Protests expected as Senior PGA tees off at Trump National

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

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Two weeks ago, Cameron Champ looked like a player set to miss the FedExCup Playoffs due to his form in 2021. But he reminded us of all of his raw talent as he defied some terrible form to produce four days of beautiful golf at TPC Twin Cities where he claimed his third PGA TOUR win. RELATED: Final leaderboard | What’s in Champ’s bag? Here are five stories you may have missed from the 3M Open. 1. Form be damned, Champ knows how to win. Cameron Champ came to TPC Twin Cities at 142nd in the FedExCup standings and without a top-10 finish since last October at the ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP @ SHERWOOD. He ranked 206th on the PGA TOUR in Strokes Gained: Putting, 199th in Strokes Gained: Around the Green and 162nd in Strokes Gained: Approach the Green. Even a T11 finish in his last start at the John Deere Classic wasn’t enough for people to seriously consider Champ as one to watch at the 3M Open. But riding an incredible +8.480 in Strokes Gained: Putting at TPC Twin Cities, Champ overcame Cameron Tringale’s 54-hole lead, and bettered sentimental favorite Louis Oosthuizen with a bogey-free 5-under 66 on Sunday to win. It’s his third TOUR win in 76 starts, seeing him join Collin Morikawa, Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau as players 27 or younger (he’s 26) to win in each of the last three seasons. He’s now 49th in the FedExCup standings and can count on a Playoff berth. Get the full lowdown on the victory here. 2. Louis Oosthuizen’s runner-up list is getting near comical. The South African set the clubhouse lead on Sunday only to see Champ better him by two shots, relegating Oosthuizen to a fifth top-3 finish in his last seven starts on the PGA TOUR. Unlike The Open, where Oosthuizen couldn’t get it going Sunday, he pushed hard to the end, making three birdies in the final four holes. Since losing in a playoff at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, Oosthuizen has finished T8 (Valspar Championship), T2 (PGA Championship), T18 (the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide), 2nd (U.S. Open), T3 (The Open Championship), and T2 (3M Open). It means four of his 12 career TOUR runner-up finishes have come during this stretch. Incredibly, Oosthuizen now sits sixth in the FedExCup without a victory. “I was happy to play this week. I sort of didn’t really want to just think about last week, about not playing great on that Sunday and immediately quickly go back into tournament mode and then play this tournament,” Oosthuizen said. “We had a good time here this week and I’m just trying to see if I can go one better than all these seconds and thirds.” 3. Vegas and Pereira head to Tokyo in nice form. Jhonattan Vegas will head to the Olympic Games fresh off a third career runner-up result on the PGA TOUR – funny enough they’ve all come this season. The Venezuelan was also second at the Puerto Rico Open and the Palmetto Championship at Congaree. “I had a dream start making three birdies in five holes, kind of got slowed down a little bit through the middle of the round, couldn’t really buy a putt,” Vegas said. “Gave myself a little bit of a chance at the end. But solid week, that’s all you want. You want to play good under pressure and feel like I did that. “(Tokyo), it’s super exciting. Like I’ve said before, we don’t really get to play for our countries that often and every chance you get a chance it means a lot, especially being Venezuelan. “Venezuela’s been going through extremely rough times lately. To be able to represent it and hopefully give the country a medal would be a dream come true.” Chile’s Mito Pereira is also ready to hold his own with teammate Joaquin Niemann in Japan after a second consecutive top-10 finish on TOUR. Pereira was T5 at the Barbasol Championship last week and T6 this week. 4. Cameron Tringale’s scars continue but they could help in future. The 54-hole leader is now 307 events into his TOUR career and has yet to win. But experience builds with every missed opportunity. This time around birdies on the 11th and 12th holes saw his 1-over front nine a forgotten annoyance as he pulled within one of the lead. But then a mental lapse of epic proportions proved costly. Tringale came up short in a bunker on the par-3 13th only to fail to hit the green from there. A third shot jumped a little but still left 15 feet for bogey. Inexplicably, Tringale three-putted from there for a triple bogey and the end of his challenge. He’d talked about having “tons of upside” and playing with “freedom” after the third round but he stiffened up Sunday and lost over 3.5 strokes to the field in putting. Still – he sits 39th in the FedExCup now and could yet have the last laugh if he can harness the lessons learned. 5. Horses for Courses to remember. Charl Schwartzel posted his second top-three finish in as many starts at the 3M Open (T3, 2020; T2, 2021) and he wasn’t alone showing a little course form to remember about next season when doing your fantasy picks. Fellow former International Team Presidents Cup player Adam Hadwin now also has top-10 finishes in both starts at the 3M Open (4th, 2019; T6, 2021). Schwartzel moved to 43rd in the FedExCup as the Playoffs approach and Hadwin made a very timely move from 120th to 107th to try to lock in his place in the post-season. On the other side of the coin, past 3M Open champions Matthew Wolff and Michael Thompson both settled at a tie for 39th this time around with Thompson still under pressure to find a Playoff spot now sitting 132nd in the points standings. Ryan Armour (117th) and Gary Woodland (119th) both played their way inside the Playoff zone. COMCAST BUSINESS TOUR TOP 10 The Comcast Business TOUR TOP 10 highlights and rewards the extraordinary level of play required to earn a spot in the TOP 10 at the conclusion of the FedExCup regular season. The competition will conclude prior to the FedExCup PLAYOFFS where the top 10 FedExCup points leaders will be recognized and awarded as the most elite in golf. Week after week, shot after shot, each event matters more than ever before. Who will finish in the Comcast Business TOUR TOP 10? Click here to follow the weekly action.

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FORT WORTH, Texas – It was Sunday afternoon, and Tony Finau was not happy. He had just ended a disappointing PGA Championship with a 9-over 79, tying the worst score in a single round in his PGA TOUR career. His T-64 finish was also surprising, given that he had top-10 results in four of the five previous majors. The critical issue was on the greens. Finau was frustrated with his putting at Bethpage Black, where he ranked 125th in Strokes Gained: Putting. It was the breaking point of a recent stretch of poor putting, and so Finau decided that night to make a seemingly drastic change. “I needed to switch something,� he said. Enter the claw grip. On Thursday, three holes into his opening round of the Charles Schwab Challenge, Finau stood over a birdie putt just under 20 feet. It was the start of Colonial’s Horrible Horseshoe, the three-hole stretch (Nos. 3, 4 and 5) that is among the toughest on TOUR. Finau drilled the putt. At the par-4 seventh, he rolled in a 19-footer. Then on consecutive holes after the turn, he made birdie from 24-1/2 feet (at the 12th) and 27 feet (at the 13th). Then, just for good measure, he saved par at the par-3 16th with a 20-foot putt from the fringe after a poor chip from the other side of the green. In all, he made just under 138 feet of putts with his flatstick Thursday, which explains why he shot a 6-under 64 to grab the early lead. Suffice to say, the change to the claw paid immediate dividends. “It’s something that I’ve kind of been thinking,� said Finau, who entered this week ranked T-100 in Strokes Gained: Putting this season. “It’s an itch I wanted to scratch … To me, it was just perfect time. … If I feel like something is better, I’m not afraid to change, no matter the results.� In truth, the move to the claw may not be as dramatic as it seemed. Finau said he often has practiced with the claw in order to make sure his left hand is in the proper position. “I’m left-hand dominant when I roll the stick,� he explained. “I used to putt cross-handed for about five years. Been putting conventionally now for a couple years. “But I just wanted to switch it up. I haven’t been putting great … Standing over the ball, the most important thing is, do you feel like you’re going to make the putt or not? Outside of everything else, do you believe you can make the putt? … “I wanted to try something difference, and it felt great out there today.� A tight shot-maker’s course like Colonial can sometimes be frustrating for bombers, but Finau was not about to dial back one of his most lethal clubs. He said he stayed with driver off most tees, hitting iron just once and 4-wood another time. Although he found just as many fairway bunkers as he did fairways (three of each), most of his misses were in the short cut. Left with some good lies, he hit 16 of 18 greens – and then took advantage with his putter. Of course, the question now is whether the claw grip will continue to work for him this week. If nothing else, his outlook is much brighter than it was a few days ago.

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