Ghim chases his dream again

Writing from Silvis, Illinois

Saturday, July 4, 2026

News you can use: Lucas Glover and Lee Hodges share the lead in the 55th John Deere Classic with 18 holes remaining.

News that’s more newsy: Arlington Heights native Doug Ghim is within striking distance of winning his first tournament on the PGA Tour.

Ghim, who started well at TPC Deere Run the last two years and fizzled on the weekend, has reversed things so far this year. His second straight 6-under 65 on Saturday moved him to 14-under 199 through 54 holes and within two strokes of Glover and Hodges, who scored 69 and 67 respectively to stand at 16-under 197.

Glover’s won here before and has a U.S. Open in his pocket. Hodges has won before – the 3M Open in 2022 – but hasn’t come close here. Ghim, solo sixth, is winless in 186 starts.

“Especially one close to home, it’s nice to be in the mix,” Ghim said. “I was in the thick of it last year and am in the thick of it again.”

He opened the 2025 Deere with a 62 and led through 36 holes, but dropped to a tie for 24th after a third-round 74. Saturday, he knocked in a 7 footer for eagle on the par-5 second and went bogey-free, adding in four birdies along the trail.

“Game was solid,” Ghim said. “I don’t think I did anything overwhelmingly great, or badly either. I wish I’d gotten a couple more putts to the hole, but it was relatively stress free today, and I’m sure tomorrow won’t be.”

Ghim admitted that overanalyzing what happens and trying to attach a reason to it can be counterproductive.

“We do a good job of thinking about it too much,” Ghim said. “It’s one of those things where I can do everything right tomorrow and it might not go my way. Or I might not deserve it and might win. I’m just excited to be in the mix.”

Ghim’s been close elsewhere, notably at the 2022 Players Championship, where he tied for sixth. But the gap between almost and success can be as wide as the Pacific. Some of his peers, notably fellow Texas class of 2018 graduate Scottie Scheffler, have already won majors. Whereas Ghim was once the world’s top-ranked amateur, Scheffler is the world’s top-ranked player.

“It gets frustrating,” Ghim admitted. “You see guys you grew up with winning a lot and doing everything you hope to do at this point, but at the end of the day everybody’s got their own path and if I keep putting myself in position, eventually it will happen to me.”

Ghim hit every fairway and green in regulation Saturday, the first time that’s happened at the Deere since Tim Clark did so in 2014, but made only one long putt, a 22-footer for birdie on No. 5. His next-longest made putt was 7 feet 5 inches. In other words, it could have been a really good day if more putts fell.

“When I step on the tee tomorrow, you can think about target score, you can think about everybody that’s near the lead, when they’re teeing off, yada, yada, yada,” Ghim said. “At the end of the day, if I perform the way I know I can, I know I’ll have a chance.

“If things don’t go my way, I’ll learn from it and figure out were it went wrong. I’ll keep preparing for the next one.”

Between the Glover-Hodges duo and Ghim are Ben Kohles, Jackson Suber (both with 5-under 66 for 15-under 198) who also seeks his first PGA Tour triumph, and Zac Blair (67 for 198).

The day’s best round was that of Rickie Fowler, whose 9-under 63 catapulted him from a tie for 60th – he made the cut on the number – into a tie for 12th. A 40-footer for eagle after driving the green on the short par-4 boosted his chances. 

“The hole right before 14 I had about a 30-footer and hit a perfect putt,” Fowler said. “It just didn’t break at the end. Fourteen, that was a nice bonus.”

Ghim hopes for a bigger bonus on Sunday.

Around the Deere

Said Glover of his circuit, “I didn't hit it in the fairway enough to make a bunch of birdies, and then when I did, I didn't hit it close. Then the few times I did hit it close, I didn't make it. I just had kind of an off day.” … Hodges finished in 4-under 32, and said of it, “I played beautifully on the back nine to give myself a chance tomorrow. It definitely could have got away from me today, but I played myself right back in there, so I'm really proud of that.” … An overnight downpour and another gullywasher at dawn put about six-tenths of an inch of rain on the course, necessitating a delay in the start of the third round and the decision by the PGA Tour to play “lift, clean and place.” The combination of ball in hand and soft conditions didn’t lower scores to any degree. The field average of 69.063 was lower than last year’s third round, but from 2022 through 2024, the field averaged under 69 in the third round. … The day’s 326 birdies ran the four-day (including pro-am) total to 1,715. That’s 103 behind last year’s pace, important for the Birdies for Charity recipients. …A miniature thunderstorm delayed play late in the third round and also pushed back the Carrie Underwood concert, which drew a throng of fans, some of whom might have heard of golf.

– Tim Cronin

Glover leads, Cole survives at the Deere

Writing from Silvis, Illinois

Friday, July 3, 2026

There wasn’t a huge amount of movement atop the John Deere Classic leaderboard in the second round. Lucas Glover went from co-leader to sole leader by adding a 6-under 65 to his opening 63, Zac Blair went from co-leader to third place with a decent 68, Lee Hodges’ 66 moved him into second, and Jackson Suber, thanks to a 7-under 64, vaulted 33 places into a tie for fourth.

The real excitement came deeper in the field as players whose opening rounds were less than sterling maneuvered to make the cut. Foremost among the movers was Eric Cole, a 38-year-old who as been tilting at the pro golf windmill since graduating college, something that runs in the family. His father is Bobby Cole and is mother is Laura Baugh Cole. He’s still searching for his first victory on the big circuit, but when he teed off was just searching for a tee time this weekend.

The prospect looked bleak thanks to Thursday’s opening 76, an unspirited round. But opening Friday birdie-eagle – the latter via a brilliant approach to inside eight feet on the par-5 second – triggered a splendid round of 8-under 63, the best of the day. It was capped by a second eagle on the par-5 17th where he rolled in a 28-foot putt for the 3. The total of 3-under 139 was precisely the number needed to play on the weekend, and 80 players will.

This climb from solo 140th, his position at daybreak, was accomplished with a new set of irons, overnighted by PXG when he discovered his 8-iron shaft was bent.

“They were just kind of a little bit beat up,” Cole said. “I figured this was a nice opportunity to switch them all out.”

The move paid off. So did adding a 2-iron and dropping a 5-wood, mainly to get used to it in advance of next week’s Scottish Open. But guys in 140th don’t come back to earn a check. Now, Cole will.

“Maybe I was a little more aggressive just being in that spot, but yeah, no change in game plan,” Cole said. “I just played better. Getting off to that (birdie-eagle) start is almost what you need to shoot a low round here.”

Well, magic happens here, goes the saying.

Glover, who won at TPC Deere Run in 2021, isn’t saying that yet, but he might be feeling it after 36 holes, most of them in the lead.

“I hit some good shots and didn’t convert and hit some bad shots but got them up-and-down,” Glover said. “It’s just golf, so rest up and get ready for tomorrow. A lot of hungry kids out there (are) wanting to play well, so we’ll do our best.”

Glover was one of those guys when he was given a sponsor’s exemption in 2002. He tied for 40th, won $10,800. He grinds on.

“The pedal as to be down,” Glover said. “Stay aggressive. There’s not going to be any hanging on. There’s going to be birdies and eagles. It’s going to be fun.”

Around Deere Run

Among those besides Cole making the cut on the number: Jordan Spieth, Keegan Bradley, Rickie Fowler, Nick Dunlap and former Illinois notable Adrian Dumont de Chassart. Missing by a stroke at 2-under 140: Wheaton’s Kevin Streelman, Northbrook’s Nick Hardy, Webb Simpson and Daniel Berger. Streelman bogeyed his last hole, No. 9, to fall out of weekend play. … Former Deere winner J.T. Poston had the day’s strangest adventure, a pushed tee shot deep into the poison ivy-infested woods on the 18th. He found his ball and somehow managed to chop it out into sunlight and managed a double-bogey to cap his 2-under 69. … The field averaged 69.363 strokes, the ninth-lowest second round in Deere history. … With the 79-player field, the first tee time was set for 6:31 a.m., and threesomes after a pair of twosomes through the final group at 11:35 a.m. to ensure a 5 p.m. finish for our television peers at CBS.

– Tim Cronin

Deere fits like a Glover for Lucas

Writing from Silvis, Illinois

Thursday afternoon, July 2, 2026

Sometimes the old salts know best.

Example One: Lucas Glover. He’s been around the block a few times. Knows what works, was doesn’t, and knows it can go away in the blink of an eye.

Glover’s been on top as a U.S. Open winner and on the bottom, searching for his swing. He’s also done well at the John Deere Classic, winning at TPC Deere Run in 2021 and cobbling together six other top 25 finishes, including a tie for fifth last year.

With that resume, one would expect Glover could waltz into the clubhouse with a 67 in his pocket.

Uh-uh. He rolled up the driveway wondering about his swing. He’d been wondering for a while, and experimenting.

“My backswing, I was getting a little ‘lifty,’ stopping my turn, club going up, two-way miss. Not a good combo. I hit some shots at Hartford last week like that. When you’re in last place on Sunday morning, you can try some things you might not usually do.”

This things confirmed trouble. Monday on the Deere range, Glover and coach Jason Baile went to work. The result in Thursday’s first round, an 8-under par 63, his best opening effort in 17 starts and a share of the first round lead with Zac Blair.

“It was basically just turning a little bit lower, flatter,” Glover said.

That turned his whole game around.

“Been having just a lot of those days where my ball seemed to just roll away from the hole; today it kind of rolled toward it, so maybe it’s turning,” Glover said. “I’ve been doing this long enough to know that one swing, one round, one week can change a lot.”

Glover, 46, came back from the golf dead by winning the Deere in 2021, and has been among the best of the 40-plus set since.

“I’ve always liked it here,” Glover said. “They gave me a start here right out of college in 2002 (he finished tied for 40th and earned $10,800). I’ve always been fond of the course, the town, the community, the people. Even struggling like I have this year, you pull down the driveway where you’ve had success, it gives you a good feeling.”

Blair’s feeling good as well after his best individual round of the year, one keyed by an eagle 3 on the second hole, where he sank a 17-footer after an approach from the right rough.

“I hit it pretty good and made a few putts and didn’t do anything stupid,” Blair said. “I got pretty lucky with the lie (on No. 2) and hit a 9-wood out of the rough. It just kind of ran forever.”

Blair was out with an injury – designing a golf course while on the mend – and is bouncing between the PGA Tour and the Korn Ferry circuit at the moment. He also made the U.S. Open and finished 32nd at Shinnecock Hills, so the recovery is going well. But, never fixing better than second on the big tour, he yearns to take the next step.

“I’ve always been right in that 125 to 150 (ranking) spot my whole career,” Blair said. “So every start is important.”

Example Two: Zach Johnson, the Cedar Rapids legend. Masters winner, British Open winner, John Deere Classic winner and board member. Now 50 and a senior tourist, he’s playing without the pressure to keep his status and brilliantly so. Four-under through 16 holes, he ran in a 46-footer for eagle on the par-5 17th and, after an accidental pull hook put him 11 feet from the cup at the last, sank that for a birdie and 7-under 64 – and his 64th round in the 60s at Deere Run – to join Lee Hodges and Stephan Jaeger a stroke back.

“This is as strong as I’ve seen this golf course in a while,” said Johnson, 247-under in his career at Deere Run. “I was just trying to hit solid shots and let the scorecard reveal itself.”

This is something of a victory lap for Johnson, who is skipping the U.S. Senior Open at Scioto to participate here for the 24th straight tournament, matching the record of Jay Delsing.

“The outcome of my week from a golf standpoint, professionally speaking, is irrelevant almost,” Johnson said. “I don’t know if everything’s icing on the cake, but you could maybe say it’s kind of that way. My scorecard is an ingredient this week but it’s not everything.”

But if he’s within shouting distance on Sunday, look out.

Davis “Twin Eagles” Riley, Ben Kohler and Patrick Fishburn are two back at 6-under 65, and a twelvesome at 5-under 66 that includes amateur Preston Stout of Richardson, Tex., and Oklahoma State, in on a sponsor exemption and based on a round featuring six birdies offset by a single bogey, deservedly so. All the above-named except Johnson played in the morning, before the greens dried out to match fast-running fairways and the south-south-southwest wind kicked up to confuse players.

Stout’s circuit overshadowed the professional debut of Jackson Koivun, who scored 2-over 73 and sits in a tie for 123rd entering the second round. Only the top 65 players and ties move on to the weekend, so Koivun will have to step on it to make a check this week.

“I never really got settled into the round,” Koivun said. “The golf swing was a little off.”

Memo to Mr. Koivun: See Mr. Glover’s experience above.

Around Deere Run

Davis Riley aced the 16th hole, negotiating the 151 yards with a 9-iron. It was the first ace at the Deere in four years (Kevin Streelman on No. 12) and the first on No. 16 in five (Maverick McNealy). Riley then eagled the par-5 17th for back-to-back eagles, the first such instance in memory in the Deere, and the third time this year on the Tour. … The course played to 7,277 yards, the field averaging 69.800 strokes. … High man was Danny Walker, whose untidy 10-over 81 included a quadruple-bogey 8 on the ninth, the day’s most difficult hole. … Seamus Power was humming along in the morning, 2-under at the turn. Then golf happened. He bogeyed Nos. 10 and 11, then double-bogeyed the 15th, 16th and 17th. Par at the last gave him an inward 44 and total of 6-over 77, prompting his withdrawal. A back injury was the stated reason. … While tournament executives don’t announce attendance, the morning gallery at Deere Run looked larger than normal. Perhaps people were trying to beat the heat. It was 91 degrees at Quad Cities International Airport at 2 p.m. and most members of the gallery were using trees for shade by then. Some 17,000 were probably on hand.

– Tim Cronin

New morning dawns for Koivun, Deere

Writing from Silvis, Illinois

Thursday, July 2, 2026

For 55 years, the John Deere Classic – by that name for the last 27 playings – has been the shining light of Quad Cities sports.

The Deere, played at TPC Deere Run, is the Green Bay Packers of the PGA Tour, the big deal in a metropolitan area of about 375,000 people.

Now imagine if the Packers, the last “town” team from a group that once included the Moline Tractors and Rock Island Independents, were shoved out of the NFL to a lesser circuit.

That’s what the Deere apparently faces after the 2027 tournament, thanks to the PGA Tour’s formally making the current de facto system of Signature weekends and everything else into the Champions and Challengers divisions.

The prospect of a radically different Deere in 2028 hangs over this year’s soiree like the ghost of Banquo. This year’s tournament includes two-time winner Jordan Spieth, Tony Finau, Rickie Fowler and a bunch of other luminaries, notably Jackson Koivun, whose professional debut will occur this morning at 7:35 a.m., when he joins Spieth and Ben Griffin on the 10th tee.

Koivun, who tied for 11th last year as an amateur, is the latest in a long line of college stars touted as the next big thing. He starred for Auburn, leading the Tigers to this year’s NCAA championship, made the Walker Cup team, was co-low amateur in this year’s U.S. Open, and so on. But now he plays to earn a living, and that’s a bigger difference than a driver and a putter.

“College is so much fun and you have six to eight really, really close friends you’re playing and competing with every day,” Koivun said. “Out here, you’re definitely by yourself. You have your select friends, but you’re playing against each other and playing for a job.

“I definitely felt that a little bit last summer. I think I’ll feel it a little bit more now.”

Koivun and the rest of the field is playing for a first prize of $1.584 million from a total purse of $8.8 million, an enormous sum considering the locale of the tournament. Deere has kept pace with the Tier II crowd even as some Deere & Company executives drool over the prospect of occasionally jumping up with the Signature/Champions swells.

But, unlike most tournaments, the charity side of the Deere is even bigger. Thanks to the Birdies for Charity program, started in 1993 to involve local non-profits, last year the tournament raised almost $17 million for 460 participating charities, running the lifetime total to $206.59 million.

That, more than giving pros a place to fight for the purse, is what drives tournament golf. In turn, the afterglow from Birdies is what drives Deere, whose business is the largest in the Quad Cities, to remain involved with the tournament. (Deere also has a successful golf course equipment division and supplies said equipment to Tour-owned TPC courses, but that’s a small part of their overall business of everything from farm implements to lawn mowers.)

The Deere, from its Quad Cities Open days and with everyone and everything from Ed McMahon to Hardees burgers to Miller High Life attached to the tournament, has always been an identifier of your talent. First-time Tour winners include Spieth, Payne Stewart, Roger Maltbie, D.A. Weibring, Brian Harman and Bryson DeChambeau. That group also includes Mike Morley and David Gossett, proving anyone can have a good week.

The combination of local involvement, identification of new talent and Deere’s stewardship gives the tournament an identity on the Tour. In the coming new world, presuming it ends up in the Challenger camp, it would be the standout in that field, boasting a half-century plus of play, CBS cameras on the scene and deep roots.

By the time 2028 rolls around, perhaps the Tour will tweak the rules to allow players on the Champions circuit the right to come back and play in a limited number of Challenge tournaments. There’s even a scenario that a Challenger winner would get bumped up to the Champions level and be told me can’t defend his title the next year.

“That is probably one of the stranger parts of the whole situation because most of the time guys go back to try to defend their titles,” Spieth said. “It’s definitely something that it’s almost like an unofficial job.

“I don’t know what events are going to do there. I think they’re still working on that. That would probably be the strangest part of the entire deal.”

For now, all are welcome. Spieth goes off No. 10 at 7:35 a.m. with Ben Griffin and Koivun, the New Guy playing with a guy who’s been The Guy and wants to be again.

Around Deere Run

Illinois basketball coach John Underwood was a popular guy to follow in Wednesday’s pro-am. … First tee shots are in the air at 6:40 a.m. … Golf Channel coverage begins at 3 p.m., but PGA Tour Live is on all day via ESPN+. … Five Illinoisans are in the field: Kevin Streelman (Wheaton), Nick Hardy (Nortbbrook), Doug Ghim (Arlington Heights), three-time Korn Ferry Tour winner Nicholas Lindheim (Lake Forest) and recent Marquette graduate Patrick Adler (Winnetka).

– Tim Cronin

All hail the juniors

Writing from Lake Forest, Illinois

Wednesday, June 17, 2026

If golf is the last bastion of sportsmanship – and judging from the Greg Louganis-level diving seen so far in the World Cup, it seems to be – then the junior wing of the game is the last bastion of good manners.

It’s not that touring professional golfers, that select band of the highly skilled with driver, wedge and putter, are complete louts. Many are fine fellows, and the percentage increases on the ladies’ circuit. But there are enough of the entitled throughout the play-for-pay game that one who follows it closely can be excused for wishing the hockey season never ended.

The worst among them berate volunteers, without whom there would be no tournaments. They demand locker room attendants break speed records getting them a cold drink or hot towel. They glare at marshals, curse the wind, and if there’s a raindrop in the air, expect to have ball in hand whether in the rough or in the fairway. They blame bad shots on the butterfly flapping its wings too loudly in the next fairway. Some cheat, or try to.

The best among them are good people and understand how lucky they are to be playing for millions every week while the real world works.

It’s that latter group that never forgot where they came from. That place, along with having parents who understand excellence is not a synonym for entitlement, is junior golf.

That brought us on a wet Wednesday to Knollwood Club, one of Chicagoland golf’s hidden gems. Designed by Charles Alison just over a century ago, with an iconic men’s locker building designed by Howard van Doren Shaw – some members never see the fine clubhouse unless they dine with their wives – Knollwood exudes style without being stuffy, even as the course knocks the stuffing out of you.

This week, Knollwood is hosting the 108th Western Junior, conducted by the Western Golf Association – the Evans Scholar folks – and thus giving the elite youth of golf’s wide world a taste of what a real test is. Tuesday, with the sun out, the wind howled off Lake Michigan and only two players broke par. Wednesday, it poured in the morning and the wind came from the southwest in the afternoon. Unlike the PGA Tour, which would have invoked “lift, clean and cheat” rules  before sunrise to protect the players’ egos, the WGA plays proper golf.

By day’s end, the original leader, Cole Pregler of Fulshear, Tex., and S.J. Thomas of Birmingham, Ala., were the only players in red numbers, and tied for the lead at 1-under 141.

By Thursday night, after the 36-hole double round completes the exercise, that may still be the case. Knollwood, which hosts the Western Amateur next year, will be the real winner.

So, too, are the participants, for their civility. That was also true, according to reports reaching this desk, at last week’s Women’s Western Junior, conducted at Meridian Hills Country Club on the leafy north side of Indianapolis. Not far from where Booth Tarkington penned “The Magnificent Ambersons,” 13-year-old Iris Lee played magnificent golf and became the youngest winner in WWJ history, which spans 99 playings over 107 years. Lee, a tyke from Orlando who is eligible to play in the championship through 2031, knocked off Athena Singh of Morehead, Ky., 1 up in the 18-hole championship match, charming one and all in the process.

Pregler, 18, speaks loudly with his clubs. No. 80 in the AJGA rankings, he recorded an ace this year in the Texas high school championship, which further endeared him to Texas-San Antonio, where he’ll be a freshman in the fall. He made no aces at Knollwood – at least so far – but his run of four birdies in five holes in the opening round served notice on the field that he’s yet another Texan who can play in the wind. He would have been sole leader but for a double-bogey 6 at the last.

Meanwhile, 15-year-old Thomas started in the rain, chipped in three times on his first nine and rattled off a closing string of five pars in blustery winds to finish off his 1-under 70 for a 36-hole aggregate of 1-under 141.

“It’s different,” Thomas said. “You’ve got every condition out here. I just focused on the shot at hand. I did pretty solid on that.”

All these lads play a regular series of tournaments on the AJGA circuit. Thomas might have been speaking for the majority when he said of the WGA’s operation, “It’s awesome. Conditions are hard and the golf course is about as pure as it gets.”

Smart kid. Polite, too. That's a winning combination.

– Tim Cronin