Leaderboard: Justin Thomas wins the Players

Overnight leader, Australia’s Lucas Herbert, opened up a two-shot lead at the halfway stage of the Irish Open on Friday.

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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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Any club pro teeing it up in his first PGA TOUR event, as Brian Morris will do at the Butterfield Bermuda Championship starting Thursday, would likely admit to being quite nervous. Not Morris, though. Sure, he’ll feel what he calls “competitive butterflies,” but he only gets truly nervous when he goes to see his doctors at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston every three months. Almost two years ago, those physicians cut into the back of his skull and removed a malignant tumor from his brain. They later discovered stage IV cancer in his stomach and esophagus, too, and, at his most recent check-up, inoperable tumors in his neck. By all rights, this inspirational and indomitable man probably shouldn’t be living out a dream this week at Port Royal Golf Course. But he is, and Morris’ very presence in the field should teach the rest of us about not taking our own lives for granted. “I used to be terrible with nerves,” Morris says. “But since I got diagnosed with cancer, it’s like hitting a tee shot don’t really – like I embrace it now because I’m able to do it and I probably shouldn’t be because according to the doctors and how my cancer was growing and stuff. “I’ve been past my expiration date, you know?” It was after suffering vertigo-like symptoms at work that Morris, the 53-year-old head pro at Ocean View Golf Course in Devonshire, Bermuda, began to look for answers. Expecting nothing was seriously wrong, he asked a co-worker to drop him at the hospital and come back later. “The doctor, you know, he does that finger across your eyes, and you follow the finger,” Morris recalls. “One of my eyes was moving. One of my eyes was, he said it was like a jittery type of like jerking. And he was like, oh, boy. “So, he gave me a CAT scan,” Morris continues. “We went from CAT scan to an MRI to intensive care to air ambulance to brain surgery on Monday.” There was no time to wait; the cancer had to come out immediately. Morris’ wife, Laurie, was told to pack a carry-on bag, and within 24 hours the couple arrived at Boston’s Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. True to his optimistic nature, Morris puts a positive spin on the conversation he had with his doctor before surgery. “(He said) ‘Don’t forget, I’m in your brain,’” Morris recalls. “‘You know, I’m taking the tumor out, but anything could happen.’ It could be paralysis. It could be this. It could be death. And I was blinking like uncontrollably. And he said, ‘Are you OK?’ And I say, ‘Yep, I’m fine. I’m just practicing waking up. That’s what I want to do.’” Morris admits he was terrified. He remembers kissing his wife and wondering what was going to happen next. “Like, do you wake up?” he says. “I was so pleased when I woke up. I can’t remember who my nurse was, but I told her I loved her. She was like, ‘Oh my God, that’s kind of forward.’” Morris had cleared one hurdle, but on Dec. 23, 2019, two days after the surgery, he was told his brain cancer was terminal and had metastasized to his stomach and esophagus. Fast-forward to today, with Morris about to play in the Butterfield Bermuda Championship on a sponsor’s exemption – the invitation brought him to tears when he received it – and you can see why he believes he’ll be playing with a purpose. Not just this week but going forward. After all, it’s been two years since doctors told him to get his affairs in order. He and Laurie talk about this week and the gift of whatever time he has remaining when they feel stressed. “I’m wondering like maybe I have this to help others,” Morris says. “Maybe that’s the plan, you know? … Maybe I got it to show other people that, hey, you can fight this, man. You could battle it because I could’ve laid down. I could’ve settled my affairs and just accepted that, hey, I’m going to die in six months. I believe my doctors 100 percent, but I don’t believe that. Here I am. Every day I get up, I’m so thankful. “And here I am,” he continues. “Every day I get up, I’m so thankful. I get my breath and I just don’t plan long-term. I plan my life in like three-month increments.” Morris stayed in the hospital for four days and, not cleared to travel, Boston for two weeks. He missed Christmas with his family. “Christmas is huge for us,” he says. But he was surprised on New Year’s Eve when nine relatives and friends knocked on his door. “They showed up with all the kids and whatnot,” he recalls. “… And we spent New Year’s Eve in Boston. I cried again.” For nearly two years, he has undergone chemotherapy every three weeks – his most recent treatment was last Friday. The first course of chemo didn’t work, nor did the immunotherapy that was meant to direct his cells to fight the cancer. He’s currently receiving an experimental drug that he calls his “last shot” and will find out at Dana-Farber in December if it’s working. The drugs invading his system leave boil-like lesions on his legs. Even more challenging for the golfer is the neuropathy he’d developed in his hands and feet. It’s a constant feeling of pain, like he’s being stuck with pins and needles, and it limits his ability to walk long distances. The neuropathy and the cancer have taken a toll, and tournament officials will allow Morris to ride in a cart this week. But make no mistake, he can play. Morris attempted to qualify for this year’s U.S. Senior Open and tied for 12th in a New England PGA event last month. “When I go to the airport, I have a hard time standing up for a half an hour,” he says. “But I could play golf for four hours and I swear it’s because of where I am when I’m playing. I’m just thinking of how you make this shot and that shot. You know what I mean? So, I don’t realize I’m tired until I play 18. And then I’m like pooped and I come home and take a nap.” Morris, who has given lessons to celebrities like the late Patrick Swayze, Catherine Zeta Jones and Michael Douglas, played cricket, soccer and golf as a kid. He proved a quick learner in all three, but particularly enjoyed going with his dad to the golf course on Sundays. “I used to love the way they dressed back in the day in like green pants and red pants and diamond studders and pom-poms on the hat,” says Morris, who especially revered Fred Couples. “And I was always waiting to be able to play with them.” He got that opportunity when he was 12 and soon began thinking about becoming a pro. But his father died in an accident when he was 19, and Morris was so distraught he briefly quit. “I went to one of the cliffs here in Bermuda and I threw all my golf clubs and all my shoes and everything off the cliff,” he says. “I was disgusted with golf because it didn’t mean anything to me without my dad. I never wanted to play again.” Morris’ mom died of cancer later that year, adding to his despair. He worked as a bartender to help support his siblings and didn’t play golf again for nearly a decade. “One day somebody invited me to go play golf and I didn’t want to go, but I did,” he says. “I made triple on the first hole. I’ll never forget it. And then the second hole, I missed the green and I was like, ‘This game sucks, I told you guys.’ And I chipped it in (for birdie).” After enrolling in the now-closed Golf Academy of the South in Orlando, Florida, he honed his game and learned to teach. He also learned to repair clubs and manage a pro shop. He graduated with honors in 2003 and has been the head pro at two clubs in Bermuda. “I got sidetracked,” he admits. “I don’t like to use the word regret. You know what I mean? I made a fair decision that day, throwing all my golf clubs away. I wish I would have stayed. But it happens. I was young. I was only a teenager and life just changed so fast for me. “But I got through that and 10 years I was out of golf. I was probably better for it because maybe had I got into that business then it probably wouldn’t have worked out. Maybe I just needed time to mature and whatnot. And like I said, it’s been 25 years now. I love it.” Far from obsessed with his own problems, Morris has raised more than $200,000 to help the families of other cancer patients pay their hospital bills. How? By three times playing 180 holes in a 24-hour marathon, a sprint that lets him briefly forget that he himself has terminal cancer. “You have so much alone time,” he says, “and you don’t realize it when you’re driving, when you’re brushing your teeth, using the bathroom, getting in the shower – you have so much alone time and you’re so scared, man, because you know, like, you’ve got a wife, you’ve got kids. You’re always worried about leaving them. “And so, you think about it every day,” he continues. “When they tell you that you’re dying, you think about dying every day, you know? Not the bad things really, it’s just the thought of like leaving your family, leaving the people at your job, and leaving your kids. So yeah, you think about it, but when I play golf, I don’t have time to, because I don’t want to miss a six-footer.” Morris says he’s had more good days than bad of late, and he thinks the adrenaline and excitement of this week will help keep him strong. His only goal is to shoot the lowest score he can at Port Royal on Thursday and make Bermudians proud. When tournament director Justin Belanger extended the exemption to Morris two weeks ago, he told local newspapers that the week would be about “more than golf; it’s about this community. … “It will be great to see the island join us in supporting his dream and cheering him on.” Morris embraces that opportunity. He’s looking forward to having Laurie and three of his four kids – his daughter will be watching on TV at her home in England – as well as aunts, uncles and friends in his gallery. “It makes a difference to me how I play,” he says. “But to them, it doesn’t matter. They just want to see me because they know what I’m going through. As far as being proud of me, all those boxes are checked. I just want them to enjoy the moment like I do. “We have a lot to be thankful for outside of the bad things. There’s so much to life without dwelling on the bad stuff, you know?” Morris says it’s hard to overestimate the impact this week has had on his mental well-being, as well as his overall health. He says he plans to “experience it like nobody else,” and “eat it up, man” – but not just for himself. The week is also for the entire island, and all cancer survivors. “I’m going to enjoy people cheering for me,” he says. “I’m going to enjoy people writing about me. And I just hope that (this) story and whatnot gets out there to people that have cancer or have a sickness that think that it’s all doom and gloom, because it’s not. “I believe that a positive attitude and a positive outlook is probably better than any miracle drug,” he adds. “And if you could look at somebody and maybe draw some inspiration from them to get you motivated, then I’ve done my job and I don’t believe in just touching one person. I want to touch as many as I can.”

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