PGA Tour 2023 - John Deere Classic

[Splatt]

G’day Golfers,

 

Despite not being a designated event, last week was a great tournament to watch. I couldn’t watch a scoring fest every week, that would get pretty boring, but an event with 24 under par is exciting to freshen things up every now and then.
Congrats to BDR for being back in the winners circle.

We’re now well into the build-up to the last major of the season, with only 3 events before The Open is here.
This week we’re onto the John Deere Classic.

I wish I had a driver like this.

 

Last year J.T Poston became the first golfer in over 30 years to go wire-to-wire at the John Deere Classic. Poston shot a 2-under in the final round to win by three over Bezuidenhout and Grillo. Poston was the third wire-to-wire winner in the tournament’s history following Scott Hoch in 1980 and David Frost in 1992.

The John Deere Classic is held at TPC Deere Run, a par 71, 7,289-yard course, which is quite short by PGA Tour standards. However, it features quite a few long par-3’s and par-4’s, so it should still offer quite the ball striking challenge.

Field Highlights

·         J.T Poston – The defending champ and current world number 62. Poston will be attempting to defend his title which will be a career first for him and win number 3. His current form doesn’t fill me with confidence, he has missed the last 2 cuts and so far this season he has played 22 events and missed the cut in 10 of them. Maybe something about this course suits his eye and he’ll be able to turn it on this weekend.
 

·         Ludvig Aberg – This will be his 4th start as a fully carded PGA Tour Pro. He has impressed already this season making the cut in all 3 of his previous starts. He finished T-25 in his first at the RBC Canadian Open, T-24 at the Travellers Championship, and T-40 last week at the Rocket Mortgage. He opened well last week shooting 65 and 67 in the opening 2 rounds, but fell down the leaderboard over the weekend shooting 73 and 72. This course sets up well for him, so I would expect to see his name at the top end of the leaderboard.
 

·         Nick Taylor – Nick returns to regular season golf after making the putt of the year at the RBC Canadian Open to win his home event. It’s hard to predict which Nick Taylor is going to show up this week; he finished 2nd at the WM Phoenix Open then went on to miss 2 cuts at the Arnold Palmer and The Players, he finished 2nd at the Zurich Classic then went on to miss the next 2 cuts at the PGA Championship and the Charles Schwab, he won at RBC Canadian Open, then missed the next cut at the US Open. If the good Nick turns up then expect him to be in contention come Sunday, if not, atleast he’ll have a nice relaxing weekend.
 

·         Christiaan Bezuidenhout – Bezuidenhout was the runner up here last year so this course definitely fits his eye. He is still chasing his first career win so could this weekend be it? He’s made most of the cuts this year only missing 5 in the 20 events he has played, however he has yet to place in the top-10 so far this season; his best finish was all the way back in January at the American Express where he finished T-11. Bezuidenhout is a great golfer and hopefully he turns up with his best game this weekend.

 

For those in the MGS Pick ‘Em comp make sure you’ve got your picks in, this is a great week to pick some golfers that you haven’t picked much so far this season.

 

SPLATT

[GolfSpy_APH]

Hoping we get a new fresh winner this week.

I put in my picks but honesty can't remember who I had. 

The field is week, but leading into Genesis and then the Open has me excited!

[fixyurdivot]

"We run for all" replacing "Nothing runs like a Deere"? What is JD's marketing group thinking?  

The course looks really lush and a handful of guys have decided Friday is just as good as Saturday to do some moving. I keep hoping for a McCarthy breakthrough but he's got some heavy lifting to do.  Yea @Splatt, I've always found the events displays to be some of the best on the tour - quite creative.  I oft wondered if, during set-up or tear down, that the workers don't see just how far that JD870 driver can launch the ball .

[GolfSpy_APH]

Had 3 make the cut for fantasy but only started 4. 

Tough slot for the JD as it runs up against women's open, LIV and well not having that field which will draw a ton.

With F1 and such as well this weekend chances of me actually watching are slim, but still hoping for a new winner for this event!

[fixyurdivot]

2 hours ago, GolfSpy_APH said:

Had 3 make the cut for fantasy but only started 4. 

Tough slot for the JD as it runs up against women's open, LIV and well not having that field which will draw a ton.

With F1 and such as well this weekend chances of me actually watching are slim, but still hoping for a new winner for this event!

Yes, I think the PGA needs to figure out how to improve this events plight.  TPC Deere Run is built on property donated to the PGA by John Deere Co. and I think it is one of the longest tenured sponsorships/corporate relationship on tour.  This, IMO, needs to move way up the list of "stuf" PGA needs to work.

[JStapp]

Was really hoping Denny would get it done!

[StrokerAce]

shooting 62 on Sunday to come from T14 to win is amazing... good on him.

saw someone on Twitter suggest that they should pair Straka and Rahm at the Ryder cup.