Kinney runs to Illinois Open lead

    Writing from Glenview, Illinois
    Monday, July 22, 2013

    In years past, Joe Kinney would be called a rabbit.
    Rabbits were the non-exempt players in professional golf who nibbled at the fringes of the Tour, traveling long hours in old cars to Monday qualify – or not – at the week’s Tour stop.
    The all-exempt tour, dreamed up by Gary McCord and implemented by Deane Beman a generation ago, moved the rabbits down the road. Shorn of the old name, they ply the mini-tours, trying to get their games right for a big week or three at Tour school, which beginning this fall will get you a berth on the buy.com Tour, the PGA Tour’s development circuit.
    Joe Kinney would love to be there. The 26-year-old Antioch resident showed he has the game on Monday, firing a 7-under-par 65 in the first round of the 64th Illinois Open at the Glen Club. That earned him the lead, but only by two strokes. On a day ripe for scoring – four-tenths of an inch of rain fell overnight, softening the greens on a layout where the fairways are rarely fast – 30 players broke the par of 72, and 10 were in the 60s, including the 67 posted by amateur Jack Watson and the 68s of Steve Orrick, Carlos Sainz Jr., Brad Marek and amateur John Wright. Forty-six players, almost a third of the field, are at par or better.
    “All parts of my game are going good,” Kinney said. “No big misses.”
    That accounted for his pristine scorecard, which featured a deuce and seven threes, including four in a row to start his round.
    “It was a pretty stress-free round,” Kinney said. “I think my longest par putt was seven feet.”
    That came on the course’s first hole, the 10th of his round. Otherwise, he was around the hole all day, smacking wedges to gimme range with uncommon frequency on the Glen Club’s back nine.
    However, as Kinney well knows from several years on the mini-tours since graduating from Kansas State, one good day is only one good day. That’s why he’s on the NGA Tour, the old Hooters Tour, this year.
    “It’s tough to turn a profit on mini-tours,” Kinney said. “But I’ve got a great support system.”
    Kinney made the cut in two of his first five NGA tournaments this year, but earned only $2,378. A big payday here – first prize is $17,000 – would help pay bills, and a high finish would burnish his confidence.
    “It’s been a tough summer,” Kinney admitted. “But six weeks ago, I took a lesson from Scott Beaugureau at McHenry Country Club. We went back to basics. I had too much in my mind. We cleansed it.”
    Watson attended Kansas State for one year, then moved to Kent State and now is at Wisconsin. Curiously, he and Kinney have collaborated in golf before, when Watson caddied for Kinney in the 2009 Western Amateur at Conway Farms Golf Club in Lake Forest.
    The highlight of his bogey-free round was a 60-foot downhill putt for birdie on the par-3 11th, though his 95-yard wedge to four feet on the par-5 first for a bird and his 60-yard wedge to 10 feet on the par-4 15th weren’t too shabby either.
    “And I lipped out on 18,” Watson said. “I like the speed of the greens.”
    Watson finished second in last week’s Illinois Amateur at Aldeen Golf Club in Rockford, missing the title, won by Wheaton’s Tim “Tee-k” Kelly, because of “one bad hole,” he said.
    Golf happens. It happened to Kelly, who had a pair of eagles, but also a pair of double-bogeys en route to a 2-over 74. It happened to nearly everyone. Mike Small, the three-time champion and incoming Illinois Golf Hall of Fame member, for instance.
    “On the eighth, I chunked one in the water like a 15-handicapper. No, a 20-handicapper,” Small said. “Pffft. It was bad.”
    Small battled his way to an even-par 72, and sounded fortunate for it to be that good.
    “It’s hard golf,” Small said. “It’s a struggle. Every day’s an adventure for me these days. I haven’t hit it well in a long, long time.”
    Meanwhile, Orrick of Mount Zion, winner of the Illinois PGA and the Players Championship last year, tooled around in 4-under 68, a number he shares with Wright, the amateur from Aurora. Orrick played the back nine first and went out in 5-under 31.
    “All the yardages, all the numbers were perfect,” Orrick said. “And I was rolling the ball good.”
    But Orrick, not the world’s longest hitter, would have preferred faster fairways.
    “If anything, it (the softness) hurts me a bit,” Orrick said. “The ball rolling out for me is nice.”
   
    
    Around the Glen Club

    The purse is $85,000, with $17,000 going to the winner. ... Defending champion Max Scodro finished at 1-under 71 despite a double-bogey on the par-4 16th. Scottie Nield of Inverness withdrew after eight holes. He was 11 over at the time. ... Tuesday’s cut is to the low 50 and those tied for 50th. ... Six of the 30 players under par are amateurs. ... There were 12 eagles spread across the four par-5s, with the field averaging 3.52 over the par of 72. The par-3 11th was the toughest hole, averaging two-thirds of a stroke over par.

    – Tim Cronin

Spieth wins an extraordinary Deere

    Writing from Silvis (a.k.a. Birdieville), Illinois
    Sunday, July 14, 2013

    Jordan Spieth had been on the verge of victory all season, which is amazing for a 19-year-old kid on the PGA Tour. He’d tied for second in Puerto Rico, sixth at Congressional, tied for seventh at Innisbrook and Colonial.
    With each top 10, he gained more notice from his peers as a player to watch, and watch closely.
    Sunday at the John Deere Classic, Spieth was a sight to see. Starting the day six off the lead, he climbed into playoff position with an improbable birdie on the 72nd hole, which is even more amazing.
    Spieth then pounced and claimed victory with a par when two of his elders faltered on the fifth hole of a sudden-death playoff after each had nearly won earlier, which is absolutely mind-boggling.
    Spieth, a native of Dallas and a professional since December, a 19-year-old going on 35, made history with his triumph over defending champion Zach Johnson and Canadian David Hearn after they all scored 19-under-par 265. A teen hadn’t won on the PGA Tour or the part-time circuit that preceded it since 1931, when Ralph Guldahl, like Spieth a Texan, won the Santa Monica Open at 19.
    All of this was almost too much for the gallery of about 20,000 to comprehend. And Spieth, expected to take the week, was instead the 28th and final player to board the special charter to Muirfield, having scored a berth in the Open Championship, and a new life when his 26-inch winning putt dropped.
    He, too, struggled to take it all in.
    “It’s not setting in yet,” Spieth, sitting with the trophy in front of him. “Maybe not until I wake up on the plane.”
    Here’s what Spieth wins, aside from that place in history:
    1. The berth in the British Open at Muirfield, available at the Deere only to a winner not yet exempt;
    2. A spot in next year’s Masters Tournament;
    3. A PGA Tour card through 2015 – he’d been playing as a “special temporary member” by virtue of those earlier good finishes;
    4. A passel of playoff points. Along with the 500 earned by winning, he also collected those that he’d scored earlier, now that he’s a full Tour member. And that puts him into the top 20, Tour officials said. Just like that.
    5. The first place money of $828,000, running his season total to a shade over $2 million.
    At age 19. Nineteen.
    “I didn’t think it would happen this early,” Spieth said of all of the above. “The check’s the check.”
    Then he patted the trophy, saying, “I was just playing for this.”
    “I mean, I had a plan,” he said. “I guess the plan got exceeded. I wanted to just earn my Tour card for next year this year somehow. It hasn’t hit me yet, and it will, but I’m just happy to go compete with those guys and somehow – my legs are tired – to get over there (to Muirfield) and regroup.”
    Spieth, who scored 6-under-par 65, opened with a bogey at the first hole, then caught fire with five birdies in the next 13 holes. And a funny thing was happening. The field was coming back to him, unusual at the Deere even on Sunday. There were birdies tweeting everywhere, except with the leaders.
    “We were on the back nine, still four or five back, but the leaders weren’t going to 21-, 22-under, which we thought they were going to,” Spieth said. “I told Michael (Greller, his caddie), ‘Hey, let’s try to get a few birdies and have a good top 10.’ Go home, take some time off.”
    He birdied 13 and 14, bogeyed 15, and was still three back of Johnson, who was at 19-under and holding for the longest time. Third-round leader Daniel Summerhays – one of only seven players to score over par thanks to a 1-over 72 – had swooned early, with four straight bogeys, then rallied and tied Johnson for a short time.
    Then came Spieth’s time. He sank a 11-footer for birdie on the 16th, two-putted for birdie from 63 feet on the par-5 17th, then found the greenside left bunker from the 18th fairway. And the rest became history.
    “David and Zach played unbelievable golf,” Spieth said. “It’s amazing to have all three guys last five holes like that.”
    Johnson made the playoff happen with a bogey on the 18th after he’d birdied the 17th. Hearn was Mr. Steady on the last 16 holes with 14 pars and birdies on the 13th and 16th.
    Spieth met them on the 18th tee for the playoff. Then it got really crazy.
    Johnson nearly chipped in for birdie and victory on the first playoff hole, lipping out from the back of the 18th green. He collapsed to the ground and ended up on his back. The flagstick was in. Might the ball have gone in otherwise?
    “I didn’t (think of pulling it),” Johnson said, then smiled and said, “I did after. It might have lipped out harder.”
    Everyone parred and went back to the 18th tee. Spieth got up and down from the right rough for par the second time around, the other pars were routine, and it was off to the 16th for the third playoff hole.
    Then Hearn, a native of Brantford, Ontario, Wayne Gretzky’s town, stepped up. Almost. His tee shot on the 147-yard par 3 was the best, to 10 feet 3 inches, but he missed the birdie putt and everyone settled for par. Off to the 17th, playoff hole No. 4.
    Hearn again was at the center of it. All three players made the green on the par-5 in three strokes, but Spieth was 44 feet away and Johnson over 16 feet distant from the cup. Hearn, after a splendid third, was 4 feet 10 inches out. Spieth and Johnson had their hats off as they watched. It was handshake time.
    And Hearn lipped it out to the left.
    “I can’t really tell you if I got it started exactly online or not, but I figured it was going in, and it lipped out,” Hearn said.
    Hearn looked hollow-eyed later, but spoke with condidence.
    “You can always find another shot along the way,” Hearn said. “Had I made another birdie in regulation, we wouldn’t have had a playoff. I gave myself great chances. Next time I give myself chances like that, I’ll make them.”
    So it was back to the 18th for the third time in the playoff and the fourth time all day.
    Johnson, with the honor the entire playoff, drilled his drive into the left round, dead behind a tree. Hearn was also in the right rough, bouncing off a tree into a reasonably clear shot. Spieth was also in the right rough, but with the clearest alley to the green and with only 173 yards left.
    Hearn left his punch shot short of the green in the left rough. Johnson, needing to go for the green, tried drawing a 9-iron out of the deep rough by hooding the club and sweeping through it, a shot he would only try in a playoff.
    It hooked into the water.
    It was up to Spieth now, up to him to get it close. He pulled an 8-iron, then switched to a 7-iron.
    “I guarantee you, a couple of weeks ago I don’t do that,” Spieth said. “I’m just happy I went back to the bag and changed clubs.”
    His approach rolled to the back edge of the green, 20 feet from the cup. His first putt stopped 26 inches from the hole. His next one, after Johnson and Hearn missed their par putts and settled for bogey, went in.
    Par. Victory!    
    “I dodged a lot of bullets,” Spieth said. “Whatever it was, the Golf Gods up there, I just caught the breaks. They were hitting great shots, and I was just making the six-footer to go to the next one. Just somehow found an opening.”
    Spieth, the youngest Deere winner – David Gossett was 22 when he won in 2001 – is the oldest of the 19-year-olds to win on the Tour since 1900. Spieth, who turns 20 two weeks from his victory day, is 19 years, 11 months, 17 days old.
    Harry Cooper was 19 years 4 days young when he won the 1923 Galveston Open.
    Guldahl was 19 years, 2 months and 3 days young when he scored a 1-up victory over Tony Manero in the Santa Monica Open at Riviera Country Club.
    John McDermott was 19-10-14 when he captured the 1911 U.S. Open, so Spieth can’t become the youngest major winner since 1900. (Young Tom Morris was 16 when he won the 1868 British Open, but we digress.)
    Then comes Spieth.
    With a flourish.
    A birdie from the bunker to make the playoff hunt?
    Surviving the lipouts of both playoff foes?
    Having the only open shot from the rough on the fifth playoff hole?
    “I don’t know what I did to deserve those breaks,” Spieth said. “To tell you the truth, the first couple playoff holes were the worst as far as emotions and pressure. Once the 20-footer (mentally) turns into a 50-footer, you don’t know how hard to hit the ball. Your hands want to smack the ball, and you have to somehow control them.
    “Once I got to 16 and back to 17, even on the (6-foot-7) footer I had on the par-5, I didn’t feel any nerves. It was weird.
    “They came back up when I had the putt to win. The two-footer, I didn’t know if I’d get my putter to the ball. So I looked at the hole, looked at the front of the cup, decided to let my hands to it and watched it go in.
    “Yeah, you want to approach it where you’ve had success in the past. At some point, you have to work on your breathing.”
    He can take a breath now. And pat the trophy one more time.

    Around the Deere

    Johnson (3-under 68 in the final round) and Hearn (2-under 69) each settled for $404,800 as co-runner up. ... Troy Matteson, who fell to Zach Johnson in a playoff last year, finished tied for 27th this year, then wrote a $2,000 check to the tournament’s Birdies for Charity program, which tournament officials matched. ... Crystal Lake’s Joe Affrunti scored four rounds in the 60s and finished tied for 33rd at 11-under 273, earning $21,829. ... Kevin Streelman’s final round 71 for 10-under 274 dropped him into a tie for 44th. He collected $14,296. ... Amateur Patrick Rodgers finished tied for 15th at 14-under 270. ...  The Birdies for Charity total was 2,142, including 332 on Sunday, when the course again played more than two strokes under the par of 71, at 68.931. The four-round average was 69.397.

    – Tim Cronin

Summerhays, and the birdies are easy

    Writing from Silvis (a.k.a. Birdieville), Illinois
    Saturday, July 13, 2013

    For sale: One Monaco motorhome, owned by PGA Tour player Daniel Summerhays.
    Reason: The oldest of his three boys is about to start school, and the Summerhays clan is flying more than motoring these days.
    Summerhays’ next stop may demand air travel. He holds a two-stroke lead in the John Deere Classic with 18 holes to play, and while no lead at TPC Deere Run is safe, Summerhays has shown over the course of the first three rounds that he knows how to go low.
    Saturday, he went lower than anyone else, firing a 9-under-par 62 for a 54-hole aggregate of 19-under-par 194, setting the pace two strokes ahead of Canadian David Hearn (64 for 196), and three ahead of Zach Johnson (67 for 197). If the old standard of anyone within five strokes of the leader at daybreak Sunday having a chance holds true, only seven players are within striking distance of Summerhays, who says he’ll go to the British Open on Sunday night’s Deere-arranged charter if he wins.
    The flip side is that Summerhays has not yet won on the PGA Tour. His greatest triumph as a professional so far came six years ago with a win on the then-Nationwide Tour.
    This is a bigger stage, with greater rewards and greater pressure. Summerhays has felt it before. In last year’s Mayakoba Classic, a tournament in Mexico played opposite the World Match Play in Tucson, Summerhays owned a two-stroke lead going into the final round.
    He scored 2-over-par 73, the highest final round score of anyone finishing 60th or better, and ended up tied for fifth, three strokes behind John Huh, who beat Robert Allenby in a playoff.
    Been there, done that? So far, it’s more like been there, haven’t done that for Summerhays. But Sunday may be the day. Certainly, he has a positive attitude.
    “Make as many birdies as you can,” Summerhays said of his game plan. “In the past, if I’d miss a five-footer, I’d think, ‘What a blown opportunity.’ Now I just chuckle. It was Bobby Jones who said, ‘There’s never been a round of golf that couldn’t have been better.’ So I just pick myself up and go on to the next hole.”
    That was easy on Saturday. Summerhays birdied the first two holes, then eight more holes in the course of the final 15 to splatter his scorecard with red numbers. Other contenders were doing the same – amateur Patrick Rodgers led for 15 minutes in the middle of his birdie binge, only to see Johnson overtake him, and Summerhays overtake him in turn – and he knows more of the same is in order in the final round, along with par saves similar to those he authored on the 12th and 14th. But he doesn’t have a specific number in mind, not even another 62.
    “Just play each hole, each shot,” Summerhays said.
    Hearn did that en route to his 64.
    “My goal is to keep doing what I’m doing,” Hearn said.
    But not go crazy on a course where the scores are crazy.
    “My mentality is not to be overly aggressive,” Hearn said. “I’m not going to take chances I would not normally take. I’m really not going to think too much about trying to catch him or things like that. I’m really just going to keep the mindset I had today: do my best to stay aggressive with the wedges and the short irons and give myself as many opportunities as I can.”
    As will Johnson, the John Deere Classic board member who won in a playoff last year.
    “I know Daniel is up there,” Johnson said. “David Hearn? It seems like he’s knocking on the door too. Both of them are great players. I hope they’re intimidated, but I doubt that’s going to be the case. I’m not a very intimidating figure.”
    Johnson is modest, perhaps forgetting the 60-footer he made for eagle on the par-5 second hole, though he did make two bogeys in the third round. The first ended his par-or-better streak on the course at 42 holes, including his birdie on the second hole of last year’s playoff.
    Playoff? One on Sunday night wouldn’t be a surprise at all. Not when Nicholas Thompson throws a 64 on the scoreboard to stand five back or Morgan Hoffmann posts a 63 to climb within seven. This kind of thing happens all the time at Deere Run. (Though if Hoffmann won, it would go against precedent. He opened with a 3-over 74, and no player scoring over par in any round has won since David Frost did so in 1992 at Oakwood Country Club.)
    Summerhays’ change in viewpoint comes in part because of his family. Traveling with wife Emily and having three boys in five years grounds someone to handle the highs and lows.
    “My three little boys would love for me to hold that John Deere trophy,” Summerhays said. “It’s their favorite stop of the year. You can’t stay angry around them. You have to teach them along the way.”
    Five-year-old Jack’s imminent start of school means selling the Monaco, which has but 77,000 miles on it over the last 4 1/2 years. And it’s meant flying to tournaments, an adventure in inself.
    “Right now, the thrill of a 3-year-old and a 5-year-old on an airplane and in a hotel is unmatched,” Summerhays said.
    He’d love to find out how crazy it would be in the winner’s circle.

    Mr. Rodgers’ Neighborhood

    Patrick Rodgers of Avon, Ind., will be a junior at Stanford in the fall.
    For a while on Saturday, there was a distinct possibility he would return to the Farm as a PGA Tour winner, the first amateur to accomplish the feat since Phil Mickelson won in Tuscon in 1991.
    Rodgers led for a quarter-hour on Saturday after a birdie binge brought him to 13 under through a dozen holes. Then a quintet of pars held him in check as 11 players, led by Daniel Summerhays, passed him by. The winner of the 2010 Western Junior is tied for 12th and seven strokes back entering the final round.
    “I took advantage of all the birdie holes on the front nine and was hitting the ball well, converting on the putts,” Rodgers said. “A little disappointed with the way I finished, but it’s kind of a new experience for me, so it was nice to be in the mix for a little bit.”
    He’s not completely out of it, not with rounds of 67-69-65 for his total of 15-under 201. He doesn’t have to worry about losing money with a bogey, so he can freewheel it.
    “Each time I play out here I gain more experience, I get more and more comfortable,” Rodgers said.

    Around Deere Run

    Remember how Kevin Streelman, the pride of Winfield, was only two off the pace after 36 holes? It’s a distant memory now. Streelman scored even par, effectively give up about three shots to the field and 10 to the leaders. He’s tied for 24th at 10-under 203 and nine back of Summerhays going into the final round, and starting more than two hours before him. Streelman did go the longest before surrendering a bogey: 44 holes. ... Crystal Lake’s Joe Affrunti scored 2-under 69 and is at 205 after three rounds. ... Three-time winner Steve Stricker’s 2-under 69 felt like a million to him after a blah front nine. “It was frustrating and testing my patience,” Stricker said. ... The stroke average of 68.236 was 2.764 strokes under the par of 71. Only three holes played over par, with the par-3 seventh at 3.00 precisely.

    – Tim Cronin

Par not a meaningful score at Deere Run

    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

Johnson, Villegas hot on cool Thursday

    Writing from Silvis (a.k.a. Birdieville), Illinois
    Thursday, July 11, 2013

    There was something cool about the John Deere Classic on Thursday.
    It was cool, literally, especially in the morning. Whereas TPC Deere Run, and the Quad Cities in general, is usually the summer home of stifling heat and suffocating humidity, on Thursday, the sun was out but the breeze was up, and in the morning shade, long sleeves were the order of the day.
    That was different. What was not different was the scoring. As is the tradition here, the field tore par to shreds. Ninety-one of the 156 players cavorting on Deere Run broke par, and another 16 matched the number of 71. The red-number brigade was led by two faces familiar to victory on courses near the mighty Mississippi: Zach Johnson, who triumphed here last year, and Camilo Villegas, who scored a victory in the 2008 Western Open / BMW Championship at Bellerive Country Club, near St. Louis, each scored 7-under-par 64 in the first round.
    At many tournaments, that would mean they had opened daylight on the field. At the Deere, it means a one-stroke lead over a trio of players. Brendon de Jonge, Matt Bettencourt and Daniel Summerhays opened with 6-under 65s. Another quintet of players, including Winfield’s own Kevin Streelman, are at 5-under 66 after one lap of this 7,268-yard course.
    None of this came as a surprise to anyone, least of all Streelman, who has played in three previous Deeres, and finished tied for eighth last year by virtue of a final round 65. He knows it’s imperative to go low.
    “You had to go after it,” Streelman said. “I hit it good and didn’t make any mistakes.”
    Asked if 20-under is again the number that could prove victorious, Streelman alluded an assent in saying, “One five (-under) down. This is fun for the fans, and for us too.”
    There have been some tough scoring weeks for Streelman in recent outings. He won in Tampa and chased the title in the Players Championship, a combination which moved him into the top-50 in the world rankings, plus promoted a recalibration of his goals for the year.
    “Maybe it’s time to shoot for the top 20,” Streelman said.
    Or better. Johnson’s been there and done that, and played like the major champion he is on Thursday, opening on the back nine in 3-under 33 and closing on the front in 4-under 31. All told, there were nine 3s on his card. Bingo, instant 64, for his 17th straight round in the 60s at the Deere.
    “I was striking it well on Monday, on Tuesday, on Wednesday,” Johnson said. “I thought today, ‘Just don’t stop.’ I want to stay in the present.”
    Villegas wants to relive the past. He followed up his win at Bellerive in 2008 with a triumph in the Tour Championship. That 1-2 punch is the highlight of his career, which, aside from a title in Tahoe in 2010, has been in a slide, all the way down to having conditional status on the PGA Tour. But why?
    “I wish I knew,” said Villegas, with two top 10s this season, after matching his best round of the year. “It’s the game of golf. It’s a messed-up game. Sometimes there’s no answer. There are so many things that can go one way or the other.
    “Sometimes you overanalyze this game. It’s not rocket science when you tee it up on the first tee. I’m not a guy with too many thoughts in my head. It’s always baby steps and little thoughts to get there.”
    The last time Villegas fired a 64 was the first round at the Honda Classic. He followed that up with a 77, so don’t fly to Las Vegas to place a bet.
    The thought of Villegas and others is to keep it going, of course, for the Deere is the non-U.S. Open. Deere Run looks difficult to the layman, and may play difficult for the 20-handicapper, but the majority of the pros roll up the driveway and lick their chops.
    Bettencourt did that after his circuitous route to the Quad Cities. He left his home in Greenville, S.C. on Wednesday morning headed for the web.com Tour fiesta in Salt Lake City. As the connecting flight for him and his caddie was pulling away from the gate at Hartsfield Airport in Atlanta, his phone rang – and so much for turning his phone off.
    “The flight attendant was cool with it; he’s a golfer,” Bettencourt said.
    It was a PGA Tour official letting him know Neal Lancaster had pulled out and he was in. That made the flight to Salt Lake City a planning session. Two tickets to Chicago and a two-hour wait to board later, he was on the way to O’Hare. A car rental and three-hour drive down Interstate 88 later, he was in town.
    About eight hours after that, he was on the tee and en route to his 65. Who needs a practice round?
    “I was excited,” Bettencourt said. “My caddie hadn’t been here before, but I went through the course on the way here for him, so there were no surprises.”
    His bogey-free 65 couldn’t have been smoother, with 16 greens hit in regulation, no adventures in the sand or elsewhere, and many a putt holed, all that on a course that played faster, thanks to lower humidity than usual and dry weather following a Tuesday morning shower.
    “I had different lines to take and different clubs,” Bettencourt said. “I was hitting three woods on some tees. The ball was bouncing 50 yards down some fairways. It was awesome to see.”
    The key, of course, is repeating the feat. The greats do that with monotonous regularity. Even Bettencourt noted the presence of Johnson and three-time winner Steve Stricker, who opened with a 4-under 67 and is tied for 16th, among the leaders.
    “It’s an up-and-down game,” Bettencourt said. “It’s tough. Only a few guys in the world play good every week. But the highs are high.”

    Around Deere Run

    A deer – the non-motorized kind – gamboled over the fourth fairway in the afternoon. ... John Deere fan Louis Oosthuizen may not be around to inspect tractors over the weekend. Five birdies were not enough to offset a bogey, a double-bogey at the 18th, and a triple-bogey at the par-4 11th, where he hooked his tee shot into a jungle-infested gulch on the left, hit a tree with his second shot, was still in trouble on his third, was bunkered on his fourth, and two-putted for an unseemly 7 after hitting the green. Same hole, same group, and Jonas Blixt made a 6, losing his second ball in the high stuff to the right. Oosthuizen scored 1-over 72 and is tied for 108th, Blixt a 3-over 74 and is tied for 134th. The cut to the low 70 and ties is invariably in the vicinity of 3-under-par. ... The opening 64s were five off the course and championship record of 12-under 59, posted by Paul Goydos in 2010’s first round. ... Among other Illinoisans, Pekin’s D.A. Points also has to step on it; he opened with 1-over 72, but Joe Affrunti started with a 2-under 69 and is tied for 41st, while former Illini standout Luke Guthrie fired a 5-over 76. ... Bobby Gates fired a 5-over 76 and withdrew, citing an injury. He was five over on his last seven holes. ... The winner gets $828,000 of the $4.6 million purse.

    – Tim Cronin