John Deere Classic Course Overview
With the Open Championship just two weeks away, most of the sport’s elites have already gone overseas to prep for the season’s final major championship or will rest this week. Nonetheless, we head to TPC Deere Run in Silvis, Illinois, for the 2022 John Deere Classic.
This staple on the PGA TOUR’s schedule has fallen victim to a less-than-impressive field due to British Open prep and a contingent of Tour regulars defecting to the start-up LIV Tour as they host their first tournament on American soil at Pumpkin Ridge this weekend.
This 7,289-yard Par 71 D.A. Weibring design will require the eventual winner to be on his game inside of 15 feet on the greens and take advantage of the par 5’s on the course. Last year, Lucas Glover birdied five of his last seven holes to shoot a 64 and claim the title.
John Deere Classic Tournament Analysis
I will start my card with veteran Bill Haas to finish in the Top Ten at +1200. The 2011 FedEx Cup champion has been able to keep conditional status on Tour for the better part of the decade without winning, as he seems to have timely finishes in alternate field events and weak fields such as this week. Haas was a T-10 finisher here in 2019 and excels with his short game, gaining nearly a stroke per round over his past 20 in scrambling and putting. He had a solid showing with his irons last week at the Travelers (+4.6 shots on Approach), so I am backing he can parlay that form with his traditional short game wizardry to notch another Top Ten at TPC Deere Run.
Hayden Buckley backed up his T-14th finish at the U.S. Open with a solid performance at The Travelers last week, where he made the cut and gained stroke Off the Tee with Approach and Putting. After facing some of the most elite fields all season, I love that his odds in the betting markets and DFS have not gained any steam even though he will be playing against much easier competition here. I will take 9/1 all day on his Top Ten bet and fire him up in DraftKings at $6,900.
Adam Schenk has fared tremendously at the John Deere Classic in his two starts here, finishing T-4 in 2021 and T-6 in 2019. He missed the cut last week due to an ice-cold putter, but he gained in all other facets, and that was coming off a T-24th at the U.S. Open and a T-26th at The Memorial. He is another player who should look strong this week in this field, and I will be giving him a look for his first outright victory on the PGA Tour.
A straight bet on upside and talent this week, Cameron Champ at 50/1 is an excellent boom-or-bust value pick compared to the rest of the names in his range on the board. A three-time PGA Tour winner, Champ has missed four consecutive cuts, primarily due to his ineptitude around the greens and with the putter. Before that poor streak, he had a great middle of the season with a T-10 finish at Augusta National and a T-6 at the Mexico Open, where he played in the final group on Saturday and Sunday. This ticket might be trash Friday afternoon, but there are routes for him to win this tournament, and us being amazed that we got 50/1 on a player of his skill.
Cameron Davis was right in the thick of things last week at The Travelers until a four-putt on his opening hole of the fourth round sent him into a downward spiral that will most overlook how well he played for the week. The 27-year-old Aussie is long off the tee, crushes par 5’s, and has a birdie-or-better rate that is Top Ten in this field. He had his breakthrough PGA Tour victory at last year’s Rocket Mortgage Classic, and I believe he’s as good of a bet as any this week to claim victory number two.
John Deere Classic Picks Card
Top 10
Bill Haas (+1200)
Hayden Buckley (+900)
Outright
Adam Schenk (+5000)
Cameron Champ (+5000)
Cameron Davis (+4000)
First Round Leader
Doc Redman (+13000)
Charley Hoffman (+13000)
Anirban Lahiri (+7000)
