Former Open Champion Reveals Reason For Skipping Royal Birkdale This Year
Former Open champion Zach Johnson has revealed he won't be playing at Royal Birkdale this year because he doesn't want to play golf four weeks in a row
Former Claret Jug winner Zach Johnson says he's skipping this year's Open Championship at Royal Birkdale because he doesn't want to play too much golf.
The 2015 Champion Golfer of the Year at St Andrews turned 50 in February and joined the senior ranks on the PGA Tour Champions.
As a former Open champion he gets an exemption into the event every year until he turns 60, but this year he won't be taking up that invite due to his schedule being too busy.
The 2007 Masters champion is also missing this week's US Senior Open to play on the PGA Tour at the John Deere Classic, and with the Senior Players Championship, now called the Kaulig Companies Championship, and the Senior Open coming up he doesn't want to play four weeks in a row.
The Open Championship falls in between the trip to Newport Beach and the Senior Open Championship, so it's Royal Birkdale that Johnson has cut from his playing schedule.
“I am eligible for the Open. I am not going to participate this year,” Johnson said after shooting an opening-round 64 to tie for third at TPC Deere Run.
“I can’t play four weeks in a row. I’ve already missed - I missed Birmingham, which was a Major. When was that? March? April? I forget. We had a wedding.
“I’m missing the US Senior Open this week. Next week is a Major, and then the Senior Open is a Major, obviously the very next week after the Open, so I’m not going to play four in a row.”
Like a lot of top players who make the immediate move to the seniors, Johnson hit the ground running by winning his very first event on the PGA Tour Champions - the James Hardie Pro Football Hall of Fame Invitational in March.
He also won on his last senior appearance, the Principal Charity Classic in June, and has finished no worse than T8 in his eight starts so far, so he obviously fancies his chances in the big senior events to come.
Marathon man Harrington playing eight in a row
Although Johnson isn't keen on playing long stretches at his age, Padraig Harrington is embarking on a marathon run even one of the young guns on the PGA Tour would balk at.
As the 54-year-old Irishman is in the middle of an eight-week stretch of continous competitve golf, with the US Senior Open his fourth - before taking in the Scottish Open, Open Championship, Senior Open and Portugal Invitational on the PGA Tour Champions.
And Harrington is loving every second of it.
"I'm playing eight in a row at the moment," he revealed ahead of the US Senior Open. "This is number four. Some people have obviously said it to me, and I kind of go, when I'm 70 years of age, I won't regret playing an extra event.
"Who wouldn't want to do what I do? Every tournament I turn up to, it's in the best condition that golf course can be for us. Everything is looked after. Everything is like as good as can be.
"So each week I play golf - and I have to try and remind myself of this. Each week I play golf is like for a normal person who's into their golf, they would save all their money to have that one week's holiday a year, and I get to do it 30 times a year. That's not lost on me. I love playing golf. I love being out here competing.
"Yeah, so I don't have a problem playing lots of events. Like when I started as a pro, 28 tournaments was your standard. It's really got lost in this world, this idea of only playing 20 tournaments or something like that. It was always 28 as a pretty much standard back in the day."
With the younger modern pros mostly looking to cut down their schedules, Harrington is showing that some of the veterans are prepared to get out and play more often.
What are your thoughts? Should Zach Johnson skip The Open? Is Padraig Harrington right and should the pros play more events in a year? Let us know your thoughts by joining the conversation below...
