Zach Johnson feels right at home as race for Ryder Cup team hots up

Zach Johnson is used to spending Julys back home in the Quad Cities area. But due to the adjusted schedule to accommodate this week’s Olympics men’s tournament in Rio, the John Deere Classic was moved back to August.

“A little bizarre,” Johnson said. But finding a positive point, he added, “It’s never a bad time to be in the Quad Cities” – a region of four counties in northwest Illinois and southeastern Iowa.

The schedule quirk did add one interesting layer to this week’s event at TPC Deere Run in Silvis, Illinois. It’s now much closer to the start of the FedExCup Playoffs as the next-to-last event in the regular season.

That means guys inside the top 125 are trying to secure their spots, while those outside the bubble are running out of chances to make a big push.

Next week’s Wyndham Championship will finalise who makes the Playoffs, but players could give themselves a bit of breathing room by performing this week.

In addition, Ryder Cup hopefuls – especially those looking to make the team on merit – are also running out of time. The top eight on the American side after The Barclays will be guaranteed a spot for Hazeltine.

So many weeks

“You can look at it a number of different ways,” Johnson said: There are only two weeks left before the Playoffs start. There are only so many weeks left of Ryder Cup points.

“There are a lot of things at stake, so guys want to play and get some points here and there. There are incentives there.”

The 156 golfers who gather at TPC Deere Run will get exactly what they expect: a bounty of scoring opportunities and subsequent confidence watching putt after putt disappear.

The layout has tipped at 7,268 yards throughout the 10- year history of the FedExCup. The par 71 was the third-easiest of its kind last year on the PGA Tour, averaging 69.648. The field averaged 10.43 (of 14) fairways hit per round, 12.83 greens in regulation, and 3.89 par breakers when standing over them with a putter. Again, that was the average.

Of the 11 who finished inside the top 10 in 2015, eight ranked inside the top 15 in greens in regulation, while six slotted inside the top 20 in strokes gained: putting. Eight were inside the same bubble in scrambling, which despite the connotation as a hard-track metric, matters in a shoot-out when attempting to keep pace. Consider that last year’s cut fell at four-under 138.

Vintage en route

If you allow for the hyperbole, even though he just turned 23 two weeks ago, defending champ Jordan Spieth was vintage en route to his playoff victory here a year ago. He ranked just tied 33 in greens hit but fourth in birdies- or-better conversion percentage and seventh in strokes gained: putting.

TPC Deere Run’s par threes were the easiest all season, but Spieth checked in at just tied 17 on the week. He also ranked just tied 32 in scrambling, but a career-low 61 in the third round yielded a two-stroke cushion entering the finale.