Tour News
Picks and Preview: The John Deere Classic
![](https://www.golfwrx.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/steve-stricker_r640.jpg)
A week away from the third major of the year, the PGA Tour rolls arrives at TPC Deere Run in Silvis, Ill. Despite its positioning in the schedule, the event has had some distinguished victors. Most recently, Zach Johnson won the 2012 edition of the former Quad Cities Open.
It’s impossible to talk about the John Deere Classic without mentioning Steve Stricker, who has won the event three out of the last four years. The field also features nine players who have won on Tour this year and 10 major champions.
The course, which has recently been dealing with flood-like conditions, will certainly play soft this year. This stands in contrast to the firm conditions, which greeted players last year. Even with the faster conditions, TPC Deere Run was still only the 42nd most difficult course on tour in 2012.
Given the softer conditions this year, the 2013 edition will likely be a birdie-fest.
Here’s a look at who could enter the Open Championship on a winning streak.
Steve Stricker: 13-2 odds
Strick has only played seven times on tour this year, but has managed to make this cut in all seven of those starts. Further, he’s finished inside the top 10 four times. He’s as precise with his approach shots as ever (second in greens in regulation) and his putting is, well, Stricker-ian: He’s 11th on Tour in strokes gained-putting, picking up .635 shots on the field each round with the flat stick.
It shouldn’t be a surprise that the oddsmakers see Steve Stricker as the favorite this week, giving him a 13.33 percent chance of winning his fourth John Deere Classic in the past five years. The world’s best semi-retired golfer hasn’t played since the U.S. Open, where he tied for eighth. Despite his mini-meltdown on Sunday at the season’s second major, there’s no reason to assume that Stricker — who has been able to contend despite not playing much golf — will do anything other than win this week.
Zach Johnson: 14-1 odds
Last year’s winner, Zach Johnson, counts the John Deere Classic as his “fifth major.” The native Iowan has close ties to the Illinois event, even sitting on its Board of Directors. There won’t be a player in the gallery with more support than Zach Johnson this week. Although he missed the cut at the U.S. Open and barely made it to the weekend in his last start at the Travelers Championship, the extra motivation could be enough to notch Johnson a win this week.
Johnson, who enters the tournament with 16-straight rounds in the 60s at TPC Deere Run, putted at an otherworldly level last year. Although he could have kicked in his winning birdie putt on the second playoff hole en route to victory last year, he was deadly from all ranges with his signature SeeMore putter in hand, picking up in excess of eight strokes over his competitors on the greens.
Keegan Bradley: 20-1 odds
Keegan Bradley hasn’t played since the Travelers Championship, where he finished tied for 18th. He also hasn’t played at the John Deere Classic before, and his decision to do so this year is interesting. However, after lackluster play at the Masters and a missed cut at the U.S. Open, playing the week before a major (albeit one across the pond and several time zones away) is worth a try.
Bradley is undoubtedly hungry for a second career major and angry that the Tour is taking his beloved belly putter away. The extra emotion might compel “Ryder Cup Keegan” to step forward this week and roll home putts with his signature wild-eyed determination. The St. John’s alum sits right behind Zach Johnson in the ranking of “those with the largest emotional investment” this week. Of course, Steve “Savage” Stricker may be emotionally invested too…but you’d never know.
Louis Oosthuizen: 20-1 odds
It hasn’t been good to be the king lately. King Louis has been plagued by a number of injuries thus far in 2013. However, with a 17th place finish at the Greenbrier last week, the South African has firmly declared that he’s feeling well enough to contend. Realistically, if he weren’t, he’d likely still be sitting on the bench ahead of the season’s third major. Thus, Oosthuizen’s presence in Illinois this week is a clear indicator that he feels he can win the tournament.
Oosthuizen, of course, famously bought himself some John Deere equipment after winning the Open Championship in 2010. If he wins this week, he’ll likely have a line on a bit more. Although he missed the cut here in 2011, Louis will have no problem finding Deere Run’s large and inviting greens. And even though he’s in the midst of an abysmal putting streak, Oosthuizen will have enough looks at birdie this week to have a great chance at riding off into the sunset on a shiny new John Deere tractor (that’s what should happen when you win, at least).
Boo Weekley: 50-1 odds
There would be something poetic about a Boo Weekley victory at a tournament sponsored by a farm equipment manufacturer. Boo, with his outsized Floridian rube personality, is one of the best ballstrikers on tour. He enters this week on the heels of a missed cut at the Greenbrier Classic. However, despite this fact and his missed cut at this tournament last year, Weekley has played well at TPC Deere Run in the past, even firing a second-round 63 at the course in 2010 en route to a top-25 finish.
With his confidence restored after his win at the Crowne Plaza Invitational earlier this year, Weekley could double his 2013 victory tally this week. One of the worst putters on tour, Boo will benefit from the soft and relatively straightforward greens of TPC Deere Run, and he’ll be able to make a lot of agressive runs at birdie this week.
*odds according to Bovada.com
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Equipment
Spotted: Putter roundup from the 2024 3M Open
![](https://www.golfwrx.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/putter-roundup-2024-3m.png)
Every week we spot some really cool and custom putters out on the putting green and in tour players’ bags. This week is no slouch with some really interesting and beautiful putters being tested. Let’s take a look at some of the standouts we found.
Tyler Duncan: Scotty Cameron Phantom T-11.5
The Phantom 11 is a pretty wild putter by Scotty’s standards with a multi-material design that boosts MOI for more forgiveness. Duncan’s T-11.5. takes the stock model and moves the shaft to the center of the putter head. We don’t mean a center shafted version, but the shaft is installed in the center, behind the face as well. We don’t have any official details on this T-11.5 but it looks like that setup should create a putter where the face points towards the hole or target, similar to a L.A.B. putter.
Zac Blair: Scotty Cameron 009.M Cameron & Co. “Longneck”
Blair might be in possession of the largest Scotty collection on tour! It seems like every week he has something new, and flat-out gorgeous, that he is trying out. I have seen a lot of 009.M putters over the years, but never one with a long plumbers neck on it. This 009 is a Masterful that utilizes additional CNC machine work to reduce the amount of hand polishing needed to complete the putter. The long, or tall, neck on the putter usually is used to reduce the amount of toe hang and make the putter more face balanced. The face contains a very shallow milling while the sole features a tour truck, tour only, diamonds, and the rare Circle L stamp. The Circle L was made for Scotty’s close friends who lost matches or games and was meant to poke a little fun at their misfortune.
Paul Barjon: PXG Prototype
There are a lot of putters out there that become so widely used and popular that other manufacturers will borrow some of the design cues. The Spider is one of those putters and it looks like PXG has made a prototype putter for Barjon that has some similar features. This proto has a tapered mallet shape with twin wings that come out from either side of the rear. Twin movable weights sit in each wing on the sole and the sole features a plate that is bolted in place at the corners. The top contains a single siteline and the face uses PXG’s advanced pyramid face structure.
Odyssey Ai-One Cruiser Broomstick #7
More and more long, counterbalanced, and alternative putters seem to be showing up recently. The long, or broomstick, putter is making a comeback and more than a few players have joined Adam Scott in using that style. Odyssey has thrown its hat in the broomstick arena with a new Ai-One Cruiser model. The head shape is the very familiar #7 model, but with the shaft going into the center of the club head. An Ai-One face is there to help keep ball speed consistent on off-center hits and three white lines are on top for framing ball and aligning the putter.
TaylorMade Spider Tour S Broomstick
Another option in the long putter is TaylorMade’s Spider Tour S broomstick that we saw around the putting green. The head looks to be a little larger than the standard Tour S and that makes sense with the broomstick-style putters demanding heads near or over 400g. A TPU Pure Roll insert is installed in the face and the shaft is a more traditional double-bend design, just much longer! There isn’t the True Path alignment on top, just a full darker grey finish with a single siteline. Two moveable weights are out in the wings of the putter to dial in the specific weight a player might want.
- Check out the rest of our photos from the 2024 3M Open
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Tour Photo Galleries
Photos from the 2024 3M Open
![](https://www.golfwrx.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Screen-Shot-2024-07-24-at-11.33.52-AM.png)
GolfWRX is on site this week at TPC Twin Cities for the 2024 3M Open for the penultimate event of the PGA Tour’s regular season.
The photos are flying in from Blaine, Minnesota. We’ve already assembled general galleries and a fresh Tony Finau WITB.
Check back throughout the week for more photos!
General Albums
- 2024 3M Open – Monday #1
- 2024 3M Open – Monday #2
- 2024 3M Open – Tuesday #1
- 2024 3M Open – Tuesday #2
WITB Albums
- Tobias Jonsson – WITB – 3M Open
- Keith Mitchell – WITB – 2024 3M Open
- Tony Finau – WITB – 2024 3M Open
- Maverick McNealy – WITB – 2024 3M Open
- Tom Hoge – WITB – 2024 3M Open
- Mac Meissner – WITB – 2024 3M Open
- Robert Streb – WITB – 2024 3M Open
- Sahith Theegala – WITB – 2024 3M Open
- Sam Burns – WITB – 2024 3M Open
- Santiago de la Fuente – WITB – 2024 3M Open
- Billy Horschel – WITB – 2024 3M Open
- Chris Gotterup – WITB – 2024 3M Open
- Roger Sloan – WITB – 2024 3M Open
Pullout Albums
- Ping putters – #1 – 3M Open
- Ping Putters – #2 – 3M Open
- TaylorMade Spider Tour S broomstick putter – 3M Open
- Odyssey Broomstick #7 putter – 3M Open
- Bettinardi putters – 2024 3M Open
- New EyeLine training aid – 2024 3M Open
- Sam Ryder’s custom Cameron putter – 2024 3M Open
- Odyssey putters – 2024 3M Open
- L.A.B. Golf putters – 2024 3M Open
- Tyler Duncan’s custom Cameron putter – 2024 3M Open
- Zac Blair’s custom Cameron putter – 2024 3M Open
- Paul Barjon – PXG putter – 2024 3M Open
See what GolfWRXers are saying in the forums.
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Equipment
Collin Morikawa’s pre-Open equipment adjustments
![](https://www.golfwrx.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/MorikawaP790-1.jpg)
Editor’s note: This is an excerpt from a piece our Andrew Tursky originally wrote for PGATour.com’s Equipment Report. Head over there for the full article.
Three years later, Morikawa has once again changed his irons to deal with the unique Scottish turf.
Morikawa has been using TaylorMade P730 blade short irons (7-PW), P7MC mid irons (5-6) and a TaylorMade “Proto” 4-iron with a cavity-back construction this year.
However, he switched into a new set of TaylorMade P7CB irons (5-PW) before finishing T4 at last week’s Genesis Scottish Open, to go along with his familiar “Proto” 4-iron. TaylorMade’s P7CB irons are the finalized versions of the “Proto” 4-iron that Morikawa has been using, except they remain unreleased to retail.
According to TaylorMade, Morikawa switched into a full set of the new P7CB irons to aid with turf interaction, just like he did prior to his 2021 Open victory.
Morikawa is honing in on his winning formula overseas.
Morikawa also has switched from his usual TaylorMade Qi10 5-wood to a lower-launching TaylorMade P790 3-iron equipped with a Project X HZRDUS 105 Hybrid shaft. The loft of the club has been bent down to 19 degrees.
TaylorMade says that Morikawa switched into the new driving iron In order to “have an option to hit something lower that will roll out in the fairways.”
Head over to PGATour.com for the full article.
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