The Daily Wrap-up: Round 2, John Deere Classic
SILVIS, Ill. (AP) -- Somewhere between the range and the course, Steve Stricker found his swing. Once he did, he rocketed toward the top of the leaderboard at the John Deere Classic.
Stricker vaulted into second place, tying a course record and matching the lowest score of his career with a 10-under 61 Saturday that left him three strokes behind Darron Stiles through two rounds.
Stiles (65), the first-round co-leader with Lee Janzen, remained on top at 13-under 129. Stricker, however, stole the show on a sunny day at TPC Deere Run.
"I didn't see it coming," he said. "I warmed up very poorly on the range this morning. I spent some time out here yesterday later in the day and putted a lot and found a little catch there in my putting. I made a lot of great putts. I wasn't very aggressive at times, but I hit the ball well and gave myself some opportunities."
The Wisconsin native and Illinois alum had plenty of support from the crowd as he assaulted a course that was battered the previous day by the second big rain storm of the week, causing Round 2 to be pushed back. By the time he was through, he was at 10 under for the tournament after matching a record set by 2002 champion J.P. Hayes. That put him in contention for his sixth PGA TOUR victory and second this year heading into the final two rounds on Sunday.
"I shot 3 under on the back, and I'm getting run over," said Scott Verplank, who was grouped with Stricker and shot 64 to get to 8 under.
Tim Petrovic (67) and Jerry Kelly (64) were right behind Stricker at 9 under, and two-time U.S. Open champion Janzen (70) was in a crowd at 8 under. Kenny Perry (68) was 6 under, with Zach Johnson (68) 5 under. Reigning U.S. Open champion Lucas Glover was at 3 under and made the cut but did not finish, while David Duval missed the cut altogether in his first start since that surprising three-way tie for second at Bethpage Black.
The remaining players are in for a busy day Sunday, with 36 holes scheduled. If they get a break between rounds, it'll be a short one because they won't be re-grouped.
"You may not be playing with the leader at all," Stricker said. "The leader could be behind us, in front of us. You don't know where they can come from."
Stricker seemed to come out of nowhere after an even first round.
He teed off on No. 10 in the morning and set the tone with birdies on four of his first six holes. The assault continued on No. 17, when he buried a 93-yard wedge for an eagle on the par 5 to go 6 under, and he made the turn at 7 under after dropping in a 17-foot birdie putt on the 18th.
Two more on the first and second holes dropped him to 9 under, and that's when thoughts of the TOUR-record 59 started creeping into Stricker's head. The momentum came to a stop momentarily when he bogeyed the par-3 fourth, but that vision came back on the par-4 sixth when his 130-yard approach settled 8 feet from the cup to set up a birdie to go 10 under with three holes remaining.
"It entered my mind, but yet, I tried to play smart, too, and not get crazy and do anything out of my norm," Stricker said.
So he settled for a course record, instead of a TOUR record. He delivered one of his best performances, instead of a historic performance.
Overall, quite a day.
He needed just nine putts on his first nine holes and 22 in all, matching a career best.
The 61 tied the career low he set in January in the third round at the 50th Bob Hope Classic hosted by Arnold Palmer. He followed that with a 62 but wound up in a tie for third after a collapse on the fifth day.
"I feel comfortable going low, and I don't get spooked," said Stricker, who won the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial in May.
As low as he went on Saturday, he still has more digging to do.
Standing in Stricker's way is Stiles, a 36-year-old who has never finished higher than ninth on TOUR and had made just one of 11 cuts this year. Now he has the lead heading into Sunday.
"I've done it before," said Stiles, a four-time winner on the Nationwide Tour. "Maybe not on the big TOUR, but I've done it."
| Other notables at the John Deere Classic | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Saturday's Best |
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The par-5 second hole was the easiest with a Saturday scoring average of 4.316.
The par-4 eighth hole was the toughest with a Saturday scoring average of 4.204.
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Steve Stricker drained his approach on the par-5 17th for an eagle during the second round. 
Again, the honors go to Steve Stricker, who had an incredible 10-under 61 and had a solid shot at 59.INSIDE THE ROPES WITH THE PGA TOUR NETWORK
PGA TOUR Network correspondent Brett Wright offers these observations from
Friday's action. Listen to PGA TOUR Live coverage on XM 146/SIRIUS 209 or right here at PGATOUR.COM.
The second round of the John Deere Classic is in the books. The big suprise of the day was the Nationwide Tour's leading career money winner Darron Stiles shooting 6-under 65 to follow up a first-round 7-under 64, giving him the lead by three strokes over five-time PGA TOUR winner Steve Stricker.
Stricker posted a 10-under 61 fueled by a 29 on the back nine. Stricker's score tied J.P. Hayes' tournament record set in 2002. Hayes, incidentally, shot his in the second round and went on to win the championship. It will be interesting to see how Stiles and Stricker compete in the same pairing on Sunday for 36 holes.
Many other veterans climbed the leaderboard on Saturday. Jerry Kelly, Ryan Palmer and Scott Verplank all posted seocnd-round 64s to vault into the top 10. Tim Petrovic, Brandt Snedeker and Englishman Greg Owen all shot 67 to stay in the top 10.
The final pairing of Stiles, Stricker, and Petrovic will play together in the third and final rounds. The TOUR will not re-pair the field after the third round. This will cause an exciting though sometimes confusing situation on the course, where at any time, the leader could be in front of you or behind you. The golf course is drying out slowly from all the rain this week, so players must adjust on the fly with the way they take aggressive lies on the greens.
Darron Stiles seemed fairly loose after his stellar round. He has had a tough year of missed cuts and few checks. The season started off on a sad note, as his father, who helped him learn the game and often followed him on the course, passed away in January while Stiles was playing in Hawaii. Darron has settled his mind down, and with the help of PGA Club Professional Mike Breed, he has started putting better. I know a lot of fans will look for Stiles to cool off down the stretch, but remember he has four wins on the Nationwide Tour, and right now the hole is looking big.
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