Ryan Moore’s early birdie message scares off rivals

For all the late pars and the closing run of 46 holes without a bogey, Ryan Moore thought the key to his victory Sunday in the John Deere Classic was a 24-foot birdie putt on the fourth hole.

It moved him to 20 under and kept him two strokes ahead of Morgan Hoffmann, who was about to birdie the fifth hole.

“That was huge to get another birdie early, just to show the guys behind me I’m not messing around. The worst thing to do is to be even or 1 over after five or six holes. Then all of a sudden you’ve got 10 guys thinking, ‘All right, I can go get this today.’”