Amateur Francis within 4 shots of lead after shooting 64

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By Eric Page | Saturday, July 12, 2008 11:29 PM CDT | () comments

Amateur Phillip Francis from Scottsdale, Ariz.., has a laugh with his caddy while he waits to putt on the second hole, July 12, 2008 during the third round of the John Deere Classic in Silvis, IL. He finished with a 7-under 64, good for 11th place. (John Schultz/Quad-City Times). Buy this Photo

SILVIS, Ill. — At 19, amateur Philip Francis hasn’t been able to kill time like most of the plus-21 PGA Tour crowd while in town for the John Deere Classic.

While many of his on-course peers have been rolling dice, turning cards and otherwise taking in the nightlife on the local riverboat casinos, Francis has been playing it a bit closer to the vest. He has seen a pair of movies — “Get Smart” and “Wall-E” — both of which he thoroughly enjoyed.

Now, he’s penning a Hollywood script of his own.

A day after making his first PGA cut, Francis, a sophomore-to-be at UCLA, turned in the round of his life Saturday at TPC Deere Run, carding a 7-under-par 64 to move to 11-under for the tournament, four shots behind co-leaders Kenny Perry, Eric Axley and Brad Adamonis.

“This was one of my best rounds ever,” said Francis, who as a college freshman this spring helped UCLA win the NCAA championship. “I didn’t really miss a shot all day.”

Boy, he didn’t miss many.

Starting with a birdie on the par 5 10th, the 5-foot-11, 145-pound Francis hit every fairway and 14 of 18 greens in regulation en route to a seven-birdie, bogey-free round.

It started on his third shot on 10, where he dropped a wedge from 116 yards out within 2 feet of the pin. He followed with a birdie on the par 4 11th and added birds at 15, 16, 1, 3 and 4. That brought his total to 17 for the tournament, which ranks fifth in the field.

“I got off to a good start and just kept it going from there,” Francis said. “I didn’t really miss many shots all day. I hit my irons real close, real tight. I just played a really solid round of golf and capitalized on my opportunities.”

Now, Francis has the opportunity to do something he could have only imagined at the beginning of the week — contend for and perhaps claim a PGA Tour win.

Only four amateurs have made the cut at the JDC — Brad Schuchat in 1971, Clinton’s Tyler Swanson in 2003 and Jamie Lovemark and Francis this week. Schuchat had the best final result, finishing 21st. Francis will try to better that when he tees off at noon today with Tour vet Woody Austin, who climbed the leaderboard with a 5-under 66 Saturday to move to 10-under for the tournament.

Francis says this week — his second go-around at the JDC and fourth Tour event overall — never was about just making the cut, that he’s been eyeing the leaderboard the whole time with thoughts of contending. So far, aside from a two-bogeys-in-three-holes stretch to finish Friday, nerves have not made their way into his bag.

And as good as Saturday was — the 7-under tied a handful of others for the second-best round of the tournament — it could have been better. Francis had two birdie putts lip out and missed an 8-footer on 17 that left another stroke on the course.

He’ll have to have those drop today to make up ground.

“I’m just going to go out there and do the same exact thing,” Francis said. “I’m going to try to limit the amount of mistakes I make and fire at the pins when I can and, on the other hand, not fire at pins when I’m not supposed to and try to capitalize on the opportunities that I do have.

“I’m just going to try to do the same thing, keep hitting greens and keep making putts.”

That’s the same thing, almost word for word, Francis said after finishing his round Friday.

Now all he needs is the Hollywood ending.

Eric Page can be contacted at (563) 383-2277 or epage@qctimes.com. Comment on this story at qctimes.com.