John Deere Classic
We move from Detroit to the Quad Cities in what should be another birdie-fest with a lot of low numbers on the board. The John Deere Classic has done a great job over the years of creating an identity and sticking to it. They give a lot of opportunities to young players just getting started and many have found their way near the top of the leaderboard by the end of the week. Just last year Michael Thorbjornsen and Luke Clanton finished T2 four shots behind Davis Thompson, and now they come into the 2025 edition with some of the best odds to win the tournament. This year up and coming coming college stars Jackson Koivun, Michael La Sasso and Ben James hope to be the next to make some noise in the John Deere Classic. With this being one of the smallest purses of the year for One and Done Leagues, this would be the perfect week to take a shot on a young player with upside just getting their feet we on the PGA Tour.
For up-to-the-minute updates on injuries, tournament participation and overall golfer performance, head to RotoWire's latest golf news or follow @RotoWireGolf on X.
Course Tidbits
- Course: TPC Deere Run (7,289 yards, par 71)
- Location: Silvis, Illinois
- Purse: $8.4 million ($1.512 million to winner)
- Defending Champion: Davis Thompson (-28)
- 2024 Scoring Average: 68.78
- Average Winning Score Last 4 Years: -22.25
While we should see plenty of drivers this week at TPC Deere Run, there is an added emphasis on hitting the fairways that did not really show up last week at Detroit Golf Club. If you look at some of the players who have historically done well here over the years, a lot of them are those short-accurate-hitters who excel with their wedges and on the greens. Think of guys like Steve Stricker and Zach Johnson. This won't be a place that the Aldrich Potgieter bomb and gauge strategy is optimal.
TPC Deere Run is typically one of the more lush venues on the PGA Tour, but there's a chance it could get a little baked out should we be able to dodge some isolated thunderstorms. Temperatures will dip into the 90s during multiple tournament rounds and we could see wind play a bit of a factor, particularly on Friday and Saturday. Davis Thompson set the tournament scoring record of 28-under last year, and it's most likely won't be in jeopardy in 2025.
Driving accuracy, SG: Putting and Proximity from 100-150 Yards will likely be some of the most important stats to success this week at TPC Deere Run.
Visit RotoWire's PGA earnings report to find total winnings and winnings per entry via our fantasy golf stats pages.
RotoWire One and Done Tools
John Deere Classic: One and Done Picks
I really wanted to mix it up here, but I still have Griffin available and there's a good chance he will never be this much of a favorite in any event the rest of his career. There are only two players in this field that are in the Top 30 of the DataGolf Rankings, Griffin (9th) and Jason Day (22nd). Griffin has been on a torrid stretch of six straight top-15 finishes, including a win at Colonial and a runner-up at the Memorial. He is getting it done across the board ranking inside the top-50 of every strokes gained category on the PGA Tour. Scottie Scheffler and Tommy Fleetwood are the only other players who can make that claim. The two-time winner this year has one career start at TPC Deere Run and that came last year when he put together a strong T5 showing. --Ryan Andrade
Thorbjornsen has played well in both of his trips to the Quad Cities, finishing T17 as an amateur in 2023 and then followed it up with a shared runner-up last year. He's ranked sixth and second in ball-striking in his two appearances, so he should be a factor if the short game cooperates. He's coming off a top-5 in Detroit with new caddie JJ Jakovac on the bag following over a month-long layoff, so there's plenty to like about the 23-year-old this week. --Ryan Pohle
I used Griffin this past week, so the obvious choice is out, but there are a handful of guys just outside the favorites, which look like good options. On the top of that list is Thorbjornsen, who has a lot going for him this week, including a good track record here (runner-up in 2024) and solid form entering the week (T4 in Detroit). Thorbjornsen was runner-up against the weak field earlier this year at the Corales Puntacana Championship and while this field is a bit stronger, I think he can manage as he fared well in Detroit against a stronger field. --Greg Vara
After landing as one of the chalkier OAD clicks last week in Detroit, Griffin can no longer be quite as heavily owned as he should be this week as the JDC tournament favorite, though he'll still carry enough popularity that I wouldn't apply this recommendation if you're way back in the season-long standings. However, clearing the $172k he earned last week is a fine bet to make, and he posted a top-5 in his TPC Deere Run debut last year when he recorded the second-best SG: Putting performance of his career on these greens. Over his past 24 rounds, Griffin ranks top-3 in each of SG: Approach, SG: Putting and Birdies or Better Gained. --Bryce Danielson
Day has made only 12 starts all year. So as we get deep into the season, he should be fresher than most of the other top players. He hasn't contended for a title in 2025, which is why his pretty good season has slipped under the radar. He has four top-10s and six top-25s in those 12 starts (T8 at the Masters, T23 at the U.S. Open, T4 last time out at the Travelers), all while ranking far back in driving distance -- ranked 131st. This week, that won't hurt him. Day is a top-30 player both in the point standings and OWGR, so it stands to reason we would use him at some point this season. This is the week. --Len Hochberg
John Deere Classic: One and Done Fades
Thompson made it look really easy last year cruising to a four-shot victory and a tournament-record score of 28-under-par. That momentum from a breakout 2024 campaign never really carried over to 2025 as he's still sitting on just one top-10, which was a T10 at THE PLAYERS. Thompson's ball-striking has actually been pretty solid this season, but his putting has been absolutely horrific. You're going to have to make a lot of putt to contend in a birdie-fest and 154th on Tour in SG: Putting is just not going to get it done. --Ryan Andrade
Poston will likely be a trendy selection considering he won here in 2022, but he came into that event fresh off a T2 at the Travelers. This time around, he finished T45 in Connecticut and Poston has failed to post a top-25 in his last four starts. It's difficult to pinpoint anything in particular that's holding him back, but he's failed to put everything together as of late. Poston has played well at the 3M Open and Wyndham Championship in the past, so I'd prefer to see some better form before potentially using him at one of those events instead. --Ryan Pohle
For the second week in a row, I'm going to fade the winner from the previous week. Last week I faded Keegan Bradley off a big win, and I'll do the same with Potgieter. Potgieter was locked-in at Detroit, but the odds of that happening again are slim. Not to take away from his game, but he's been hit or miss early in his career, and I have to imagine he'll have trouble getting back into the right mindset this quickly after such a big win. It's tough for vets to get it back the week after a win, let alone a 20-year-old that's never won on the PGA Tour. --Greg Vara
It's not easy fading a player that commonly produces spike weeks with the flat stick at what could become a putting contest, but I'm probably going to look elsewhere if Poston is tracking to creep past or near the 10-percent owned mark in OAD this week, despite his status as a past champion here back in 2022. He's produced just one solid SG: APP performance across nine measured starts since the beginning of April, which isn't conducive to the accrual of birdie chances, so it makes sense that Poston is just 96th in Opportunities Gained over his last 24 rounds. --Bryce Danielson
Im has the second-highest OWGR in this field, behind only Ben Griffin. Yet he has not been playing well for some time. In fact, his last top-10 was the Masters. That's not a bad place to have your last top-10 -- if it were still April. He is ranked 171st in Strokes Gained: Approach, a mere 170 spots behind Scottie Scheffler and ahead of .. no one. That's right, 171st is dead last on the PGA Tour. --Len Hochberg
Don't get burned by late withdrawals. Visit RotoWire's PGA tournament field page for a live-updated summary of the field for the current week and list of players who have dropped out.
