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 Smith never made a bogey over the entire week en route to a playoff win over Kevin Kisner and Scott Brown. Long story short, he’s been here and knows how to handle the moment.
Last week, Jonas Blixt missed the cut by three shots on the @KornFerryTour.
He currently leads by three after tying his career low round @JDClassic.
Golf. pic.twitter.com/ThfjxoZpxu
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) July 6, 2023
“Every time you get in the mix, you know you’re doing something right. If you don’t, you learn something,” said Blixt. “So no matter what happens, I will learn something. I will take the experience with me.”
Blixt is incredibly well spoken, humble as the day is long and realistic about where he currently stands in the game. He hasn’t played many events this season, and he’ll be the first person to tell you he hasn’t deserved to.
“Elite sports is very competitive, and if you don’t perform, you shouldn’t be playing. I think there should be a cut in every tournament. I mean, that’s part of golf. That puts pressure on you. I think if you don’t play good enough, people don’t want to see you play either,” he said.
“I haven’t played well enough, and I don’t think people want to see that. So I think there’s better players for that. No, I just have been really working to get better so I can be that guy that people want to see on TV.”
J.T. Poston shot a 9-under 62 in last year’s opening round at TPC Deere Run and went wire-to-wire to lift the trophy on Sunday. If history repeats itself, plenty of golf fans will be watching Blixt on TV Sunday afternoon.