Years ago, had someone told you Kevin Johnson would be a part of the PGA Tour Champions at age 54 you wouldn’t have blinked an eye. Not when you factored in all the slices of his superb resume – the most polished amateur golfer of this era out of Massachusetts (one man’s humble opinion), an All-American golfer at Clemson, and a winner on several professional levels along the way.

Only Johnson is with the PGA Tour Champions as a rules and tournament official, not as a competitor, and concedes it’s all “pretty wild how it all unfolded.”

The bottom line, though: He’s still involved in a game he loves and embraces an opportunity that has come his way with no regrets.

“I’ve always had a strong interest in this part of the game,” said Johnson, who made his PGA Tour Champions debut April 16-18 at the Chubb Classic in Naples, Fla., and will be quite busy in coming months as the competition heats up.

Johnson said he began giving this phase of his life some thought back in 2017, the year he turned 50, when he saw how few spots were available at the Qualifying Tournament and how demanding the weekly Monday Qualifier was.

“The writing was on the wall,” he said. “I figured I should jump on the chance sooner than later.”

He had volunteered with the Florida State Golf Association and the local PGA of America section, and by 2019 discussions with the PGA Tour had gone well. Things seemed to be pointing toward a spot with the Korn Ferry Tour, which would have been a homecoming, of sorts, as Johnson played in 371 KFT tournaments in a pro career that stretched from 1990-2014.

Then, something called COVID-19 arrived and turned the world upside down. Like everything else, the PGA Tour stood still, so Johnson accepted a friend’s offer to get into the insurance business.

“During COVID I actually grinded away and got my insurance license and for a while that was going great,” said Johnson, who grew up in Pembroke but has been settled in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., for more than half his life.

When in the early weeks of 2021 Johnson was offered a position on the Champions Tour staff, he weighed his options, talked things over with his wife, Christa, then eventually chose to return to the game that has been his life.

The chapters in that life, it says here, deserve a sense of respect, even if we’re living in a time when celebrating historical achievements doesn’t resonate with some. Sad, but if you’re going to suggest golf is in a good place in 2021 – and it is, for sure – well, let us take time to salute someone who did remarkable things back when it was also pretty good.

Johnson was just 19 years old in the summer of 1986 when he did the unconventional – he won the Mass. Open as an amateur. A year later he did the conventional – he won the State Amateur. Oh, and he added the U.S. Public Links Championship later in the summer of ’87, too.

What followed were spots on the U.S. Eisenhower Trophy team that played in Stockholm in 1988 and the 1989 U.S. Walker Cup team that played at Peachtree GC in Atlanta. What didn’t follow is the sort of PGA Tour career that Johnson envisioned for himself (he had fulltime status twice, in 2001 and 2010) but to know golf is to appreciate the fickle nature of the game and the extraordinary depths to which the competition runs.

In his long KFT career, Johnson won six times, proof that he clearly had game. In his quality stretch in golf, Johnson has made countless friends, proof that he is immersed in dignity. He also won on the Sunshine Tour in South Africa, qualified for two U.S. Opens, and was inducted into the Clemson Hall of Fame in 2020.

The attachment to Clemson is strong and one Johnson cherishes. Longtime coach Larry Penley, who recently announced his retirement after 38 years, “has been one of my good buddies” since Johnson entered the school in the summer of ’85 and incoming coach Jordan Byrd has been a friend for years.

More importantly, Kevin and Christa’s oldest daughter, Jordan, just finished her junior year at Clemson and come September, she’ll be joined by younger sister Jade, an incoming freshman.

“I love going back there, so it’s great that they’re there,” said Johnson, who otherwise doesn’t anchor himself to what used to be and bask in nostalgia. His golf for so many years was played at an elite level, and he got a lot out of it.

Now it’s time to take it in another direction with the same amount of passion.