Featured Groups: John Deere Classic

Four wins, 15 top-10 finishes, 97 rounds under par. That’s the combined career totals of Zach Johnson and Steve Stricker at TPC Deere Run, site of this week’s John Deere Classic. Johnson and Stricker will have plenty of time to trade course secrets in the first two rounds this week as one of the Featured Groups along with their other playing partner, Wesley Bryan — who, incidentally, is showing a similar love for the course after his first two starts in the event. Defending champion Bryson DeChambeau is grouped with 2016 winner Ryan Moore in a Friday Featured Group that also includes Davis Love III. PGA TOUR LIVE will offer streaming coverage of the Featured Groups in the first two rounds starting at 8:30 a.m. ET (7:30 a.m. local), then will flip to afternoon Featured Holes coverage. On the weekend, Facebook Watch will provide coverage of selected groups determined after the previous day’s action. Here’s a look at the four Featured Groups for the first two rounds this week at the John Deere Classic (current FedExCup rankings in parentheses): THURSDAY Aaron Wise (25), Si Woo Kim (40), Harold Varner III (123) Three players in their 20s, two of them already winners on the PGA TOUR. Kim won THE PLAYERS Championship in 2017, and Wise won the AT&T Byron Nelson in May to become a leading contender for Rookie of the Year. Varner comes off a T-5 finish at last week’s A Military Tribute at the Greenbrier — his best finish at a TOUR event in three years. Tee time: 8:50 a.m. ET (7:50 a.m. local) Zach Johnson (54), Steve Stricker (136), Wesley Bryan (141) No players have been more consistent at TPC Deere Run than the duo of Johnson and Stricker. Johnson, playing in essentially his “home� major, won the John Deere is 2012 and is working on a tournament streak of 37 consecutive rounds of par or better. Stricker won three consecutive John Deere Classics starting in 2009. Combined, they have 15 top-10 finishes in 32 career starts at this event. Bryan has posted top-10 finishes in his two John Deere starts and is a cumulative 30 under at the event. Tee time: 9 a.m. ET (8 a.m. local) FRIDAY Austin Cook (24), Scott Piercy (41), Francesco Molinari (43) Molinari comes off a dominant performance in his last start at the Quicken Loans National, which he won by eight shots for his first career TOUR victory (and second of his season, as he also won on the European Tour in May). Cook and Piercy have also won this PGA TOUR season – Cook at The RSM Classic last fall, and Piercy at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans with teammate Billy Horschel. Tee time: 8:50 a.m. ET (7:50 a.m. local). Bryson DeChambeau (6), Ryan Moore (58), Davis Love III (207) The last two John Deere Classic winners are in the same group with a World Golf Hall of Famer. DeChambeau won at TPC Deere Run with a final-round rally to overtake Patrick Rodgers. Moore won in 2016 by reeling off 46 bogey-free holes, suffering just one bogey the entire week. Love is making his ninth start in this event and is seeking his first top-10 finish. Tee time: 9 a.m. ET (8 a.m. local)

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