Hudson Johnson returns to TimberCreek Golf Club to defend his NGA title starting today in Daphne.(Press-Register, G.M. Andrews)It doesn't hurt that Hudson Johnson believes his game is starting to come into form this week.
The Longview, Texas, player was certainly in good form a year ago when he arrived in Daphne for the first TimberCreek Golf Classic. He won the inaugural tournament by four shots at 21 under par.
Today, he'll be in the first group off the first tee for the start of this year's TimberCreek tournament at 7 a.m.
"I've had a pretty solid year so far," Johnson said. "I came into this event last year with a couple of good finishes and starting to see some positive improvement. I don't know if I'm quite at that level yet.
"I'm starting to get back in the up-tick again where the game just starts to feel easier. I'm looking forward to this week. There's some pressure, I guess, as far as being the defending champ. But I'm just going to come out here and have fun. I like the course."
Using the Magnolia (front nine) and Pines (back nine) courses, with the Pines' par-5 sixth hole playing as a par-4 for the NGA Tour event, TimberCreek is set up as a par-71 layout.
"I know this course and I know I played it well," Johnson said. "I know I can make birdies and I know I can play well here. That's a calming, relaxing factor."
But sometimes winning is a matter of being able to grind it out, especially for many of the golfers who travel from tournament to tournament each week on the NGA Tour.
"For one, you've always got to be trying to get better because this isn't the last stop," Johnson said. "For some guys it is, but nobody wants to be that guy. Everybody wants to move on."
Johnson is ninth on the NGA Tour money list heading into this week. He won the Members Only Shootout at Black Bear Golf Club in Eustis, Fla., in February and has five top-12 finishes this season in 12 events entered.
Johnson will be joined in the TimberCreek field by local standouts, including Spanish Fort's Todd Bailey, whose team won Wednesday's pro-am, Mobile's Daniel Burns, Nathan Bennett and Zack Sucher, Fairhope's Jacob Collinsworth, and Daphne's David Miller and Matt Russell.