SILVIS, Ill. — If you’re surprised to see Jonas Blixt atop the leaderboard on Thursday at the 2023 John Deere Classic, you’re not the only one. Blixt himself didn’t even see it coming.
“Oh, absolutely not,” he said with a smile after tying his career low round and signing for a 9-under 62 at TPC Deere Run. “I had six weeks off and worked a lot with my swing coach back home.”
“At this point when you don’t have that much confidence in your game and you find something, you just kind of go out and see where you swing at it, and that’s what happened,” he continued. “I mean, 62 doesn’t happen very often on the PGA Tour, at least not for me. I’m very happy about it. Extremely happy about it.”
And for good reason. Blixt hasn’t been in contention since a fifth place showing at the 2019 Charles Schwab Challenge and has struggled to find his form after a back surgery in 2019. Four years later in eight starts so far this season, Blixt has missed five cuts and logged finishes of T-20, T-64 and 72 and sat 210th in the FedEx Cup standings entering the week.
But after a few small tweaks with the help of his swing coach, he has found something repeatable that could extend his season. As it stands, if Blixt were to win on Sunday he would rocket up the standings to a projected 70th place, right on the bubble for the first leg of the upcoming FedEx Cup Playoffs.
That has to come with some added pressure for the rest of the week, right? Wrong.
“I kind of came to the point in my season where it’s so late that I don’t feel any pressure anymore really and just kind of go out and swing at it,” explained Blixt. “Golf is weird. Like, tomorrow I can shoot 100 I feel like, but today was a great day.”
“Pressure builds during the tournament, but by now, first round, I’ve done this for so many years. Am I happy about a 9-under first round? Absolutely. Stoked about it,” he said. “But does it really mean anything? Not really. Not for us. What matters is the back nine on Sunday.”
Blixt would know. While his star has dwindled over his last few years on Tour, the 39-year-old Swede is a three-time winner and claimed victory for the first time after just 19 professional starts at the 2012 Frys.com Open (now known as the Fortinet Championship). He finished T-2 alongside Jordan Spieth in his first Masters appearance in 2014 and added two more wins at the 2013 Greenbrier Classic and 2017 Zurich Classic of New Orleans, where he and Cameron…
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