Stricker leads PGA event by 1

Associated Press

SILVIS, Ill.

As he chatted about his day at the John Deere Classic, Steve Stricker was reminded that he now held the tournament’s 36-hole record.

“So far,” he said with a smile.

Stricker had good reason to be cautious because Paul Goydos, who had sent a buzz through the golf world by shooting only the fourth 59 in PGA Tour history on Thursday, was just starting his round.

But the deft putting touch that had put Goydos in golf’s most exclusive club deserted him Friday and he settled for a 68, leaving him one stroke behind Stricker, the defending champion, heading into today’s third round.

“Reality kicked in today,” Goydos said.

Stricker, who almost matched Goydos with a 60 in Thursday’s round, came back with a solid 5-under par 66 for a two-day total of 126, which is 16 under at the TPC Deere Run. The old 36-hole record was 127 by David Frost in 2000, the first year the tournament was played at Deere Run.

Showing no ill-effects from a shoulder injury that sidelined him for six weeks earlier this year, Stricker overcame a bogey on his fifth hole with accurate approaches that left him with makeable birdie putts.

“It’s always tough to follow up a good round with another good round and for whatever reason, I thought I did a pretty good job of that today,” Stricker said.

Goydos appeared to be on his way to another sizzling round when he birdied his 11th hole, the par-5 No. 2, to go 17 under and move ahead of Stricker by a stroke. Then his game unraveled.

He failed to break par on any of the last seven holes and bogeyed two of them. After needing only 22 putts on Thursday, he slogged through this round with 32, essentially the difference in his scores.

“Yesterday was one of the greatest putting rounds maybe of all time and today was not,” Goydos said. “But that’s not — I think they call it the Sports Illustrated jinx. It’s just a reversion to the norm. Things tend to want to work their way to the center.”

Still, he admitted: “I hit some pretty squirrely short putts coming in.”

Jeff Maggert, Matt Jones and George McNeill were tied at 11-under 131, Maggert and McNeill shooting bogey-free 65s and Jones stumbling in at 67 after bogeying his final two holes.