Jeray among leaders after first round of IWO

    Writing from Romeoville, Illinois
    Wednesday, July 31, 2013

    The Illinois Women’s Open usually conjures up visions of visions. Mirages shimmering in the sky thanks to insane heat are the first thing that comes to mind.
    Not this year. In keeping with the Scottish look of Mistwood Golf Club, the weather for the first day of the 19th IWO featured overcast skies and temperatures in the 60s. The only thing missing, aside from a church steeple or two to aim at, was the wind. There was only the barest hint of a breeze all day, and the better players in the field took advantage of that.
    Two of the three leaders at 2-under-par 70 after the first of three rounds come from similar backgrounds.
    Erica Popson has just graduated from Tennessee, and is in her fourth tournament as a professional after her Volunteer career.
    Caroline Powers is a freshly minted graduate of Michigan State, in her sixth pro tournament, and like Popson, hoping to show well to build confidence for the LPGA qualifying tournament in the fall.
    Popson had four birdies and two bogeys, Powers three birdies and one bogey, each combination equaling 2 under on the Ray Hearn-designed (and redesigned) layout.
    Jeray’s jaunt around the course was more adventurous. The native of Berwyn, a two-time Illinois Women’s Open champion, scored five birdies against three bogeys en route to her 70, including a birdie on the par-4 16th.
    More than sharing the lead with a pair of players 20 years her junior, Jeray is where they want to be: On the LPGA Tour. Despite the currently-controlled battle with narcolepsy, she’s been on and off the circuit for about 20 years, and on the development tour when she hasn’t been on the big one.
    “I’m 111th on the money list this year, but that’s better than it looks,” Jeray said.
    She also has something that neither Popson nor Powers have developed yet: A golfer’s mental scar tissue. Witness her reaction to a downhill putt of moderate length on the par-4 10th hole. She had turned in 3-under 33 and was looking for another birdie.
    “It rolled 15 feet by the hole,” Jeray recalled. “But I putted it back next to the cup and tapped in for bogey. I lost all my confidence on the 10th.”
    But, cagey veteran that she is, Jeray played the rest of the back nine at even par, making up for a bogey on the par-3 14th, a devilish test with water on the left, with a birdie on the par-3 16th.
    After all that, she lauded the course from stem to stern.
    “If they just back up the tees here, this would be a great course for the LPGA,” Jeray said. “Especially for me, because I’m great at picking my line.”
    That trio was a stroke ahead of a quartet of players entering the second round. Pros Katie Dick, Katie Jean and Elise Swartout and amateur Samantha Postillion scored 1-under 71, with Jean rallying from 3-over after 10 holes with four birdies in a span of five holes.
    Another six are at even par, including Chicagoan Megan Godfrey, who made up for a double-bogey on the 10th with a hole-out from 122 yards for eagle on the 16th. A bogey at the last brought her to even for the day, but Godfrey, a publicist at KemperSports, probably plays less golf than anyone else in the field.
    “I’m definitely a part-time player,” Godfrey said.
    Defending champion Samantha Troyanovich is back in the pack after an opening 3-over 75. The cut comes after Thursday’s second round, and will encompass the low 34 and those tied for 34th.
    – Tim Cronin

Kinney comes through in Illinois Open playoff

    Writing from Glenview, Illinois
    Wednesday, July 24, 2013

    An hour before Joe Kinney won the 64th Illinois Open in a three-man, three-hole playoff, Michael Davan had to lose it.
    And he did, comprehensively. But we’ll get to him later.
    First, the exploits of Kinney, whose game was flawless down the stretch of the third round at the Glen Club, and again in the playoff.
    This is how to win the tournament: Birdie the 10th hole, par the last eight in regulation, then birdie the par-5 first and par the last two while your competitors fold like road maps.
    That works. It worked for Kinney, a 26-year-old mini-tour player from Antioch who parred the last two holes of the playoff and scored an aggregate 1-under-par 12, to the 1-over 14 of amateur Dustin Korte and the 4-over 17 of Carlos Sainz Jr. And Wednesday’s winner was very happy to be the winner.
    “The Illinois Open means the world to me,” Kinney. “I mark it on my calendar as ‘Do not miss.’ This is a first class golf tournament and as good as it gets.”
    It was Kinney’s first win as a professional, and earned him $17,500. More than that, it earned him personal brownie points.
    “I had a lot of success in junior golf and amateur golf, but this – there are a lot of good golfers in this state.”
    He beat two of them head-to-head-to-head in the playoff. Kinney, who had opened with a 7-under-par 65 on Monday but sailed to a 76 on Tuesday. On Wednesday, he scored 2-under-par 70, with birdies on two of the first three holes, a bogey at the par-4 seventh, and then the bird on the 10th, followed by par after par to finish at 5-under-par 211. He was hoping for better.
    “I thought 7-under would be the number (to win),” Kinney said.
    It would have been until Davan imploded. But those two were among six players who led or shared the lead in the course of the wild closing round.
    “On the putting green (after finishing), I thought it was game, set, match,” Kinney said.
    Instead, he was in a playoff with Korte and Sainz, and quickly, he was ahead. Hitting third on the first hole proved to be an advantage when Korte found the fescue and Sainz’s shot stopped in the right rough. Kinney smoothed one to the middle of the fairway and was on his way to a two-putt birdie on the 566-yard par-5.
    “That first putt was 75 feet, and might have been my best shot of the playoff,” Kinney said.
    It stopped 2 1/2 feet from the cup for a kick-in birdie. Korte scrambled for par and Sainz bogeyed, which gave Kinney the honor on the 190-yard par-3 17th. He played a fade, aiming right, and the ball stopped six feet short of the cup for an easy par. Kortz three-putted from 35 feet while Sainz flew into the fescue to the left of the green for a double-bogey. That meant Kinney was 1-under with a hole to play, Korte 1-over, Sainz 3-over.
    Kinney caddie, Sunset Ridge Country Club caddiemaster Greg Kunkel, had one instruction for his player on the tee as he handed him driver: “Hit the fairway.”
    Kinney obayed. He found the fairway and played a smart second shot well left of the water on the par-5 18th. One smart wedge to the middle of the green later, it was all over but the trophy presentation.
    “I was playing as far away from the water as I could,” Kinney said.
    One would hope Davan was watching and learned from that.
    Kinney, Korte and Sainz ended the regulation 54 holes at 211, which wasn’t going to be a playoff-making score until Davan, the pride of Hoopeston, played the last two holes as if he was two strokes behind on the 17th tee.
    He wasn’t. He was two strokes ahead, sitting in the catbird seat at 7-under-par. He had birdied the 14th and 15th holes and had a two-stroke lead over Kinney and Korte, who were in the clubhouse at 5-under.
    Then he came to the 17th tee and decided to hook a shot into the wind on the downhill short hole, where a pond encroaches on the left side of the green.
    Aiming directly for the pin, he hit his hook. And it hooked dutifully, landing on the back left corner of the green and one-hopping into the hazard. Davan was fortunate to scramble for a bogey 4 and stood on the 18th tee, and then in the middle of the 18th fairway on the par-5, at 6-under, still a stroke ahead.
    But he didn’t know. And unlike Sainz, who was in the final threesome with Davan and asked what the low score was, Davan did not.
    “I figured I had to make eagle,” Davan said.
    He was wrong. Par, by playing the hole the way Kinney played it in the playoff, would have earned him the title. A 6-iron to the fairway left of the pond hugging the front of the green, a wedge on, and two putts equaled Davan holding the trophy.
    Instead, he pulled a 3-wood from his bag. Back by the green, Kinney saw that and later said, if he was in the same position, his caddie would have broken the club over his knee.
    Davan was 256 yards from the flag, against the wind, with a pond to clear first. The ball never got there, slicing wildly to the right.
    “I just slid on it a little bit and lost it,” Davan said. “But I can’t hang my head. You’ve got to lose some to win some sometimes, so it’s good experience for me here.”
    Korte, hanging around in case the impossible happened, couldn’t believe what he saw.
    “The kid was 7 (-under after 16). Bogey-par wins it,” Korte said. “I saw him pull a 3-wood in the fairway.”
    His tone was that of a man trying to describe a unicorn after it passed by.
    Kinney goes back on the NGA Tour now, hoping to make some money and use that to fund his next crack at PGA Tour qualifying.
    Davan goes back to the drawing board.

    Around the Glen Club

    Korte, who scored 1-under 71 in the final round, finished as the low amateur, and plans to turn pro before next year’s Illinois Open. “I’m kind of disappointed to play (the last two playoff holes each) 1-over,” Korte said. ... Sainz and amateur Andrew Godfrey of Homewood shared the round of the day, 3-under-par 69. ... Overnight leader Vince India double-bogeyed the first hole and faded to a tie for ninth with a 77 for 2-under 214. ... Defender Max Scodro finished at 3-over 219. ... The field averaged 74.50 in the third round, exactly 2.5 strokes over par. Each of the last three holes were about a quarter-stroke over par, but the 13th through 15th each played under par, making for a busy leaderboard.
    – Tim Cronin

Golf worlds collide at Illinois Open

    Writing from Glenview, Illinois
    Tuesday, July 22, 2013

    Vince India and Carlos Sainz are on their way up in golf, and by similar, if divergent, paths.
    Each is playing in big-time golf’s version of Class AA, and succeeding. India is on the PGA Latino America Tour this year, while Sainz is playing, and winning, on the PGA Tour Canada.
    Both are aiming for the next rung on the ladder, the web.com Tour, and can get there with top-five season finishes on their respective feeder tours.
    First, they’ll chase a title closer to home and to their hearts: The Illinois Open.
    India, a 24-year-old from Deerfield, jumped into the lead in the 64th annual carnival with a second round of 7-under-par 65 – for a 36-hole aggregate of 7-under 137 at the Glen Club and a two-stroke lead over a quartet that includes Sainz– on Tuesday.
    India opened with an eagle 3 and was 9-under through 15 holes, one more birdie from tying the course record of 62. But two pars and an untidy double-bogey 7 at the last, in which he hit into the high fescue twice, prevented him from matching the standard set by Kris Mikkelson and matched by D.A. Points.
    Regardless, the lead is the lead, and that’s fine with India, who owns three top-15 finishes on the Latino America Tour.
    “I didn’t think I’d be all the way (to 7-under and the lead), but I like my spot,” India said. “It’s been a while, but I like playing in the final group. I’ll probably know a couple of the guys.”
    He’ll know Sainz, the 26-year-old from Elgin who took a big step on Sunday by winning the Players Cup on the Canadian tour.
    Now, not even 48 hours after holding the oversized check for $27,000 in his hands, Sainz is reaching for his state open, and the $17,000 prize that accompanies it.
    Sainz is knotted with amateur Jack Watson and pros Michael Devan and Brad Hopfinger after a 36-hole aggregate of 5-under-par 139, built on rounds of 68 and 71, at the Glen Club. He scrambled for the 71, making the most of hitting only eight greens in regulation. Perhaps the lack of a break between tournaments – the Players Cup ended Sunday and the Illinois Open started Monday – caught up with him.
    “I left Winnipeg at 6 a.m. Monday, got to O’Hare at 8, went home, took a nap for a couple of hours, then came out here (for a 2:10 p.m. Monday tee time),” Sainz said. “A couple of years of playing professional golf have really helped me out. I’m getting the right nutrition, eating right.”
    Sainz plans to play in all nine Canadian tour tournaments, while India will go back to the multi-country grind of his tour when it comes back from the South American winter break in September. Meanwhile, he went on a tear on Tuesday, going out in 6-under-par 30 and throwing three more birdies on the card in succession beginning at the 13th. His longest putt in those adventures: a 15-footer at the par-9 ninth. His shortest: two inches at the par-4 15th, where he was that close to a second eagle in the round.
    “An eagle’s like a kick in the butt,” India said of his exploit at the first hole, which included an approach shot out of a fairway divot. “It says, ‘Let’s do something special today.’ ”
    India made that eagle and the seven birdies in a wind that reached 28 mph during one gust.
    “I love the wind,” India said. “It provides opportunities for creativity and imagination.”
    Devan’s story isn’t quite as exotic, but similar. The 2012 CDGA Amateur champion is 24 and playing the E-Tour. He’s from Hoopeston, a small town north of Danville on Illinois 1.
    Amateur David Cook of Bolingbrook had the second-best round behind India’s 65, with a 6-under 66 that jumped him into a tie for sixth place from his T-59 position after 18 holes. Four of his eight birdies came on the final five holes.
    Defending champion Max Scordo added a 76 to his opening 71 and stands at 3-over 147, 10 strokes behind the leader, entering the final round.

    Around the Glen Club

    The cut fell at 4-over-par 148 and encompassed 50 players. Among those making it on the number: amateurs Gabe Aprati, Thomas O’Bryan and John Wright, the latter exploding to an 8-over 80 in the second round after opening at 4-under 68. Seventeen amateurs made the cut. ...  Among those missing by finishing at 5-over 149: Doug Bauman and Craig Onsrud. ... Josh Esler’s back flared up early in his second round, prompting his withdrawal. ... The leaders go off at 9:40 a.m., with the first groups starting at 7 a.m.

    – Tim Cronin

Kinney runs to Illinois Open lead

    Writing from Glenview, Illinois
    Monday, July 22, 2013

    In years past, Joe Kinney would be called a rabbit.
    Rabbits were the non-exempt players in professional golf who nibbled at the fringes of the Tour, traveling long hours in old cars to Monday qualify – or not – at the week’s Tour stop.
    The all-exempt tour, dreamed up by Gary McCord and implemented by Deane Beman a generation ago, moved the rabbits down the road. Shorn of the old name, they ply the mini-tours, trying to get their games right for a big week or three at Tour school, which beginning this fall will get you a berth on the buy.com Tour, the PGA Tour’s development circuit.
    Joe Kinney would love to be there. The 26-year-old Antioch resident showed he has the game on Monday, firing a 7-under-par 65 in the first round of the 64th Illinois Open at the Glen Club. That earned him the lead, but only by two strokes. On a day ripe for scoring – four-tenths of an inch of rain fell overnight, softening the greens on a layout where the fairways are rarely fast – 30 players broke the par of 72, and 10 were in the 60s, including the 67 posted by amateur Jack Watson and the 68s of Steve Orrick, Carlos Sainz Jr., Brad Marek and amateur John Wright. Forty-six players, almost a third of the field, are at par or better.
    “All parts of my game are going good,” Kinney said. “No big misses.”
    That accounted for his pristine scorecard, which featured a deuce and seven threes, including four in a row to start his round.
    “It was a pretty stress-free round,” Kinney said. “I think my longest par putt was seven feet.”
    That came on the course’s first hole, the 10th of his round. Otherwise, he was around the hole all day, smacking wedges to gimme range with uncommon frequency on the Glen Club’s back nine.
    However, as Kinney well knows from several years on the mini-tours since graduating from Kansas State, one good day is only one good day. That’s why he’s on the NGA Tour, the old Hooters Tour, this year.
    “It’s tough to turn a profit on mini-tours,” Kinney said. “But I’ve got a great support system.”
    Kinney made the cut in two of his first five NGA tournaments this year, but earned only $2,378. A big payday here – first prize is $17,000 – would help pay bills, and a high finish would burnish his confidence.
    “It’s been a tough summer,” Kinney admitted. “But six weeks ago, I took a lesson from Scott Beaugureau at McHenry Country Club. We went back to basics. I had too much in my mind. We cleansed it.”
    Watson attended Kansas State for one year, then moved to Kent State and now is at Wisconsin. Curiously, he and Kinney have collaborated in golf before, when Watson caddied for Kinney in the 2009 Western Amateur at Conway Farms Golf Club in Lake Forest.
    The highlight of his bogey-free round was a 60-foot downhill putt for birdie on the par-3 11th, though his 95-yard wedge to four feet on the par-5 first for a bird and his 60-yard wedge to 10 feet on the par-4 15th weren’t too shabby either.
    “And I lipped out on 18,” Watson said. “I like the speed of the greens.”
    Watson finished second in last week’s Illinois Amateur at Aldeen Golf Club in Rockford, missing the title, won by Wheaton’s Tim “Tee-k” Kelly, because of “one bad hole,” he said.
    Golf happens. It happened to Kelly, who had a pair of eagles, but also a pair of double-bogeys en route to a 2-over 74. It happened to nearly everyone. Mike Small, the three-time champion and incoming Illinois Golf Hall of Fame member, for instance.
    “On the eighth, I chunked one in the water like a 15-handicapper. No, a 20-handicapper,” Small said. “Pffft. It was bad.”
    Small battled his way to an even-par 72, and sounded fortunate for it to be that good.
    “It’s hard golf,” Small said. “It’s a struggle. Every day’s an adventure for me these days. I haven’t hit it well in a long, long time.”
    Meanwhile, Orrick of Mount Zion, winner of the Illinois PGA and the Players Championship last year, tooled around in 4-under 68, a number he shares with Wright, the amateur from Aurora. Orrick played the back nine first and went out in 5-under 31.
    “All the yardages, all the numbers were perfect,” Orrick said. “And I was rolling the ball good.”
    But Orrick, not the world’s longest hitter, would have preferred faster fairways.
    “If anything, it (the softness) hurts me a bit,” Orrick said. “The ball rolling out for me is nice.”
   
    
    Around the Glen Club

    The purse is $85,000, with $17,000 going to the winner. ... Defending champion Max Scodro finished at 1-under 71 despite a double-bogey on the par-4 16th. Scottie Nield of Inverness withdrew after eight holes. He was 11 over at the time. ... Tuesday’s cut is to the low 50 and those tied for 50th. ... Six of the 30 players under par are amateurs. ... There were 12 eagles spread across the four par-5s, with the field averaging 3.52 over the par of 72. The par-3 11th was the toughest hole, averaging two-thirds of a stroke over par.

    – Tim Cronin

Spieth wins an extraordinary Deere

    Writing from Silvis (a.k.a. Birdieville), Illinois
    Sunday, July 14, 2013

    Jordan Spieth had been on the verge of victory all season, which is amazing for a 19-year-old kid on the PGA Tour. He’d tied for second in Puerto Rico, sixth at Congressional, tied for seventh at Innisbrook and Colonial.
    With each top 10, he gained more notice from his peers as a player to watch, and watch closely.
    Sunday at the John Deere Classic, Spieth was a sight to see. Starting the day six off the lead, he climbed into playoff position with an improbable birdie on the 72nd hole, which is even more amazing.
    Spieth then pounced and claimed victory with a par when two of his elders faltered on the fifth hole of a sudden-death playoff after each had nearly won earlier, which is absolutely mind-boggling.
    Spieth, a native of Dallas and a professional since December, a 19-year-old going on 35, made history with his triumph over defending champion Zach Johnson and Canadian David Hearn after they all scored 19-under-par 265. A teen hadn’t won on the PGA Tour or the part-time circuit that preceded it since 1931, when Ralph Guldahl, like Spieth a Texan, won the Santa Monica Open at 19.
    All of this was almost too much for the gallery of about 20,000 to comprehend. And Spieth, expected to take the week, was instead the 28th and final player to board the special charter to Muirfield, having scored a berth in the Open Championship, and a new life when his 26-inch winning putt dropped.
    He, too, struggled to take it all in.
    “It’s not setting in yet,” Spieth, sitting with the trophy in front of him. “Maybe not until I wake up on the plane.”
    Here’s what Spieth wins, aside from that place in history:
    1. The berth in the British Open at Muirfield, available at the Deere only to a winner not yet exempt;
    2. A spot in next year’s Masters Tournament;
    3. A PGA Tour card through 2015 – he’d been playing as a “special temporary member” by virtue of those earlier good finishes;
    4. A passel of playoff points. Along with the 500 earned by winning, he also collected those that he’d scored earlier, now that he’s a full Tour member. And that puts him into the top 20, Tour officials said. Just like that.
    5. The first place money of $828,000, running his season total to a shade over $2 million.
    At age 19. Nineteen.
    “I didn’t think it would happen this early,” Spieth said of all of the above. “The check’s the check.”
    Then he patted the trophy, saying, “I was just playing for this.”
    “I mean, I had a plan,” he said. “I guess the plan got exceeded. I wanted to just earn my Tour card for next year this year somehow. It hasn’t hit me yet, and it will, but I’m just happy to go compete with those guys and somehow – my legs are tired – to get over there (to Muirfield) and regroup.”
    Spieth, who scored 6-under-par 65, opened with a bogey at the first hole, then caught fire with five birdies in the next 13 holes. And a funny thing was happening. The field was coming back to him, unusual at the Deere even on Sunday. There were birdies tweeting everywhere, except with the leaders.
    “We were on the back nine, still four or five back, but the leaders weren’t going to 21-, 22-under, which we thought they were going to,” Spieth said. “I told Michael (Greller, his caddie), ‘Hey, let’s try to get a few birdies and have a good top 10.’ Go home, take some time off.”
    He birdied 13 and 14, bogeyed 15, and was still three back of Johnson, who was at 19-under and holding for the longest time. Third-round leader Daniel Summerhays – one of only seven players to score over par thanks to a 1-over 72 – had swooned early, with four straight bogeys, then rallied and tied Johnson for a short time.
    Then came Spieth’s time. He sank a 11-footer for birdie on the 16th, two-putted for birdie from 63 feet on the par-5 17th, then found the greenside left bunker from the 18th fairway. And the rest became history.
    “David and Zach played unbelievable golf,” Spieth said. “It’s amazing to have all three guys last five holes like that.”
    Johnson made the playoff happen with a bogey on the 18th after he’d birdied the 17th. Hearn was Mr. Steady on the last 16 holes with 14 pars and birdies on the 13th and 16th.
    Spieth met them on the 18th tee for the playoff. Then it got really crazy.
    Johnson nearly chipped in for birdie and victory on the first playoff hole, lipping out from the back of the 18th green. He collapsed to the ground and ended up on his back. The flagstick was in. Might the ball have gone in otherwise?
    “I didn’t (think of pulling it),” Johnson said, then smiled and said, “I did after. It might have lipped out harder.”
    Everyone parred and went back to the 18th tee. Spieth got up and down from the right rough for par the second time around, the other pars were routine, and it was off to the 16th for the third playoff hole.
    Then Hearn, a native of Brantford, Ontario, Wayne Gretzky’s town, stepped up. Almost. His tee shot on the 147-yard par 3 was the best, to 10 feet 3 inches, but he missed the birdie putt and everyone settled for par. Off to the 17th, playoff hole No. 4.
    Hearn again was at the center of it. All three players made the green on the par-5 in three strokes, but Spieth was 44 feet away and Johnson over 16 feet distant from the cup. Hearn, after a splendid third, was 4 feet 10 inches out. Spieth and Johnson had their hats off as they watched. It was handshake time.
    And Hearn lipped it out to the left.
    “I can’t really tell you if I got it started exactly online or not, but I figured it was going in, and it lipped out,” Hearn said.
    Hearn looked hollow-eyed later, but spoke with condidence.
    “You can always find another shot along the way,” Hearn said. “Had I made another birdie in regulation, we wouldn’t have had a playoff. I gave myself great chances. Next time I give myself chances like that, I’ll make them.”
    So it was back to the 18th for the third time in the playoff and the fourth time all day.
    Johnson, with the honor the entire playoff, drilled his drive into the left round, dead behind a tree. Hearn was also in the right rough, bouncing off a tree into a reasonably clear shot. Spieth was also in the right rough, but with the clearest alley to the green and with only 173 yards left.
    Hearn left his punch shot short of the green in the left rough. Johnson, needing to go for the green, tried drawing a 9-iron out of the deep rough by hooding the club and sweeping through it, a shot he would only try in a playoff.
    It hooked into the water.
    It was up to Spieth now, up to him to get it close. He pulled an 8-iron, then switched to a 7-iron.
    “I guarantee you, a couple of weeks ago I don’t do that,” Spieth said. “I’m just happy I went back to the bag and changed clubs.”
    His approach rolled to the back edge of the green, 20 feet from the cup. His first putt stopped 26 inches from the hole. His next one, after Johnson and Hearn missed their par putts and settled for bogey, went in.
    Par. Victory!    
    “I dodged a lot of bullets,” Spieth said. “Whatever it was, the Golf Gods up there, I just caught the breaks. They were hitting great shots, and I was just making the six-footer to go to the next one. Just somehow found an opening.”
    Spieth, the youngest Deere winner – David Gossett was 22 when he won in 2001 – is the oldest of the 19-year-olds to win on the Tour since 1900. Spieth, who turns 20 two weeks from his victory day, is 19 years, 11 months, 17 days old.
    Harry Cooper was 19 years 4 days young when he won the 1923 Galveston Open.
    Guldahl was 19 years, 2 months and 3 days young when he scored a 1-up victory over Tony Manero in the Santa Monica Open at Riviera Country Club.
    John McDermott was 19-10-14 when he captured the 1911 U.S. Open, so Spieth can’t become the youngest major winner since 1900. (Young Tom Morris was 16 when he won the 1868 British Open, but we digress.)
    Then comes Spieth.
    With a flourish.
    A birdie from the bunker to make the playoff hunt?
    Surviving the lipouts of both playoff foes?
    Having the only open shot from the rough on the fifth playoff hole?
    “I don’t know what I did to deserve those breaks,” Spieth said. “To tell you the truth, the first couple playoff holes were the worst as far as emotions and pressure. Once the 20-footer (mentally) turns into a 50-footer, you don’t know how hard to hit the ball. Your hands want to smack the ball, and you have to somehow control them.
    “Once I got to 16 and back to 17, even on the (6-foot-7) footer I had on the par-5, I didn’t feel any nerves. It was weird.
    “They came back up when I had the putt to win. The two-footer, I didn’t know if I’d get my putter to the ball. So I looked at the hole, looked at the front of the cup, decided to let my hands to it and watched it go in.
    “Yeah, you want to approach it where you’ve had success in the past. At some point, you have to work on your breathing.”
    He can take a breath now. And pat the trophy one more time.

    Around the Deere

    Johnson (3-under 68 in the final round) and Hearn (2-under 69) each settled for $404,800 as co-runner up. ... Troy Matteson, who fell to Zach Johnson in a playoff last year, finished tied for 27th this year, then wrote a $2,000 check to the tournament’s Birdies for Charity program, which tournament officials matched. ... Crystal Lake’s Joe Affrunti scored four rounds in the 60s and finished tied for 33rd at 11-under 273, earning $21,829. ... Kevin Streelman’s final round 71 for 10-under 274 dropped him into a tie for 44th. He collected $14,296. ... Amateur Patrick Rodgers finished tied for 15th at 14-under 270. ...  The Birdies for Charity total was 2,142, including 332 on Sunday, when the course again played more than two strokes under the par of 71, at 68.931. The four-round average was 69.397.

    – Tim Cronin