Whatever drama might have existed at the start of the final round on Sunday at the John Deere Classic, Davis Thompson did his best to stop it quickly.
With birdies on five of his first six holes at TPC Deere Run in Silvis, Illinois, Thompson cruised to a four-stroke victory. It was his first title in his 63rd PGA Tour start after three runners-up.
“I just tried to stay in the present all day. When that final putt went in, it was just a big sigh of relief,” said Thompson, who closed with a 7-under 64 for a 28-under 256 total. He earned $1.44 million from the $8 million purse and his first start in the Open Championship, to be played next week at Royal Troon in Scotland.
“Qualifying for the Open was just an added incentive,” Thompson said. “The goal was to win the golf tournament.”
He did it, emphatically.
“I kind of got going in the last month, and played well last week.”
Davis Thompson
Thompson began the day with a two-stroke lead and quickly extended it with a 44-foot birdie putt at the par-4 first and a tap-in at the par-5 second. He added birdies at Nos. 4, 5 and 6 – holing putts of 14, 29 and 13 feet, respectively – and put it on cruise control. Thompson turned in 6-under 29 and added a birdie at the 10th before he missed the green at the par-3 12th for his first bogey since Friday, stunting his momentum, albeit briefly. He missed the drivable par-4 14th in the right rough and, after taking a drop from a cart path, pitched to within 2½ feet for birdie to get to 7-under on the day, effectively slamming the door.
The 25-year-old American has been on a bit of a heater in the past month, dating to a final-round 68 that lifted him into a tie for ninth at the U.S. Open at Pinehurst. Two weeks later, he birdied three of his last four holes to finish co-runner-up to Cameron Davis at the Rocket Mortgage Classic.
“I kind of got going in the last month,” Thompson said, “and played well last week.”
Amateur Luke Clanton surged up the Deere leaderboard, birdieing his last three holes to cap a bogey-free 8-under 63 and 24-under 260 total to share second place with Michael Thorbjornsen and C.T. Pan. Clanton, a 20-year-old Florida State junior, had tied for 10th one week earlier at the Rocket Mortgage Classic. He became the first amateur to post top-10s in consecutive starts since Billy Joe Patton managed the feat in the 1957 U.S. Open and 1958 Masters.
“I just started making more putts,” Clanton said. “It’s just been awesome these past couple of weeks, being in the last few groups with a chance to win.”
Clanton can make it three in a row this week when he plays the ISCO Championship at Keene Trace in Nicholasville, Kentucky, on another sponsor exemption.
Thompson, who grew up in Auburn, Alabama, and played college golf at Georgia, joins a seemingly endless line of young talent to break through on the PGA Tour recently. A former Southeastern Conference player of the year at UGA, he ascended to No. 1 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking in 2020-21 and finished second in the inaugural PGA Tour University Ranking in 2021. One year later, he won on the Korn Ferry Tour and earned a promotion to the PGA Tour. He has compiled a strong second season on the PGA Tour, making 15 cuts in 20 starts, capped by the Deere victory.
Pan, of Taiwan, joined Thompson in earning spots in the Open Championship via the Open Qualifying Series.
Hayden Springer provided some Fourth of July fireworks on Thursday with a 12-under 59, becoming the 14th player in PGA Tour history to post a sub-60 score. It was the second sub-60 score on tour in 12 days, after Cameron Young’s third-round 59 at the Travelers Championship. Springer finished seventh. After a T10 one week earlier at the Rocket Mortgage Classic, Springer has made three consecutive cuts and halted a slide during which he had missed six cuts in seven starts from late March into early June. Springer, 27, and his wife, Emma, have had an emotional stretch since their 3-year-old daughter, Sage, died in November because of a rare genetic disorder.
Jordan Spieth, who won the Deere in 2013 and 2015, returned to TPC Deere Run for the first time in nine years and tied for 26th. Zach Johnson, the 2023 U.S. Ryder Cup captain who won the 2012 Deere and was making his 22nd career start at the Deere, also tied for 26th.
This year’s tournament represented 25 years of the John Deere Classic, which dates to 1971 as the Quad Cities Open.
Steve Harmon