Will the champ
pick up the tab?
SILVIS — It has been well-documented that a number of players are staying together in a house they rent just outside of Geneseo.
For the second year in a row, the John Deere Classic champ was part of the group living in the house.
Sepp Straka’s come-from-behind victory on Sunday followed J.T. Poston’s 2022 wire-to-wire victory.
That has turned into a fortuitous situation for those in the house.
However, it comes with one drawback.
“They're not letting me off the hook there,” said Straka when asked if he now had to pay for the weeklong rental on the AirBNB.
Straka, Poston (T6), Denny McCarthy (T6), Greyson Sigg (T13) and Chris Kirk (T21) were among those staying in the house. Brendon Todd, who stayed with that bunch last year, tied for second this year.
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That group may want to to keep that mojo going next year.
“I hope J.T. went ahead and renewed before this,” said Straka.
Still classy
Even after a tough weekend, Cameron Young was gracious.
The 36-hole leader slid down the leaderboard in the final two rounds, finishing with scores of 71 and 68 to finish tied for seventh. He was just 2 under on the weekend after sitting at 13 under after opening with rounds of 65 and 64.
He came into the tournament as the highest ranked player in the field, sitting 19th in the Official World Golf Ranking.
Amateur talk
Two of the top amateurs in the world — Michael Thorbjornsen and Gordon Sargent — fared well.
Thorbjornsen (68, 270) tied for 17th and Sargent (72, 277) tied for 57th.
The tie for 17th just missed the best by an amateur in this event, a tie for 15th by Patrick Rodgers in 2013.
After Sunday’s round, though, he still took time to sign numerous autographs. He signed his hat and gave it to one young fan and also gave away three signed golf gloves.
On a jet plane
There are 26 players who played the John Deere Classic who will be on the tournament’s chartered flight to next week’s Genesis Scottish Open.
On the flight that left the Quad Cities International Airport Sunday evening were: Ludvig Aberg, Ben An, Aaron Baddeley, Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Zac Blair, Joseph Bramlett, Eric Cole, Harrison Endycott, Will Gordon, Garrick Higgo, Michael Kim, S.H. Kim, K.H. Lee, David Lingmerth, Ben Martin, Keith Mitchell, Taylor Montgomery, J.T. Poston, Seamus Power, Sam Ryder, Robbie Shelton, Alex Smalley, Nick Taylor, Jimmy Walker, Dylan Wu and Kevin Yu.
How it played
Scores were low on Sunday as TPC Deere Run played an even 2 strokes under par at 69.0.
There were 50 rounds below par and another 12 at even-par 71. There were only seven rounds over par.
Hole No. 18 played the toughest on the day, playing to a 4.188 stroke average. The par-5 second hole was again the easiest, yielding four eagles and 35 birdies and playing to a 4.420 stroke average.
Bunker shots
In his third JDC start, Alex Smalley has now recorded 12 consecutive rounds of par or better and has improved his finish each year — T47 in 2021, T16 in 2022 and T2 this year. His tie for second matches his best finish in 62 starts on Tour. … Cameron Young (T6/-16), the highest-ranked player in the field at No. 19, played hole No. 18 in 4 over for the week. … Seamus Power (T13/-15) made a nice move on Sunday with his closing 64. His front-nine 29 in the final round marks his lowest nine-hole score on Tour (470 rounds). … Aaron Baddeley (T31/-11) carded 10 birdies in a round for the second time in his PGA Tour career (1,514 rounds).
