First-round notebook – John Deere Classic
* Prior to Thursday’s T3, Matt Bettencourt’s best position on Tour after the first-round was a T13 earlier this year at the AT&T Pebble Beach and the Bob Hope Classic. Oddly, Bettencourt missed the cut in both of those events.* Playing in his 21stPGA Tour event, Bettencourt tied his career-best round (65) set earlier this year at the Bob Hope Classic.
* After missing seven of his first 10 cuts on Tour earlier this season, Bettencourt has been on a roll in his last four starts with a T5 at the Memorial Tournament, T10 at the U.S. Open, T34 at the Travelers Championship and a T11 last week at the AT&T National. The top money winner on the Nationwide Tour in 2008 did not record a bogey in the first-round.
* Lee Janzen and Darron Stiles posted 7-under 64s to take the first-round lead by one stroke over J.J. Henry, Matt Bettencourt and Dean Wilson.
* Prior to Thursday, Lee Janzen held the first-round lead/co-lead nine times in 540 career Tour starts. Out of those nine events he was never able to convert one into a victory. Janzen’s last first-round lead was at the 2008 PODS Championship where he finished T10.
* Lee Janzen is playing in his fifth John Deere Classic. Last year he made his first cut at this event and finished T57.
* Janzen’s last top-3 finish came at the 2006 Southern Farm Bureau Classic.
* Janzen turned in a 63 earlier this year at the Bob Hope Classic, but prior to that his last 64 or better was at the 2005 Honda Classic.
* Playing in his 107thcareer Tour event, Darron Stiles adds the second career first-round lead/co-lead to his resume. He also led at the 2003 FedEx St. Jude Classic, before finishing T50.
* Darron Stiles’ 23 putts in the first-round is the best of his Tour career and leads the John Deere Classic field. Stiles finished T5 in Fairways Hit after the first-round (13 of 14). Lee Janzen finished T1 in Fairways Hit (14 of 14) and finished with 25 putts (T4).
* Darron Stiles is the career money leader on the Nationwide Tour and has five wins on that Tour.
* There are 23 players in the John Deere Classic (as of July 8, 2009) that will be playing in the British Open next week including: Briny Baird, Mark Calcavecchia, Chad Campbell, James Driscoll, Ken Duke, David Duval, Lucas Glover, Todd Hamilton, Charley Hoffman, Charles Howell III, Richard S. Johnson, Zach Johnson, Matt Kuchar, Tom Lehman, Davis Love III, Bryce Molder, Kenny Perry, Carl Pettersson, Brandt Snedeker, Steve Stricker, Kevin Sutherland, David Toms and D.J. Trahan.
* Another player in the John Deere Classic field has the opportunity to join the 23 players heading to the British Open. The leading player, not otherwise exempt, among the top 5 finishers and ties at the John Deere Classic will be exempt for the British Open. None of the top 5 players after the first round of the John Deere Classic are currently exempt for the British Open.
* J.J. Henry posted a 6-under 65 to take the lead after the morning wave before dropping to T3 after the completed first-round. It may be in Henry’s favor that he does not hold the first-round lead as below are the final results of Tournaments where he has held the first-round lead/co-lead:
Event with First-Round Lead/Co-Lead Finish
2001 Kemper Insurance Open 2nd
2003 Reno-Tahoe Open T16
2004 AT&T Pebble Beach T41
2008 Arnold Palmer Invitational T31
* Dean Wilson is looking for his first top 10 finish of the season. He has three top 25 finishes so far this season. He has had at least one top 10 finish each season since 2003 and at least three top 10s the last four seasons.
* The first-round leader/co-leader has only gone on to win seven of 27 events (26%) on the PGA Tour this year. Last year the first-round leader/co-leader went on to win 9 of 46 events (20%) on Tour. The last player to go on to win after leading the first-round was Kenny Perry at the Travelers Championship. The last wire-to-wire winner on Tour was Brian Gay at the St. Jude Classic.
* Dicky Pride (66) and Andrew Ruthkoski (68) are looking to become the first Monday Qualifiers to win a PGA Tour event since Fred Wadsworth won the 1986 Southern Open.
* Andrew Ruthkoski, who played at Michigan State, has missed the cut in all four Nationwide Tour events he has played since 2005, but has made the cut in two of the three events he has played on the PGA Tour. Ruthkoski missed the cut at the 2006 Buick Open, but finished T52 at the 2007 Buick Open and T70 at the 2007 U.S. Bank Championship in Milwaukee. His first win as a professional was the Michigan Open in 2007.
* Jason Day turned in a 66 in the first-round and is looking for his third top 10 finish of the season.
* Dicky Pride is playing in his 356thcareer Tour event. He has not had a top 3 finish since the 1996 Greater Hartford Open (T3).
* Scoring Averages at the par-71 TPC Deere Run:
Front 9 Back 9 Total Cumulative
Thursday 34.821 35.763 70.583
* Jesper Parnevik (back) withdrew following the first-round.
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