But for the John Deere Classic, the house Denny McCarthy, J.T. Poston and friends rent in the Quad Cities is the place to be, the veteran move, the precise latitude and longitude of positive mojo. That’s because their rental this week – same address and all – has produced the JDC tournament winner two years running.
Poston won two years ago. Sepp Straka, coming from just a few bedrooms away, won last year. Talk about Airbnb experiences. Not surprisingly, that property – just call it Trophy House – has attracted a big crowd this year. This week’s crew is made up of Poston, McCarthy, Ben Kohles, Greyson Sigg, Patton Kizzire, and Davis Thompson.
“I’m not actually staying there this year, unfortunately,” Straka said with a rueful smile Wednesday. “My family is coming into town tomorrow. But until they come into town, I’ve been hanging out over there with the guys and playing some cards. Yeah, I guess Davis snuck into my room.
“Maybe it can work well for him,” he continued. “Yeah, hopefully the mode changes a little bit this year and it’s not somebody from that house that wins.”
In large part to fight loneliness, Chris Kirk and friends have become road housemates and were interviewed earlier this year . Even if they go back to the same tournaments, their actual addresses usually change from year to year. Not this week, though, inviting the strange prospect of a lucky piece of real estate equaling the feat of Steve Stricker, who famously won the John Deere three years in a row (2009-11).
Can the right address bolster athletic performance? It’s debatable, but strength in numbers certainly can.
“I’ve had two great years since we started,” Poston said. “The one that sticks out to me is the John Deere, the last couple years. We get a big house, there’s like six of us in there, and it’s fun because you come back and you’re playing cards or throwing football in the backyard. It’s a good way to decompress and get away from golf, because the hard part of the hotel thing is you get back to the hotel and, if you’re alone, you’re probably thinking about golf.”
Denny McCarthy, another denizen of Trophy House, also has reported an uptick in play.
“It can be a battle, especially when things aren’t going great on the golf course,” said McCarthy, whose last two seasons have been the best of his career. “It’s nice to have guys in the house to come back to and talk with and hang out. Whether you shoot 65 or 75, it doesn’t matter. My mind has been at ease, and this has factored into that for sure.”
The one bright side of not staying at Trophy House, Straka said Wednesday, is he won’t get stuck with the bill again even if he winds up with the trophy for the second consecutive year. (As per tradition, if a guy wins, he pays for the house.)
“If I win this year,” Straka said, “they got to pay their own way.”
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