Golf Central checks in with various golfers ahead of the John Deere Classic, including a few on the FedExCup standings bubble and Ben Griffin, who finished second behind only Scottie Scheffler at the Memorial Tournament and has accumulated eight top-10 finishes so far this season. #Golf #GolfCentral #GolfChannel #BenGriffin #JohnDeereClassic
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Ben Griffin, golfers on FedExCup bubble excited for John Deere Classic | Golf Central | Golf Channel
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Welcome into Golf Central. I am Matt Adams. Haley Hunter and Trip Eisenhower will join me in just a moment. So, as the currents of professional golf continue to churn, significant changes are on the horizon. And that’s for the first time in more than 40 years. In fact, since the start of the all-exempt tour in 1983, those keeping their card would drop from 125 to 100 at the conclusion of this season. That raises the question of who will sink and who will swim. Now, the tour stops in Northwest Illinois this week for the John Deere Classic. Coverage coming your way at 400 p.m. Eastern time on Thursday. And the summer temps are going to be tough this week for the field. Upper 80s and low 90s most of the week are expected with an occasional stray thunderstorm in the forecast. Most of the world’s top players will be taking the week off before they head overseas for the Scottish Open and then the Open at Royal Port Rush. But with the reduction of tour cards from 125 to 100 and the race for the FedEx Cup playoffs, there are still plenty of big names in the field including Jason Day, Ricky Fowler, Max Homa amongst them. Well, two-time winner Ben Griffin is one of the higher ranked players in the field. Haley Hunter is on site for us all week. And Haley, aside from the glory and the spoils, of course, awaiting the winner this week, I take it that plenty of players in the field have a lot in their mind. Yeah, they certainly do, Matt. Thanks so much. There are just three more fullpoint events in the US this season leading up to those FedEx Cup playoffs. And so this is a really critical time as this is the last of the three here at the John Deere Classic for players to start getting into that top 70 to start earning some more points. And 80% of the field here this week is not in that top 70. So the clock is really starting to click for a lot of these players that know how important it’s going to be this week to put together a handful of rounds and try and sneak themselves into that top 70. One of those players is the defending champion here, actually, Davis Thompson, who is currently right on that bubble, ranked 70th in the FedEx Cup standings right now. I had a chance to talk with him a little bit earlier, as well as a few of those other bubble players like Ricky Fowler about what their mindset is going into round one tomorrow. It’s kind of inevitable to try to not think about it, but um you know just trying to manage the day-to-day operation and just uh try to prepare the best I can each day and um you know hopefully uh you know get off to a good start Thursday, Friday and put myself in a good position.
We know the time frame, know where we’re at in the season. Um but good good golf solves a lot of things. So, um, you know, looking forward to this week and then going over the plan for the British and being at, you know, Port Rush and then, um, we’ll kind of figure out in the next couple weeks what the the plan will be post British. Um, cuz obviously you want to be in the playoffs, but you also want to be fresh and ready to go play. Um, but if we need to play leading in, then we’re going to play.
Not a lot of chances left and we have this week and Scottish 3M Windham and that’s really it. So, yeah, this is kind of that final push. So, um, yeah, every week and every point is really important at this point and, you know, I mean, top 70 is important, but for sure looking at that top 50 and top 30 mark. So, need to play every, you know, play well every week from here on in.
What kind of mindset are you trying to have given just where you’re at right now in the standings? Uh, just the old saying, winning takes care of everything. So, trying to give myself chances to win every week and, you know, see if I can go out there and do that. Well, one player who certainly does not have to worry about making the top 70 in the FedEx Cup standings this season is of course Ben Griffin. He’s the best player in the field this week and is currently ranked sixth in those FedEx Cup standings as well as has made the top 15 in every start, seven of his last nine starts, excuse me, that he has played in. So, Ben Griffin playing some really great golf right now. And while he doesn’t have to worry so much about that top 70, what he is really focused on right now is making the top six in those RDER Cup standings for Team USA. I talked to him a little bit earlier about that as well as why swinging a little bit harder at the ball might just be the key to helping him make that top six. Yeah. Um, I think it was kind of last year it was getting more familiar with the golf course kind of as the week went on kind of I feel like you can’t play most golf courses enough to learn all the different breaks and tears and the greens and stuff. So, yeah, I feel like this year I’m very familiar um going back to last year just have that experience and so this year it’s kind of the same thing and um yeah, we know the scores are going to be low this week. They they are every year at the John Deere. So, I’ve got to get off to a hot start and make a ton of birdies.
I know you’re not a big stack guy, but you mentioned a few weeks ago you’ve been trying to keep tabs more on your driver distance comparing it to other players. as you mentioned, you ranked fourth at the US Open in driver distance. How are you keeping up with that and what kind of goes into making sure that you’re maintaining that consistency with how far you’re hitting it?
Yeah, staying consistent in the gym is important for me. Um, you know, going to the range and being conscious of trying to swing a little bit harder, trying not to, you know, it’s easy to go to the range and kind of have lazy swings and just kind of get loose and then go. For me, I try to focus towards the end of my practice sessions on swing a little bit harder, try to gain a little bit more distance. And um yeah, I’ve kind of been steady since the US Open. I haven’t necessarily gained that much and I I want to gain a little bit more, but um sometimes it’s the way it goes. You got to listen to your body sometimes when when you’re traveling and and trying not to push yourself too hard, but I do feel pretty good this week and um I’m excited to get out there and and try to swing hard and take out some bunkers. We’re six weeks away now about uh from trying to make that top six for the US RDER Cup team. How much is that on your mind and how confident are you that you can crack that top six?
Yeah, it’s it’s definitely on my mind. Uh people mention it every week now. They’re like Benny Beth Paige or whatever. I’ve got all sorts of nicknames now. It’s pretty fun. Like look forward to seeing you on the Ryder Cup. But no, I’ve got to continue to play well. Um I think it’s important to continue to play and stay competitive and stay sharp leading into that. So I’m obviously playing a lot of golf. just trying to continue to prove that I’m I’m one of those best players to be on that team. And you know, fortunately, there’s a ranking system and I can earn my way into those top six spots. So, I’m just trying to earn as many points as I can between now and then. Got uh this week with with a lot of points on the line. Got the British Open with a lot of points on the line. So, just got to continue to play well, keep the keep the pedal down as I always say, and um just have fun with it. As Ben Griffin tries to swing a little bit harder at the ball in order to keep up with some of the furthest hitters out here on the PGA Tour, what better player for him to be paired up with over these next couple of days than Aldrich Potgeer, who’s coming off his very first PGA Tour win at the Rocket Classic in Detroit last week. He is the furthest hitter on the PGA Tour right now by far by a whole seven yards. And so if Ben Griffin can be anywhere near him where he is hitting off the tea into the fairway, uh Matt, I think he’s probably safe to say he’s in a good spot.
Well observed, Haley, thank you very much for that report. Excellent job. All right, let’s take a look at the John Deere’s recent field rating. Now, a field rating is a numerical value that indicates the strength of the tournament field. The higher the number, the better. And you can see over the last few years, the field has been trending upward for the John Deere Classic. There are, in fact, seven top 50 players in the field. This week, there were none back in 2022. All right, so we’re joined now by Trip Eisenhower. So Trip, the PGA Tour now has a unique model as a major league sport in that outside of the playoffs, it has important events and then a series of more important event. These tournaments are then called the signature events. So all of the metrics that we’re seeing so far are suggesting that it’s worked, that it’s connecting with the fans because they want to see top players play against each other more often. And I would say is it not fair to ask you the question if this have and have more structure is also strengthening these full field events. Yes. But dependent only on the signature events is is unfair. I think uh they the signature events have played a role because they’ve limited starts. They have made the tour less competitive not more competitive. And that’s the problem. And so yes. Okay, by making the tour less competitive in certain events and limiting spots, it there’s fewer opportunities. So, of course, it’s going to help some of the full field events. But just like cutting cards from 125 to 100 is going to make the Cornfairy Tour next year a lot better fields because they’re going to be 50 PGA Tour players playing the cornfairy tour that would have been playing the PGA Tour.
