Lake Orion's Gillis denied first PGA Tour win by Spieth - The Detroit News
In his 171st start on the PGA Tour, Lake Orion's Tom Gillis for the first time finally found himself atop the leaderboard after 72 holes. On the second sudden-death playoff hole, Gillis found the water on his second shot and Jordan Spieth made par to secure the John Deere Classic title in Silvis, Illinois, on Sunday afternoon. It's the fourth victory of the season for Spieth, 21, who also won the season's first two majors, the Masters and the U. S. Open, and this week will try to win the third, the British Open in St. Andrews, Scotland. Gillis, 46, whose first event on the PGA Tour was the year Spieth was born (1993), still gets some consolation out of his second-place finish. That finish was good enough to earn him a spot in the British Open field. He secured a seat on a charter from Illinois to Scotland with Spieth and several other British Open entrants late Sunday night. He earned $501,600 for a runner-up finish in the Honda Classic in 2012. Gillis came into this tournament playing poorly on the season, having missed the cut in six of his 11 events. That came at a rotten time, as he'd just won back his PGA Tour card for the 2015 season. He got back on Tour early this year, but after three missed cuts in January and February, he decided to rest the shoulder for three months. Source: www.detroitnews.com
