• THREE-WAY TIE FOR LEAD AT EIGHT-UNDER 63 IN JOHN DEERE CLASSIC

       FROM THE US PGA TOUR WEBSITE
  
  • By Craig DeVrieze, For PGATOUR.COM
• Zach Johnson birdied four of his first five holes and was 6 under on his first nine on Thursday. (Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)

SILVIS, Illinois  – The John Deere Classic is like a shot of Vitamin B for Zach Johnson.
Lacking a top-20 finish in five starts since mid-May, the 17^th-ranked player in the FedExCup standings and the No. 16 player in the world birdied six of his first eight holes and eight of his first 11 to grab a share of the first-round lead with an opening round of 8-under 63.
That put Johnson in a three-way share of the lead with Rory Sabbatini and Brian Harman at TPC Deere Run.
TPC Deere Run has become a personal playground of late for Johnson, who won the 2012 John Deere and lost in a playoff a year ago to a Jordan Spieth.  Those finishes followed a T2 in 2009 and a T3 in 2011.
As much as his playoff loss a year ago ignited a second-half rush of seven top-10 finishes in eight starts, including a playoff win at the BMW Championship, Johnson came to TPC Deere Run looking for a boost. 
He got it. His 63 was his lowest round in his 12 tourney starts 90 minutes from his hometown of Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
“I have found myself a little impatient in the weeks prior to this week,” he said. “In Hartford, I missed the cut by something like 35 shots it felt like. In the U.S. Open, I made the cut, but it was pretty boring, bad golf after that. I was a little spent.”

MORE: Leaderboard | Tee times | Spieth rebounds | Video | The Takeaway | Projected FedExCup

A two-week break helped the latter. A return to TPC Deere Run put an end to boring golf -- for the first 11 holes anyway.  Johnson admitted he thought of matching the 59 Paul Goydos scored in the opening round in 2010 after a birdie on the par-5 second, his 11^th hole.
 “But it entered my mind very briefly,” he said. “I don’t want to say I should have shot 61 or 58 or 60 or 59 or whatever. But I had a chance.”
Still, he’s in a position to do what seems to be pretty standard here -- contend.
Johnson was asked if he feels a need to conquer when he returns to TPC Deere Run, and that led to amusing exchange. “Conquer. That’s a big word right there,” he said. “I don’t feel like I’m a czar or anything like that.”
But, as the questionnaire pointed out, Johnson is on the tournament board.
“That’s a good point,” he said, “but I’m not the chairman.”
Not yet, anyway.

FAN CADDIES FOR HARMAN: Jay Hatch, a 48-year-old math teacher and high school coach, was standing in the gallery on the seventh tee when he got the call of a lifetime. Brian Harman's caddie was feeling ill and Harman needed a looper. So in came Hatch, who volunteered for the job and finished the final 12 holes -- which Harman played in 6 under.
“I said I can carry your bag if you don’t need any help reading putts,” Hatch said.
Read more about this incredible story here.

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KEEPING UP WITH ZACH: Rory Sabbatini is known for playing at a quick pace. Thursday morning, he was happy just to keep pace with Zach Johnson. He told his fellow first-round leader as much as they crossed paths going in the media centre.
“I told him I tied a good golfer today,” said Sabbatini, who, like Johnson, got around TPC Deere Run without a bogey en route to an 8-under 63.  
“You know anytime you can be competing with him or Steve Stricker on this golf course, you have accomplished something right there.”
Stricker won three straight John Deere titles from 2009-2011 and 2012 winner Johnson has been in the top five in four of the last five events. Sabbatini’s record at TPC Deere Run includes a T19 in 2012 and an MC a year ago. But he is as big of a fan of the D.A. Weibring layout as he is of Johnson.
“I really like the way this golf course plays,” he said of a course where birdies are scored in bunches. “It’s not only fun for the spectators to watch because there are a lot of fireworks out there. It’s fun for us, too. We know what we’ve got to do and it’s out there.
“This golf course requires the basics. Put it on the fairway, put it on the greens and make some putts.”

FIRST-ROUND LEADERBOARD 
par 71 Players from USA unless stated
63 Zach Johnson, Rory Sabbatini (S Africa), Brian Harman
64 William McGirt, Todd Hailton, Steven Bowditch
65 David Toms, Robert Streb, Brendon de Jonge (Zimbabwe), Kevin Tway

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