By Gary D’Amato, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel –
SILVIS, Ill. — As consolation story lines go, this one wasn’t bad.
Zach Johnson, a native Iowan and a member of the John Deere Classic board of directors, won his home-state PGA Tour event on the second hole of a sudden-death playoff with Troy Matteson on Sunday.
The bigger story would have been Steve Stricker winning at TPC Deere Run for the fourth consecutive year, but bogeys on Nos. 14, 15 and 17 ended his bid and he finished in a tie for fifth place.
“I don’t know if I was tired or what,” Stricker said. “It wasn’t that I wasn’t focused and into it. I just didn’t feel like something good was going to happen. I tried to hang in there . . . but just never really got any momentum.”
Johnson, 36, the 2007 Masters champion, shot a bogey-free 65 and then overcame a sloppy double-bogey on the first playoff hole — Matteson also made a double — to win for the second time this year and the ninth time of his career.
He moved into second place behind Tiger Woods on the FedEx Cup points list.
“It just feels awesome,” said Johnson, who played in the tournament on sponsor’s exemptions early in his career. “I can’t really put it into words. This tournament has meant so much to me and my family over the years.
“Just the experience I gained here with the sponsor’s exemptions and then being part of the board and knowing how they go about their business week to week and day to day . . . it feels tremendous.”
The final hour of the tournament was filled with dramatic shots and bone-headed mistakes, which made for an entertaining finish.
Matteson, trying to become the first wire-to-wire winner of the John Deere Classic since 1992, held the lead until he stubbed two chip shots on the 15th hole and made a double-bogey.
He went to the par-5 17th trailing Johnson by two shots and proceeded to roll in a 60-foot eagle putt to move back into a tie. Then he made a par from the right trees on No. 18, getting a free drop after a young boy in the gallery picked up his ball.
Johnson and Matteson finished at 20-under 264 and went back to the 18th tee to start the playoff.
Matteson again hit his drive in the right trees and then, while trying to play safe, chipped through the fairway and into the water hazard short and left of the green.
Johnson, in the left bunker, just had to play his shot somewhere up near the green but instead caught the ball thin and it bounced into the water.
Both made double-bogey and returned to the 18th tee to play the hole again.
Johnson hit his drive into the same fairway bunker but this time hit an exquisite 6-iron from 193 yards to within a foot of the hole. After Matteson missed his 42-foot birdie attempt, Johnson tapped in for the victory.
“My hat’s off to Zach,” Matteson said. “He drove it in the bunker twice and figured out a way to win. It’s a great story, you know, hometown kid. It was really good.”
Matteson earned a spot in the British Open field by being the highest finisher not already exempt.
“It’s a heck of a way to qualify,” he said.
Stricker, 45, was trying to become only the fifth golfer in history — and the second since 1930 — to win the same tournament four consecutive years.
He got off to a great start with birdies on Nos. 2 and 3 and pulled to within a stroke of the lead when Matteson, his playing partner, bogeyed No. 9.
But Stricker missed an 8-footer for birdie on No. 10 and then, after a birdie on No. 11, he stumbled on Nos. 14, 15 and 17.
The bogey on the 317-yard 14th was the killer. He tried to drive the green but yanked his tee shot into a hazard and took a penalty drop. He hit a superb flop shot to 9 feet and then missed the par putt.
At that point, he was three behind Matteson and two behind Johnson and John Senden and knew his chances to win were all but over.
“Maybe I was trying too hard,” Stricker said. “I don’t know. I don’t really know what it was. I was trying to win the golf tournament. I wasn’t worried about four in a row. I was just trying to win.”
Senden knocked himself out of the running with an ugly bogey on the 17th and it came down to Johnson and Matteson.
After the third round, Johnson downplayed the importance of winning his home-state event. On Sunday, with the tournament trophy sitting in front of him in the media interview room, he admitted it was bigger than he let on.
“It means a great deal now that I’ve done it,” he said. “It was a hypothetical in previous days because I’ve never really experienced this. It means a great deal.”
