Quite a journey to PGA TOUR for '07 Nationwide Tour No. 1

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PALM DESERT, Calif. -- This was history for Richard Johnson. This was his first round as a PGA TOUR member. This was the reward for the sweat and tears, the frustrations and disappointments. This was the day he wondered would ever arrive.

The stories are numerous of golfers who have struggled, who have failed, who finally have succeeded. We've read of Tommy "Two Gloves" Gainey and heard of Steve Stricker practically falling off the earth then earning the Comeback Player of the Year Award.

Richard Johnson's road to the PGA TOUR is surely a one-of-a-kind story. (Badz/PGA TOUR)

But there hasn't been a tale quite like that unintentionally authored by Johnson.

On Wednesday he was shooting even-par 72 at Silver Rock, one of the three Arnold Palmer courses used for the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic. A few years earlier he was working at a Waffle House in Augusta, Ga.

From making waffles and hotcakes, to making birdies and pars.

And more bogeys than Johnson would prefer. Not that you'll note any grumbling from Johnson.

"I can't complain," he said. "I was playing golf on a beautiful green course in the desert."

Johnson is 35 and probably feels like 50. His confused life, wanting to play golf, wanting to give up golf, found direction on the Nationwide Tour where in 2007 where he won three tournaments, led in money with some $445,000 and thus finally gained his TOUR card.

"It's a proving ground," he said of the Nationwide Tour, which as we know has been the thoroughfare to the big time for literally dozens of players, including another Johnson, Zach, the Masters champion.

"It's a place," explained Richard Johnson, "you learn to shoot numbers."

The Bob Hope Chrysler Classic is the place you learn to control your emotions. It's played over four courses for five days. Distances between courses are up to 16 miles. Some of the pros don't want to get nearer the tournament than the Pacific Ocean, which is a three-hour drive (by car, not by a tee shot).

Yet, the event exists because of the late Bob Hope, who died in 2003 at 100, a good age, a bad golf score. He loved the game.

"Golf is my profession," Hope used to say. "Entertainment is just a sideline. I tell jokes to pay my greens fees."

His tournament, although it's slipped in prestige, still offers the basic premise of golf, to have a good time. Comedian George Lopez, who now hosts the tournament, Wednesday played with defending champ Charley Hoffman and wore a T-shirt which had "HOFFMAN," printed in capitals, and below a photo, "This guy is good."

Growing up in Wales, Richard Johnson also was good. He was given a golf scholarship to Augusta State and in 1995 was chosen on the All-America team. He gained his degree in marketing.

Then in 1999 he went on the Nationwide Tour, unsure, unsettled.

He won a tournament in '99, another, in Monterey, in 2000. But from there it was into reverse, playing badly or not playing at all.

"I tried to quit the last five years," said Johnson. He is married with two children. "I couldn't get any jobs. No one would hire me. So I kept going on."

He was selling cars back in 1995, when a friend helped him get a management position at one of the ubiquitous Waffle Houses, which seemingly are at every block in the Southeast.

"Management position," might sound glamorous, but it required preparing food.

"I went through training and had a couple of stores," recalled Johnson. "Then they went and gave me one, then they went and gave me the one just down the road from Augusta National about two months before (the Masters) and told me to get ready for the tournament, and I did that.

"I guess it was '97. I was cooking breakfast, because that's what a manager does. And I think (David) Duval came there to eat one day. And I thought, 'this sucks.' My brother was over and had a friend whose dad was a wealthy friend in Wales and said, 'let's play golf.' That helped me get back playing again."

The Bob Hope Chrysler Classic was his third TOUR start of a career on a circuitous route, but his first when in position of a year's eligibility.

"A couple of weeks ago it still hadn't sunk in that I was fully exempt," he said. "Now I don't have to go chasing tournaments. That makes it a lot nicer for me."

Sure, as every golfer, Richard Johnson would like to win. But first he has another little desire.

"It would be neat to meet Tiger and Phil Mickelson," Johnson said.

Soon enough he will.