JOHN DEERE CLASSIC

July 4, 2026

Zach Johnson

TPC Deere Run

Quick Quotes

Q. (Joined in session) -- obviously kind of talk about both of those.

ZACH JOHNSON: Yeah. Actually, I really thought I hit a really good second shot on 1. Jumped, misjudged it. Obviously it was a pretty benign chip. Fortunate to come away with 3.

Hit two good shots on the next hole. You know, I don't know what it was, 5 feet for eagle, 6 feet. Obviously the gift on 18. I mean, I'm trying to get that in a 3- to 4-foot circle, if you will. That was a gift, but I gave a couple away. Specifically 15. Almost gave another one away on 16.

Maybe golf evens out in some regards, but I think the beauty of it is I still got more in the tank. I still got more -- I think I can still play better.

I saw some signs specifically in the last 11 holes ball striking-wise that was very encouraging. Subtleties, but sometimes subtleties mean everything.

Q. You're only a couple back. Are you surprised that the leaderboard is as bunched as it is? That's usually what it is around here.

ZACH JOHNSON: It's always bunched. Maybe at some point somebody will take it deep. Kind of assumed somebody would today given the reception on the greens. The greens were hard to putt speed-wise.

That was some serious rain yesterday. There was a point last night, had I opened my door, I would have had water coming into my car. It sounds funny, but Cooch and I were pretty scared.

So there was a lot of rain. The course is draining great. I got to give massive props to the superintendent and his crew given what they probably had to combat and navigate. The greens were obviously extremely soft, but they were just a little slower because they're wet. They still roll pure. You hit it online with the right speed, it's going. Just something you had to calibrate.

Q. Zach, you've got enough rounds around here to have seen this course play in every type of condition.

ZACH JOHNSON: Yeah.

Q. With ball in hand today, were you surprised there weren't more lower scores than what are were out there?

ZACH JOHNSON: Honestly I haven't looked at the leaderboard. I can't answer that. I'm going to go based on what you're saying.

No, I mean, there's not much roll in the fairway, and again, like I said, it's hard to -- some of these pins were pretty good today. It's hard to get them close. Even the ones where you had loft in your hand you are, like, man, I got to use one more club just to take spin off.

We're used to it. I'm not suggesting that we haven't done that before. It seems like if you have a drought, just call us. It is something you've got to kind of manage.

I don't know. Again, the wind switched a couple of times. All of that, you are looking at your compass hole by hole by hole, and you're, like, man, it should be there, but I'm feeling it here. You're looking at the trees. You're looking at the clouds. You got to commit.

Sometimes that commitment when you feel like you have the appropriate club to knock it close, you're changing clubs because you're not sure where the wind is, and you got to play to a safe side. Harder to get it close as a result. It's all of that.

But that's TPC Deere Run. That's part of the challenge. It still has teeth.

Q. Were the pin placements any more difficult, because it looked like there were a lot of putts burning edges for everybody today?

ZACH JOHNSON: I don't know if they were more difficult. I thought yesterday had some nice ones, too. We know where the pins are going to be. There's essentially five, you could argue six pins on some greens. Five to six pins per green. It's just a matter of which ones they use. We know where they're going to go.

They've done a great job. You probably got, I don't know, six -- you feel like you can get after six medium to modest ones and six hard ones. I think that's a pretty good setup.

Q. Zach, you've been in this moment before. What are the moments like the next 10, 12 hours that you lead up to the final round of this tournament when you are right there atop the leaderboard?

ZACH JOHNSON: I mean, I'm playing good enough, it feels like I'm just teeing off on one, and I'll be teeing off tomorrow on my 55th hole.

There's nothing changing. Nothing is deviating away from my process and how I go about it. It feels like it's been an extension of the whole week. My focus right now is hydration, recovery, food, and sleep, packing. Oh, damn it, I got to pack. Other than that -- it's normal. Saturday nights, that's the norm.