Sean McCarty, the 2009 GCRO champion and the head pro at Brown Deer Golf Course in Coralville, will tee it up with Zach Johnson and others today (May 19) at the PGA Championship at Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, OK.

Two past TrueNorth Greater Cedar Rapids Open champions will tee it up Thursday, May 19, at the PGA Championship at Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, OK.

Zach Johnson, who won the third annual GCRO back in 2001, and Sean McCarty, who captured the 2009 GCRO title at Hunters Ridge Golf Course, will be among 156 golfers competing this weekend in this year’s second Major.

Johnson’s best finish in 18 PGA Championship appearances is a tie for third back in 2010.

McCarty, the head professional at Brown Deer Golf Course in Coralville and a longtime competitor in the GCRO, will be playing in his second PGA Championship.

In July of 2010, Johnson announced formation of the Zach Johnson Foundation that benefits children in need in the Greater Cedar Rapids area. The Foundation’s premier event is the Zach Johnson Foundation Classic, a tournament that features PGA TOUR players as well as some of the game’s future superstars. The inaugural event took place at Elmcrest CC in Cedar Rapids on Aug. 1, 2011. The tournament supports Kids on Course, a pilot program at Van Buren Elementary and Harrison Elementary Schools.

Lists his father and mother among his heroes.

Johnson is a huge Drake University and University of Iowa sports fan.

The gallery at the 2004 BellSouth Classic at Johnson’s first PGA Tour victory included a group of about 10 men from Iowa who gave him financial support early in his career, buying a stake in Zach for $500 a share. Some were seeing him play as a pro for the first time. “It started out as a business, but it ended up as a business family,” Johnson said of his relationship with them. “It’s unbelievable having them here. They would buy a couple stock shares in me and just allow me to go out and not have to worry about the necessities of traveling week to week.”

In June 2016, Johnson, who has 12 career PGA Tour wins, was inducted into the Iowa Golf Hall of Fame.

Played college golf at Drake University. Following a gift in 2016, the Drake University men’s and women’s golf programs unveiled the Zach Johnson Golf Room, featuring state-of-the-art technology.

Annually hosts approximately 50 college golfers at his house for a College Golf Fellowship retreat.

Follows the University of Iowa sports teams. Served as an honorary captain for the Iowa football team in 2015, delivering a pre-game speech to the team.

Johnson is the winner of two Majors, the 2007 Masters and the 2015 British Open Championship. He received the 2020 Payne Stewart Award in honor of his character, sportsmanship and dedication to charitable giving.

The last time Johnson competed in the PGA Championship at Southern Hills he missed the cut in 2007, the year Tiger Woods won his fourth PGA trophy.

The son of a chiropractor, Johnson was born in Iowa City, Iowa and raised in Cedar Rapids.

McCarty is making his second career PGA Championship start, with the other coming in 2018. Playing at Bellerive Country Club in suburban St. Louis, McCarty shot 3-over-par and missed the cut. The Solon, IA., resident has six Top 20 finishes in the GCRO, including a tie for seventh in 2019.

He is an 11-time Iowa PGA Section Player of the Year (2007, ’08, ’09, ’13, ’14, ’15, ’17, ’18, ’19, ’20) and a six-time winner of the Iowa PGA Section Assistant of the Year (1999, 2002-06).

McCarty won the 2021 and 2012 Iowa PGA Section Professional Championship; the 1997, 2005, 2008, 2012 Iowa Open; the 2008 First American Bank Iowa Open, 2007 October Shootout Championship, 2001, ’05, 10, ’17, ’19 Iowa PGA Section Match Play Championship.

He also qualified for the 2003 U.S. Open at Olympia Fields, IL., where he posted a 69 but ended up missing the cut.

McCarty was a member of 1992 Big Ten Conference Championship team at the University of Iowa, the lone men’s golf conference title team in school history. In 1995, was named an All-American alongside Stewart Cink (Georgia Tech) and Tiger Woods (Stanford). He was a three-time Iowa state high school champion at West Branch High School.

Much of the information for this story came from the PGA Championship website.