From testing to prize money, the biggest takeaways from the PGA Tour’s plans for a return

Four wins, 15 top-10 finishes, 97 rounds under par. That’s the combined career totals of Zach Johnson and Steve Stricker at TPC Deere Run, site of this week’s John Deere Classic. Johnson and Stricker will have plenty of time to trade course secrets in the first two rounds this week as one of the Featured Groups along with their other playing partner, Wesley Bryan — who, incidentally, is showing a similar love for the course after his first two starts in the event. Defending champion Bryson DeChambeau is grouped with 2016 winner Ryan Moore in a Friday Featured Group that also includes Davis Love III. PGA TOUR LIVE will offer streaming coverage of the Featured Groups in the first two rounds starting at 8:30 a.m. ET (7:30 a.m. local), then will flip to afternoon Featured Holes coverage. On the weekend, Facebook Watch will provide coverage of selected groups determined after the previous day’s action. Here’s a look at the four Featured Groups for the first two rounds this week at the John Deere Classic (current FedExCup rankings in parentheses): THURSDAY Aaron Wise (25), Si Woo Kim (40), Harold Varner III (123) Three players in their 20s, two of them already winners on the PGA TOUR. Kim won THE PLAYERS Championship in 2017, and Wise won the AT&T Byron Nelson in May to become a leading contender for Rookie of the Year. Varner comes off a T-5 finish at last week’s A Military Tribute at the Greenbrier — his best finish at a TOUR event in three years. Tee time: 8:50 a.m. ET (7:50 a.m. local) Zach Johnson (54), Steve Stricker (136), Wesley Bryan (141) No players have been more consistent at TPC Deere Run than the duo of Johnson and Stricker. Johnson, playing in essentially his “home� major, won the John Deere is 2012 and is working on a tournament streak of 37 consecutive rounds of par or better. Stricker won three consecutive John Deere Classics starting in 2009. Combined, they have 15 top-10 finishes in 32 career starts at this event. Bryan has posted top-10 finishes in his two John Deere starts and is a cumulative 30 under at the event. Tee time: 9 a.m. ET (8 a.m. local) FRIDAY Austin Cook (24), Scott Piercy (41), Francesco Molinari (43) Molinari comes off a dominant performance in his last start at the Quicken Loans National, which he won by eight shots for his first career TOUR victory (and second of his season, as he also won on the European Tour in May). Cook and Piercy have also won this PGA TOUR season – Cook at The RSM Classic last fall, and Piercy at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans with teammate Billy Horschel. Tee time: 8:50 a.m. ET (7:50 a.m. local). Bryson DeChambeau (6), Ryan Moore (58), Davis Love III (207) The last two John Deere Classic winners are in the same group with a World Golf Hall of Famer. DeChambeau won at TPC Deere Run with a final-round rally to overtake Patrick Rodgers. Moore won in 2016 by reeling off 46 bogey-free holes, suffering just one bogey the entire week. Love is making his ninth start in this event and is seeking his first top-10 finish. Tee time: 9 a.m. ET (8 a.m. local)

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When it was announced in the early fall of 2014 that the former TPC Avenel was slated to return as host to a PGA TOUR stop, veteran gamers may have been surprised. If you were playing fantasy golf when the Booz Allen Classic completed its run there in 2006, you may recall the general criticism about the layout. So, serious credit was and remains due the dignitaries who approved a massive renovation that rose easily into eight figures in 2007-2008. The product was the newly named TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm. If time heals all wounds, the clock resets with this week’s Quicken Loans National. It plugs a gap created when nearby Congressional agreed to hosting the tournament every other year through 2020. (The host site for 2019 remains undetermined at the moment.) It’s always an intriguing exercise and a learning experience to go into any PGA TOUR event with little empirical data around which to form a profile of the host course. However, there is a handful of default mechanisms that helps shape and refine our focus. Brief explanations are included with each identifier below. Beneath them are the results of the two Web.com Tour events that were staged at TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm in 2012 and 2013. Any experience is helpful, but just as you wouldn’t push all of your chips into any one statistic, limit the course experience that exists to aiding in tiebreaker situations that arise in DFS. NOTE: For each of the stats below, all in the field who rank inside the top 25 on the PGA TOUR are cited. * – In the Power Rankings Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green The value of season-long statistics is greater on full shots. Just as we reviewed the top two categories here for the Wells Fargo Championship at unknown Eagle Point Golf Club, both apply at TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm. Rank, Golfer 5 Tony Finau 8 Kyle Stanley 11 *Rickie Fowler T17 Byeong Hun An T17 *Brendan Steele 20 Lucas Glover 21 *Marc Leishman 22 Luke List Proximity to the Hole Averaging 5,300 square feet, greens are smaller, so the combination of confidence and execution while taking aim matters more. Rank, Golfer T2 Kyle Stanley 6 *Boo Weekley T7 Nick Watney T15 Chris Kirk T15 Kevin Na T15 Scott Stallings 21 Blayne Barber T22 Graham DeLaet T22 David Hearn T25 Lucas Glover T25 Ollie Schniederjans T25 *Brendan Steele T25 Chris Stroud T25 Vaughn Taylor Scrambling If the first three sanctioned events contested at renovated TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm are any indication, par will be a good score at the Quicken Loans National. Furthermore, having a knack at getting up and down for par on smaller greens will be critical since totals for missed greens in regulation will be elevated. Rank, Golfer 1 John Huh 2 Charles Howell III 6 *Rickie Fowler 7 *Bill Haas 10 Adam Hadwin 11 Matt Jones 12 Zac Blair 14 *Brendan Steele T15 Tim Wilkinson 24 Whee Kim Finishes of those in this week’s field at the Web.com Tour event in 2012 Sorted by finish (players in bold appeared in both 2012 and 2013) Win: David Lingmerth T6: Morgan Hoffmann T8: Sam Saunders T13: Luke List T25: Adam Hadwin; Robert Streb T36: James Hahn T38: Troy Merritt T44: Tim Wilkinson T52: Fabian Gomez T57: Jason Gore 65th: Andrew Loupe MC: Jim Herman; Ben Martin; Hudson Swafford; Tyrone Van Aswegen WD: Derek Fathauer Finishes of those in this week’s field at the Web.com Tour event in 2013 Sorted by finish (players in bold appeared in both 2012 and 2013) T6: Sung Kang 10th: Tim Wilkinson T11: Jason Gore; Si Woo Kim T15: Jim Herman T27: Hudson Swafford T34: Kevin Tway T47: Adam Hadwin; Tyrone Van Aswegen 60th: Brett Stegmaier MC: Blayne Barber; Derek Fathauer; Billy Hurley III; Whee Kim; Kelly Kraft; Danny Lee; Andrew Loupe; Troy Merritt; Kyle Reifers; Sam Saunders WD: Alex Cejka

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