher were 1956 (77.183), 1955 (76.188) and 1966 (75.885).

Tiger Woods' T2 finish this week marks only the third time in his career that he has been a runner-up at a major championship. Woods now has a total of 24 top-10 finishes in majors. He was solo second at the 2005 U.S. Open and solo second at the 2002 PGA Championship. Woods has 21 second-place finishes in his PGA TOUR career, to go along with his 56 victories.

Jerry Kelly shot a final-round 70 to finish T5, his career-best finish in 28 major championship starts. Kelly had never been better than T20 in any major -- a T20 in the 2005 Masters Tournament.

There were a total of 10 eagles made on Sunday, compared to only eight over the first three days. All of the Sunday eagles came on the par 5s: Mark Calcavecchia and Tom Pernice, Jr. on No. 2; Luke Donald and Rory Sabbatini on No. 8; and Stephen Ames, Rich Beem, Padraig Harrington, Jerry Kelly, Brett Quigley and Tiger Woods on No. 13.