Atter a top-five finish at the RBC Heritage, Billy Horschel fired a 4-under 68 to sit one shot off the lead at the Valero Texas Open.
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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
It holds as many fans as most NBA arenas and sounds like a college football stadium. No. 16 at TPC Scottsdale is the only fully-enclosed hole on the PGA TOUR, and the only one where traditional golf etiquette is, well, not part of the traditions. Fans cheer when balls hit the green. They boo when they miss. And the people absolutely lose their minds when the ball goes in the hole. Since the WM Phoenix Open moved to TPC Scottsdale in 1987, nine TOUR players (and one robot) have aced the 16th. You’ve likely seen one of these aces more than once. So, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the time Tiger Woods raised the roof at TPC Scottsdale’s 16th hole, here is my list of the top five aces from golf’s rowdiest hole. TIGER WOODS (1997) “They’re gonna go nuts when he hits this thing” is the best way to describe every tee shot at No. 16 at the WM Phoenix Open. In 1997, the rowdy crowd at TPC Scottsdale hit new decibels as a 21-year-old Tiger Woods made his WM Phoenix Open debut. Woods had already won three times since turning pro five months earlier and was coming off a win at the Sentry Tournament of Champions, where he beat the reigning PGA TOUR Player of the Year, Tom Lehman, in a playoff. By Saturday, Woods was 10 shots behind eventual winner Steve Jones and his title hopes were mostly out of reach. But no one remembers that. They just remember his shot at No. 16. Woods’ playing partner that day, Omar Uresti, hit first and put his ball 3 feet behind the pin. “As soon as it landed, I made the mistake of thinking to myself, ‘Let’s see you hit it closer than that,” Uresti told PGATOUR.COM in 2015. Tiger did. Using a 9-iron on the 152-yard hole, Woods took dead aim and his ball took two soft bounces before falling into the hole. The Arizona crowd went bonkers, chucking beer all over the tee box. “I think I broke Fluff’s hand,” Woods said of his high five for then-caddie Mike Cowan. He proceeded to whiff on Uresti’s high five before famously raising the roof. Woods eventually finished the tournament at 9-under, good for a T18 finish. The shot might be Woods’ most memorable from a tournament he did not win. It’s also a mainstay on his highlight reels and gave the world a glimpse of the Tiger Mania that would definite the PGA TOUR for the next 20-plus years. JARROD LYLE (2011) It had been nine years since No. 16 had seen a hole-in-one before Jarrod Lyle stepped up to the tee box during the second round in 2011. The big Australian played a draw with enough spin to pull the ball left upon landing and allow it to slide into the front portion of the hole. Lyle threw his arms up in the air and eventually got the crowd going with some windmills. The hole-in-one would serve as a trademark moment for a player gone too soon. Lyle had battled acute myeloid leukemia as a teenager. He was diagnosed with the disease a second time in 2012. He fought back to play in 20 PGA TOUR events from 2014-2016, but his leukemia would return again in 2017, and in 2018 he passed away at age 36. At the 2019 WM Phoenix Open, a memorial was placed on the No. 16 tee box, along with an honorary yellow plaque. LDRIC (2016) Just 19 years after Eldrick Woods, better known as Tiger, had his hole-in-one at No. 16, a new LDRIC, a golf robot, made one of its own. Unlike most golfers who’ve made holes-in-one at No. 16, LDRIC played a baby fade with a one-handed finish onto the green. The swing did feel a bit robotic though, if you ask me. While LDRIC made the ace on its fifth try, the dynamics are impressive considering Golf Laboratories’ Gene Parente gave the robot the wrong club. The San Diego-based creator of the 750-pound contraption thought LDRIC would be hitting a 158-yard shot during the Wednesday practice round but LDRIC was actually asked to play a shot from 20 yards closer. Parente had armed LDRIC with a 7-iron, and rather than change clubs, Parente re-calibrated LDRIC’s swing. LDRIC’s first shot went over the pin, but Parente was able to adjust the swing formula enough to go pin-seeking by the fifth shot. “There was no science at this point, it was pure intuition,” Parente said. LDRIC stands for “launch directional robot intelligent circuitry.” Or, in golf terms, Robot Tiger. FRANCESCO MOLINARI (2015) Want to see Francesco Molinari get pumped up? Yes, the famously stoic Francesco Molinari. Watch his hole-in-one highlight at No. 16 in 2015. Playing in soft conditions from just 133 yards out on Saturday, Molinari sent a pitching wedge past the pin on the right side of the hole and spun it back for the bucket. A grinning Molinari raised his arms, gave high fives to Harris English and Brian Davis and even waved to the crowd to get them more hyped up. By this point, the gallery was already throwing bottles onto the hole, making it look like an updated version of Woods’ hole-in-one in 1997. Davis had to wait 10 minutes for tournament officials to pick up the foreign objects before he could hit his tee shot. And that was before they got to the green. Upon getting to the hole, Molinari tossed his ball into the stands (Who did he think he was, Mike Evans?), but a fan responded by throwing it back. “They nearly hit Brian Davis,” Molinari said. “A volunteer just raked it out of the bunker and gave it to me at the end of the round. It was nice to get it back. I don’t know if I will keep it or give it to someone. I wasn’t expecting to see it coming back from the stands.” Somehow, Davis did manage to par the hole. And he got to witness greatness in the process. Molinari carded an eight-under 64 during that third round, tied for the second-lowest score of the day, but a 72 on Sunday dropped him into a T22 finish. HAL SUTTON (1988) He’s the trailblazer they’re all trying to copy. Sutton is the man credited with the first ace on No. 16 in the WMPO. He did it in 1988, after winning the event in 1986 and finishing second the following year, in TPC Scottsdale’s debut as the host venue. Sutton played a slight draw into a third-round back pin location. Correctly judging a stiff wind, he rode the right-to-left green contours into the hole. The cheer sounded loud for a standard hole-in-one, foreshadowing the future of the iconic hole. Sutton, who opened 68-66, went 74-73 on the weekend to finish T26. While Sutton didn’t get the beer shower his successors did, he is the first name on the statue beside the tee box that honors the aces. There’s a first time for everything, and Sutton was the first to give the fans at golf’s rowdiest hole something to scream about.
