Rickie Fowler and Max Homa are some of the most well-liked players on the PGA Tour, but their results of late have not come close to matching their popularity.
With the regular season entering its home stretch and the playoffs no guarantee, Fowler and Homa are playing a tournament they don’t always play, the John Deere Classic, beginning Thursday in Silvis, Ill.
Fowler is making his first appearance at TPC Deere Run since 2010. He said he was always going to choose between the John Deere Classic or next week’s Genesis Scottish Open; he isn’t cramming his schedule with both. Playing three weeks in a row and then skipping the Scottish felt like “a better flow,” Fowler said.
Still, Fowler would agree that he needs to make the most of his starts, wherever they may come, in order to qualify for the FedEx Cup playoffs. After missing the cut last week at the Rocket Classic, Fowler sits at No. 72 in the points standings; the top 70 qualify for the playoffs.
“Feel like (I’m) trending at the right time, taking last week away,” Fowler said. “Outside of that, I feel like (I’ve) been seeing a lot of positives. And, yeah, like I said, heading in the right direction with the time of year we’re in.
“Yeah, just got to keep it simple: Go out and have fun and play golf.”
It’s more dire for Homa, ranked as highly as No. 5 in the world two years ago after he won six tournaments between 2019-23. Homa’s T12 at the Masters is his only top-25 finish of the season, and he’s missed seven cuts, leaving him in 122nd in the FedEx Cup race.
Homa last played the John Deere in 2017 and is leaning on his peers for advice.
“Played nine holes with Jason Day (on Tuesday). We talked about a lot of things,” Homa said. “He’s always a breath of fresh air out here. He’s a wealth of knowledge. Justin Thomas has been like the greatest friend you could ever ask for through all of this. Collin Morikawa, too. Just talks to me all the time. On his off weeks, he’ll check in on me, how it’s going. He did it all last week. So I have the utmost respect for him. I owe him a ton just giving his time and the fact that he really cares.”
Ben Griffin (No. 17), Sungjae Im of South Korea (No. 25) and the Australian Day (No. 28) are the only top-40 players in the world competing at the par-71, 7,289-yard track this week. Recent champions Davis Thompson (2024), J.T. Poston (2022) and Lucas Glover (2021) will try to rediscover the magic of their respective victories.
Thompson set the tournament scoring record last year at 28-under-par 256, good for a four-stroke victory.
At last week’s Rocket Classic, won by South African 20-year-old Aldrich Potgieter, Thompson again showed his ability to card low numbers. Thompson achieved the rare feat of making three eagles in one nine-hole stretch in the third round.
Yet he finished the tournament nine strokes off the pace, and similar low-scoring conditions could be in place this week at Deere Run.
“I feel like I’m starting to drive the ball better and hit putts more online and just working on my reads,” Thompson said. “Yeah, just really working on the mental side of things trying to not let anything affect me and just stay positive throughout the round.”
–Field Level Media
