ESPN 2007 Masters

And your newest Masters champion is … Zach Johnson?

That's right. With a leaderboard featuring Tiger Woods, Retief Goosen and Stuart Appleby, Johnson had to be considered a surprise contender, but his final-round score of 69 tied the lowest all day and led to a two-stroke victory.

So what does it all mean? And what's next for Johnson? Jason Sobel and Bob Harig ruminate and investigate in their weekly e-mail discussion on Alternate Shot.

Sobel: If you went to sleep Wednesday night and woke up Monday morning, the world of golf must look upside-down. Augusta National played over par, Tiger Woods lost a final-round lead and Zach Johnson now has a green jacket in his closet. In order, those three actions are surprising, shocking and inconceivable. I guess this is why we don't start every major by handing a trophy to Tiger Woods, huh?

Harig: Yeah, but you would have been hard-pressed not to give it to him Saturday night. I mean, really? Tiger one shot out of the lead? Playing in the final group? With seemingly his best round still out there? And then he actually takes the lead on the second hole. You can't tell me a single soul thought Zach Johnson was going to win at that point.

Sobel: Sure I can. I'll even name that single soul: Zach Johnson. Sometimes we tend to seek a multitude of reasons for why a player can stand up to tough competition and overcome the odds, when really all he did was just take the fewest strokes over a four-day period. But really, I think Zach's internal resolve is what won him this tournament. He never quit on himself, never gave in, even when a star-studded leaderboard left him as perhaps the biggest underdog.

Harig: All of that is great and no doubt very true. But where is that internal resolve during other weeks? His only top-10 this year came at Doral two weeks ago, and that was a tie for ninth. His only PGA Tour victory came three years ago. The track record would suggest he didn't have it in him.

Sobel: He won the tournament because he was able to outthink every other player. Johnson knows he's not the longest hitter in the world, ranking 162nd on the tour in driving distance, so he developed a strategy and played his own game. He laid up on every par-5 -- and played them in 11 under. That's 11 birdies and five pars. That's two shots better than Woods, who normally hits the ball about 30-40 yards past him.

Harig: There's no doubt, Johnson performed admirably. He didn't let a three-bogey finish get him down on Friday. He stayed steady in some brutal weather conditions on Saturday. And with several major champions breathing down his neck on Sunday, including Tiger Woods, he stepped on theirs. It was impressive. But it was still a huge shock. There is just nothing in his background as a PGA Tour player that would suggest he would accomplish this now.

Sobel: Looking ahead, I wonder what we can expect from him in the future. Will he be another Charles Coody or Tommy Aaron -- neither of whom ever won after his Masters triumph -- or Fuzzy Zoeller, who won in his first start at Augusta National and went on to a long, fruitful career? I tend to think the latter. After all, if a short-hitting guy can win on a long course, just think what he can do on one more suited to his game. I've actually always thought Johnson would be a better U.S. Open player, if I had to pick a major for him.

Harig: It'll be interesting to see how he fares. Maybe this will give him the confidence and spur him to further greatness. Beating Tiger should be a big boost. So should handling the tough conditions. But there has been many a major champion who tried too hard to live up to that status. He'll have to be careful, too.

Sobel: I'll say this much: It's nice to see a major winner who isn't Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson or another elite-level guy, but isn't an unknown fluke, either. I'd put Johnson in the same class as Geoff Ogilvy, Michael Campbell and Mike Weir (maybe David Toms, too, though he's a little more accomplished than the others) as major champions during this decade who are good players, but not exactly household names. But it's good for the sport to have players like these winning big ones every so often.

Harig: I'm not so sure it's good for the sport. I agree that he's no fluke, but Johnson is well-known only to avid golf fans. Even though he played on the U.S. Ryder Cup team, few people knew him before Sunday. And most golf fans like to see players accomplish a bit more before they win a major. That said, we know that Johnson is a great guy who is well-liked by his peers. He'll likely be a popular champion. He will be a good, new face to those who didn't know him. Now, hopefully, he can back it up and win some more.