Johnson Wagner had a decent career on the PGA Tour, scoring three victories and earning over $12 million throughout his career. As he has transitioned into a media career with Golf Channel, he has become a fan favorite for his willingness to recreate the most pivotal moments each night on the channel’s post-round Live From shows.
Those segments haven’t always gone to plan for Wagner. Earlier this year at the PGA Championship he had to fight through the yips chipping live on the air. But his willingness to put himself out there and try anything, while being able to poke fun at himself and provide tremendous insights, has led him to becoming a beloved figure in golf in almost no time.
As good as Wagner’s segments are, it might be a long time before he ever tops what happened late Sunday night at Pinehurst after the US Open when he tried to mimic Bryson DeChambeau’s winning up-and-down from a bunker on the 18th hole.
As most golfers will tell you, the long greenside bunker shot is one of the most challenging in golf. Yet with everything on the line, DeChambeau perfectly blasted it to just a few feet and made the putt to win his second US Open. Wagner set the scene perfectly and then, showing the difficulty of the shot, skulled it over the green. That’s when DeChambeau himself showed up in a golf cart to try to coach up Wagner to give it another try. The resulting shot was even closer than DeChambeau’s as it ended up right next to the hole.
You simply could not script live sports television any better than that. The pair celebrating the shot in the bunker and Wagner then holding the trophy as DeChambeau proudly gave him some shine was awesome to see.
It wasn’t just the theatrics around the shot that made it special though, Wagner had a quick but endearing exchange with Bryson where we learned that the US Open champion would have some sand from the bunker to go along with his trophy. And the pleasantries they exchanged showed why both are currently on top of the golf world in their own respective ways.
The next step has to be a Bryson DeChambeau-Johnson Wagner YouTube collab, right?