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Sports

Matteson maintains John Deere lead

By Sports Network
Published | Updated

Silvis, IL – Troy Matteson carded a 3-under 68 on Friday to remain atop the leaderboard after two rounds of the John Deere Classic.

Matteson finished 36 holes at 13-under-par 129. Matteson is a two-time winner on the PGA Tour

Jeff Maggert fired a 9-under 62 at TPC Deere Run to jump into a share of second place. He was joined at minus-12 by Brian Harman, who shot 65 on Friday.

J.J. Henry (64), Robert Garrigus (66), Ricky Barnes (67) and Gary Christian (66) are tied for fourth at minus-11.

Lurking three strokes off the lead is three-time defending champion Steve Stricker. He posted a 4-under 67, but slipped five spots into a share of eighth. Stricker stands alongside Lee Janzen (65) and Tommy Biershenk (66).

Stricker stumbled to a bogey on No. 11, but came back with birdies on 13 and 14. He collected three more birdies the rest of the way to end at 10-under.

"I made a couple birdies probably that I shouldn't have, and then missed a couple opportunities that I should have taken advantage of. So I guess it kind of evened out," Stricker stated. "I think I actually hit the ball a little bit better today. Wish I could have gotten a couple more out of it, but overall I'm in a good position heading into the weekend."

Matteson started Friday morning on the first tee and got going with an 11-foot birdie putt on No. 1. He followed with a two-putt birdie on the par-5 second to move to 12-under.

After seven consecutive pars, Matteson drained a 10-footer for birdie at the 10th. He parred the next three holes before dropping in another 10-footer for birdie at No. 14.

Matteson found rough off the tee on the 15th. That led to a bogey which knocked him down to 13-under, and he finished there with three pars in a row.

"Greens were a lot smoother this morning. They weren't a lot faster, but they were a little faster so we couldn't be as aggressive with some of the putts," Matteson said. "The wind picked up for a few holes, so I know that changed the way a few guys played holes. I know holes like No. 5 played 40 yards longer."

Maggert ran off four birdies in a five-hole span from the 12th to jump to minus-7. Around the turn, he birdied three of the first four holes to get within three of the lead.

The 48-year-old birdied the sixth from 12 feet out to move to 11-under. Maggert dropped in a 13-footer on the ninth to end one back.

Harman, in the next-to-last group, had back-to-back birdies from the 12th. He birdied the 17th, but gave that stroke right back with a bogey on the 18th.

On the front nine, Harman had four more birdies to grab a share of second.

NOTES: Matteson has a piece of the 36-hole lead for the fourth time on the PGA Tour, but he failed to hold any of the first three...The cut line fell at 4- under-par 138 with 77 players moving on to the weekend...Among those that missed the cut were Charles Howell III, Jhonattan Vegas, Sean O'Hair, John Daly, amateur Patrick Rodgers and Stewart Cink.