Cameras clicked as fans, six deep, watched. Their target was obvious.
"Get one of him, too," a father told his son, pointing to Johnson. "He's the defending champion."
Johnson, an Iowa native and Drake graduate, starts defense of his Masters golf title today. And he's done so by setting a new standard for flying under golf's radar - in an event watched by an estimated 41.4 million television viewers during last year's tournament.
"I'm trying to think of someone to compare him with," said Dan Jenkins, a noted author and Golf Digest columnist covering his 58th Masters. "Maybe Zach would be it. It's tough to find somebody else."
Tiger Woods' dominance this season and his quest to win all four major championships - the Masters, U.S. Open, British Open and PGA Championship - in the same season have been the dominant storyline heading into this week.
So dominant that Woods is even-money to win this week in some betting circles.
"Isn't that wild?" Golf World columnist Bob Verdi said. "I know he's great, but this is bizarre."
Welcome to the Tiger Woods era.
"We're not talking about who is going to win the Masters this year," said Gary Van Sickle of Sports Illustrated. "We're talking about who is going to win the Grand Slam. It's already been conceded, apparently."
Flying under radar: 'I actually like it'
Johnson, who tees off at 9:23 a.m. in today's first round, has played second fiddle to Woods for weeks leading up to the season's first major.
"He might have to reintroduce himself again," Verdi said. " 'I'm still Zach Johnson from Cedar Rapids, Iowa.' "
If the lack of buzz bothers Johnson, he's not showing it.
"As far as Tiger and being under the radar as defending champion, I'm used to it," Johnson said. "I actually like it. Once again, I'm not supposed to win. The pressure might be a little different that last year. But why should it be?"
Johnson's father, David, isn't so diplomatic. He's seen all the Masters promos on CBS for weeks, featuring Woods, a good bit of Phil Mickelson, even some Arnold Palmer and a paucity of Zach Johnson.
"Who did win last year?" David said. "It was either Tiger or Phil. Maybe Arnie. I got a little tired of it. It just shows you how powerful the media is, and obviously Tiger drives the golf end of it."
This is not new territory for Iowa's top golf story.
After Johnson won last year, Sports Illustrated's cover photo a week later was a shot of Woods breaking his 4-iron while trying to negotiate a shot around a pine tree.
CBS, which will air a highlights show today and Friday and provide coverage of the final two rounds on Saturday and Sunday, has no feature planned on Johnson.
"We do not usually do feature stories during Masters coverage," said CBS spokesperson LeslieAnne Wade. "It's primarily wall-to-wall golf."
The Golf Channel did produce a feature on Johnson. And ESPN, which has rights to the first two rounds, ran a Johnson feature on its preview show Wednesday.
Johnson's humility earns him acclaim
Mike Tirico, ESPN's lead commentator at the Masters this week, said Johnson's personality fits his under-the-radar tag this week.
"And he's very comfortable with it, which is neat," Tirico said. "There's no superstar quality to him. He's an everyday, regular guy."
Johnson's humble qualities stick in Tirico's mind.
"It's still like he's too good to be true," Tirico said. "He's 'I'm Zach Johnson from Cedar Rapids, Iowa.' That's just one of the greatest quotes of all time. That's the quote from last year's Masters that I'll remember most. It describes him."
ESPNEWS ran live interviews with just three players Tuesday - Woods, Mickelson and Johnson.
"They would not have been doing that 365 days ago," Tirico said. "That's the different world he lives in. The good news is that Zach is in a different world, but he's the same person."
That world, however, has been dominated by Tiger Woods this week - to almost no one's surprise.
"It's like that 'Brady Bunch' episode of Jan complaining, 'It's Marcia, Marcia, Marcia,' " said Doug Ferguson, national golf writer for the Associated Press. "It's all about Tiger, and rightly so."
Woods, who has won four of the last five tournaments he's played on the PGA Tour, has added fuel to the fire by bringing up his quest for a Grand Slam.
"You have to listen to that," Ferguson said. "Zach rolls into town and you say, 'How did you get here again? Oh, yeah, you won last year.' "
Woods, Mickelson grab most attention
Scott Van Pelt, who is anchoring ESPN's studio coverage at the Masters, said Woods, a four-time winner at Augusta, and Mickelson, a two-time winner, command the headlines despite what happened last year.
"It's not that Zach is underappreciated," Van Pelt said. "It's just that this course lends itself, in theory, to these other two guys so much that it's hard to allow yourself to believe that it could happen again."
But it did happen once.
"A story like Zach's was undeniable last year," Van Pelt said. "It's hard not to allow yourself to think back and say, 'Wow, what an amazing performance that was.' Would you have allowed yourself to think he could stare Tiger down on this course and win? I would not have."
"You can't take anything away from the kid," David said. "I can still turn on that DVD and watch it any day of the week, and feel pretty good about it."
