Twofer Tuesday: John Deere Classic

The last occasions before THE OPEN tee off this week. Twofer Tuesday visits the ultimate stateside occasion, the John Deere Classic.

The defending champion, Michael Kim, beat the sector through eight strokes closing 12 months to get his first PGA Tour win. TPC Deere Run measures 7268 yards and performs to a par of seventy one, so it is from the longest course the professionals see every year. And the guys who win are typically not the longest hitters on Tour, as evidenced by using the dominance of players like Steve Stricker and Zach Johnson.

However, TPC Deere Run doesn't exactly call for precision either. Kim ripped via the sphere by using putting like a madman. Low scores are quite commonplace at some stage in the field, each year.

And when you upload in the approaching principal, it may be difficult to choose a fave with any certainty. (Of path, it's the identical with maximum tournaments on Tour lately.)

So I locate myself in an interesting spot, as I have visible no logical reason for the apparently random group of winners we have visible over the previous few months. Nevertheless, I'll take any other shot at it.

• My Top10er is Collin Morikawa. I'm not at all sure he'll be able to close the deal this week, even though he played so well last week. How much did the comfort of playing with teammate Matthew Wolff help him on Sunday? I don't know. But the experience of being in the last group had to help him, and I really like the way he came back from that rough start in the final round.
• And my winner -- I'm trying him once again -- is Viktor Hovland. Viktor's having to go through a learning curve, but I can't get away from the fact that he's been low am in two majors recently. In addition, he's posted T13 in his last two events and -- more importantly, I think -- his lowest rounds of the week have come on Sunday. I'm convinced he'll break through sooner rather than later, and TPC Deere Run is the kind of course that suits his game.

We seem to be in a streak of young winners right now. Perhaps the established pros are struggling to adjust their schedules to the new condensed major season while the youngsters don't know anything other than what they're seeing right now. Again, I think the Deere Classic is a perfect arena for this new run of players to break through.

GC's coverage starts Thursday at 4pm ET. PGA TOUR LIVE starts streaming at 8am ET.

In terms of THE OPEN, I suppose the Scottish Open will possibly give us a higher idea of who the Champion Golfer of the Year will be. But the Deere should assist us identify the most probable of the brand new breed to contend in Ireland.