Spieth gives himself a chance heading into the weekend

SILVIS, Ill. — J.T. Poston took a four-stroke lead into the weekend in the PGA TOUR’s John Deere Classic, following an opening 9-under 62 with a 65 on Friday at TPC Deere Run. Coming off a second-place tie last week in Connecticut after also opening with a 62, Poston got to 15 under with a birdie on the par-4 13th and parred the final six holes in the afternoon round. “I feel great,” Poston said. “My last few rounds out here have been great going back into last week, so just going to try and keep riding that momentum and doing what I’m doing. Don’t change anything and just kind of take the good looks when they come. And when I don’t have a good number or don’t feel good over it, just be smart about it.” Poston was a stroke off the tournament 36-hole record set by Steve Stricker in his 2010 victory. Denny McCarthy was second at 11 under after a 65, also playing in the afternoon after rain delayed play in the morning. Christopher Gotterup, the former Rutgers player in the field on a sponsor exemption, had a 67 to match Matthias Schwab (65), Emiliano Grillo (64) and Chris Naegel (66) at 10 under. “It was an interesting day,” Gotterup said. “Definitely a bit of an up-and-down day compared to yesterday, where I was kind of more on cruise control.” Poston won the 2019 Wyndham Championship for his lone PGA TOUR title. Last week in the Travelers Championship, he followed the opening 62 with rounds of 70, 67 and 64 to finish two strokes behind Xander Schauffele. “Last week, the one thing I think I learned after playing well Thursday was to try and keep the pedal down,” Poston said. “I think this golf course may yield a few more birdies than last week, but at the same time, you got to go out there and hit some golf shots to stay aggressive. I was able to do that, which is nice.” Iowa native Zach Johnson, the 2012 winner, was 4 under after opening 69-69 in his 20th consecutive start in the event. “Today was much more manageable and gettable,” Johnson said. “Yesterday, I putted better probably as a whole.” Defending champion Lucas Glover missed the cut by a stroke, shooting 74-66.

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ATLANTA – Money, in certain situations, does matter to the world’s top golfers. When Justin Thomas is at home, playing a game with one of his friends, and $200 is riding on the final putt, well … “That makes me nervous,â€� JT said, “when you have to physically give the money over and you lose to somebody.â€� Or when your mother points out how much money you lost with a double bogey. In 2014, Thomas – then a member on the Korn Ferry Tour — played the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide on a sponsor’s exemption. He doubled the 72nd hole, going from a top-20 finish to T-37. “That cost me,â€� JT told himself at the time. Related: How it works: TOUR Championship | Expert Picks | Tiger: ‘All hell broke loose’ last year The next day, his mother sent him a text, telling him exactly how much it cost him: $42,000. JT’s response? Mom, if you ever send me a text like that again, I will delete your number. Don’t ever text me something like this. JT laughed as he told the story Wednesday while answering questions about the amount of money he and his 29 peers will be playing for this week at the TOUR Championship. It’s slightly more than $200, slightly more than $42,000. To be exact, Sunday’s winner gets the $15 million bonus that goes with the FedExCup trophy. It’s a 50% bump over the previous FedExCup winner’s bonus, and it’s the biggest prize on the PGA TOUR. It’s also among the biggest single-week prizes in sports. Forbes’ annual list of the world’s highest-paid athletes is usually populated by those playing team sports, so their money is spread out over the course of a season. Boxers generally receive the highest single-day paydays; Floyd Mayweather made $275 million for his fight against Conor McGregor, albeit with a guaranteed $100 million before throwing a single punch. This week’s total purse at East Lake is $60 million, so even last place in the 30-man field this week will get $395,000. “Being a player from yesteryear, this is an ungodly amount of money,â€� noted NBC golf analyst Roger Maltbie, who made $2.2 million during his five-win PGA TOUR career. But that’s the way all sports have evolved, and golf – to some degree – still is playing catch-up. Even with the increase in money, the top golfers aren’t yet at the annual levels stars in other sports are making. “If you turn on SportsCenter, you turn on any other shows, you’re looking at football players and baseball players, basketball getting $150 million over four years. So it’s front and center over there, and it’s guaranteed,â€� said Rory McIlroy, the 2016 FedExCup champ. “This isn’t guaranteed for us. You’ve got to play to earn it, so this is a little different. But at the same time, I think it does bring us in line with the other sports.â€� But McIlroy would rather talk legacy, not dollars and cents, when it comes to the FedExCup, now in its 13th year. The FedExCup is a unique honor in that it rewards a combination of regular-season wins and consistency, followed by the three-tournament Playoffs sprint to the title. Money can be spent, but his name on the silver trophy will never disappear. “If the FedExCup wants to create a legacy that lasts longer, it doesn’t need to be about the money,â€� McIlroy said. “It should be about the prestige of winning an event that you’ll be remembered for. … “For me and my competitive spirit, I want to win the FedExCup for a lot of different reasons. Is money one of them? Yeah, look, it would be nice to win on Sunday and be, oh, I’m $15 million richer, whatever it is. But at the same time, I’ll get more satisfaction from winning the golf tournament and playing well. One of the things that I’ve talked about over the past couple of years is I don’t think the money needs to be front and center because I don’t think that’s what the fans care about.â€� Nor is it what the players care about, at least not in the heat of competition. Asked if he would let his mind drift to the $15 million payoff if he was walking toward the 72nd green Sunday with a guaranteed win, Patrick Cantlay still said no. He wants to remain immersed in his shot-by-shot process. “I think you could get caught up in something like that and lose your attention or lose your focus and your intensity, and I don’t think that helps you,â€� said Cantlay, who starts on Thursday in the second-most advantageous position at 8 under, just two strokes behind Thomas, the FedExCup points leader who starts at 10 under in this year’s new format. Defending FedExCup champ Justin Rose acknowledged that playing for last year’s $10 million bonus can “get in your head a little bit. It’s a huge reward, huge pot of gold at the end.” But, said Rose, “I’ve always played to win and also for pride.” Patrick Reed won $1.98 million for winning the Masters in 2018, but the money is secondary compared to simply slipping on the green jacket. He feels the same way toward the FedExCup, even with its much bigger payoff. “We all know, it’s a big number,â€� said Reed, starting the week at 6 under. “But as the end of the day, as competitors, we’re out there trying to get hardware. We’re going out there to try to win a golf tournament. Whatever comes with it is great, but at the end of the day, we’re trying to go win a golf tournament and hold up a trophy because that’s what we’ve always played for. We’ve always played for trophies growing up.â€� Thomas already has won FedExCup trophy. On Sunday, he hopes to join Tiger Woods as the only two-time winners. Like Mclroy, he’s playing for his legacy, not his pocketbook. “If I win the FedExCup this week, it’s not going to change my life,â€� Thomas said. “It’s unbelievable and it’s an extremely substantial amount of money, and how FedEx has stepped up to take care of us players is crazy. It’s unbelievable. I’m sure 10 years ago I never would have thought that was possible, but I’m not going to change the way I live my life if I win. “Money has never driven me. I hope it never will. I play to win trophies and win championships and be the best player to ever the walk the planet – and that’s all I play for.â€�

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This week, the U.S. Open returns to Torrey Pines, site of one of golf’s most memorable major championship showdowns. The on-course heroics of Tiger Woods that week in 2008 are forever ingrained in the minds of golf fans worldwide. Perhaps the bigger surprise came from Rocco Mediate, an unlikely foil who took Woods to the absolute limit that week in California. Thirteen years later, the story is no less enthralling, no less remarkable, than it was in real time. RELATED: 21st Group | Schauffele witnessed Tiger’s famous putt in 2008 Untouchable Tiger In order to best paint the picture of this David and Goliath matchup, you have to fully appreciate how dominant Woods was at this point in his career. Tiger wasn’t just the No. 1 player in the world, he was the unquestioned relentless force in the sport for a decade running. After a runner-up finish at the 2008 Masters, Woods had an Official World Golf Ranking points average of 21.19. Phil Mickelson was second, at 9.62. This meant that there was a larger gap between Woods and Mickelson (11.57 average points) than Phil and the bottom of the Ranking. Woods entered the week having won five of his previous 13 major starts. In his professional career, he had played in 45 majors, winning 13 of them – an absurd 29% clip. From 1997 through the 2008 Masters, there were 111 players with 50 or more rounds in major championships. Woods, at 125 under par in that span, was 198 shots better in relation to par than any other player (Ernie Els, +73). In fact, Els and Phil Mickelson (+74) were the only players within 200 shots of Woods in relation to par during that span in majors. Despite his knee injury, Woods was playing some of the most dominant golf of his entire illustrious career. Entering the 2008 U.S. Open, Woods had played in 11 tournaments worldwide since August of the previous year. He won eight times, with three of his victories being by eight strokes or more. He didn’t finish worse than fifth and posted a scoring average of 67.6 in that span. During that run of eleven tournaments, the combined total of opponents in those fields was 1,227. Woods was beat by six of them. Now consider how dominant Woods had been at Torrey Pines. In 11 starts at the Farmers Insurance Open from 1998 through 2008, Woods had won six times and never finished worse than tied for tenth. Woods was a combined 158 under par at the event during that stretch, 85 strokes better than any other player in that span (Mickelson was second, at 73 under). Only two players were within 100 shots of Woods in relation to par at Torrey Pines in those eleven combined tournaments. Woods won all five tournaments he played at Torrey Pines from 2005-08. Definition of an Underdog Rocco Mediate was 158th in the Official World Golf Ranking the week of the 2008 U.S. Open. At 45 years old, he was more than six years removed from his previous PGA TOUR win, in April of 2002. Woods had won 33 times on TOUR – including each of the four major championships (six majors in all) – since Mediate’s last victory. Mediate had missed the cut at Torrey Pines earlier that year in his first start there in a decade, one of seven missed cuts in his first nine starts that season. To that point in his career, Woods had missed just four cuts as a professional on the PGA TOUR. It had been six years since Mediate finished a PGA TOUR season ranked inside the top 40 in scoring average. Mediate had, however, come off his best finish of the season, a tie for sixth at the Memorial Tournament. He ranked fifth in the field that week in Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green and 11th in Strokes Gained: Approach, both high-water marks for his 2008 campaign to date. Mediate had found some previous success in the U.S. Open, finishing fourth in 2001 and tied for sixth in 2005. Statistical Profiles that Week Over the years, Torrey Pines has been kind to players who are a little wild off the tee. Over the last forty years, more PGA TOUR winners at the venue have ranked outside the top-50 that week in driving accuracy (15) than inside the top-10 (seven). Woods was part of that wilder group: at the 2008 U.S. Open, he hit just 54% of the fairways for the week, ranking tied for 56th in the field. Nobody would hit fewer fairways on their path to a U.S. Open victory until Bryson DeChambeau did in 2020 at Winged Foot (41.1%). Woods was rewarded, however, for hitting some more accurate tee shots on par-5s. On the twelve par five holes Woods played in regulation, he hit the fairway with his tee shot nine times. In turn, he led the tournament in par-5 scoring average, carding three eagles and four birdies on Nos. 9, 13 and 18. For the week, Mediate was outdriven by Woods on average by 37.5 yards. Still, he led the field in par four scoring average (4.0), par-4 birdie-or-better percentage (22.7%) and front-nine scoring (34.3). While the field scrambled at a clip of just 44.4% for the tournament, Mediate got up-and-down 61.5% of the time, the fifth-best rate of any player. His greenside magic helped him avoid the big number, as he made only one double bogey through 72 holes. The Playoff As Woods took a three-shot lead through 10 holes, it looked as if Mediate’s dream run had come to an end. But Rocco rallied, making three consecutive birdies on the back nine to take a one-stroke lead. In regulation, only two players had birdie streaks all week longer than what Mediate put together in that do-or-die situation against Woods. For the second day in a row, Tiger needed to birdie the 18th hole to force a playoff with Mediate. Of course, he did, and would win with par on the first hole of sudden death. The win was his 14th professional major, getting there more than three years younger than Jack Nicklaus was when he won his 14th, the 1975 PGA Championship. Woods remained perfect (14-for-14) when holding the 54-hole lead or co-lead in a major championship, a streak that ended at the following year’s PGA. Had Mediate won, he would have shattered the record for lowest world ranking by a U.S. Open champion, at 158th. To this day, that mark is held by Steve Jones, who was ranked 99th in the OWGR when he won in 1996. In the twelve U.S. Opens since, none have been decided by playoff, the longest streak without one in this championship’s history.

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