America at Large: A few months ago they wouldn't have known him from Adam, but as Mark Johnson made his way from the Laurel Valley clubhouse to the practice range Tuesday afternoon a couple of well-oiled Pennsylvanians spotted him and immediately hoisted their plastic pints of Budweiser in salute.

"Hey, Beer Man!" they called out.

Mark Johnson smiled and waved.

"I guess I'm going to be The Beer Man for the rest of my life, but I don't mind it a bit," said the Champions Tour rookie.

On a Sunday afternoon two months ago, in Newport Beach, California, Johnson found himself on the brink of disintegration on the final hole of the Toshiba Classic. Abruptly recognising that he might actually be in danger of winning, he had pushed a drive into the tees to the right of the par-5 fairway. He hit a six-iron back to the fairway and attempted to collect his thoughts.

Keith Fergus, his closest pursuer, had reached a greenside bunker in two and seemed likely to make birdie. Johnson was exactly 89 yards from the flagstick, and took an L-wedge in an effort to protect his lead. His shot landed several feet beyond the pin before trickling backward into the hole.

"I'd just wanted to get my second shot down in position, to have a good number for my third shot," recalled Johnson. "Keith had just hit his second shot into the bunker, and you know, you never know what can happen. I knew I had to get it up there and try to make four, and see what would happen. Strange things do happen. It went in the damned hole."

The eagle assured Johnson of his first tour win. The $247,500 check more than doubled his career earnings, and the Legend of the Beer Man had taken another giant leap forward.

"You don't see as many new faces out here as you do on the regular PGA Tour, " Craig (The Walrus) Stadler was saying the other day. "For one thing, the qualifying school only gives out seven spots, so we're relying mostly on career money for exemptions.

"But I guess the procedure works when you look at the case of Mark Johnson," said Stadler. "What Mark has done is phenomenal - and he's a great guy, even though he still hasn't delivered any cases of Bud Lite to my house. I'm still waiting."

An accomplished weekend golfer in his native California - he won the state Amateur Championship in 1996, and in 1994 was runner-up in the Southern California Amateur to a teenaged Tiger Woods - Johnson was well into his 40s before he gave professional golf a thought.

With bills to pay and a family to feed, he had spent 18 years driving a Budweiser delivery truck.

"I delivered to supermarkets, to bars, to little mom-and-pop convenience stores. Everywhere my route led me," said Johnson. "I still run into my old customers all the time."

At 45 he decided to leave his job and try to earn a living from his golf game. HR Olson, the Anheuser-Busch distributor for whom he had worked, not only gave their blessing, but became his sponsor. Thus did the beer man become The Beer Man, a walking advertisement for Budweiser products.

His golf bag is festooned with an O'Doul's logo, his cap that of Michelob. Budweiser's name adorns his shirts.

"I've actually been The Beer Man since 2001, but it's only recently people have begun to sit up and take notice," he said. "Now they're yelling 'Beer Man!' wherever I go."

He played Nationwide and Canadian tour events whenever he could get in, without great success, but the goal was always the same. It was targeted to his 50th birthday.

"From the time I turned pro at age 45, the Champions Tour was what we were shooting for, but for it to happen the way it has, it's just been a dream come true, " said Johnson. "It's just been unbelievable."

Johnson turned 50 in May of last year, and got into a handful of senior events, playing his way into the field of most of them as a Monday qualifier.

Then last fall he entered the Champions Tour Qualifying School, conducted at The King and The Bear Club in St Augustine, Florida, and, he said, "I just happened to play the best golf of my life at the right time."

The gruelling event lasted six days, and the Beer Man returned six sub-par scores. He was the medallist in a talent-laden Q-School class that included Tom McKnight, Brad Bryant, and Pat McGowan. It was also the most pressure-packed event of his life.

"The worst thing about Q-School is if you don't get through and finish top seven, you have to wait another whole year," said the Beer Man. "Oh, you might get conditional status, but with that you never know how many events you're going to play. So getting fully exempt is so, so important."

The $45,000 he won for finishing first in St Augustine was at the time his biggest career payday, though - considerably abetted by his purse from the Toshiba - Johnson has now banked $477,500 this year going into the Senior PGA Championship, which starts today.

"That's just unbelievable," he shook his head when reminded of the figure this week. "It would have taken 15 or 16 years of work to make that much on the beer truck."

Since the bankroll likely has him two-thirds of the way to a top-30 finish on the money list and an exemption for 2006 as well, it has lightened the pressure on his week-to-week performance as well.

"Absolutely," said Johnson. "I'm exempt all of this year and up until the Toshiba of next year, and if I finish top-30 in the money list, I'll be exempt for 2006. We got off to a good start, and we have a nice little jump on that. We just have to continue to play well."

Particularly since many of the Champions Tour pros have been playing against one another for three or four decades, they sometimes tend to be a cliquish lot. Since Q-School graduates are likely by definition to displace one of their own, they're not always welcomed with open arms, but Johnson represents such a compelling rags-to-riches tale that he has been widely embraced by the grizzled veterans.

"They've been very good to me," said The Beer Man of his fellow competitors on the old-timers circuit. "I couldn't be happier with the way I've been treated. Every single one of them has been very, very gracious.

"Mr Stockton has been very helpful in what he's done for me," he added. " I try to play a lot of practice rounds with Dave, to learn about the golf courses, because he's been out here so much."

In fact, The Beer Man and the former Ryder Cup captain played a practice round together at Laurel Valley yesterday.

Johnson has his own website (www.beermangolf.com), and finds himself increasingly recognised by galleries. He hasn't had a drink in almost 22 years, so the fans who reach out to offer him a sip when he passes by are destined to be disappointed.

"But a lot of them will toast me if they have a can of Budweiser or Bud Lite in their hands," said Johnson. "It's been pretty neat."

"I've been very blessed and very fortunate. It's just an honour to be out here playing with all these guys. I'm playing with the greatest players in the world," said Johnson. "And I haven't delivered a case of beer for quite a while now."