Writing from Silvis (a.k.a. Birdieville), Illinois
Friday, July 12, 2013
It was your typical day at the John Deere Classic. A 61, a 62, a 63, a pair of 64s.
It’s as if TPC Deere Run, the layout concocted by Quincy native D.A. Weibring a little over a decade ago, has a door to the Twilight Zone allowing pros to skip a hole or two along the way during the John Deere Classic. The PGA Tour insists that Deere Run isn’t the pushover course on tour – statistics buttress that argument, for the layout was just eighth-easiest last year, behind even Crooked Stick Golf Club, which was run over by the elite in the Western Open / BMW Championship – but each year, the low numbers, and the number of them, astonish mere mortals.
Friday was no exception. Chaz Reavie, who has yet to be confused with Jack Nicklaus, fired the 61. Lucas Glover, best known for winning a U.S. Open in the slop, carded the 62. Patrick Reed, best known for being unknown, but with a good story, turned in a 63. And the 64s were authored by Jerry Kelly and Troy Matteson, the former a former Western Open champion and the latter the loser of last year’s John Deere Classic playoff to Zach Johnson.
The same Zach Johnson who owns a third of the lead at the halfway point. He, Glover and Reed stand tall at 12-under-par 130 through 36 holes. They’re a stroke ahead of Matt Jones after his 66-65 start, two up on Matteson, Kelly, Kevin Streelman, David Hearn and Daniel Summerhays, crammed into the 10-under slot, and three strokes ahead of a fivesome that includes Reavie and three-time winner Steve Stricker, who wore Illinois orange on the tournament’s Illini Day.
So what else is new? Glover, who finished in a tie for 11th here in 2007, expects nothing less a barrage of red numbers in the final 36.
“You’ll see low scores from the beginning of the field all the way though to the end,” Glover predicted. “The course is there for the taking.”
Nothing new there. Deere Run is always like a puppy wanting its tummy rubbed, whether the fairways are running, as they are this year, or soft. That’s because the greens are always receptive to approach shots. This is a PGA Tour-operated course, after all, and the Tour likes birdies. So does the tournament, with its Birdies for Charity wing one of the most successful fund-raising gambits in golf. So red numbers are good, and the redder the better.
Glover’s 62, 9 strokes under the card at Deere Run, was the best round in about five hours. Reavie had scored his 10-under 61 in the morning wave, climbing within shouting distance of the lead. He finished the day tied for 10th place, three off the pace.
At the same time, Reed was negotiating the course in 63 strokes, only refused to take sole credit. It was “we” far more often than the “I” usually employed by an athlete. That’s because bride Justine is his caddie.
“She helps me with everything,” said Reed, an Augusta State grad who turns 23 next month. “She tells me what the wind is. Most of the time she helps me pick my clubs. She seems to know by distances better than I do. She’s great at reading putts, so I kind of have the full package.”
Reed’s come on in the last two months. He’s scored in the 60s in the second round in five of his last six tournaments, including Friday’s personal-best-tying round, and that coincides with a mid-season equipment switch from Nike to Callaway.
“The stuff is amazing,” Reed said. “If I feel I’m in a good pattern on my swing, I can literally take it at every flag.”
Do anything less at Deere Run, and you’re left on the side of the road for the weekend.
Man of Streel
Winfield’s Kevin Streelman has a secret weapon this week. It’s a putter out of Kevin Weeks’ putting studio in the barn at Cog Hill.
“We tightened some things up,” Streelman said of a recent visit to Weeks’ aerie in Lemont. “Actually took one of his putters right off his wall and put it in play this week.”
Streelman has put up back-to-back 66s and stands at 10-under-par 132. After the first round, he said that 5-under a day would be a score that could get the job done.
“Twenty under, it’s probably going to need to be,” Streelman said. “I knew you have to get to at least 20 this week, great weather, good soft greens, decently wide fairways. You’re going to have to attack.”
Around the Deere
Troy Matteson brightened his day quickly, making an ace on the 132-yard third hole with a wedge. That jumped him to 5-under and triggered the run to his 7-under-par 64 and mid-tournament total of 10-under 132. It was his second ace at the John Deere Classic. ... Darren Stiles came along to the seventh hole a few hours later and smacked a 7-iron into the cup for the day’s second hole-in-one. A JDC round with two aces last occurred in the final round in 2004, when John Rollins and Greg Chalmers scored them. ... Morgan Hoffmann had the scorecard of the day. He started on the back, quadruple-bogeyed the par- 4 11th, eagled the par-4 14th by driving the green with the tees at 315 yards, then added a second eagle on the par-5 second, key to his incoming 29 on the par-35 front nine, to card a 7-under 64 – with the 8. He made the cut on the number, 4-under-par 138. ... The cut matched the trim for the last three years, and included 72 players, including amateur Patrick Rodgers, tied for 26th after a 67-69 start for 6-under 136. ... John Deere equipment fancier Louis Oosthuizen missed the cut by four strokes. ... Chicago’s Mark Wilson missed by two, Oquawka’s Todd Hamilton by three, Quincy’s Luke Guthrie by five, Wilmette’s Erik Meierdierks by six, and Pekin’s D.A. Points by eight despite a chip-in. Barrington’s Scott Langley (7-under 135) and Crystal Lake’s Joe Affrunti (6-under 136) were the only Illinois natives to make the cut aside from Streelman. ... Jerry Kelly would qualify for the British Open by winning, but that wouldn’t change his plans for next week. He’s set, plane tickets and all, to travel to Nashville for his son’s baseball tournament. A triumph and skip would put him in the same category as fellow Wisconsin resident Steve Stricker, who’ll be on holiday with wife Nicki next week, despite his eligibility to play at Muirfield.
– Tim Cronin