Among the decorated former PGA Tour participants, Neil Johnson was easy to overlook. His baby blue shirt looked similar to 10 others, and his white golf shoes appeared a dime a dozen.
But the Wisconsin native, who isn’t a household name, separated himself from the rest Sunday, winning the CoBank Colorado Open. He shot 8-under par Sunday and a total of 23-under over the course of the tournament to take home the $100,000 purse.
“I wanted a win, because someone had asked me recently, what was my most signature win of my career and itap like, jeez, I don’t have one,” Johnson said.
It has been an uphill battle for the 34-year-old Johnson who, at this time last year, had contemplated quitting the sport altogether.
“I was up in Canada last year and I went broke,” Johnson said. “I didn’t play well. My game was OK, but mentally, I had a bad attitude and obviously it was showing. You can’t perform when you’re negative all the time.”
Johnson settled on returning to Arizona to valet part-time at night to make some extra money and re-evaluate where his head was at in January. He was offered another job outside of golf, and that served as a wake-up call.
He said that he knew would be upset in six months or a year if he took another job. He didn’t want to have to look back and question if he had quit too early.
“I didn’t want to quit when I was broke and angry and negative,” Johnson said. “(This win) was a good way to restart.”
Instead of hiring a caddie for the week, Johnson carried his own clubs through all four days of the tournament. He didn’t rent a hotel room, instead staying with his Aunt Ann and Uncle Bert Ornelas, who are also his godparents, and drove their car to Green Valley Ranch Golf Club.
And when Johnson finally reached the 18th hole, he was visibly trying to suppress a grin as he pulled out his club. He crouched down, took a casual swig of water and glanced at the hole once before stroking the ball in. After a forceful celebratory right-handed fist pump, he found his aunt and uncle for a hug.
“For a kid that thought he was going to quit last year, this is just wonderful,” Ann Ornelas said, fighting back tears. “It means a lot to see him. He’s a great young man. Mentally and physically, he’s twice the man he was. And he stuck it through, has had a wonderful summer, and this is the cherry on top.”
