Steve Stricker has won the John Deere Classic this weekend.
He was leading by 7 holes with 17 still to play, but with five holes left, this lead was reduced to two. He managed to maintain this margin to finish on 1 under 70 to beat fellow American Paul Gaydos.
Stricker started is day with a six shot lead and then increased it to seven after a birdie putt on the first green.
The rest of his round of golf was a battle and his win was not guaranteed until the 17th.
“You don’t want to give shots away and then you end up playing a little safer than you normally do and it leads to tougher birdie putts,” Stricker said. “Then they creep in closer because they were playing some good golf.”
Stricker played a similar round of golf at the Northern Trust Open at Rivera in February.There he also had a six shot lead going into the final day, but only managed to win by 2 shots.
Jeff Maggert shot a final round of 70 to finish in third place.
Stricker will now head across the Atlantic for this week’s British Open at St. Andrews, Scotland.