SILVIS, IL. – Sungjae  Im started his Sunday round in the John Deere Classic with five straight birdies, and Ben Griffin also was 5-under through the first five holes, making an eagle, three birdies and a par.

Those were extraordinary starts in the $8 million PGA Tour stop at TPC Deere Run, but not nearly enough.  Third-round leader Davis Thompson was just too good.

He increased a two-stroke lead from the start of the day to six  after making seven threes and two fours in a front nine 29. Thompson had  more challengers on the back side but held off Michael Thorbjornsen, C.T. Pan and amateur Luke Clanton.  They were were four strokes back in sharing second place.

Thompson, rarely smiling throughout the tournament, broke into tears when his wife Holly greeted him on the 18^th green.  Then all could appreciate his 28-under-par 256 total for the 72 holes, a tournament record and one better than Michael Kim had in an eight-stroke victory in 2018.

Clanton, who set a tournament record by an amateur, and Thorbjornsen  both shot 63s on Sunday and Thompson had a 64.

Thompson added his name to a John Deere Classic tradition. The 53-year old tournament has been a friendly place for players who haven’t won on the PGA Tour.  Thompson became its 24^th first-time champion, joining the likes of TPC Deere Run designer D.A. Weibring, Scott Hoch, Payne Stewart, former Illinois Amateur and Open winner Mark Hensby, Jordan Spieth and Bryson DeChambeau. Thompson was the ninth first-time winner on the tour this season.

“I had the feeling when I turned at 6-under I had to have some cushion,’’ said Thompson. “Thankfully I was able to make some birdies early from some weird positions, and finally I hit some good tee shots coming down the stretch.’’

Low scores are nothing new in the JDC, but this staging was exceptional. All 77 players who qualified for the weekend rounds broke par for the 72 holes and the field combined for a 67.90 average on Sunday, the lowest in tournament history.  The 68.60 average for the entire tournament was also a record.

There was other interesting footnotes:

Clanton, a junior at Florida State in the field on a sponsor exemption, became the first amateur to finish in the top 10 in back-to-back PGA Tour events since Billy Joe Patton in 1958.

Thorbjornsen was in only his third PGA tournament, having received playing privileges as the top player in the PGA University standings in 2024.

And, for the third straight year, the champion resided in the same Geneseo rental home during the tournament.

Thompson got his first victory in his 63^rd career start on the PGA Tour.  He had been second three times, beaten by Jon Rahm in last year’s American Express Classic last year, Chris Gotterup at Myrtle Beach in May and Australia’s Cam Davis last week in Detroit.

“My goal for this week was to kick the door down, and finally get a win,’’ said Thompson, who is now No. 22 in the FedEx Cup standings and on his way to the British Open in two weeks.

The 6-4 Thompson, 25, is a University of Georgia product and lives on Sea Island, Ga. His father Todd was a two-time golf captain for the Bulldogs and is a good friend of Zach Johnson, the JDC’s ambassador on the tour and the most recent U.S. Ryder Cup captain.

“They’re a great family,’’ said Johnson, who has played many practice rounds with Davis.  “I’m not saying that just to be nice. I saw this (win) coming about two-three months ago. He did some changes in his golf bag and it started to click. If you know him it’s not surprising.’’

 

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. – This was only fitting.  The newest tournament on the PGA Tour was won by one of the circuit’s youngest players.

Chris Gotterup, just 24 and barely a year removed from his last college tournament, captured the inaugural Myrtle Beach Classic at the Dunes Golf & Beach Club.  He took a four-stroke lead into Sunday’s final round, then floundered twice before finally putting the win away.

Gotterup opened the final round with two bogeys then went birdie-eagle-birdie to open a five-shot lead.  The lead was in jeopardy again when he struggled on the first four holes of the back nine.  His advantage was cut to two after 13 holes before he regrouped again to beat closest rivals Davis Thompson and Canadian Alistair Docherty and earn the blue jacket — the start of a tradition for the tournament’s champions.

“No matter what tournament I’m in, I’m going to grind it out,’’ said Gotterup, whose two comebacks made the surprise arrival of his parents and two brothers all the more special.  They weren’t expected here until Monday.

The final round was marked by a 10-under-par 61 by Denmark’s Thorbjern Oleson, a course record on the ocean-side layout designed by Robert Trent Jones Sr. in 1948. Gotterup’s closing 67 and gave him a 72-hole score of 22-under-par 262.

Meanwhile, Gotterup had only one top-five finish to show for his first 26 starts on the PGA Tour but is now headed for this week’s PGA Championship at Valhalla, in Louisviile, KY. The year’s second major championship tees off on Thursday and Sunday’s win got him there.

Gotterup spent his first four collegiate years at Rutgers, where he had a Player of the Year season.   Then he took a redshirt year at Oklahoma and was even better there. He followed it up by getting eight starts on the PGA Tour, many through sponsor exemptions.

Those eight starts technically ruled Gotterup out of rookie status on the PGA Tour for this season, but he has no complaints about that.

“Those eight starts were huge for me,’’ he said.  “I left school with no status at all but I played good and grinded it out.’’

He also did just that to get his first professional win in the first PGA Tour event at Myrtle Beach, a golf mecca that justifiably bills itself as “the World’s Golf Capital.’’

The tourney, blessed with beautiful weather and good crowd support, made its debut on the same day that the Wells Fargo Championship, held just 173 miles away in Charlotte, N.C., with a much stronger field than Myrtle Beach’s, ended its PGA Tour run.  That decision was made by its sponsor several months ago, but its site – Quail Hollow – will host next year’s PGA Championship.

 

 

PALM HARBOR, Florida — The winners at PGA Tour events are frequently emotional, but Peter Malnati was in tears immediately after his last putt dropped at the Valspar Championship on Sunday.

Malnati, 36, won his second title nine years after his first.  He had qualified for only three major championships and never made it to the FedEx Cup Playoffs.

This year he had four missed cuts and only one top-10 finish while doubling as a recently-named Player Director on the PGA Tour Policy Board. That has put him in the forefront of the complicated negotiations over the proposed merger with the Saudi-based LIV Golf League.

While that’s a time-consuming extra job Malnati had been better known as one of the few players to use a yellow golf ball.  He switched from white to yellow balls because one of his sons “liked them.’’

“He’s gotten over it now,’’ said Malnati, holding one son while fighting back tears during his first post-round televised interview.  “But it still makes me think of him.’’

Malnati, along with his wife Alicia, attended the University of Missouri before Peter turned pro in 2009. They have two sons – Hatcher and Dash. They were more in the spotlight at the Valspar, which offers an unusual opportunity for players to put what they want on their caddy’s bibs.  Malnati chose honor his sons.

Keith Mitchell started the day with a two-stroke lead on Malnati, who was in a three-way tie for second.  Mitchell faded to a 77 in the final round while Malnati shot 67 and won by one stroke over Cameron Young. Malnati posted a 12-under-par 272 for the 72 holes and earned $1,512,000.

“That moment of winning a tournament and have your family come out on the green, the big hugs and all that, that’s something I’ve seen other families have and that has been my dream,’’ said Malnati.  “ There’s been a lot of stretches in golf over the last nine years when I wondered if I’d ever have that experience. It feels completely surreal.’’

Wheaton’s Kevin Streelman, who led the tournament after Round 1 and was tied for the lead after Round 2, shot 73-72 on his weekend rounds and finished in a tie for 28^th with, among others, Northwestern alum Dylan Wu. It was Streelman’s best finish of the season. Defending champion Taylor Moore tied for 12^th.

 

 

CLEARWATER, Florida – The scheduling for the Aramco Team Series opener was unusual, its opening event being slated opposite the PGA Tour’s Arnold Palmer Invitational just an hour away in Orlando.

With a teeoff Friday on International Women’s Day, the Aramco event is unusual enough.  Imagine a women’s team event — one put on by the Ladies European Tour (LET) with $1 million in prize money provided by the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, which also bankrolls the controversial men’s LIV Golf League — being played on American soil.

After this tourney concludes on Sunday the series will have stops in South Korea, London, Asia and Saudi Arabia.

This women’s tourney at Feather Sound Country Club has a stellar field. The 82 players come from 24 countries and own 39 wins on the European Tour, nine on the LPGA Tour and three in major championships.

Though it’s an LET event, the field includes American stars Lexi Thompson, Brittany Lincicome, Marina Alex and Megan Khang.  Top Europeans are England’s Charley Hull and Bronte Law and Spain’s Carlota Ciganda, who won the tournament last year at Trump International in West Palm Beach, FL.

Ciganda and Alex were the only ones among those hotshots to show top form in Friday’s Round 1.  Both carded 6-under-par 66s to share the lead with Chloe Williams, of Wales, and Kim Metraux, of Switzerland.

Defending champion Ciganda had a great start (birdies on the first two holes) and a solid finish.  “I birdied three of my last five holes.  I’m very happy,’’ she said.

This year’s tournament was under the radar because lining up a U.S. site was a  slow process.  Feather Sound wasn’t assured of hosting until five weeks ago, a very short time for tournament preparation. First-round play was also slow, reaching 5 ½ hours at the end of the day on Friday.

This event, though,  is being contested in four-player teams (of three pros and one amateur) for two days.  It’s the only team series on any of the pro golf tours.

After 36 holes the top 60 pros will compete for individual prize money in Sunday’s final round with no qualms about going head-to-head with the $20 million Arnold Palmer Invitational, one of the “elevated’’ events on the PGA Tour schedule.

 

 

 

 

Rarely has Illinois been treated to a golf tournament doubleheader as attractive as the one on tap for this week – and it’s all about the amateurs.

The Women’s Western Amateur has been played without interruption since 1901, and the 123^rd staging begins on Tuesday at White Eagle, in Naperville.  The always popular Illinois State Amateur also tees off that day at Bloomington Country Club. This will be that tourney’s 92^nd playing.

Obviously the players will be more familiar in the State Am, to be played at Bloomington for a record ninth time, but the Women’s Western – always one of the most prestigious events in women’s golf – may have its strongest field ever. The 120 competitors represent 29 states and 15 countries.

“Our partnership with the Western Golf Association (which began in 2019) has helped us strengthen our fields,’’ said Susan Buchanan, the WWGA president, “and our local players are getting better along with the national ones. They’ve realized that they can play in a big, strong national tournament without having to travel.’’

Geneva’s Sarah Arnold and New Lenox’ Grace Curran, who finished one-two in the Illinois Women’s State Amateur, are also Western contenders and Naperville’s Lisa Copeland,  the runner-up as a 15-year old in last year’s Western Junior. Is also in the field.

Defending champion this week is Teglao Jeeravivitaporn of Thailand, and she’ll be trying to become the first repeat winner since Meredith Duncan in 2000-01. The 2021 champion, Marissa Wenzler, is also competing.

In its rich history the tournament has had only nine back-to-back winners, the first being Chicago’s first great woman player, Bessie Anthony, who won the first three titles in 1901-03. She was the lone three-peater, and the best known of the others to win two in a row was Hall of Famer Louise Suggs, who won in 1946-47 in the years leading into the creation of the Ladies PGA in 1950.

Past Western Am winners also include Nancy Lopez (1976), Beth Daniel (1978), Cristie Kerr (1998), Grace Park (2003), Brittany Lang (2006), Stacy Lewis (2012) and Ariya Jutanugarn  (2012). Past Western competitors have won 327 times on the LPGA Tour, including 12 major titles, and made 28 Solheim Cup appearances.

While the field is stronger,  the venue is also tougher than the last two playings at Park Ridge and Sunset Ridge.  White Eagle was the site of LPGA tournaments from 1992-94 and also hosted two of the last three Illinois Opens. The original Arnold Palmer design was upgraded in recent years by Todd Quitno.

There will be 36 holes of stroke play qualifying on Tuesday and Wednesday with the top 32 advancing to match play.  Matches will run Thursday through Saturday.

STATE AM: Hinsdale’s Mac McClear will defend his title at Bloomington and try to become the first repeat winner since Ethan Farnam.  He won in 2019 and 2021, with the pandemic canceling the event in 2020. Bloomington’s Todd Mitchell was the last to win in consecutive years (2002-03).

McClear, who won last year at Westmoreland in Wilmette, also captured two of the last three Big Ten individual while playing collegiately for Iowa. Last year he beat out Illinois’ Tommy Kuhl at Westmoreland, and Kuhl won’t be on hand this week.  He recently entered the professional ranks, but McClear will have one particularly tough opponent in Parker Wisdom, the home club hopeful.

Wisdom, who led Illinois Wesleyan to the Missouri Valley Conference title as a senior, tied for third in last year’s State Am.

The 132 players competing at Bloomington were determined after eight state-wide qualifying rounds in June. The full field of finalists will play 18 holes on Tuesday and Wednesday, then the field will be cut to the low 35 and ties for a 36-hole wrapup on Thursday.

Bloomington, which opened in 1896, last hosted the State Am in 2018 when Jordan Hahn was the winner.  At 6,561 yards and a par 70 it’ll be the shortest course to host the event since 2008.

 

SILVIS, IL. – Low numbers are nothing new at the John Deere Classic, and Sunday was no exception. Sepp Straka, far down the leaderboard at the start of the final round, shot 28 on the front nine at TPC Deere Run and strung four birdies on holes 11-14.

With four holes left Straka needed just one more birdie to shoot a 59.  Only one other player – Paul Goydos in 2010 – hit that milestone at the JDC.

Straka’s hot round took a strange twist, however.  That much-needed birdie never came. After three pars he hit an 8-iron approach shot from 180 yards into a pond left of the 18^th green.

“My only bad shot.  I pulled it about seven yards left of my target,’’ said Straka.

A chip and two putts later he had a double bogey and – though Straka’s scorecard showed a 9-under-par 62 – the title was up for grabs.

The 62, matching the best round of the week, put Straka at 21-under-par 263 for his 72 holes.  Third-round leader Brendon Todd and Alex Smalley, aiming for his first PGA Tour win, had six holes left and Straka’s lead was down to two strokes.

“I wasn’t thinking about a 59,’’ insisted Straka, who was born in Austria but has lived in Georgia since he was 14 years old.  “As fun as it would have been to shoot a 59, I wasn’t going to change my game plan. It’s always better to win a golf tournament.’’

Straka went to the clubhouse to watch Todd and Smalley on television.  Todd got within a shot at one point but, when both players failed to make par at the par-5 seventh hole, Straka had his two-stroke lead back.

He was warming up on the practice range in anticipation of a playoff when both his rivals went to the No. 18 tee.  Both needed to make eagle on the finishing hole to force a playoff, and neither came close.

“It was stressful,’’ said Straka.  “Thankfully the playoff didn’t happen.’’

Straka posted the lowest final round by a JDC champion, beating Payne Stewart’s 63 in 1982. It was also Straka’s career low on the PGA Tour, and he also had a 63 in Friday’s second round.

“It was pretty awesome,’’ he said. “The key here is getting the putter hot, and mine stayed hot.’’

A reason for that came via text from his putting coach on Thursday.

“We made a little tweak in my putting setup,’’ said Straka. “The toe of my putter was sticking up a little bit. All of a sudden I got hot.’’

Straka’s second win on tour – he captured the Honda Classic in Florida in WHEN – gave him a winner’s check of $1,258,000 from a purse of $7.4 million but he had an immediate expense, too.  He was staying with six other players at a home in Geneseo.  Among the others was defending champion J.T. Poston. Poston picked up the tab for the group of renters, and Straka did the same.

Ironically Todd was to be in the group but his family decided to join him so he rented a hotel room.

“I’ve known Sepp since he was in college at Georgia,’’ said Todd.  “He’s just a great guy, good personality, always happy for those around him.’’

With the win Straka moved up to No. 18 in the FedEx Playoff standings and No. 27 in the Official World Golf Rankings. He won in his third JDC appearance, having tied for 26^th in 2019 and missing the cut in 2021.

Poston finished tied for sixth in his title defense after leading wire-to-wire last year. He was six shots behind Straka.

Northbrook’s Nick Hardy, who shot a 65 on Sunday, was the best of Chicago connected players with a tie for 21^st.  Arlington Heights’ Doug Ghim was a shot behind Hardy in a tie for 26^th and Wheaton’s Kevin Streelman, who had a second-round 63 sandwiched in between three rounds at par 71, tied for 51^st.