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By T.J. Auclair
PGATOUR.com Interactive Producer

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. -- It's no secret that life has been a whirlwind for Zach Johnson since his incredible win at the Masters just one month ago. With that win, Johnson enters THE PLAYERS as one of the players to watch -- and you can see him everywhere from Oprah to David Letterman to Regis and Kelly to the Jim Rome Show.

Zach Johnson has been a busy man since winning the Masters last month. (Greenwood/WireImage)

Having chewed on the fact that he didn't back down while Tiger Woods was breathing down his neck at Augusta, Johnson has a newfound confidence.

"Anytime you beat him, regardless of the situation, regardless if it's a TOUR event or a major, it doesn't matter, it's just a good feeling," he said. "Obviously he's a phenomenal talent and he has won this and won that and continues to do that. To me, my wife and I talk about it, the most impressive thing about him -- I can't overpower a golf course like him. I can't hit as far as him. I can't hit some of the shots he can hit. But the one thing I strive to do is bring my game every week, and that's what he does. I'm not doing that all the time. What I take from him is he is extremely impressive every week. And so beating him in a major like that, during his era, if you will, I didn't know it was possible, but it feels phenomenal."

The Masters champion tees off at 1:30 tomorrow afternoon with Peter Lonard and recent TOUR winner Boo Weekley and an invaluable lesson Johnson learned in winning at Augusta could serve him well here and might surprise a lot of people.

"I felt like I played well, I didn't feel like I played phenomenal," he said. "I hit my driver straight but didn't hit it exactly that solid. As a result, the most encouraging thing about the Masters for me from a fundamental standpoint on the golf course is that I don't have to play my absolute best to win. And I know any other player would say the same thing."

THE AGELESS WONDER: Some guys are just late-bloomers. Just take a look at Fred Funk. Funk has always been a nice player -- just look at his eight TOUR wins. But in his later years, from a PGA TOUR standpoint, Funk has played his best golf by far.

The charismatic Funk thrilled his home crowd in Ponte Vedra when he was the unlikely victor of the 2005 PLAYERS Championship -- a win that validated a career that really didn't need validating at all.

Now, in 2007, Funk is already twice a winner, having completed an uncommon feat -- he's won once on the Champions Tour and once on the PGA TOUR. And he has even loftier goals.

"I probably won't play another Champions Tour event until the fall. I'm skipping all the majors except for the Senior Players because they fall against really nice tournaments I like," Funk said. "Like Colonial I love to play, which is opposite their PGA. And I think Congressional, Tiger's tournament, is opposite the Senior U.S. Open, and I'm going to skip those and play the regular TOUR because my goal is still to make -- nobody's talked about it, I would like to do well on the FedExCup, but I want to make The Presidents Cup team. Nobody has talked about The Presidents Cup. I saw Jack [Nicklaus] last night, and I said, 'Nobody is talking about it,' and he said, 'Neither am I.' So, OK. What's that mean? He said, 'We'll deal with it when we deal with it.'"

THE STATE OF ELS: Ernie Els hasn't won on the PGA TOUR since his three-win 2004 season. Coming into THE PLAYERS, the South African says he's feeling pretty good about the way he's playing. He finished second in the Verizon Heritage a few weeks back, then went to China for the BMW Asian Open where he tied for fifth, followed by a tie for 34th at the Wachovia Championship last week.

"I think it's not too bad," Els said when asked about the state of his game. "I didn't have a great week last week, but it wasn't too bad coming back after a week off. After the Verizon Heritage I went to China and I needed a week off after the China trip, and last week was kind of -- this week is obviously a big event, huge field, so I'd love to play well here this week. The state of my game is not too bad. My putting is pretty good. Everything is kind of there. I'm looking forward to a good week."