The John Deere Classic is a pillar of the PGA TOUR summer schedule. The event dates back to 1971 and officially became the John Deere Classic back in 1999 and has been played at TPC Deere Run – a course that is now managed by the PGA TOUR – ever since.
This year’s version of the Deere is being played two weeks before the Open Championship, but for some players, it will either be their final tune-up before the last major; OR their last chance to qualify (for the Open).
The top two players in the final standings for the event, who have not already qualified for the Open, will gain entry. That makes this somewhat of a special event for much of the field and a great opportunity for many struggling players to turn their seasons around.
At the top of the qualifying positions at stake, the field will also have a few bigger names. World Number 8 Patrick Cantlay is teeing things up at Deere Run for the first time in his career and will be joined by top-50 players Sungjae Im, Jason Day, and Jordan Spieth.
Spieth won this event back in 2013 and 2015 but he’s skipped it for most of the past decade, choosing instead to focus on preparation for the Open. All in all, there will be a lot of names at the top of this field who have struggled for much of 2024, making this field somewhat wide open with such weak market leaders.
While it’s certainly possible one of the bigger names takes a dramatic step forward – and wins their first tournament of the season – this event has become synonymous with big longshot winners. Last year’s winner, Sepp Straka, who went off around +5500 before last season's event, continued that trend and we have also seen the likes of Lucas Glover (2021), Michael Kim (2018), and Dylan Frittelli (2019) all take down this event at some point over the past six years at odds of +6000 or bigger.
I’ll go over the course preview and how to approach this week for betting today (along with any trends worth noting) and will also highlight one golfer I like targeting for this week. Then, on Wednesday, I’ll go through my full betting card with outrights, placements, and whatever else sticks out for the week.
Let’s dive in and get our John Deere Classic week started!
John Deere Classic 2024 Course Preview
- TPC Deere Run – Silvis, IL
- Par: 71, 7,289 yards
- Greens: Bentgrass
- Fairways: Bentgrass
- Rough: Bluegrass/fescue
- Design: D.A. Weibring
- Defending Champion: Sepp Straka
TPC Deere Run is the quintessential “accuracy” course where power takes a proverbial backseat. The venue plays short for a PGA TOUR venue at just over 7,200 yards (par 71) and features tree-lined fairways that can be somewhat difficult to hit. In 2022, the driving accuracy numbers dipped down to 62%, the lowest mark at this event since 2000. That’s potentially the setup makers attempting to toughen this course up a bit and something to keep note of for this week.
Off-the-tee stats haven’t been overly predictive at Deere Run BUT, the last two winners have gained over 2.8 strokes off the tee. Neither Straka nor JT Poston can be classified as “power players”, so most of those strokes were gained by accuracy and hitting fairways at a high rate.
It’s also important to note that even with toughened fairways it doesn’t necessarily mean that Deere Run will play much tougher than it has in the past. The last two winners have both reached 21-under par for the week and that’s still a better score than we have seen win this event in two of the past five seasons.