BRIAN HARMAN IS A SUNDAY LEADER FOR FIRST TIME

• LAST-HOLE BIRDIE PUTS STRICKER INTO FINAL SUNDAY PAIRING AT JOHN DEERE CLASSIC

  FROM THE US PGA TOUR WEBSITE
  
  • By Craig DeVrieze, special to PGATOUR.COM

SILVIS, Illinois – Steve Stricker’s  post-round Saturday session with the media started badly when he referred to the birdie putt that completed a 7-under round  of 64 and vaulted him into the familiar last pairing in Sunday’s final John Deere Classic round as “one you don’t think about making.”
Come on, now. Honestly? Could there be a putt at TPC Deere Run Stricker wouldn’t think about making?
“I have good feelings when I step up to putts here,” Stricker sheepishly conceded after pushing his under-par total over his last 23 JDC rounds to 116, largely thanks to one of the silkiest strokes in the game. 
“I don’t know what it is. I see the line very well here. I think the greens are good greens to putt. They’re smooth.”
Stricker’s 27ft downhill curler of a birdie putt, his 27th of the day, left him a shot back of leader  Brian Harman, who will play in a final Sunday pairing for the first time in his career.
 Stricker, meanwhile, is in the final Sunday grouping at TPC Deere Run for the fourth time in six years.
“I thought if I could sneak that in, I’d be in the last group for sure,” he said. “You don’t expect to make a putt like that. But it tracked nicely and dove right in there, so it was good. I got a little closer to Brian and he played good today.”
Indeed, Harman, who could move into the FedExCup top 30 with a win, secured the lead with a 6-under 65 that put him at 17-under 196, but he stalled the momentum of an eagle at 17 when he found the left fairway bunker off the tee at 18, then layed up short of the green and two-putted the last.
“Just really looking forward to tomorrow, and to keep hitting good shots and see what happens,” said the third-year pro whose best finishes in 88 TOUR starts to date are third-place shares at the this year’s Northern Trust Open and Wyndham Championship.
Of that unfamiliar position of being in the final group:  “It should be fun. It’s better than not playing in the last group.”
Any intimidation factor of playing alongside Stricker, whose 12 career wins include a string of three straight at TPC Deere Run from 2009-2011?
“Obviously, he knows how to win here, so the worst I can do is learn a lesson, I guess,” Harman said.
For the record, Stricker isn’t feeling invincible. For starters, he is a part-time TOUR-ist, playing just his eighth event this season and seeking a second top 10. 
Secondly, he and Harman hardly are clear of a field that blistered Deere Run for 60 sub-par rounds playing lift, clean and place after an early Saturday storm.
The best score of the day – and week – was Scott Brown’s 10-under 61. He is alone in third, two off the pace. Another seven players are within four shots, including Zach Johnson, another Midwest product whose success at TPC Deere Run is as almost as impressive as Stricker’s. He’s in a quartet at 14-under 199 after a Saturday 69 that pushed his run of rounds in the 60s at the Deere to 23 straight.
“I’m not going to go to that first tee and think that I have won here three times and this tournament is mine,” Stricker said. 
“I’m not in that final group a lot out here (on TOUR), especially now that I haven’t been playing that much.
“To get back to the winner’s circle would mean a lot,” said the 47-year-old Wisconsin native who can vault from 125th in the FedExCup points race into the top 40 with a win.  “To get back into that winner’s circle would win a lot, so there will be some pressure on me.”

THIRD ROUND LEADERBOARD
Par 213 (3x71) Players from USA unless stated
196 B Harman 63 68 65
197 S Stricker 68 65 64
198 S Brown 67 70 61
199 T Clark (S Africa) 72 63 64, Z Johnson 63 67 69, J Kelly 66 68 65, W McGirt 64 66 69

TO VIEW ALL THE SCORES

CLICK HERE

---