Davis Thompson Claims First PGA Tour Victory at 2024 John Deere Classic, Sets Tournament Scoring Record
The name Davis Thompson is well-known to PGA Tour followers.
Thompson has been in excellent form recently, with two runner-up finishes in his last six starts, including last week’s Rocket Mortgage Classic. His worst result in that stretch, outside of a missed cut at the Canadian Open, was a T-27 finish.
Now, Thompson is a PGA Tour winner. He secured his first Tour victory at the 2024 John Deere Classic on Sunday. Thompson dominated TPC Deere Run in Silvis, Illinois, setting a tournament scoring record of 28-under 256, surpassing Michael Kim’s 2017 record of 27 under. He won by four shots in his 63rd career start, finishing ahead of a group of players at 24 under, including amateur Luke Clanton.
“I got off to a great start today and was able to just kind of cruise on the back nine,” Thompson said. “Yeah, getting off to a good start was crucial, and I was just able to ride the momentum coming in.”
With this win, Thompson earned a spot in the 2024 Open Championship at Royal Troon in two weeks. He finished T-9 at the U.S. Open last month.
Thompson earned $1.44 million with the win, along with 500 FedEx Cup points.
In an interesting twist, for the third consecutive year at the John Deere Classic, the winner stayed at the same house. In 2022, J.T. Poston won the title while staying at the property. Last year, Sepp Straka was among the group of golfers who rented the house and won. This year, Thompson was part of the group staying at the house, even using the same room that Straka did.
“I think I have to pay for the whole house now, which is unfortunate, but I’ll gladly write the check for that,” Thompson joked.
Thompson is the 24th golfer to earn his first career win at the John Deere Classic, the most of any event in PGA Tour history.
Clanton, a 20-year-old junior at Florida State, became the first amateur since Billy Joe Patton in the 1950s to finish in the top 10 in back-to-back PGA Tour starts. He birdied his last hole to shoot 8-under 63 on Sunday and finish T-2 alongside C.T. Pan and Michael Thorbjornsen, who was making his third start as a PGA Tour member after earning his card via PGA Tour University.
Patton achieved this feat in the 1957 U.S. Open and the 1958 Masters. Clanton did it in consecutive weeks and is set to compete next week at the ISCO Championship.
For Pan, his finish secured him the second spot available for the 2024 Open Championship.
“It’s going to be a great trip,” Pan said. “Honestly, it’s going to be hectic to arrange all the travel details last minute, but it will be a good problem to have, and my wife and I will be looking forward to our trip there.”
