PGA featured holes: John Deere Classic

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IRVING, Texas – It was not the kind of send-off Jordan Spieth had in mind for his last PGA TOUR appearance at TPC Four Seasons Las Colinas. For the first time in his seven starts in his hometown event, Spieth missed the cut at the AT&T Byron Nelson. Friday’s second round 75 – which included a quadruple-bogey 9 at the 16th hole when he took two penalty strokes – left him at 3 over, one stroke off the cut line. “It didn’t need to happen,â€� Spieth said. “… Pretty disappointed at this point in time.â€� Starting next year, the tournament will move to Trinity Forest, a new links-style course south of downtown Dallas. Spieth is a member at the course and looking forward to the reboot. While TPC Four Seasons is a course Spieth never solved, he still has a fondness for it. His foundation hosts an annual event here. He attended the tournament during his childhood. And in 2010, he burst onto the scene at age 16, making his first TOUR start here and finishing tied for 16th. Earlier this week, he called TPC Four Seasons a “very special placeâ€� and said this year’s last call was “bittersweet.â€� That’s why he was pressing in hopes of making a big move Friday after his opening 68. His aggressiveness backfired on him, as he made five bogeys in his first 12 holes. “Just ridiculous out here,â€� he said. “… So, so many over-par holes and not necessary. Trying to do too much. Trying to move up the leaderboard instead of just letting it come to me on this course.â€� Even so, he balanced that with four birdies and was still safely inside the cut line with three holes to play. That’s when he reached the par-5 16th. Hoping to reach the green in two, he pressed on the accelerator. His first tee shot sailed right. He then hit a provisional tee shot. He ended up losing both shots into the residential area. “I’ve hit in those houses before, I think, a couple of times,â€� Spieth said. “… The wind flipped from being straight in to quartering off the left and I didn’t adjust. That made the difference obviously being out of play.â€� Finally on his third tee shot – now his fifth stroke — he found the primary rough. Two more shots left him pin high but on the edge of the green. He two putted from 52 feet for the quad. “It didn’t need to happen,â€� Spieth said. “… Just kind of a fluke couple shots.â€� Now outside the cut line, Spieth needed a birdie in one of his last two holes. But he missed a 14-1/2 foot birdie putt at the par-3 17th, then a 13-footer on the final hole. The 75 is more than eight strokes higher than his second-round scoring average here. The primary frustration for Spieth now is his play on the greens. His putting just isn’t where he wants it to be. He changed putters entering this tournament, going from a blade to a mallet putter that he’s used a couple of times previously, including the 2014 Open Championship. In addition, he and coach Cameron McCormick have spent extensive time on the practice green lately. Thus far the work has yet to pay off. Of the 156 players in the field, Spieth ranked 118th in Strokes Gained: Putting the first two rounds. On Friday, he ranked 137th in that category, losing nearly 2.2 strokes to the field. “Just got to figure out my putting and getting through the ball,â€� Spieth said. “I’m standing over it and I don’t feel like I’ve got a stroke that’s producing contact at the right time. … “I put in plenty of work. It’s kind of a thing in my head. I got to get a couple to go in.â€� Instead of playing in front of his adoring fans the next two days, Spieth will work on his game privately. The good news is that next week’s tournament across the Metroplex is on a course that’s been good to him. Spieth won last year at Colonial and will be a favorite again next Thursday when the DEAN & DELUCA Invitational cranks up. “I’ll put in some work this weekend and get over there early and put the right prep in to get ready,â€� Spieth said. No doubt the best way to ease the pain of his abrupt departure at TPC Four Seasons is to say hello to Colonial as quickly as possible.

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GREENSBORO, N.C. — Byeong Hun An shot a 5-under 65 on Friday in the Wyndham Championship to take a one-stroke lead into the weekend. An was at 13-under 127 halfway through the PGA TOUR’s final event before the FedExCup Playoffs. Brice Garnett was a stroke back after a 64, and six players — including 2011 Wyndham winner Webb Simpson and first-round co-leader Sungjae Im — were at 9 under. Adam Svensson also was in that group after shooting the best round of the day — a 61 — and threatening to become the first player on TOUR this year to break 60. An, who shared the first-round lead with Im at 8 under, made his move up the leaderboard with three straight birdies late in his round. Finishing on the back nine, the 27-year-old South Korean who’s winless on TOUR had birdies on Nos. 3-5 and closed his second consecutive bogey-free round with four straight pars. “I came close last couple years and, you know, maybe this week might do it,” An said about that long-awaited first victory. “But still have two more days and there are a lot of players behind me. … Just do what I’ve been doing the last couple days and just hit a lot of fairways and greens and make some putts. If someone plays better than me, then he deserves to win it, but as long as I keep these bogey-free rounds going.” For a while, the story of the day was whether Svensson would become the 11th player in PGA TOUR history to break 60 — and the first since Brandt Snedeker opened this tournament last year by shooting a 59 on his way to a victory. Svensson birdied seven holes on the front nine and added two more on Nos. 12-13 to move to 9 under for the day. “I was kind of like, all right, I’m 9 under par (after No. 13) and there’s still four or five holes and a par 5,” Svensson said. “I was actually pretty calm. I thought I would be a little more nervous than I was.” His best chance to go even lower came on No. 15 but he missed a 7-foot birdie putt. Still, the 25-year-old Canadian who is winless on TOUR, had his second 61 this year. He also had one in the first round of the Sony Open in Hawaii. He started at No. 171 on the FedExCup points list but put himself in position to crack the top 125 and earn a spot in the field at the Playoff opener, THE NORTHERN TRUST, next week in New Jersey. That chase for playoff berths is a key subplot every year at Sedgefield, home of the bubble players’ last chance to make the postseason field and earn their TOUR cards for 2020, if they don’t already have them. Everyone from No. 103 to No. 137 is here, and in the Wyndham’s dozen years as the final pre-Playoff event, an average of 2.7 players have played their way into the postseason. Garnett, who at No. 121 is the very definition of a bubble player, put himself in good shape by opening the tournament with consecutive 64s, closing the second one with birdies on three of his final five holes. The pack of seven players two strokes back included two others on the Playoff bubble: Patton Kizzire, a two-time winner last year who is at No. 129 on the points list, shot a 64 that included consecutive eagles on Nos. 5 and 6. And Josh Teater, at No. 165, kept himself in contention with a 65 highlighted by five birdies — and a bogey — in a seven-hole stretch. The other storyline is the top players’ pursuit of spots in the top 10 and the Wyndham Rewards bonus money that accompanies those finishes. Nine players started this tournament with a shot at some of that cash, and at the midpoint, two of them — Simpson and Paul Casey — are in position to claim it. “I’ve got a really good plan for this golf course, a really good strategy, and … as long as we don’t get too much crazy weather coming in, going to try to execute that plan as I did the last two days,” Casey said. “Hopefully, get the speed of the putts a little bit better and make a few more birdies, and then try and figure out what everybody else is doing and attack on the last nine if I need to and try and win this thing.”

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