John Deere Classic Recap: Kim Wins First Tournament

There used to a regular feature in the New York Post sports pages called, "The Greatest Day They Ever Had." We're not sure whether that was the exact title – we're talking many, many years ago -- but you get the idea. They would highlight obscure athletes who somehow, some way came out of their anonymity for a moment in time to accomplish greatness.

That's what we were thinking on Sunday as we watched Michael Kim run away at the John Deere Classic and Brendan Stone win the Scottish Open. Stone, who entered the tournament ranked 371st in the world, had a chance for the first 59 in European Tour history but settled for a closing 60 to win by four strokes. Kim, who was more than 100 spots behind Stone at No. 473 in the OWGR, shot 63-64-64-66 to win by a whopping eight strokes.

Kim not only had never come close to winning in 83 previous PGA Tour starts, he had trouble simply making cuts this season, just eight of 22 coming in. His Tour card was in serious jeopardy. His stats were horrendous. To say this win came out of left field would be accurate only in left field were on the moon.

As for Stone, he had won two prior Euro Tour events, but not in two years and neither came close to matching the elite-level field in Scotland. Since that second win, Stone's game had fallen apart; he had tumbled more than 300 spots in the rankings and had made only half his cuts in 2018. Again, left field.

These were Kim's last seven stroke-play events before the Deere: MC-MC-MC-T18-MC-MC-MC.
These were Stone's last seven: T69-MC-MC-T65-T60-MC-MC.

The only logical explanations are, "That's sports," and, "That's Fantasy Golf."

If you happened to have either of these guys in your DFS lineups, we'll tip our caps. But there couldn't possibly have been anything anywhere to suggest they were destined for good tournaments, much less victories.

To be sure, we're not saying that Kim and Stone won't win again. They're both very young and, after all, the South African showed signs with two wins before turning 24. Kim, from San Diego by way of South Korea, is 24.

One of the spoils of victory for Kim and Stone is a berth in this week's British Open. Neither will make a dent at Carnoustie. Although … it is worth nothing that Stone's most recent win had been the 2016 Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, where one of the three courses in the rotation is, yes, Carnoustie. And Stone tied for 15th at the Dunhill last year, too.

We'll use the Monday Backspin to look at the British chances of others in action last week.

MONDAY BACKSPIN

Francesco Molinari
Molinari tied for second at TPC Deere Run along with three others, and he heads to Carnoustie as one of the hottest golfers in the world. The Italian has a recent win and runner-up on both the PGA and European Tours, a surge that has moved him to No. 15 in the world. With the accuracy demands of Carnoustie, Molinari could do quite well this week. We're more confident in saying he will be a popular lineup choice.

Zach Johnson
Johnson overcame a so-so 36 holes to climb the leaderboard on the weekend, ending in a tie for 16th. That's actually a poor result based on his Deere history, but not enough to call us off Johnson this week. He has finished top-15 five of the past six years at the British, and of course won at St. Andrews in 2015. A young Johnson even tied for 20th at Carnoustie the last time the tournament was there back in 2007. Playing the week before the Open and then having a trans-Atlantic flight has had little effect on Johnson through the years.

Rickie Fowler
Fowler heads to Carnoustie as one of the favorites, and a tie for sixth at the Scottish Open only enhances his standing. Fowler has a couple of top-5s at the Open, and two more top-25s, including last year at Royal Birkdale. Carnoustie is a far tougher track, and the general conservatism of Fowler's game should make him one of the top guys to watch this week.

Luke List
The annual darling for the fall season, List's game had slowed considerably in the past couple of months. In his five events leading to his appearance in the Scottish Open, he had three missed cuts and nothing inside the top-35. So his terrific showing – List tied for third – is bound to make some gamers jump on board for the British as a low-priced option. It's possible, but playing a major at what many consider the hardest course in the Open rotation is an enormous jump in class.

Russell Knox
Knox was the runner-up at the French Open and the winner of the Irish Open in the prior two weeks. And then he opened the Scottish Open with three rounds in the 60s. A final-round 75 sent the Scot down the leaderboard into a tie for 49th. If that causes some gamers who were high on Knox to back away, good for them. One round shouldn't do that to anyone anywhere, but we were questioning how well Knox would fare at Carnoustie. We surely envision him making the cut and challenging for a top-25, but nothing along the lines of contesting for the title.

Danny Willett
Willett's worldwide tumble since winning the 2016 Masters showed no signs of subsiding … until a few weeks ago. The Englishman tied for eighth last month at the Italian Open – his first top-10 in more than a year – then followed that up with two missed cuts but also a T6 at the Irish Open and now a T19 at the Scottish. So Willett, having a bargain-basement price, will now likely gain in lineup prominence. His tie for sixth at the 2015 British Open won't hurt. Willett was so good when he was at the top of his game – top-10 good – that we are cautiously optimistic he can deliver a decent showing at Carnoustie. Key phrase being "cautiously optimistic."

Thomas Pieters
Pieters is another guy who came out of the woodwork at the last possible moment to create a bit of havoc for Open lineup construction. The big-hitting Belgian had been enduring a terrible 2018 with zero top-10s since January – until last week in Scotland. Pieters tied for sixth, and that gives his fans/backers reason for hope this week. Pieters' talent is so immense he's capable of doing great things this week, but we're not sure four rounds are enough to alter our pre-tournament scouting report.

Charley Hoffman
When you think "links golf," Hoffman is not exactly the first guy who comes to mind. But Hoffman tied for 19th at Gullane Golf Club, and that's not an aberration. He tied for 20th last year at Royal Birkdale for his best showing ever at a British Open. And even though Hoffman has been amid a serious downturn in his game, check out his last six majors, beginning with the 2017 Masters: T22-8-T20-T48-T12-T20. Hoffman has also finished top-20 in his past three worldwide starts. Impressive.

Trevor Immelman
What a story this almost was. The former Masters champ doesn't play much anymore, which is why his world ranking dipped to around 2,000 late last year (yes, that's three zeros). But Immelman made a few cuts to "jump" into the 1,300s and, after a remarkable tie for third in Scotland, he is now 420th in the world (remember, that's better than where Kim started the week). Immelman just missed getting the third of three Open berths handed out for the non-exempt highest finishers. In fact, Immelman lost the final berth in a tiebreaker – the world ranking was the tiebreaker. Anyway, Immelman is still only 38 and if he does make an attempt to ramp up his game, who knows, he might be someone to keep an eye on.

Hunter Mahan
Mahan isn't going to the British Open, but he did play at the Deere, returning for the first time since his sister-in-law died of cancer. Golf is secondary to family, for players and gamers alike, but we do discuss fantasy golf here. Mahan's game has been in disarray for years, before his sister-in-law became ill. He somehow pulled things together to tie for 34th at the Deere, his best showing in about eight months. The former top-10 player now sits outside the top-700, but maybe now that he has some closure, he can find a way to play good golf again.