Andrew Johnston (golfer)

For the American golfer, see Andrew Johnson (golfer).

Andrew Johnston
Personal information
Full nameAndrew Thomas Johnston
NicknameBeef[1]
Born (1989-02-18) 18 February 1989 (age 35)
London, England
Height1.76 m (5 ft 9 in)
Weight96 kg (212 lb; 15.1 st)
Sporting nationality England
ResidenceFriern Barnet, England
Career
Turned professional2009
Current tour(s)European Tour
Former tour(s)Challenge Tour
PGA Tour
Professional wins5
Highest ranking74 (4 September 2016)[2]
Number of wins by tour
European Tour1
Challenge Tour2
Other2
Best results in major championships
Masters TournamentDNP
PGA ChampionshipT60: 2016
U.S. OpenT42: 2017
The Open Championship8th: 2016
Achievements and awards
Challenge Tour
Rankings winner		2014

Andrew Thomas Johnston (born 18 February 1989) is an English professional golfer who plays on the European Tour. He has one win on the European Tour, which came at the 2016 Open de España. Known affectionately as "Beef" since his youth, he has carried the nickname into his professional career, and is a popular character amongst the crowd.

Personal life

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Johnston, who is of partial Jamaican descent,[3] was born in London in 1989 to a working-class family. His father worked as a bus driver and his mother as a school dinner lady.

He started playing golf at the age of four with his father and siblings in a local chip and putt course,[citation needed] and later joined the North Middlesex Golf Club, which is still his home club today.[4] At 14, he was in The Middlesex Junior Squad, and became a scratch player at 16.[5]

He is married to Jodie Valencia. They have a daughter named Harley Noelle.[6]

Career

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Johnston (centre) taking a golf swing at the practice rounds of the 2018 U.S. Open.

Johnston was a successful amateur, representing England boys and the Great Britain and Ireland team in the Jacques Léglise Trophy. He turned professional in 2009 and won for the first time that year on the Jamega Tour.[7] After a 2010 season split between the Jamega Tour, the PGA EuroPro Tour and invites to the Challenge Tour, Johnston enjoyed a breakthrough season in 2011. He played in his first European Tour event at the Alfred Dunhill Championship in South Africa, and qualified for his first major championship, the Open Championship, via local final qualifying at Royal Cinque Ports.[8] Johnston also recorded several good results from invites to the Challenge Tour, including a runner-up spot at the M2M Russian Challenge Cup. That qualified him for the Grand Final, where he finished in a tie for third to jump to 15th in the standings and secure a place on the European Tour for 2012.

Johnston played 20 events in his first season on the European Tour, without being able to make any top-10 result and ultimately failing to retain his tour membership.

In 2013, he was back on the Challenge Tour, where he registered a 5th place at the Finnish Challenge and a 6th place at the Northern Ireland Open Challenge, but failed to gain the European Tour membership by finishing only 68th in the final Order of Merit. At the end of the year, he entered the European Tour Qualifying School; after winning the Second Qualifying Stage at Valle Romano Golf,[9] he again came short finishing 52nd at the final event at the PGA Catalunya Resort.

In 2014, Johnston finally found success in the Challenge Tour by winning two events, the Scottish Hydro Challenge and the Le Vaudreuil Golf Challenge; he ended up winning also the final Order of Merit and regained his European Tour membership.

In his second season on the European Tour Johnston started with a 3rd place at the Alfred Dunhill Championship, but struggled to make other positive results, missing 11 cuts in 25 events. At the end of the season he was able to retain his tour card thanks to a 10th place at the Turkish Airlines Open.

His 2016 started in January with a 4th place at the Qatar Masters, after which Johnston earned his first European Tour win at the 2016 Real Club Valderrama Open de España. He went on to on secure two other top-10 results at the BMW PGA Championship and at the 145th Open Championship, where he enjoyed remarkable popularity for his look, personality and game.[10] After the Open he entered for the first time in his career the top-100 of the Official World Golf Ranking at the 89th place.[11]

In September Johnston entered the Web.com Tour Finals in an attempt to gain a PGA Tour card for 2017; he achieved that at the second event of the series, the Albertsons Boise Open, where he finished 4th.[12] As a result, he got a card for the 2017 PGA Tour.

In 2024, HarperCollins published Johnston's autobiography, Golf Is Hard.[13]

Professional wins (5)

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European Tour wins (1)

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No. Date Tournament Winning score Margin of
victory 		Runners-up
1 17 Apr 2016 Real Club Valderrama Open de España +1 (67-74-74-70=285) 1 stroke Netherlands Joost Luiten

European Tour playoff record (0–1)

No. Year Tournament Opponent Result
1 2018 Hero Indian Open England Matt Wallace Lost to birdie on first extra hole

Challenge Tour wins (2)

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No. Date Tournament Winning score Margin of
victory 		Runners-up
1 29 Jun 2014 Scottish Hydro Challenge −19 (66-65-68-66=265) 3 strokes Germany Moritz Lampert, Australia Terry Pilkadaris
2 27 Jul 2014 Le Vaudreuil Golf Challenge −16 (66-69-69-64=268) 2 strokes South Korea An Byeong-hun, United States Connor Arendell,
Sweden Jens Fahrbring, France Clément Sordet (a)

Jamega Pro Golf Tour wins (2)

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  • 2009 The Warwickshire
  • 2011 The Vale of Glamorgan

Results in major championships

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Tournament 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
Masters Tournament
U.S. Open T54 T42 62
The Open Championship CUT 8 T27
PGA Championship T60 WD
Tournament 2019
Masters Tournament
PGA Championship
U.S. Open
The Open Championship CUT
  Top 10
  Did not play

CUT = missed the half-way cut
WD = withdrew
"T" indicates a tie for a place

Summary

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Tournament Wins 2nd 3rd Top-5 Top-10 Top-25 Events Cuts made
Masters Tournament 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
PGA Championship 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 1
U.S. Open 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 3
The Open Championship 0 0 0 0 1 1 4 2
Totals 0 0 0 0 1 1 9 6
  • Most consecutive cuts made – 5 (2016 U.S. Open – 2017 Open Championship)
  • Longest streak of top-10s – 1

Results in World Golf Championships

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Tournament 2016
Championship
Match Play
Invitational T42
Champions T47
  Did not play

"T" = Tied

Team appearances

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Amateur

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "The Open golfer: 'Why they call me 'Beef". BBC. 13 July 2016.
  2. ^ "Week 36 2016 Ending 4 Sep 2016" (pdf). OWGR. Retrieved 29 October 2019.
  3. ^ Zgoda, Jerry. "Andrew 'Beef' Johnston reaches folk-hero status among golf fans at PGA". The Star Tribune. Retrieved 28 July 2016.
  4. ^ "The Season So Far". North Middlesex Golf Club. Archived from the original on 2 October 2016. Retrieved 1 October 2016.
  5. ^ "10 Things you need to know about Andrew "Beef" Johnston (including why he is called Beef) ‹ 19th Hole". www.yourgolftravel.com. 18 July 2016. Retrieved 1 October 2016.
  6. ^ "Jodie Valencia - Instagram Profile". Retrieved 14 April 2022.
  7. ^ Red Golf profile
  8. ^ North Middlesex golfer Andrew Johnston qualifies for Open Championship
  9. ^ "Johnston finishes top at Valle Romano". PGA European Tour. 6 November 2013. Retrieved 1 October 2016.
  10. ^ Wojciechowski, Gene (17 July 2016). "Bearded 'Beef' turning heads at Open". ESPN. Retrieved 1 October 2016.
  11. ^ "Official World Golf Ranking - Andrew Johnston". 1 October 2016.
  12. ^ Andrew "Beef" Johnston earns his PGA Tour card
  13. ^ "Golf Is Hard by Andrew "Beef" Johnston". HarperCollins. Retrieved 21 July 2024.
  14. ^ "European Boys' Team Championship". European Golf Association. 19 October 2015. Retrieved 22 January 2023.
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