Featured Group: Toms, Stricker, Wilson

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At each PGA TOUR event this season, a featured pairing will be highlighted prior to the first round. Here is the featured group for Thursday and Friday at the John Deere Classic.

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Don't expect the players in this week's featured group to spend much time looking for lost balls. Steve Stricker, David Toms and Mark Wilson are three of the most accurate players on the PGA TOUR, and they're very good putters as well. The trio has won a combined 26 events on TOUR, so it would be no surprise if one of them hoisted the trophy this week.

Steve Stricker has owned TPC Deere Run the last two years. He shot scores of 26-under par and 20-under par to win the last two titles. He's also one of three players (Phil Mickelson and Jim Furyk) to have finished in the top 15 of the FedExCup each year.

This year, the Wisconsin native is having another stellar season. Stricker won the Memorial in early June, has made the cut in each of the 11 events he's played in and is currently ninth in FedExCup standings. The 44-year-old's stats are equally as solid -- 36th in driving accuracy and greens in regulation, third in strokes gained-putting and sixth in the all around category. Even though it's difficult to win an event three times in a row, our experts have selected Stricker as the favorite to win.

At 44, David Toms is having one of the best years of his career. Although he lost in a playoff to K.J. Choi at THE PLAYERS Championship, he bounced back the next week and won the Crowne Plaza Invitational.

Toms is first on TOUR in driving accuracy, second in greens in regulation and fifth in the all around category. He's also seventh in the FedExCup, and is coming off a 17th place finish at the Travelers where he shot in the 60s in all four rounds. But Toms hasn't enjoyed the same recent success as Stricker at the John Deere. Toms won the event in 1997, but missed the cut in his last appearance in 2009.

Mark Wilson, like Stricker, was born in Wisconsin. He now lives in Elmhurst, Ill., a few hours drive east from TPC Deere Run, so he should feel at home. Wilson is having a career year in 2011, with wins at the Sony Open in Hawaii in January and the Waste Management Phoenix Open in February.

Wilson has now won four times on TOUR, and is fifth in FedExCup points this season. He's ranked 16th in driving accuracy and 39th in greens in regulation, but he has struggled recently. Wilson missed the cut in his last two events, the U.S. Open and the AT&T National. While he's had mixed results at the John Deere in the past, he played well in 2010. He shot 9-under par and tied for 39th, his best finish in the event.

PGA TOUR Season Summary   David Toms Steve Stricker Mark Wilson   2011 Top-10s 5 4 4 Current FEC Rank 7th 12th 5th 2010 FEC Rank 44th 2nd 131st 2009 FEC Rank 19th 2nd 32nd 2008 FEC Rank 121st 21st 80th 2007 FEC Rank 25th 12th 38th Finish Last Week DNP DNP Cut Career at John Deere Classic Appearances 11 9 8 Wins 1 2 0 Top-10s 2 4 0 Best finish 1st 1st T39 Last Appearance/Finish 2009/Cut 2010/1st 2010/T39 Round 1 Scoring Avg. 69.27 68.44 70.50 Round 2 Scoring Avg. 69.18 67.78 70.13

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