The Hole Story by Craig DeVrieze

Second in last year’s Tour Championship, Iowa’s Zach Johnson won’t get a chance to supplant the injury-idled Tiger Woods at the top late next month in Atlanta.

Johnson is idled now too after being eliminated from the new and more punative FedEx Cup playoffs after a sluggish summer followed by a missed cut at last week’s playoff-opening Barclays Championship.

In a system that now allows players to move up more easily, and, conversely, to fall farther faster, Johnson fell from 112th in the FedEx standings to 131st post-Barclays, failing to make the 120-player field for this week’s Deutsche Bank Championship or the two big-money playoff events that follow next month.

It could mean an enforced five-week layoff for the 2007 Masters champion, but Johnson still is hoping to get in some golf two weeks from now in Louisville, Ky.

That, of course, is where the Ryder Cup will take place, and, though he is a longshot to be one of four wildcard players chosen by captain Paul Azinger on Monday, Johnson hasn’t surrendered hope.

“I don’t have an inkling what Captain Azinger and his assistant captains are thinking,” said Johnson, who finished 17th in the U.S. Ryder Cup points chase but also acquitted himself nicely with a 1-2-1 record as a Ryder Cup rookie two years ago and was 2-2 in Presidents Cup action last year. “I’m sure they are brainstorming. I’ll support their decision.”

Whether he gets some action at Valhalla, Johnson plans to try and rescue a so far disappointing year on Tour by playing as many as four times during the post-Tour Championship Fall Series.

A win in one of those largely forgotten events quickly could make a bad year better.

“I am very encouraged as to where things are in my golf game and I know where I need to go to get it to a better state,” he said. “And I don’t think I’m that far off.

“I am hoping that regardless of the numbers, 2008 will be one of my better years,” he said. “I think it has potential.”

Johnson sees potential, too, in the charter flight to the British Open debuted by the John Deere Classic in July. He said the direct flight from Moline to Manchester, England, was well-received following last month’s JDC by the 23 participating pros.

Johnson slept 75 percent of the flight, he said, and said, “It didn’t feel like I flew that far.”

He said a charter reprise next year could yield an even better JDC field.

“I think it was well-received. I don’t know how it couldn’t be,” he said. “Once the awareness gets out there how good and how easy it is, I think it is just going to get better every year.”