SILVIS, IL. – Another John Deere Classic hasn’t been won yet and the British Open – the third leg of golf’s Grand Slam — is next week’s target. Still, Jordan Spieth’s game is good enough right now to win them both, no doubt about it.

That was underscored on Saturday when the 21-year old Masters and U.S. Open champion climbed to the top of the leaderboard in the JDC at TPC Deere Run.

Spieth arrived at the site of his first PGA Tour win of 2013 off a two-week break, one of which included not touching a club. Rustiness showed in Thursday’s first round, when he shot par 71 and was mired in a tie for 101st place.

The rust disappeared on Friday when Spieth shot 64 and moved into a tie for 16th, and Saturday the sharpness was even better. Spieth posted a 10-under-par 61, giving him a two-stroke lead to take into Sunday’s final round.

Could his game be peaking at the perfect time? It certainly seems like it. At least Spieth could do no wrong on his 2-3-3 finish on Saturday. The deuce at the par-3 16th was followed by an errant tee shot at the par-5 17th. Spieth found himself deep in the left woods.

“There wasn’t a big window,’’ he said, “and I needed to hit it 170 to carry the bunkers.’’

He did that with a 5-iron, a club chosen for the loft it could produce rather than the length. He was still left with a 105-yard left-to-right third shot to the green. Club choice was tricky, but Spieth pulled out a sand wedge and miss-hit it. The “miss-hit,’’ though, dropped into the hole for an eagle.

“Maybe that was the wrong club, to be honest,’’ said Spieth. “I had a lot of good breaks coming in when I didn’t hit good shots off the tee.’’

The birdie on the finishing hole resulted in the lowest round of Spieth’s meteoric career.

As good as Spieth has been the last two days, this JDC is far from his. Danny Lee, winner last week at the Greenbrier Classic, shot 62 in the third round after playing the first two in Spieth’s threesome. Lee called Spieth’s blazing finish “a little ridiculous’’ but admitted “he’s winning everything right now. I’ll just go out and play and see what happens. All I know is a lot of people will be watching us, and I can’t wait to see what happens.’’

Lee has his own shot at history before he, Spieth and a batch of others board the jet from the Quad Cities Airport to Scotland on Sunday night for the British Open at St. Andrews. If Lee wins on Sunday he’ll be the first player since David Duval in 1997 to claim his second PGA Tour win a week after winning his first.

The focus in the final 18, however, will be on Spieth who was widely second-guessed for playing the JDC instead of going to Europe a week early and tuning up at the Scottish Open with a shot at the Grand Slam on the line.

Spieth has no regrets about coming here. He replaced the hybrid in his bag with a driving iron as part of his British preparation, and was pleased with the results. Plus, the weather on Saturday was helpful, too. There were two weather delays, but they didn’t keep Spieth off the putting green.

“I was embracing practice in the rain because we’re sure to see that next week,’’ he said.

For now, next week can wait. Spieth has more than just the red hot Lee to beat on Sunday. Lee will be Spieth’s playing partner for the third time this week but Justin Thomas, leader after the first two rounds, and Johnson Wagner are shot behind Lee and hometown favorite Zach Johnson, the 2012 champion, is another swing back.

`There’s a lot of young players coming out who aren’t scared to win,’’ said Spieth. “It’d be great to win again at a place that’s special to me.’’

SILVIS, IL. – Second-guessers abounded when Jordan Spieth announced he would return to the John Deere Classic for his last tuneup tournament before next week’s British Open.

A large segment of the world-wide golf community felt Spieth was short-changing himself by not heading to Europe a week ahead of his bid for a third straight major championship. After all, he would have more time to combat jet lag if he played in the Scottish Open instead of the event where he won his first PGA Tour title at age 19 two years ago.

With titles in the Masters and U.S. Open already clinched, Spieth is halfway toward an unprecedented Grand Slam of the four biggest tournaments. (The fourth is the PGA Championship at Wisconsin’s Whistling Straits course next month).

Those second-guessers seemed to have a case when Spieth had a mediocre showing in Wednesday’s pro-am at TPC Deere Run and followed with a par 71 in Thursday’s first round of the JDC. That left him tied for 101st place and in danger of missing the 36-hole cut.

Spieth, however, silenced those second-guessers on Friday when he posted a 7-under-par 64 and climbed all the way into a tie for 16th place – four strokes behind 22-year old Justin Thomas, the leader going into Saturday’s third round after posted 12-under 130 for the first two rounds. Spieth’s Grand Slam preparations – as well as his chances of winning the JDC again — don’t look so questionable now.

“Today was a big step forward,’’ said Spieth. “I was not feeling great after Wednesday, and then after (Thursday) being behind the 8-ball. But to come today and shoot a solid round when I needed to, and to have my putter working when I knew I needed it, gives me a lot of confidence.’’

Next week’s British is at storied St. Andrews, in Scotland – a layout much different than TPC Deere Run.

“I’m excited to go next week just because I love St. Andrews, and I love the town,’’ said Spieth. “It’s going to be an exciting atmosphere, and it may be good for me to have a limited amount of time there just to get some feels. I’ll be able to adjust to the speed and the conditions there. I’ll be able to do that in a couple days.’’

Spieth wasn’t feeling so confident after standing even par for the tournament four holes into Friday’s second round. A two-foot birdie putt put him in red numbers and a 241-yard second shot to a par-5 that set up an eagle was the highlight of his round. He played his last 14 holes in 7-under and, with seven holes left in that stretch, he started to relax.

“Then the cut line was out of my head, and it was `How can we move up the board a little more?’’’ he said.

The shot that set up his eagle at the No. 2 hole (Spieth played the back nine first) may have far-reaching implications. He used a driving iron, while in past years he would have used a hybrid.

“I’ve got this driving-iron I’m using in preparation for St. Andrews,’’ he said. “I want to get some swings with this club. I had a great number there just to launch it up the right side of the green. Obviously I was lucky to coast it the perfect distance and capitalize.’’

Spieth attributed his slow start here to rust. Wednesday’s pro-am was his first 18-hole round in nearly three weeks. During that stretch he went a week without touching a club, but now the vacation is very much over. His bid for the third leg of golf’s Grand Slam will be the talk of the entire sports world after he boards the flight to Europe from the Quad Cities Airport after Sunday’s final round of the JDC.

“I should have gotten out on the golf course a little more than hitting balls on the range,’’ Spieth said before his hot round on Friday. “I’m just looking to get a little better each day.’’

There are some similarities between the front-running Thomas, who also led after Day 1, and Spieth. Both have had sponsor exemptions to get into the JDC (Spieth in 2012 and Thomas in 2013 — and they were teammates on a U.S. junior team that competed in France in their high school years. Then Spieth went, briefly, to Texas and Thomas to Alabama.

“I’d say he got the best of me in amateur golf. I got the best of him in college golf. And so far, he’s got me beat pretty handily in professional golf,’’ said Thomas. Spieth already has accumulated $16 million in PGA Tour winnings in less than three seasons, with nearly $7.9 million coming in the first six months of 2015. Thomas has $1.6 million in seven tournaments spread of the last two years.

“As for a rivalry with Jordan, it’s nothing right now,’’ said Thomas. “I have a lot of to do get to his level. I’m working to get there.’’

The U.S. team in the Palmer Cup certainly didn’t want a repeat of the epic collapse the country’s professionals had in the 2012 Ryder Cup matches at Medinah.

In that Ryder Cup the U.S. took a 10-6 lead into the final day’s singles matches and blew it. In the Palmer Cup, a similar team event for college stars from the U.S. and Europe contested at Rich Harvest Farms in Sugar Grove, the Americans owned a 13 ½-6 ½ advantage going into Sunday’s 10 singles matches but they weren’t convinced the lead was safe.

“Playing with a big lead is the hardest thing in sports,’’ said U.S. coach Bruce Heppler. “I just told them I wasn’t going to tell them how things were going until their match was over. I wanted to keep them focused on their matches.’’

The strategy worked, as the U.S. took an 18-12 victory, avenging an 18 ½-11 ½ loss to the Europeans last year at Walton Heath in England.

“We’ve got a lot of guys who really cared about what we’re doing here,’’ said Beau Hossler, the University of Texas star who was a winner in three of his four matches during the three-day competition and produced the clinching point for his team with a 2 and 1 win over Pep Angles of France in the third match of the day.

Two U.S. players – Hunter Stewart of Vanderbilt and Robby Shelton of Alabama – went 4-0 in their matches. They were the first players to sweep their Palmer Cup opponents since Andrew Yung of the U.S. did it in 2012.

Stanford’s Maverick McNealy, though, was accorded the sponsor’s exemption to the PGA Tour’s Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill in 2015. Palmer, who lives at the Orlando, Fla., club, founded the collegiate event in 1997. McNealy was selected by his teammates before Sunday’s matches.

McNealy will be using his Palmer Cup caddie, Zach Urwiler, at Bay Hill. Urwiler, a freshman at Mooseheart Academy, is in his second year as a caddie at Rich Harvest.

“It’s going to be a blast,’’ said McNealy. “There’s no better feeling than winning with your team, and it was such an honor to be voted to go to Bay Hill. This was some of the most fun golf I’ve played my entire life.’’

Hossler will be back at Rich Harvest in August in hopes of repeating as champion of the Western Amateur. He believes the Palmer Cup experience will boost his chances.

“This course requires some local knowledge, and I’ve figured it out the last few days,’’ he said. “I’m looking forward to defending my title.’’

Beau Hossler vowed even before the Palmer Cup matches began that he wouldn’t be looking ahead to his title defense in August’s Western Amateur. Both competitions are being played at Rich Harvest Farms in Sugar Grove.

The Palmer Cup is a 19-year old team event pitting the college stars of the U.S. against their counterparts from Europe. The Western Amateur is 112 years old and has been won by some of golf’s greatest names – Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Curtis Strange, Ben Crenshaw, Jack Nicklaus. Very few have won it back-to-back (the last was Justin Leonard in 1992-93), and Hossler has a chance to do that.

Still, the Western Amateur is more than a month away and Hossler has not only Sunday’s conclusion of the Palmer Cup but also next week’s U.S. Open before his title defense at Rich Harvest.

“One of the goals I’d set at the beginning of the year was to be here competing for my country,’’ said Hossler. “You know you’ve had a solid year if you make the Palmer Cup team. It’s a huge honor to play in this tournament. I’m not at all preparing for the Western.’’

And that showed on Saturday – a huge day for Hossler’s U.S. squad that was battered by the Europeans last year in England.

Hossler, from the University of Texas, had to stay focused. Trailing most of the match, he drilled the last putt of the day – a 12-footer for birdie – to take a 1-up victory over Austria’s Matthias Schwab and help the U.S. to a 13 ½-6 ½ lead. Hossler needed birdies on the last two holes to pull out the win and he was swarmed by his teammates after the last putt dropped.

Ten singles matches remain on Sunday, the first of which tees off at 8 a.m., and the U.S. needs just three wins to re-claim the cup. The U.S. leads the series 9-8-1.

The Europeans trailed 6-4 after Friday’s fourball and alternate shot matches and had little to cheer about on Saturday. Their brightest moment came in the first match where Thomas Detry, a Belgium native who was part of the University of Illinois’ NCAA semifinalists, demolished Georgia’s Lee McCoy 5 and 4.

After that Europe won only one of the remaining nine matches. Highlighting the U.S. charge was Georgia Tech’s Ollie Schniederjans, who took out Jon Rahm 2 and 1. Rahm, from Spain and Arizona State, is No. 1 in the World Amateur Golf Rankings. McCoy is No. 5, Hossler No. 6, Detry No. 11 and Schniederjans No. 13.

Just two weeks ago Thomas Detry was on the popular side, a key player in the University of Illinois’ drive to the semifinals of the NCAA golf tournament in Florida.

Now, as a member of the European team in the Palmer Cup matches at Rich Harvest Farms in Sugar Grove, he’s trying to do in the U.S. squad. Last year the native of Belgium did a good job of it, winning three of his four matches as the European college stars won handily in England.

In Friday’s opening fourball matches at Rich Harvest, however. Detry and partner Jon Rahm, an Arizona State player from Spain, were crushed 4 and 3 by Americans Lee McCoy, of Georgia, and Ollie Schniederjans of Georgia Tech in a match that started 40 minutes late because of lightning in the area.

Detry had better luck against the same opponents in the afternoon alternate shot matches with a new partner in Adrian Meronk, the first player from Poland to compete in the 19-year old Palmer Cup. They won 4 and 3 and helped the Europeans cut a 4-1 deficit after the morning matches. The U.S. leads 6-4 heading into the last two days of singles matches. They start at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday.

“This is a big deal,’’ said Detry. “I’m very honored to be playing in the Palmer Cup. Last year was so much fun. Here it’s a different feeling.’’

The Palmer Cup was founded by Arnold Palmer in 1997, and he was on hand for the opening ceremony and first tee shots on Saturday

Friday’s matches started the latest in a series of big events at Rich Harvest. The Western Amateur will be played there in August, the LPGA International Crown in 2016 and the NCAA Championships in 2018.

“I love the golf course,’’ said Detry. “Jerry Rich did a great job designing it. Some didn’t like it, but it’s straight-forward course and a good challenge.’’

Detry was on the Illini team that won an NCAA regional tournament at Rich Harvest in 2014 but he didn’t try to qualify for next week’s U.S. Open and will skip the Western Amateur to compete in Europe after the Palmer Cup is over. He’ll enter his senior year at Illinois in the fall.

FRENCH LICK, Ind. – Hinsdale’s Jeff Sluman made a run at the title in the final round of the 76th Senior PGA Championship on Sunday. After making five birdies in his first 10 holes Sluman even thought he had a chance to catch front-runner Colin Montgomerie.

“I just played excellent golf, which you have to do here,’’ said Sluman. “I certainly knew I was climbing the leaderboard. It’s a tough golf course, and you know there’s not going to be many people under par so – unless I’m a total idiot –I had to figure maybe I had an outside chance.’’

In the end, though, a 3-under-par 69 was too little too late for Sluman, who climbed from a tie for 24th at the start of the final round into a tie for seventh. He wound up nine strokes behind champion Montgomerie, who also finished with a 69 and won by four strokes over Esteban Toledo. The only lower score in the final round was a 68 by Marco Dawson, who tied for ninth.

The Pete Dye Course proved too much for most of the stars of the 50-and-over circuit. As was the case at the end of the second and third rounds, only five were under par at the end of the fourth. Montgomerie was at 8-under 280 in becoming only the fifth player to successfully defend a Senior PGA title. The other four were Eddie Williams in the 1940s, Paul Runyan (1961-62), Sam Snead (1964-65 and again in 1972-73) and Hale Irwin who enjoyed a three-peat from 1996-98.

Montgomerie had a series of near-misses in major championships during a solid career on the European and PGA Tours but was an instant success since joining the Champions Tour last year. In addition to making the Senior PGA his first major title he also won the U.S. Senior Open. Next year he’ll defend his Senior PGA crown on the same course he won on last year – Harbor Shores in Michigan.

Toledo cut Montgomerie’s three-stroke lead at the start of the day to one twice on the front nine but Montgomerie answered with four of his six birdies for the day coming between holes eight and 12.

“It was a difficult position to be three ahead. There was no place to go but down,’’ said Montgomerie. “It was very tiring mentally but after 12 I felt safe.’’

FRENCH LICK, Ind. – The Senior PGA Championship has been played for 75 years and only four players have successfully defended a title. Colin Montgomerie could be the fifth on Sunday.

The Scotsman enjoyed a solid career on the European and PGA Tours but never won a major title. That changed when he joined the Champions Tour last year. His first major win came at the Senior PGA at Harbor Shores in Michigan and he followed that with a victory in the U.S. Senior Open.

Now a Senior PGA repeat is a distinct possibility as Montgomerie takes a three-stroke lead on German Bernhard Langer into the final round on the tricky Pete Dye Course. They were paired all four rounds at Harbor Shores but Langer didn’t get into the mix here until Saturday when he fired a 3-under-par 69.

“I thought he’d re-appear some time,’’ said Montgomerie. “He’s a very difficult man to dislodge and he’s a very good friend. We’ve had lots of good matches together and I look forward to playing with him again.’’

Montgomerie was the focal point of Saturday’s third round. He posted a 70, topped off by a three-foot birdie putt on the finishing hole, to hit the 54-hole stop at 5-under 211. That put him in position to join some select company.

Two of the four players who have defended Senior PGA titles were three-peat champions – Eddie Williams (1942,1945 and 1946 — the tourney wasn’t played during World War II) and Hale Irwin (1996-98). The other successful defenses were mounted by Paul Runyan (1961-62) and Sam Snead, who did it twice (1964-65 and 1972-73).

“There’s a long road to go – seven miles in walking terms,’’ said Montgomerie, “and the emotions go up and down like a roller coaster.’’

He’ll have to get by Langer again, and Langer created major excitement on Saturday. He holed a 7-iron shot from 162 yards for eagle at No. 8, then cruised in with a birdie-birdie finish.

Birdies and eagles have been hard to come by on the Pete Dye Course. Only one player was under par in Thursday’s first round and just five were in red numbers after the second, the fewest since 1986. Five were also under par after Round 3.

Scott Verplank, Esteban Toledo and Brian Henninger are one stroke behind Langer. Henninger was tied for the lead until he made triple bogey eight at the par-5 16th. He wasn’t the only one struggling. Reigning Encompass champion Tom Lehman, the 36-hole leader, shot 78 and dropped seven strokes off the pace and into a tie for 17th.

The two Chicago players in the field are further down the list. Hinsdale’s Jeff Sluman shot 73 and is tied for 24th and Lake Forest’s Chip Beck carded a 76 and is tied for 55th.

FRENCH LICK, Ind. – Scores were much higher than usual over the first two rounds of the 76th Senior PGA Championship at the Pete Dye Course, but not all the Champions Tour players were suffering.

Tom Lehman, who will defend his title in July’s Encompass Championship at North Shore in Glenview, claimed the 36-hole lead after posting a 5-under-par 67 on Friday and the two Chicago area players on the Champions circuit – Hinsdale’s Jeff Sluman and Lake Forest’s Chip Beck – made the cut in the second major championship of the year in the 50-and-over circuit.

Most of the other 153 starters, however, were confounded by the six-year old Dye design that is hosting the event for the first time. Lehman, though, hit the halfway point in the tournament a 4-under 140. Scotland’s Colin Montgomerie, Lehman’s playing partner n the first two rounds and the tourney’s defending champion, is one stroke back

“It’s an incredibly beautiful place,’’ said Lehman, “and an amazing location to have this tournament. What Pete Dye does, more than anything, is challenge you mentally. He forces you to be patient.’’

Beck learned that lesson. He soared to 9-over-par for the tournament after his first nine on Saturday but played his last nine in 4-under-par 32 that included an eagle on the last hole. That put him at 5-over 149 for the first two rounds, which was well inside the cut line. Sluman, who matched Beck’s 73 on Friday, is two strokes better entering Saturday’s third round.

Lehman made five of his six birdies on the back nine to offset his lone bogey at No. 14. He posted a 32 on the back side.

Jim Billiter, a 10-year assistant pro at the Merit Club in Libertyville, won the 64th Illinois PGA Match Play Championship on Monday, climaxing a week in which nothing went as expected at Kemper Lakes in Long Grove.

The first major tournament of the Chicago season figured to be another duel between Curtis Malm, the head pro at White Eagle in Naperville who was bidding for his fourth straight title, and Medinah teaching pro Travis Johns, last year’s IPGA Player of the Year. Both were eliminated on Wednesday, when Billiter beat Johns and Malm was ousted by Scott Baines, an assistant at Chicago’s Bryn Mawr club.

In fact, none of the top seven seeded players qualified for Thursday’s morning semifinals in which Billiter beat Simon Allan, head pro at Prestwick in Frankfort, and Brian Brodell, new teaching pro at Mistwood in Romeoville, survived a 19-hole match with Kyle Bauer, head pro at Glen View Club.

The Billiter-Brodell final also had a surprise ending on the winner’s 29th birthday. The end came on the third hole of a sudden death playoff that began when Billiter put his 8-iron tee shot in the water on a 171-yard par-3.

That put Brodell in a good spot to close out the match, but he couldn’t do it. His 7-iron tee shot bounded over the green and into thick rough.

“When I shanked it in the water I thought it was over,’’ admitted Billiter, “but then when I saw him hit it long I knew I still had a chance because he had a real delicate shot.’’

Billiter put a 90-yard shot from the drop area to six feet of the cup, then watched Brodell chunk his first chip shot and run his second four feet past the cup. Billiter holed his put for bogey, and that was good enough to win the match after Brodell missed.

“A sad way to end it,’’ said Brodell, who came to Mistwood last September to work with the club’s junior programs after serving as assistant coach for both the men’s and women’s teams at Purdue University. “I hit the same club on that hole as I did in the morning match, the wind was the same and I expected a two-putt uphill and the match was mine. Then all of a sudden my shot flew long and I had one bad chip.’’

Billiter won the Illinois PGA Assistants Match Play Championship last year, which had been his biggest win prior to Thursday. He won the first two holes against Brodell but lost the lead six holes later and needed to sink an eight-foot birdie putt on the last hole of regulation to force the playoff.

Wheaton’s Kevin Streelman won the traditional Par-3 Contest that precedes the Masters tournament on Wednesday. That’s not necessarily a good thing, because players consider winning the Par-3 a bad omen. No Par-3 winner has ever gone on to win the Masters.

In Streelman’s case, though, things might turn out differently. He didn’t take his participation in the Par-3 lightly.

His thought process started in December of 2013. That’s when Streelman and wife Courtney were expecting their first child. Daughter Sophia was born more than a month early after Courtney underwent a difficult, worrisome pregnancy.

“That changed a lot of the ways I see children,’’ Streelman told ESPN.com. “I have an entirely new appreciation for what parents with children having tough times are going through.’’

The Par-3 is a fun event, and players frequently use family members or friends as their caddies. Streelman’s father was on his bag in in his first Par-3 experience in 2012. His mother got the call in 2013 and his father-in-law last year.

Still moved by Sophia’s struggles at birth Streelman contacted the Make-A-Wish Foundation after securing another Masters berth by virtue of his win in the PGA Tour’s tournament in Hartford, Ct., last year. He asked if any of its patients wanted to attend the Masters and Ethan Couch, the 13-year-old son of a former golf professional in Canada, was anxious to have the opportunity.

Couch was diagnosed with a brain tumor that’s benign, but inoperable, two years ago. How it will affect the rest of his life is uncertain. He’ll undergo an MRI next week.

With Ethan carrying his bag Streelman went around the nine-hole short course at Augusta National in 5-under-par, which left him in a tie with Camilo Villegas for the top spot. They went to a sudden death playoff, which Streelman won on the third extra hole to make Couch’s day all the more special.

“I just wanted to open the door to someone, and hopefully give him a great day after going through some rough times,’’ said Streelman. “This isn’t about me. It’s about giving back. It’s about using that opportunity that I have to make someone’s wish come true.’’

Streelman, 36, was born in Winfield, developed his golf skills primarily at Cantigny in Wheaton, graduated from Wheaton-Warrenville South High School in 1997 and Duke University 2001. He has two wins since earning his PGA Tour card in 2008.

Though he lost to Streelman in the playoff, the day was special for Villegas as well. He made two holes-in-one in his first eight holes of the Par-3 competition. Six-time Masters champion Jack Nicklaus, now 75, also made a hole-in-one. He’s been playing at Augusta National since the 1960s but never had an ace there until Wednesday, and he somewhat predicted it in a television interview before his round.