Johnston beefs up PGA Championship with engaging personality

SPRINGFIELD, N.J. - Where's the "Beef?" This week, he's at Baltusrol for the PGA Championship, his fourth major, coming off an eighth-place finish at the British Open. And it's doubtful anyone in the field is having a better time.

Welcome to Andrew Johnston's hungry new world.

The 27-year-old London native, who packs a listed 212 pounds on his 5-9 frame and sports a lumberjack's beard to go with an engaging personality that's endeared him to the masses, turned into a cult figure two weeks ago at Royal Troon where, at every tee, galleries were chanting the nickname he's worn proudly since childhood.

"I guess I'm just a normal guy who happens to play golf," he suggested.

Except that he just signed an endorsement deal with Arby's, which seems only appropriate. So on Saturday night he was at one of their restaurants in Manhattan, where he served customers and sampled a sandwich.

"I'd never actually tried one before," Johnston admitted. "Man, it was good."

Before that he'd gone to three different burger joints to try them and do reviews for the Wall Street Journal. Then afterward, he took his manager to his favorite deli for another bite.

"I can't find a better place that does pastrami, man," he explained. "I'm a big fan of the city. That thing's unreal."

In many ways, so is he. It's refreshing, especially in a sport where not many are ever this revealing about themselves for whatever reasons.

Whoever he is, he sure embraces it.

"The more I've been myself, the more comfortable I've felt out on the golf course," said Johnston, who in April won his first European Tour title at the Spanish Open. "The more I've just had fun and be me, the better I've played. Don't be ashamed to be different or anything, you know. That's you, no matter what."

A bunch of guys showed up earlier this week dressed like him, right down to the growth on his face, which he noted is overdue for a trim.

"They turned up in ginger beards," Johnston said. "I asked them, 'Who got those?' And they all pointed at one guy. I was like, 'I hope he's buying all the drinks, because he's had a shocker there.' But it was so nice to see. I was signing so much. It was like the first real time where I've had that much attention. I come off the course and I was like, 'That was crazy.' It was mad.

"I absolutely love it. And it means so much to me. It was a really good day. If they didn't turn up, we wouldn't have golf tournaments and things like that."

Can you just imagine him putting together the champion's dinner at some major one year. The mind boggles. Brisket sliders and pints all around.

But maybe he's exactly what the game needs more of. In heavyweight doses.

So what do his fellow pros think?

"They kind of look at me and just laugh," he said. "I hear them in the locker room, and I just hear a 'Beeeeeeeef' from them. I get on well with most of the guys. It's just general chitchat, a bit of banter."

Nothing wrong with standing out, especially if he's got some game to go with it.

"Now I'm here, and I want to keep pushing forward," he said. "The most important thing is the golf, before anything else. I want to come away and look back in so many years and think, 'Yeah, that's been a great time.' And not going, 'Oh, well, it was good for that period of time, but had a good laugh.'

"I don't try and predict too much, because it's golf and it can come back and like bite you really hard. But this is what I grew up watching and where I wanted to be."

We can only thank him for it, from the bottom of our collective appetites.

@mikekerndn