Immelman, Samooja ace same hole at Scottish Open

SILVIS, Ill. —The John Deere Classic turns 50 this year. The small-town TOUR stop has played a pivotal role in many players’ careers, as the site of their first victory, or at least their first taste of contention, and as a familiar locale for stars hailing from the Midwest. Recent champions include Jordan Spieth and Bryson DeChambeau. Like fellow future major champions Payne Stewart (1982) and David Toms (1997) and 19 other Quad Cities champs, Spieth and DeChambeau scored their maiden TOUR victories at the Deere. As for can-you-top this moments, TPC Deere Run’s closing stretch of holes has produced an array of rallies and exciting finishes, and by such notable winners as Vijay Singh, Kenny Perry, Steve Stricker and Zach Johnson. 1. JORDAN RULES (2013) Spieth had little to lose and a big, bold head start on a brilliant future to gain when he set his feet in the bright white sand of a greenside bunker on TPC Deere Run’s final hole in July 2013. He’d already earned TOUR status and established himself as a rising star before turning 20. Now he had a chance to get his first victory. Spieth had begun his first season as a pro without status on TOUR, but a runner-up finish in his third start and another six top-10 finishes earned him unlimited sponsor’s exemptions for the remainder of the year. Those performances also ensured he’d be a member in good standing the following season. A win at the Deere, though, would earn his entry into the 2013 FedExCup Playoffs, with all the points accrued in those seven previous top-10s also added to his account. It would gain him two full years of exempt TOUR status. It would punch his ticket to the Masters the following April. The young Texan came to the 18th having birdied four of his previous five holes, but needed a fifth birdie to tie the lead. He got it, and did so with a flair for the dramatic that would become SOP (Spieth Operating Procedure) in the years to come. With a one-hop clank off the flagstick, Spieth holed his 44-foot shot from the bunker to earn his way into a three-man playoff. Then he outlasted Zach Johnson and David Hearn over five holes of sudden-death. His first professional win came 13 days shy of his 20th birthday, making him the first teen to win on TOUR in 82 years. 2. GETTING A GRIP ON TIGER (1996) Between September 16, 1996, and August 16, 2009, Tiger Woods would win 36 consecutive PGA TOUR events when holding the outright lead after 54 holes. To this day, Woods has lost just twice when entering the final round in sole possession of the lead. Those numbers make it hard to believe that Woods coughed up the lead the first time he held it on the PGA TOUR. Ed Fiori, nicknamed “The Grip,” was the beneficiary. Making his third start as a pro following a storied amateur career, Woods took the lead with six straight birdies on the inward nine of his second round at Oakwood Country Club. When Sunday dawned, Woods held a one-shot lead over Fiori, a 43-year-old veteran 14 years removed from his last victory. Woods led by three on the fourth tee, but a wild hook into an irrigation pond led to a quadruple bogey and a one-shot deficit. Three holes later, Woods four-putted a short par-4 for a double-bogey. Steady Eddie brought it home with a final round 67 for a two-shot win. Woods shot a 2-over 72 and finished tied for fifth, but he got his first win two weeks later in Las Vegas and is 44-2 as you read this when taking an outright lead into Sunday. Y.E. Yang joined Fiori in the Tiger Tamer Club at the 2009 PGA Championship. 3. A STOP ON THE SLAM TRAIL (2015) Spieth’s brilliant future already was realized when he returned to TPC Deere Run two years after his first win, having won the Masters in April and the U.S. Open in June. The week after the Deere, he would attempt to join fellow Texan Ben Hogan as one of two men to win three professional majors in a single year. Given those stakes, his decision to keep a promise to play the Deere beforehand was questioned in some circles. Yet, Spieth said he came to Silvis with an eye on a winning second leaping deer trophy and to build momentum for his pursuit of a Claret Jug. He accomplished the former with another fast finish, making up four shots in six holes to force another playoff and then defeating Tom Gillis on the second hole of sudden-death. In his bid for immortality at St. Andrews, Spieth finished a single haunting shot out of a playoff. 4. THREE-PEAT (2011) Steve Stricker made his first trip to the Quad Cities before he earned a PGA TOUR card. The Illinois alum made his tournament debut in 1993. Sixteen years later, he started an incredible run at TPC Deere Run. The affable Stricker won in 2009 and 2010 before showing that he had an edge, as well, with his dramatic win in 2011. A walk-off birdie from a difficult lie in a fairway bunker made him just the 18th player to win the same TOUR event in three straight years. Stricker responded to a 24-foot birdie make from the fringe with a full-body, two-handed fist-pump celebration that was entirely out of character, deliciously ferocious and magnificently appropriate. Stricker had taken a five-shot lead into Sunday’s back nine but stood on the 17th tee two shots down to Kyle Stanley. He birdied the par-5 17th for the ninth time in his three-year run at Deere Run and stood in the18th hole’s fairway bunker tied at the top after Stanley bogeyed in front of him. Actually, he almost stood in the bunker. Facing a lie that forced a stance announcer David Feherty likened to a giraffe at a watering hole, Stricker stood left foot in the sand, right foot in the grass, 189 yards from the flagstick. He ripped a 6-iron to the back fringe, holed that putt and it was no more Mr. Nice Guy. For a few seconds, anyway. 5. AN AGELESS WONDER (1979) Sam Snead became the youngest player on TOUR to shoot his age in the second round but the 67-year-old was something less than ecstatic. “Now, I gotta come back two more days,” groused the legend, who was feeling the effects of a bad back after walking 18 holes for only the third time that year. “I was almost trying not to qualify.” Snead’s record 67 didn’t hold up long. After a 74 in the third round, the Slammer rallied with a closing 66 at Oakwood Country Club. 6. A LEGEND’S FIRST (1982) Payne Stewart scored the most fashionable victory on TOUR since the days of Walter Hagen when he carded five back-nine birdies en route to a final-round 63 and his first official TOUR victory. It was also the first tournament in which Stewart played all four days in the plus-fours and Hogan cap that would become his signature look. “What I remember about Payne here is him saying ‘I don’t want to look like everybody else – blond, with a visor,’ and that’s where he started wearing the knickers,” remembered D.A. Weibring. “Payne almost got to the point where he looked funny in pants.” For Stewart, the victory was forever memorable because it was the only time his father, Bill, was on hand to see him win as a pro prior to Bill’s untimely death in 1985. Poignantly, Stewart was wearing the Rolex watch he received for the win when he died young himself in a 1999 airplane tragedy. 7. HATS OFF (2017) It was hat’s off to the SMU Mustangs when Bryson DeChambeau capped a six-birdie back nine with a 14-foot putt at 18 and joined the late Payne Stewart among the strong parade of players who notched their initial TOUR win in the Quad Cities. DeChambeau’s trademark Hogan-style cap is worn in homage to Stewart, a fellow SMU alum. The curious and studious Californian knew a great deal about Stewart, but he didn’t know the Hall of Fame Mustang also had earned his maiden win at the 1982 QCO. When so informed, DeChambeau took off his cap, slapped his knee, and became genuinely emotional. “That broke me,” DeChambeau said later. “He’s done some amazing things for the game of golf, and I hope I can do something similar down the road.” DeChambeau was a highly-touted prospect before his rookie season on the PGA TOUR. He won the NCAA Championship and U.S. Amateur in 2015 and won on the Korn Ferry Tour the following year to earn his PGA TOUR card. He was struggling when he arrived at TPC Deere Run, however, ranked 114th in the FedExCup and in danger of losing his card. He had made the cut in just nine of his 24 starts. The Deere changed the course of his career, however, and sent him down that major-winning road, using his unique approach to the game to win seven more times, including the U.S. Open. 8. ZJ’S FIRST WIN (2012) In the history of the TOUR, it’s hard to imagine a sponsor’s exemption that led to a better relationship than the one the John Deere Classic has enjoyed with Zach Johnson. The native Iowan was on the mini-tours when he was granted an exemption in 2002. He was on his way to leading the Korn Ferry Tour in earnings when he received a second in 2003. Johnson hasn’t missed an event at TPC Deere Run since, including in 2007, when he was the reigning Masters champion, and in 2016, when he was a week away from defending his Open Championship win. Johnson has been a player representative on the tournament’s executive committee since 2008 and is the only player on TOUR who has an endorsement deal with Deere & Company. From 2009 through 2017, Johnson scored seven top-five finishes at the Deere. That included three second-place finishes and an epic victory in 2012, when, on the second hole of a sudden-death playoff with Troy Matteson, he found himself in the same fairway bunker from which Stricker had worked his magic a year earlier. Johnson outdid Stricker, lacing a 6-iron from 194 yards to within a foot of the cup for a very popular tap-in victory. 9. GOYDOS GOES LOW (2010) The round Paul Goydos was putting together after teeing off early in the opening round was the talk of TPC Deere Run. The place seemed to hold its collective breath as Goydos stood over a 7-foot putt at 18 to become the fourth TOUR player to shoot 59 in competition. “Did he get it?” Stricker asked a reporter while on his way to the first tee. Goydos did indeed get his 59. Then Stricker tried to follow suit. Needing to hole a 159-yard 8-iron from the 18th fairway for eagle and an improbable share of the first-round lead, Stricker came within 2 ½ feet and settled for 60. Only once to that point had a 59 and 60 been scored in the same year. A decade later, Scottie Scheffler (59) and Dustin Johnson (60) would match that same-day feat in the second round of THE NORTHERN TRUST at TPC Boston. And Jim Furyk’s 58 at the 2016 Travelers Championship at TPC River Highlands would create a new magic number. Still, July 8, 2010, remains a day to remember in Silvis. 10. BEMAN GOES BACK-TO-BACK (1971/1972) In 1971, Deane Beman won the first Quad Cities Open fighting off a 100-degree fever. A year later, he won the second fighting off a future legend. Beman’s closing 4-under 67 was just enough to nip Tom Watson, who posted a 66 just ahead of the defending champion. For the rookie Watson, the near-miss was an early taste of the Sunday heat he’d feel often in his career and he was aided by the “thinking advice” of his playing partner, Lee Trevino. “That was the first time I’d been in contention,” Watson would remember years later, deep into his Hall of Fame career. “That was the first step.” As commissioner years later, Beman would credit the Quad Cities’ volunteers for helping his understanding of the vital importance of volunteer support to achieving his vision for the TOUR. For a QC event that turns 50 this week, Beman’s support from Ponte Vedra proved helpful during some lean and challenging years. Win. Win. Win. Freelance writer Craig DeVrieze is the author of “Magic Happened: Celebrating 50 Years of the John Deere Classic,” available for order here.

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Rory McIlroy will try to get his driver back on track and Dustin Johnson looks to overcome a shaky opening round in Round 2 of The Open.

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What is old is new again as historic Winged Foot Golf Club is hosting the 2020 United States Open. The West Course, located in Mamaroneck, N.Y., will be the challenge for the sixth time in history but the first since 2006 in determining our national champion. Oddly enough it will also decide the first major champion of the 2020-21 season, the first of SIX to be crowned. The Par-70 will stretch to 7,469 yards and provide an unbelievable test of all 14 clubs and especially the six inches between the ears. There will be bogeys and doubles bogeys. There will be three and four putts. As with any big ballpark, those who can give it a knock off the tee will have the advantage. Finding the short grass as frequently as possible will create scoring chances but pars will be excellent this week. As Geoff Ogilvy famously remarked, the only safe place at Winged Foot is in the clubhouse. A.W. Tillinghast made his mark in this part of the county (Bethpage Black) and Winged Foot is considered by many the perfect challenge for determining the finest golfer in all of the land. Designed and opened in the early 1920s, the winners at Winged Foot have included Bobby Jones, Billy Casper, Fuzzy Zoeller, Geoff Ogilvy and the survivor of the “Massacre at Winged Foot” Hale Irwin, who won by posting seven-over, 287. Davis Love III also won the 1997 PGA Championship on this track. The West Course is known for its incredible green complexes and diabolical rough and both of those will be front-and-center this week. Gil Hanse has brought the greens back to their original sizes, adding more pin placements in theory, which won’t favor anyone. The massive complexes of bent and poa will test the 144 players on speed, read and creativity. Running upwards of 13 feet on the Stimpmeter being above the hole or even pin-high in certain spots will create problems. Only one creek pops up and the trees lining the rough will only affect those far enough off the beaten path. Missing large greens won’t come with a reward this week so players who can grind out pars will feel like they’ve made birdies. Accuracy is rewarded both off the tee and into the greens, as it should be. Hanse also removed plenty of trees to help the routing visually. Social media suggested Monday that the notorious rough was getting its last haircut of the week. Yes, Monday. Upwards of five inches in the thickest spots, the graduated cut doesn’t allow the big miss to avoid penalty. Remember, with no galleries this week there won’t be any matted-down areas from foot traffic to provide any relief for the extremely errant strikes from the tee box or attacking the greens. Last year Gary Woodland collected $2.25 million from a $12.5 million purse so that will give gamers an idea of what’s a stake this week. The official prize money, as of Tuesday morning, has not been released yet. The top 60 and ties play the final 36 holes. If there is a playoff required, it will be a two-hole aggregate followed by sudden death. 2006 U.S. Open (entered this week) 2 Phil Mickelson 6 Steve Stricker 12 Ian Poulter 12 Paul Casey 21 Adam Scott 26 Henrik Stenson 32 Scott Hend 37 Charles Howell III 48 Graeme McDowell MC Rory Sabbatini Zach Johnson Lucas Glover Tiger Woods Billy Horschel Matt Kuchar Sergio Garcia Last 10 U.S. Open Winners 2019: Gary Woodland (Pebble Beach) 2018: Brooks Koepka (Shinnecock Hills) 2017: Brooks Koepka (Erin Hills) 2016: Dustin Johnson (Oakmont) 2015: Jordan Spieth (Chambers Bay) 2014: Martin Kaymer (Pinerhurst No. 2) 2013: Justin Rose (Merion) 2012: Webb Simpson (Olympic Club) 2011: Rory McIlroy (Congressional Country Club) 2010: Graeme McDowell (Pebble Beach) 2006 Recap Geoff Ogilvy (+5) The Aussie posted first and watched as those behind him couldn’t make par down the stretch. Getting up and down from everywhere, including his impossible chip-in par at No. 17, Ogilvy holed a five-footer at the last for par to post 72 and five-over. Did not have one round in the 60s. Notables: Phil Mickelson doubled the last to miss the playoff by a shot. Wayward tee shots (two fairways on Sunday, zero on the back nine) put tons of pressure on his short game. … Colin Montgomery, a legend in the ball-striking department, missed the green from No. 18 fairway from 171 yards and made double, missing the playoff by a shot. Montgomery was the only player to post a red number, 69, on Sunday. … Jim Furyk (70) also had six feet to force a Monday playoff but his par putt slide by. … Steve Stricker, another who is more accurate than long, claimed T6. Key stat leaders Top golfers in each statistic on the 2019-2020 PGA TOUR are listed only if they are scheduled to compete this week. Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green (* – previous top 10 at U.S. Open since 2015 or past champion) 1 *Justin Thomas 2 *Hideki Matsuyama 3 *Jon Rahm 4 *Sergio Garcia 5 Collin Morikawa 6 *Rory McIlroy 7 *Xander Schauffele 9 *Dustin Johnson 11 *Tony Finau 12 Patrick Cantlay 13 *Tyrrell Hatton 15 *Daniel Berger 16 Corey Conners 16 *Webb Simpson 18 Harris English 19 Bryson DeChambeau 20 Viktor Hovland 21 Paul Casey 23 Joaquin Niemann 26 *Patrick Reed Strokes Gained: Putting 2 *Matthew Fitzpatrick 5 *Kevin Na 6 *Ian Poulter 6 Matt Kuchar 8 Mackenzie Hughes 10 Bryson DeChambeau 12 *Patrick Reed 13 *Webb Simpson 14 JT Poston 15 Kevin Kisner 17 *Daniel Berger 18 Harris English 20 Brendon Todd 21 Richy Werenski 22 *Jon Rahm 23 Troy Merritt 26 *Tommy Fleetwood Scrambling 1 *Daniel Berger 2 *Xander Schauffele 3 Brendon Todd 4 *Kevin Na 6 Harris English 9 *Brian Harman 10 Abraham Ancer 11 *Jon Rahm 12 *Webb Simpson 16 Kevin Kisner 17 Bryson DeChambeau 19 *Hideki Matsuyama 20 Alex Noren 21 *Patrick Reed 23 Lanto Griffin 25 *Justin Thomas 26 Brandt Snedeker 28 *Jason Day 29 Carlos Ortiz Most US Open Appearances (thru 2019) Phil Mickelson (28) Steve Stricker (21) Tiger Woods (21) Sergio Garcia (20) Adam Scott (18) Lee Westwood (18) Matt Kuchar (17) Paul Casey (16) Zach Johnson (16) Major Champions in the field Tiger Woods (15) Phil Mickelson (5) Rory McIlroy (4) Jordan Spieth (3) Zach Johnson (2) Martin Kaymer (2) Bubba Watson (2) Collin Morikawa Shane Lowry Gary Woodland Patrick Reed Justin Thomas Sergio Garcia Henrik Stenson Dustin Johnson Jimmy Walker Danny Willett Jason Day Justin Rose Adam Scott Webb Simpson Keegan Bradley Louis Oosthuizen Graeme McDowell Lucas Glover

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