Luke List is in the right place to win his first PGA Tour title, as 23 players since 1970 have made the John Deere their first win.
It’s inevitable that after a player has a great round of golf, a member of the media will ask how difficult it will be to follow it up with another good to great round.
It’s a question that could have been asked of many players following the first round of the John Deere Classic at vulnerable TPC Deere Run in Silvis, Illinois, seeing that two players posted 8-under 63 on Thursday and three shot 64.
Well, those players delivered answers in Friday’s second round.
Sebastian Munoz followed his 63 with a 67 while Chesson Hadley added a 68 to his 63 to maintain residence on the first page of the leaderboard in a tournament where par gets battered.
“It’s never easy showing up the day after you shoot 8 under. I thought I had a really good start. Putter went a little cold on the back but happy where I am and really positive the way I hit the ball,” Munoz said. “I think my mind, as well, is clicking into place. I feel like the last couple weeks I didn’t have the performance I wanted, and I managed to somehow not lower my expectations but kind of take it one shot at a time instead of like the whole score at the end of the day.”
JOHN DEERE CLASSIC: Leaderboard | Photos
Hadley’s mind is in a good place after his self-proclaimed “giant dumpster fire” finish in last month’s Palmetto Championship at Congaree, where he bogeyed the final three holes to lose by one shot to Garrick Higgo.
“Hopefully we can look back and say that was a turning point of my year and career maybe if you want to. Obviously that tournament was bittersweet, but I kind of am very over that and certainly motivated to do better this weekend if the opportunity arises, for sure,” he said. “It’s just all about execution. If you’re executing, you’re going to feel comfortable because you know where the ball is going and you have control, and you’re always going to hit poor shots and just kind of be aware that that is going to happen, and then when it does, it’s not shocking or gets you uncomfortable and then you kind of let things slide.
“You’ve got to keep making birdies because everybody else will be.”
On Friday, it was Luke List’s turn to field the question about following up a great round. List made seven birdies in an eight-hole stretch and carded a bogey-free 63 to grab the lead through 36 holes. With rounds of 66-63, he’s at 13 under and one shot clear of Munoz. Seven players are at 11 under – Hadley, Adam Schenk (64), Brandon Hagy (64), Chase Seiffert (63), Chez Reavie (67), Lucas Glover (63) and 2016 John Deere winner Ryan Moore (66).
Nick Taylor and Patrick Rodgers each shot 65 to get to 10 under.
List is in the right place to win his first PGA Tour title – 23 players since 1970 captured their first PGA Tour victory in the John Deere, the most of any tournament on the Tour.
“I was kind of feeling like I had some momentum putting from (Thursday) and I wanted to carry that into today and was able to do that,” List said. “I got off to a little bit of a slow start and then from there I just tried to stay patient. The round got going midway through and was able to keep hitting the fairway, which out here is premium, and I was able to attack from the fairway.
“This course you can always expect to see birdies and guys going low, so it’s not like there’s anything funky going on. I knew I had to keep going low and I’ll have to go low this weekend.
“Momentum is kind of funny and you can find it in the smallest of things. I had a couple putting sessions last week where I was like, man, this kind of feels pretty good, and I had a good round with some buddies at home. One round and I was like, OK, I feel like I’ve got my game. Sometimes that’s all it takes is just a little bit of lightning in a bottle like that and hopefully I can continue that this weekend.”
As Schenk said, you need to keep the pedal down at TPC Deere Run. Patience is a key, especially if you fall too fat back and think you need to force matters. Scoring is so low that the cut came home at 4 under. If you were 6 under through 36 holes, you were tied for 34th.
Seiffert sounded like he had the perfect recipe to follow up his 63 with another solid round on Saturday.
“I’m just going to go hit a few balls and kind of decompress a little bit, use that as a little cool-down, so to speak, work on a few things, but more just kind of get some energy out because I’m kind of amped up right now,” he said after the round. “And then try to do the same things, have a nice dinner and I get to sleep in, which is nice. Late tee time. But just enjoy it. It’s nice to be back playing good golf.”
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