Moore withdraws from U.S. Open for shoulder

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Catching Up Is Hard to Do The second round of the John Deere Classic resumed at 6:38 a.m. CT on Saturday. Eighty-two golfers survived the 36-hole cut, thus triggering the 54-hole cut of low 70 and ties. With 2.3 inches of rain overnight, the local rule for preferred lies on closely mown areas was in play for the third round and threesomes were sent off split tees. Inclement weather then suspended the third round at 10:38 a.m. After another 0.8 inches of rain fell, play resumed at 1:11 p.m. Continuous play lasted until 5:53 p.m. when inclement weather halted action for the third time in just over 24 hours. Forty-five golfers were stranded until 7:12 p.m., but all finished the third round before dark. Following the Leader After building a three-shot lead at the midpoint, Michael Kim expanded his cushion to five strokes with a third-round 64. He concluded it with four consecutive birdies, all after the second weather delay, to post 22-under 191. With a 66 or lower in the final round, he’ll beat Steve Stricker’s tournament record of 258 in 2010. It’s no wonder why Kim is poised to enter the record books at a tournament that began in 1972. He’s putting up historical numbers. Through 54 holes, he co-leads the field in fairways hit (35 of 42) and leads in both greens in regulation (47) and proximity to the hole (24 feet, six inches). If the aerial assault wasn’t enough punishment on the par 71, he also ranks second in both strokes gained: putting and one-putt percentage. It’s video-game golf on beginner mode. Something will give on Sunday, however. Of 203 qualified for official statistics, Kim ranks 195th in final-round scoring average of 73.14. Hurl into the equation that he’s 161st in the FedExCup standings with only five more weeks before the Playoffs and that he’s not yet exempt for next season, and that five-stroke margin is more valuable than it appears. What a -Goon Maybe that whole thing about the third time being the charm is the real deal. After a T6 at the Quicken Loans National and T30 at Greenbrier (where he entered the final round inside the top 10), Bronson Burgoon stands alone in second place at TPC Deere Run tonight. He walked off his third round with three straight birdies and leads the field in par-5 scoring at bogey-free 9-under with three eagles and three birdies. Moving Day Tyler Duncan is capturing our attention once again. After making the cut by two strokes (for his 10th consecutive payday), the PGA TOUR rookie carded an 8-under 63, best in the field in the third round and a personal-best aggregate of 82 scores. With it, he vaulted 34 spots on the leaderboard and into a share of 12th place entering Sunday’s finale. With 5-under 66s, Patton Kizzire and C.T. Pan rose 31 spots. Both are tied for 34th place. It was a long time coming for the two-time TOUR winner this season as Kizzire hadn’t signed for lower than a 68 since the fourth round of the World Golf Championships-Mexico Championship (66). This proves why TPC Deere Run is a track where a touring professional can find his form. Moving Day: Wrong Way Ryan Blaum and non-member Dylan Meyer started the third round inside the top 25, but both shot 1-over 72 to plummet 31 places on the leaderboard before landed at T55. Meyer presented promise entering the tournament with top-20 finishes at the U.S. Open and Quicken Loans National. With his equivalent of 92 FedExCup points, he’d rank 184th among members, so he’s all but a lock to qualify for the Web.com Tour Finals if he doesn’t earn a 2018-19 PGA TOUR card sooner. First-round leader Steve Wheatcroft settled for an even-par 71 in the third round to post 12-under 201. It’s a smack in the face after starting it tied for second and only three swings adrift of Kim. The 54-hole cut snipped 11 who failed to finish inside the low 70 and ties the second time through this week. Notables among this grouping include Chesson Hadley, Bill Haas, Ryan Palmer and Andrew Putnam. First Impression Of the 11 golfers inside the top 10 on the leaderboard, only Matt Jones (3rd), Andres Romero (T5), Robert Garrigus (T7) and Johnson Wagner (T7) are PGA TOUR winners. Kim still has complete 18 holes to break through for his first victory, but with his comfortable overnight lead and the bevy of non-winners in pursuit, the odds are good that the tournament will crown its fourth first time winner since Jordan Spieth emerged from a three-man playoff in 2013. Brian Harman (2014) and Bryson DeChambeau (2017) also converted. Know Thy Enemy These were the top-10 most owned in PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf presented by SERVPRO. Congratulations, but … Because the Official World Golf Ranking’s strength-of-field [SOF] rating of the John Deere Classic is only 99, the winner will not receive an exemption into the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational. Winners of tournaments with a SOF rating of 115 and greater are awarded a spot in the field at Firestone, including this week’s Scottish Open (312), so the champion in the Quad Cities will have to punch his ticket another way. Seven golfers already exempt into the WGC competed at the JDC. Through 54 holes, tournament debutant Francesco Molinari is positioned at T12, fellow first-timer Austin Cook is T30, Patton Kizzire sits T34 and Andrew Landry is T39. Defending champion Bryson DeChambeau withdrew during his opening round, while both Si Woo Kim and Aaron Wise missed the 36-hole cut. Study Hall The third-round scoring average of 68.99 is the lowest at TPC Deere Run since last year’s 68.19, also in the third round. … There were eight bogey-free scores in the third round to bring the tournament total to 26. … Harold Varner III, who has one of those bogey-free scores (second-round 65), continued his red-hot form with a 66 in the third round. He’s alone in fourth place at 15-under 198 after a career-best-tying T5 last week. … Local favorite Zach Johnson jumped 26 spots to T39 with a 67. … Three-time JDC champ and all-time tournament earnings leader Steve Stricker dropped 25 spots to T49 with a 71. The 51-year-old was the only qualifier at the Constellation SENIOR PLAYERS Championship inside the top 50 of the Charles Schwab Cup standings who didn’t commit to the fourth major of the season on the PGA TOUR Champions.

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MCKINNEY, Texas — Jordan Spieth woke up Friday at 4:30 a.m. He felt tight on the range at the AT&T Byron Nelson. He bogeyed his first hole. Spieth found little to like early in the second round, starting his morning slowly on the back nine and playing holes 10 through 13 at TPC Craig Ranch at 1 over. “Losing a couple to the field there got me a little frustrated,” he said. “If you kind of tap the brakes a little when the scores are going to be low you feel like you have to play catchup.” Except that didn’t happen either. Spieth made just three birdies Friday. He lost his share of the lead and finished with a 2-under 70, three behind K.H. Lee. There was little wind when he and longtime friends Scottie Scheffler and Will Zalatoris started play. Spieth hoped for a score around 5 under. That, the Dallas native and resident thought, would keep him at the top of the leaderboard for the weekend at the tournament where he made his first PGA TOUR start when he was 16 years old. But after a birdie on his fifth hole, Spieth stalled. He fought with his patience as he made par after par after par. The putter didn’t cooperate, either. The longest putt he holed was from 11 feet 2 inches on No. 1, his 10th hole. It was for par. “I just had plenty of looks,” Spieth said. “I didn’t make many putts at all today.” It was nothing like Thursday, when he made seven birdies and an exhilarating eagle on the par-5 18th. A substantial share of the 12,500 spectators on the course committed to following the group of three old rivals from the North Texas PGA section junior tour, many of them cheering robustly when Spieth made another putt or saved another stroke or tested the odds, as he did in spectacular fashion on No. 12. After a blocked drive finished in a patch of mud behind a clump of crabgrass, Spieth and his caddie discussed their many options. His ball sat about 245 yards from the hole at the reachable par-5, but tree limbs dangled to his right, forcing him to shape a shot just so to clear a creek that runs through the property. A prudent punch seemed the logical play. But Spieth never wavered. He slammed a soaring hybrid to 10 feet from the hole. The galleries howled, and Spieth seemed invincible. Even that pure joy of playing seemed elusive Friday, he said. “I think yesterday, even when I wasn’t playing a good hole, I was kind of laughing at the miss or chunked it and laughed,” he said. “Today I had a shorter fuse.” After two consecutive birdies Thursday to go to minus 7, Spieth drove short of the green on the par-4 14th. He hit his pitch too heavy and scrambled for par, but chuckled at the mistake. On the tee of the 15th, a long par-3 over water, Spieth thinned his iron and begged for it to find the ground. When it did, he leaned on his club and smiled. That Jordan Spieth never quite made it to the course the next day. The Spieth who did wasn’t nearly as loose, sharp or forgiving. “I’ll just get some better rest tonight and then, like I said tomorrow, will be kind of a fun test,” he said. “There is no reason for me not to trust everything I’m doing. At this point, I’ve got an opportunity to contend here, and if I can get myself a chance on Sunday, that is the best prep for this tournament and also next week.”

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