John Deere Classic
Course: TPC Deere Run (7,289 yards, par 71)
Purse: $8,400,000
Winner: $1,512,000 and 500 FedExCup points
Tournament Preview
Some of these tournaments in this part of the year feel like they lack an identity. The John Deere Classic does not have that issue. They have long embraced this tournament being a birdie barrage, and have also done as good a job as any at giving opportunities to young players. Just last year Davis Thompson picked up his first PGA Tour win shooting a tournament-record 28-under-par (256) to win by four strokes over amateur Luke Clanton and PGA Tour University No. 1 ranked player Michael Thorbjornsen.
This year Clanton and Thorbjornsen are both returning with full status on the PGA Tour and come in with a chance to score their first victories. 20-year-old Aldrich Potgieter did just that a week ago scoring the win in a playoff at the Rocket Classic and will look to keep bombing away at TPC Deere Run. Jackson Koivun is in the field as the No. 1 ranked amateur golfer, who already has a PGA Tour card locked up via the PGA University Accelerated Program. Koivun will defer his eligibility another year as he's already announced he will return to Auburn for his junior season next fall. The No. 2 ranked amateur is Ben James who will join Koivun in the Quad Cities this week. James played in the Valero Texas Open and U.S. Open previously this year. Lastly, the 2025 NCAA Champion Michael La Sasso will also tee it up at the John Deere Classic. La Sasso made his PGA Tour debut last week in Detroit but missed the cut.
While there are a number of players just getting their feet wet on the PGA Tour, the John Deere Classic also comes at an important spot on the calendar. The race for the FedExCup Playoffs are heating up with just five weeks left to get into the Top-70 that make golf's version of the postseason. Beyond that, the race to just keep a PGA Tour card for 2026 is as competitive as it has ever been. Only the Top 100 players in the FedExCup will retain their card for next season at the conclusion of the FedExCup Fall. That is down from 125 players, as the PGA Tour tries to give more playing opportunities out of the gate next season to players who earned their card via the Korn Ferry Tour or DP World Tour. Safe to say while it feels like just another week on the PGA Tour, this tournament has the potential to change the trajectories of player's careers.
Ben Griffin comes in as the highest ranked player in the field looking to pick up his third victory of 2025. Griffin previously won the Zurich Classic with Andrew Novak and then a month later claimed his first individual win at the Charles Schwab Challenge. Sungjae Im, Jason Day, J.T. Poston Denny McCarthy, Lucas Glover and Potgieter are the other top-50 ranked players in the field. Both Poston and Glover are former winners at TPC Deere Run.
It's been steamy across the Midwest of late and that heat is going to carry into the John Deere Classic. Daytime highs will dip into the 90s throughout much of the week. There's a chance for some isolated thunderstorms that could potentially halt play, but hopefully we can dodge them and the course is also able to firm up as much as possible. The players will also have some wind to contend with this week, most notably on Friday and Saturday where gusts could be up to 25 mph. That could create at least a little resistance for the players from taking this place apart yet again. 28-under might not be in the cards again this year, but 20-under has been hit in 12 of the last 15 tournaments and someone will likely get hot and keep the trend going this week.
Recent Champions
2024 - Davis Thompson (-28)
2023 - Sepp Straka (-21)
2022 - J.T. Poston (-21)
2021 - Lucas Glover (-19)
2020 - No Tournament
2019 - Dylan Frittelli (-21)
2018 - Michael Kim (-27)
2017 - Bryson DeChambeau (-18)
2016 - Ryan Moore (-22)
2015 - Jordan Spieth (-20)
Key Stats to Victory
- SG: Approach/GIR Percentage
- SG: Putting/Putts per GIR
- SG: Off-the-Tee/Total Driving
- Proximity 100-150 Yards
Champion's Profile
The test is going to be pretty similar to what players faced a week ago at Detroit Golf Club. There's going to be a lot of short iron and wedge opportunities for the players, and then they are going to have to capitalize on the greens. We'll see plenty of drivers used again at TPC Deere Run, but I would say there's a little more thought off the tee that's involved at this place than there was in Detroit. There's been a lot of short hitters over the years that have thrived in the John Deere Classic because of their strong wedge play. Steve Stricker, Zach Johnson and Ryan Moore come to mind. The proximity buckets of 100-125 and 125-150 yards should be good indicators of success at TPC Deere Run, along with those players who have been trending well on the greens. These are pretty flat surfaces where you can make a lot of putts if you are hitting your lines.
FanDuel Value Picks
The Chalk
Ben Griffin ($12,200)
Griffin is the clear best player in this field by any metric you look at and you could make a valid argument that this price is too low for him. He has no weaknesses ranking inside the top-50 of every strokes gained category. After a T13 last week in Detroit, Griffin has now finished top-15 in six straight starts. Last year he scored a T5 finish at TPC Deere Run and ranked fourth for the week in SG: Putting.
Denny McCarthy ($11,800)
McCarthy has finished T6-T6-T7 the last three years at TPC Deere Run and should be primed for another strong finish. He is coming off a T12 at the Travelers where he gained strokes on the greens for the 11th time in 13 starts. McCarthy is up to ninth on the season in SG: Putting and has not missed a cut anywhere since The Open Championship last year. That's certainly a nice thing to lean on for a tournament where you are going to have to go low to make the weekend.
Michael Thorbjornsen ($11,100)
A wrist injury after the PGA Championship didn't slow down Thorbjornsen at the Rocket Classic as he posted a T4 finish and was just one shot shy of joining the playoff. That was his third top-5 finish in his last six starts. He now gets to come to a familiar place in TPC Deere Run where he went T17 in 2023 and then T2 last year. Thorbjornsen is one of the best drivers on Tour at 16th in SG: Off-the-Tee and second in total driving. He is also sixth in GIR percentage and sixth in birdie average this season.
The Middle Tier
Pierceson Coody ($10,300)
Outside of Griffin, there's a case to be made that Coody might be the hottest player in this field. He's split time between the PGA and Korn Ferry Tour this season, but he has finished top-25 in his last seven starts, including a T2-3rd-T7 run in his last three. Coody is leading the KFT in putting average and is third in birdie average this season. He brings a lot of pop off the tee as well, and finished T30 last year at TPC Deere Run behind a strong putting performance.
Lucas Glover ($10,000)
Glover has been strong at the JDC of late with five top-25 finishes in his last six starts here, including a win in 2021. The veteran is coming off his fourth top-10 finish of the season at the Travelers Championship where his ball-striking was tremendous. Glover is one of the best wedge players on Tour ranking second in proximity from 125-150 yards. He's going to be playing from the fairway a lot and has putted quite well on these bentgrass greens the last few years.
Kevin Roy ($9,400)
Roy is coming off a strong T8 finish in Detroit where he ranked third in SG: Approach for the week. That was his sixth top-20 of the season and third in his last five starts. Roy's strength is his ball-striking where he ranks third in total driving, 16th in GIR percentage and 13th in proximity. He has also gained strokes on the greens in four of his last five starts. Roy has one prior start at TPC Deere Run in 2023 when he was in the mix for the win on Sunday, but faded on the back-nine to T31.
The Long Shots
Sami Valimaki ($8,500)
Valimaki took a full month off after back-to-back missed cuts at the PGA Championship and Colonial, but got right back into the swing of things with a solid T19 in Detroit last week. That was his sixth top-20 of the season and fourth in his last eight starts. Valimaki's combination of iron play and putting makes him an interesting option this week. He ranks 27th in SG: Approach and eighth in SG: Putting this season. Valimaki finished T12 here last year and was third for the tournament in SG: Putting.
Jackson Suber ($8,500)
Suber was a player I was high on at the start of the year due to his great iron play. After beginning with a T6 at the Sony Open, he went through a pretty tough stretch of golf, a lot due to issues with the putter. Suber seems to have corrected the problems gaining strokes in his last three starts on the greens and posting a pair of top-20s, including a T6 in Detroit. Suber ranks top-10 this season in SG: Approach and proximity from 100-125 yards, both of which should guide him at TPC Deere Run.
Zach Johnson ($8,300)
There are a ton of question marks once you start getting down this low in a field like this, but one thing we know if Johnson's history at the John Deere Classic. He has seven career top-five finishes and has made his last 16 cuts in this event. Johnson doesn't play that much anymore, but he is still capable of good showings at age 49, as evidence by his T8 finish at the Masters. If Johnson had enough rounds to qualify he would be leading the PGA Tour in proximity from 50-125 yards, proving that wedge play is still elite.
Strategy Tips This Week
Based on a Standard $60K Salary Cap
There's a lot of similarities here as there was last week in Detroit because it's going to be another birdie-fest, but the key difference is that your short-hitters are a lot more viable at TPC Deere Run. It really opens things up to all types of roster construction this week in what is a pretty weak field. Course history also should play a bigger factor than last week and is a quality tool to use for putting together your lineups. Overall, I think the goal should be to roster as many quality iron/wedge players as possible, as that will lead to the most birdie opportunities in a week you will have to go low.
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