ZACH JOHNSON grew up wanting to win football’s World Cup — not the Claret Jug.
He described himself as an “American Messi” in the making before realising his fame and fortune lay on the fairways.
And this week the one-time kid striker will look to mount a successful defence of golf’s oldest Major trophy after his play-off win at St Andrew’s.
Johnson, 40, confessed: “You don’t fully understand the gravity of that Claret Jug or the weight of the tournament until you possess it. It is a beautiful thing.
“The Claret Jug transcends that one tournament, which is fantastic. It is pure.
“It is not contrived. It is pure golf. I love it.
“Bringing it back to my home state, to my home town, my home club has been a lot of fun.
“And introducing it to the Green Jacket was fun, too. I actually slept with it on the plane back home last year. I fell asleep because I was exhausted and I cradled it in my arms.”
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Winning The Open last year and The Masters in 2007 — when he pushed Tiger Woods into second — validated his decision to focus on golf instead of football.
Yet that has not stopped him dreaming of what could have been.
The man from Iowa recalled: “As a kid I was a pretty useful forward.
“I had a good left foot for a rightie and I was the set-play guy — corner-kicks and free-kicks, that sort of thing.
“I played mostly soccer up to I was 18 and was decent at putting the ball on the spot or getting a shot past the wall.
“And I’d dream that I was doing it to win a World Cup. If I’d stuck at it, I like to imagine I could have been the Lionel Messi of the United States. He’s a pretty fair player, isn’t he?
“It’s amazing he’s never won a World Cup. So I’m not alone!
“I grew up playing team sports — I was also pretty good at basketball — which is probably why winning the Ryder Cup after being on four losing teams in the past is such a big goal for me.
“I just love that event. I am a team sports guy first.
“Plus you have your nation’s flag on your sleeve and you’re doing what you do best for your team-mates and captain, guys you admire and respect.
“I don’t care if I am the towel boy, I want to be a part of that team.
“That goes back to the way I was when I was growing up.
“I started playing golf when I was ten or 11 but it wasn’t something I took that serious.
“Once I got to a teenager I tried to get in a couple of national championships. My summers were to play 18 holes, have lunch, swim, play nine more holes and then at night I’d have a soccer camp or a basketball tournament.
“But gradually I got better at golf and it took over.”
He later announced himself as one of the shrewdest and mentally toughest players on the planet with his Masters triumph nine years ago.
Sticking rigidly to his gameplan of laying up at all of Augusta’s par-fives, Johnson won by two strokes from a chasing pack led by Woods.
Last year, he edged out Louis Oosthuizen and Marc Leishman at the Home of Golf.
Johnson added: “Winning at Augusta was shock and awe.
“Shock in the sense that I didn’t think I was going to win. No one did.
“I’d say The Open was just awe. I wasn’t shocked.
“My game is much more mature than 2007.
“And, as you can probably tell, I’m not looking forward to giving the Claret Jug back.”
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