JOHN DEERE CLASSIC
Wilson moves the wrong way
SILVIS, Ill. » Dean Wilson will have to wait for some other week to win his first PGA Tour event.
Wilson, a Castle graduate from Kaneohe in his fourth full year on the tour, shot a 1-under 70 in yesterday's third round to go to 7 under par at the John Deere Classic. He fell from a group knotted at 15th place to a tie for 38th.
There are just too many players and too many strokes between Wilson and the lead. He had a chance to move into contention, but bogeyed two of the final four holes to fall back in the pack.
"I just played poorly," Wilson said. "Can't get the driver on the fairway when I need to (and) I just made a lot of bad mistakes."
John Senden went into today's final round leading at 16 under, three swings ahead of Heath Slocum and Patrick Sheehan.
Wilson started out well, with birdies on two of his first six holes, and he made the turn at 8 under for the tournament with a 23-foot birdie putt on No. 9.
He got it to 9 under when he birdied No. 14 for the third day in a row. This time, Wilson hit a sweet 60-degree wedge that backed up to leave him a 6-footer.
But errant drives on the 15th and 17th holes resulted in bogeys, taking away any hope of the 4- or 5-under-par round Wilson needed to stay in even remote contention.
The par-5 No. 17, which he bogeyed, could have been worse. Wilson's drive bounced on a path and went deep into a bunch of thick trees. He found a clear path to the fairway though and averted a double bogey or worse.
Then he had a 4-footer for par on No. 18 lip out to complete an unsatisfying round in 95-degree heat.
Wilson missed only three fairways yesterday, but it cost him every time.
"It just pisses me off when I can't hit the driver straight," he said. "I've been working on it all year and it's still just not good."
He was scheduled for a 2:54 a.m. Hawaii time tee time in today's final round with Garrett Willis and Kevin Sutherland.