Davis Thompson does not tremble and with an unforgettable Sunday he wins the 2024 John Deere Classic. This week on the PGA Tour was an appetizer of the future, with the ‘veteran’ born in 1999 fending off the attacks of two stars born in the new millennium.
For the American it is the first career title on the American circuit, and it comes thanks to a total score of -28 (256 shots) in a last lap in which the first position was never in question and approached by some other contender.
Davis Thompson, results
Thompson entered his final eighteen holes with a two-shot lead. The American on the tee of seven, after five birdies in the first six holes, had widened the margin to six points. The tournament was already in the safe, it was enough not to throw everything away.
And the 25-year-old from the state of Georgia did not take his foot off the accelerator at all, making three more birdies and stumbling into just one error on the way to a 64 on Sunday (-7). A partial that saw him finish the tournament at -28, beating by one stroke the 72-hole record at the John Deere Classic set by Michael Kim in 2018.
Second position at -24 to be divided by three, but above all it is two very young people who capitalize on all the attention. Florida State University’s rising junior, Luke Clanton, made a birdie putt from over seven meters on the 18th to complete Sunday in 63 (-8) and was thus the first to rise to -24.
Michael Thorbjornsen, the No. 1 player in the PGA TOUR University rankings, holed out of a fairway bunker, also hitting the green seven meters from the flag on the 72nd hole, and birdied another 63 to join Clanton (who thus becoming the first amateur since 1958 to make consecutive top 10).
Two golfers of the future who, however, are also heavily breaking into the present, and together with them there is the ‘past’ with the expert CT Pan. Also for the representative of Hong Kong there is a second place at -24 equal merit, after a last lap closed with a partial score of -7.
For Pan, however, second place is worth a lot: thanks to the ranking, the Asian secures a ticket to the Royal Troon and the Open Championship. On a wet and very attackable TPC Deere Run, low scores were the order of the day.
Fifth position at -23 for the American pair Ben Griffin (62), racing until the bogey of 17 for another round under 60 strokes, and Carson Young (63), also the protagonist of a very good comeback in the last round. Completing the top-10 is a fairly large group of golfers in seventh place, with the final score of -21: Danny McCarthy (64), Andrew Novak (64), Hayden Springer (67), Eric Cole (69) and Aaron Rai ( 69), with those who started in the last few starts unable to match the birdies scored by those chasing.
The PGA Tour moves its marquee events to Europe, with the Scottish Open next weekend and the Open Championship in two weekends.