Rory McIlroy makes equipment change at WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational

SILVIS, Ill. – Notes and observations from Saturday’s third round of the John Deere Classic where Patrick Rodgers continues to control the tournament in search of his first win. After a patient 3-under 68, he sits at 16-under and two shots clear. Leading the chasing back are two-time PGA TOUR winner Daniel Berger and three-time TOUR winner Scott Stallings at 14-under. For more from TPC Deere Run check out the Daily Wrap. RODGERS READY TO WIN Patrick Rodgers says his record equaling 11 wins at Stanford (tied with Tiger Woods no less) seem like “yesterday and a lifetime all at the same time.â€� The feelings of how to win when in contention are still fresh for the now 25-year-old college prodigy. The fact he hasn’t yet leveraged his comfort level in the lead with a PGA TOUR win makes it feel like a distant memory. “I had a lot of experience winning in collegiate and amateur golf, and I expected to maybe come out here and win right away. Probably the biggest frustrations as a pro have been not getting it done yet,â€� Rodgers admits as he takes a two-shot lead into Sunday at the John Deere Classic. “When you’re used to having so much success and contending on a regular basis, you kind of thrive on that. Part of the frustrating part of professional golf for me so far has been not having as many chances as I would like.â€� It is just the second time in his three seasons on the PGA TOUR he has held the 54-hole lead. He did so earlier this season at the Farmers Insurance Open before finishing T4. “You have to do some serious soul searching, because the line is incredibly fine between great, great golf and going home on a Friday or just not playing the way that you want. “But this is exactly where I want to be. It’s why I show up every week, to win. I think Tiger started this mentality, or Mr. Jack Nicklaus before him. You play to win. I grew up playing all sports, and you don’t play to finish second. “It’s very rewarding to be up here right now. I know I have a long way to go, but I’m excited for the opportunity.â€� BERGER READY FOR THE CHASE Daniel Berger is arguably one of the hottest players in world golf right now and his confidence level matches the theory as he primes himself to chase a third PGA TOUR win. Berger recently defended his FedEx St. Jude Classic win and then sat and watched Jordan Spieth steal the Travelers Championship from his grasp with a holed out bunker shot in a sudden death playoff. At 9th in the FedExCup this season, he knows a win will shoot him into the top 5. While he starts two-shots back of leader Patrick Rodgers, he believes the outcome at TPC Deere Run comes down to one man. Himself. “I feel like if I play well, then I’m going to win the golf tournament. If I don’t, I probably won’t. That’s really kind of cut and dry there,â€� Berger said after his third round 8-under 63 left him at 14-under. “I’m going to have to play really good. Patrick is obviously playing at a really high level.â€� Berger was three back when he won in Memphis last month. He says he’s been further back and won junior and amateur events before. He thrives on the chase. “I love this position. I feel like if I can get off to a good start tomorrow I can put some pressure on Patrick,â€� he said. “Same kind of thing I did in Memphis and Travelers. I just got off to a decent start and made some birdies, and then kind of kept it going from there. “I think as long as I’m standing, then I’m going to have a shot.â€� CALL OF THE DAY STALLINGS SUPER PUTTER ADJUSTMENT Scott Stallings opened the John Deere Classic with an even-par 71 and sat eight shots back after cursing an ice-cold putter. Now, with a round to go, he finds himself tied for second place after back-to-back 7-under 64s leave him at 14-under and just two shots off the lead. Safe to say the putter got hot. After ranking 130th in the field in Strokes Gained: Putting in round one with 34 total putts Stallings needed just 25 putts Friday and 27 Saturday. He now sits eighth in the field through three rounds in Strokes Gained: Putting. “The last six holes on Thursday I made a little bit of a tweak in regards to my speed and kind of how I was seeing the putts,â€� Stallings revealed. “I missed a lot of short putts early in the round on Thursday and really struggled speed-wise as far as matching the line up and everything. “The last six holes my caddie and I just kind of talked about a few different things as far as getting comfortable. And I was able to transition in the last few days.â€� LAMB FEASTS ON DEERE RUN Rick Lamb had the galleries on 59 watch after getting to 9-under on his round through 13 holes, but unfortunately for the PGA TOUR rookie, he was unable to find the three birdies necessary over the last five holes for a sub-60 round. Instead, a bogey on his final hole left him with an impressive 8-under 63, pushing him towards a very important result in terms of his FedExCup status. Lamb admitted to thinking about becoming just the ninth player in PGA TOUR history to shoot a 59 as he came to the closing stretch. “After I made the birdie on the 4th hole, which is my 13th, at that point it kind of crept in my mind,â€� Lamb said. “Wasn’t something I was nervous or worried about. Just if I keep it going, it’s got a chance.â€� Starting the event in 206th spot in the FedExCup Lamb is battling just to get a spot in the Web.com Tour finals. A decent Sunday could take care of that. He starts the final round in a tie for 8th, five shots off the lead. “It’s big, but just another day on the golf course,â€� Lamb said. “It’s not like you’re grinding on the leaderboard saying, Oh, I need to make to putt to get to this position. I just need to focus on winning the golf tournament.â€� SHOT OF THE DAY ODDS AND ENDS • Bryson DeChambeau will search for his first win from four shots back after a 1-under 70. The former U.S. Amateur champion played the last six holes 2-over to stall his challenge. • Nicholas Lindheim has struggled in his rookie season on TOUR, sitting 183rd in the FedExCup. But he has a chance to change all that on Sunday as he sits in 4th place just three off the lead. • Zach Johnson had a roller coaster round with an eagle, three birdies, two bogeys and a double bogey adding up to a 1-under 70. It was just the third round in his last 35 at TPC Deere Run that was not in the 60s. The former champion sits 11-under, five off the pace. • Jamie Lovemark continues to knock on the door of a first PGA TOUR win. Now with nine top 10s in the last two seasons without a victory the former amateur prodigy once again sees himself in contention. His 66 on Sunday left him tied 5th at 12-under, four shots back. • Stuart Appleby shot 7-under 64, his best round since October 2014. The nine-time PGA TOUR winner sits tied 18th at 10-under chasing his first top-10 on TOUR since finishing runner up in the opening FedExCup Playoff event of 2014. His last win came in 2010 at the Greenbrier Classic where he came from seven behind, shooting 59, to win. • After making the cut on the number 2014, champion Brian Harman equaled Daniel Berger and Rick Lamb for round of the day with an 8-under 63. It lifted him 52 places into a tie for 18th, six shots back of the lead. • Another past champion making the cut on the number, Steve Stricker posted a 6-under 65, his best round at TPC Deere Run since opening with the same score in 2015. BEST OF SOCIAL MEDIA

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Here are nine tidbits from the final round of the Travelers Championship that gamers can use tomorrow, this weekend or down the road. TPC River Highlands hosted since 1991 and measures 6,841 yards (Par-70). Wonderful Watson Bubba Watson overcame a six-shot deficit as he posted 17-under-par 263 to win the Travelers Championship for the third time in nine years. This was his second come-from-behind victory at the event when trailing by six shots. The left-hander’s final round of 63 put the pressure on the leaders and in the end his margin of victory was a comfortable three shots. He becomes the first player to win three times on TOUR this season and the first player to win this event three times since Billy Casper in 1968. The regret is palpable from gamers who passed on Watson this week based on his current form (raises hand). With nothing to lose on a course he already painted for 63 earlier in the week he let it fly heading out in 33. His inward 30 saw him match his low round of the week (63) and it dropped the hammer on the guys still on the course. The exclamation point was his wedge to less than three feet on the final hole for his eighth and final birdie of the day and the clubhouse lead on 17 under. There wasn’t any surprise to the formula he used as he didn’t hit many fairways (T70) but still found plenty of GIR (T7). He measured T22 or better in every strokes-gained category but the key was he was fifth-best in putts per GIR. After opening level par he played the final 54 holes in 17 under with only four bogeys (no others). The mystery of Watson shouldn’t exist anymore for gamers. When he’s in the mood, and boy has he been this season, there are a handful of tracks where he is no-brainer, green-light special. He’s won on two of them (Riviera and TPC River Highlands) this year and added a “new” title with World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play. Gamers aren’t out of luck yet as he’s gone close at Glen Abbey (if he plays) and Firestone South so there may be time to right the ship and get one more. Know Thy Enemy These were the top-10 selected golfers in the PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf game presented by SERVPRO: It’s been tough sledding for gamers who leaned on Berger at the last two TPC stops where he’s had immense successes. I guess the “up” side is that he did outscore Casey in the final round but that’s hardly a consolation. Pain or Gain These were the top-10 selected golfers in the PGA TOUR Fantasy One & Done presented by SERVPRO: It was a brutal Sunday two ways for Casey’s investors. He had the largest 54-hole lead at TPC River Highlands in history and his share of second was chopped four ways. If fantasy golf was played in a vacuum it would have been, on paper, a great week. Instead it was probably a disappointment. N-Cink Stewart Cink matched the round of the week with 62 and picked up his first podium since 2009. The course historians were rewarded again as the two-time champ felt right at home Sunday circling a magnificent 10 birdies against two bogeys. To say the disappointment of his 72 in the final round in Memphis (T4) was squashed is probably underplaying it. He’s as hot as the Georgia summer and is 22 under in his last eight rounds. Next in Line I’ve been asked multiple times who I believed to be this year’s Xander Schauffele and the retort I’ve given is Beau Hossler. Although he hasn’t won yet he’s been a consistent force. This week he picked up his 10th-consecutive paycheck and his second runner-up finish of the season. At No. 36 in the FEC standings a trip to Atlanta isn’t out of the realm of possibilities. No Memphis Blues Similarly to Cink, J.B. Holmes was looking to build on his excellent week in Memphis but a missed six-footer for par on the last saw him share second instead of claiming it himself. He won’t be upset with back-to-back podium finishes on TOUR but I bet the putting green will get a work out starting next week. His last 13 rounds on TOUR are in the red and so are 15 of the last 16. He demands a detailed look next week at TPC Potomac at Avenel Farms. Life of Brian The “other” left-hander on the weekend that was trying to make noise was 36-hole leader Brian Harman. He posted rounds of 69-68 but dropped all the way to T6 when the dust settled. After two years of deflated scoring, TPC River Highlands was back to its original giving self this year but Harman couldn’t get it over the finish line. He quietly goes about his business and his top-10 payday is his eighth of the season, tying Dustin Johnson for the most on TOUR. Sunday Silence There were only three scores on Sunday worse than Paul Casey’s 72 with only five players accumulating 73 or worse. His worst finish when making seven of his last eight cuts is T17 so I’m not going anywhere. … Russell Henley (T6) was in charge of putting the pressure on his playing partner in the final pairing but his 69 was also left in the dust by the peloton. He squared only two bogeys and nothing worse for the week so it’s obvious he likes it here. He’s 22 under in two trips with a 67.25 scoring average. … Anirban Lahiri is still trying to become the first Indian to win on TOUR and that can’t be easy with a couple of billion people weighing on his shoulders. His 69 dropped him from T6 to T9 but he cashes his first top 10 since November and is comfortably inside the top 100 in the FEC standings at No. 89. Study Hall Round 1 scored 69.776 (-0.224) while Round 2 crept just higher at 69.994 (-0.006). Saturday’s excellent scoring conditions were realized as the field averaged 69.108 (-0.892) but the field went even lower on Sunday. Even with the course tipped out past the scorecard total of 6,841 at 6,868 the final round produced the lowest aggregate of the week at 68.865 (-1.135). … Interestingly there were only two bogey-free rounds as Sam Ryder (64) and Adam Hadwin (66) will take their momentum forward. Neither cashed in the top 25. … Matthew Fitzpatrick accepted STM this week and will have unlimited exemptions for the rest of the TOUR season. He’s currently ranked No. 39 in the world. Remember, he’s only eligible for the FEC Playoffs if he wins a TOUR event before they begin. … Brooks Koepka was looking to join Ernie Els (1997) as the last player to win the U.S. Open and win the following week. Koepka, who is clearly not human, signed for 65 in the final round to move up 19 spots to T19. … Phil Mickelson is the last player to defend at TPC River Highlands as Jordan Spieth’s 63 on Thursday never kept any momentum. He cashed T42 in his defense.

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