“Just a coincidence that he was an Iowa guy,” said Bender, a Waterloo native who is considered one of the nation’s leading golf instructors. “I didn’t even know he was from Iowa until we started talking.”

Johnson, a Cedar Rapids native and Drake graduate, had been using the practice facility at Timacuan Golf Club in Lake Mary, Fla., also the home of Bender’s teaching academy. Johnson had watched Bender give lessons to some highly skilled players, and decided to sign up himself.

“A pretty neat coincidence,” Bender said.

Their first lesson took place in 1999. They are still together today. Bender was the original member of a team that has expanded with Johnson’s success on the PGA Tour.

The 2007 Masters champion and seven-time winner now has a team that includes Bender as his swing coach; a putting coach, Pat O’Brien; a mental coach, Dr. Morris Pickens; an agent, Brad Buffoni; and a strength and conditioning coach, Chris Noss. Most of the world’s elite players take the team approach as well.

“I can’t do it by myself,” said Johnson, who tees off at 1:05 p.m. today in the first round of the PGA Championship at Atlanta Athletic Club. “I need the help. I need the extra eyes, the extra counsel, the wisdom, that sort of thing. We’ve got a great ensemble of individuals.

“It’s a team that I trust, and trusts me. I can’t be doing what I’m doing at a high level without other people.”

The team includes Johnson’s wife, Kim, and his caddie, Damon Green.

“Damon should be at the top of the list,” Buffoni said. “And Kim should be at the top-top of the list.”

Golf is an individual sport. Man against the golf course. But for elite players like Johnson, it takes a team to get to the finish line.

“The game has gotten so specialized,” Bender said. “There are so many guys who are specialists in the mental field, or the putting field, or the fitness side. It’s really important to have the best people who know what they are doing to form your team. Zach has a really good team.”

It is a team that works together to help Johnson play his best golf. They gather at the end of each year to discuss the past season and identify things to improve on for the season to come.

“Zach is smart enough to acknowledge he needs help, which is nice,” O’Brien said. “The thing I like about this team is that we’re all in this together. Nobody thinks they’re bigger than the other. We all like each other, too. I feel fortunate to be part of it.”

Buffoni, who first met Johnson at a Hooters Tour event in Milwaukee, Wis., in 2002 and signed him to a management contract later that summer, molds the team’s moving parts into one machine.

“I view my role as the quarterback of a team with many different skill positions,” Buffoni said. “There are a lot of things going on, and it’s nice to have one guy who oversees it.”

Buffoni wouldn’t discuss what it costs Johnson to keep his team together.

“It’s all incentive based,” Buffoni said.

Johnson’s commitment to being the best doesn’t come easy. In addition to the technicalities of the game provided by Bender and O’Brien and the mental aspects addressed by Pickens, Noss has intensified focus on the physical part of Johnson’s routine.

“I’m 35, my body is breaking down, and I’ve got to do it if I want to stay (on the PGA Tour),” Johnson said.

Johnson, who also sees a pair of tissue specialists to keep his body in top working order, puts in 12- to 13-hour days on average.

“People think it’s such a glamorous life, and he just plays golf for a living,” Kim Johnson said. “But he works very hard to play at the level he plays at.”

In addition to the time it takes to play or practice, Zach has up to three scheduled workouts per week, as well as time on a stationary bike. There also are trips to the fitness trailer before a round to get his body ready to play and then a breakdown session afterward.

“I’ll be talking to friends and they’ll say, ‘Hey, what are you doing after the round, want to go out and get a few beers?’ ” Johnson said. “They have no idea. I want to pass out.”