Doug Ghim (-9) is the leader of the John Deere Classic after the first round. And despite carding a 62 at the TPC Deere Run (Silvis, Illinois) in the morning session, he wasn’t entirely convinced he could hold the lead by the end of the day…
But it was enough. The wind picked up in the afternoon and, although it wasn’t a gale, it turned out that of the sixteen players making up the top ten of the tournament, fourteen had played in the morning session and only two in the afternoon, Brian Campbell (-6) and Kris Ventura (-6).
Ghim is under no illusions: “you know you have to get past -20 by the end of the tournament to give yourself a chance, so I go out to play with the idea of making six under each day…”, he explained. And he’s not wrong. So according to this theory, the big favourite Ben Griffin (PAR) already has a real challenge, as he barely managed to finish level with the course by the end of the day. The TPC Deere Run is certainly not one of the most demanding tests of the year on the circuit, but even in these types of settings, it’s necessary to hit a lot of fairways to truly post a low score, and Griffin only hit six.
It’s redemption time on the PGA Tour, now that the final stretch towards the FedEx Cup playoffs has begun, and logically there are many who haven’t done their homework yet or need to shore up their position in the rankings. For example, the leader, Ghim, who started the week in 124th place in the FedEx; or his two immediate chasers, Austin Eckroat (-8), who is 100th, and Max Homa (-8), who is 122nd. Let’s not forget that only the top seventy enter the first of the playoffs and fifty in the second.
The very young South African Aldrich Potgieter (-4), last week’s winner of the Rocket Classic in Detroit, will have no problem getting into the playoffs (he is now 36th in the rankings), but he hasn’t said his last word this week after carding a 67 and making two eagles on holes 10, par 5, and 14, a short par 4 where only he managed to make a ‘2’. Normally, Potgieter manages to leave his mark, almost in every round.
