CAREER

Johnson turned professional in 1998 and played on the developmental tour circuit, including the now-defunct Prairie Golf Tour, the Buy.com Tour (now called the Nationwide Tour), and the Hooters Tour, where he won the final three regular-season events in 2001. In 2003, he topped the money list on the Nationwide Tour with then record earnings of $494,882, earning an automatic promotion to the PGA Tour. He won his first PGA Tour event at the 2004 BellSouth Classic outside of Atlanta. Johnson qualified for the 2006 U.S. Ryder Cup team, finishing 9th on the U.S. points list.

On April 8, 2007, Johnson won the Masters Tournament in Augusta by a margin of 2 strokes over Tiger Woods, Retief Goosen, and Rory Sabbatini. It was his first major title. His score of 289 (+1) tied Sam Snead (1954) and Jack Burke Jr. (1956) for the highest winning score at the Masters. His victory took him from #56 to #15 in the world rankings; he was the first outside the top 50 in the world rankings to win the Masters in the history of the ranking. After winning, he mentioned his Christian faith and thanked God, saying "This being Easter, I cannot help but believe my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ was walking with me. I owe this to Him." [1]

Six weeks after winning the Masters, Johnson won the 2007 AT&T Classic in a playoff over Ryuji Imada. Following the win, Johnson moved to a career-best 13th in the world rankings. His next PGA Tour victory, and first outside the state of Georgia, came at the 2008 Valero Texas Open.

Johnson won the Sony Open in Hawaii in January 2009, and successfully defended his title at the Valero Texas Open in May with a playoff victory over James Driscoll.[2] With a third-round 60, Johnson became the first player to shoot 60 twice on the PGA Tour, having done so previously at the 2007 Tour Championship. The win was Johnson's sixth on tour. Other highlights in 2009 include a tied for 2nd place finish at the John Deere Classic and a solo 3rd place finish at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. He finished the season ranked a career best fourth on the money list.

Personal
Began playing golf at age 10...Lists his father and mother among his heroes. Father is a chiropractor...Huge Drake University and University of Iowa sports fan...The gallery at BellSouth Classic at first TOUR victory included a group of about 10 men from Iowa who gave him financial support early in his career, buying a stake in Zach for $500 a share. Some were seeing him play as a pro for the first time. "It started out as a business, but it ended up as a business family," Johnson said of his relationship with them. "It's unbelievable having them here. They would buy a couple stock shares in me and just allow me to go out and not have to worry about the necessities of traveling week to week."...When heavy rains caused flooding in the Midwest in the summer of 2008, stepped up to help. Served as the spokesman on a public service announcement and held a one-day golf event in Cedar Rapids, IA, that raised $350,000. Was instrumental, along with Jerry Kelly, in starting the PGA TOUR Flood Relief effort, which donated approximately $125,000 to the cause.

source : http://en.wikipedia.org