John Deere Classic tournament history
Originally called the Quad Cities Open, the John Deere Classic was first staged as a satellite tournament on the PGA Tour way back in 1971. It became an official event 12 months later and this year's renewal is the 55th.
Initially played at the Crow Valley Country Club in Davenport, Iowa, the tournament moved to Oakwood Country Club in Illinois in 1975 and since 2000 its permanent home has been here at Deere Run.
The John Deere Classic used to be staged in the week before the Open Championship but as next week's DP World Tour event - the Scottish Open - is now co-sanctioned with the PGA Tour, for the fifth year in-a-row, this year's edition is being staged two weeks before the year's final major.
Venue
TPC Deere Run, Silvis, Illinois.
Course details
Par 71 - 7,289 yards
Stroke Index in 2025 - 69.44
Designed by D.A Weibring and sitting on old Native American settlements, TPC Deere Run is a very easy track indeed, where low scores are very much the norm.
Despite current form figures reading MC-MC-MC-MC-MC-MC-54-10, 350.0349/1 chance, Hayden Springer, opened the 2024 renewal with a 12-under-par 59 and J.T Poston won wire-to wire four years ago, after opening the event with a nine-under-par 62.
Paul Goydos also shot 59 here in 2010 and the surprise 2018 winner, Michael Kim, amassed a 27-under-par total with rounds of 63, 64, 64 and 66.
That was the tournament record up 2024 when Davis Thompson posted rounds of 63, 67, 62 and 64 to get to 28-under-par.
Water is in play on five holes and the average-sized bentgrass greens are usually set to run at 12 on the Stimpmeter.
The two nines end with what usually rank as the two hardest holes on the course (both par fours) but they're far from impossible and they only averaged 4.24 and 4.23 for the week 12 months ago.
Weather forecast
TV coverage
Live on Sky Sports all four days, starting at 17:00 on Thursday.
Last 10 winners with pre-event Betfair Exchange prices
2025 - Brian Campbell -18 560.0559/1 (playoff)
2024 - Davis Thompson -28 24.023/1
2023 - Sepp Straka -21 75.074/1
2022 - J.T Poston -25 50.049/1
2021 - Lucas Glover -19 70.069/1
2020 - Event Cancelled
2019 - Dylan Frittelli -21 90.089/1
2018 - Michael Kim -27 800.0799/1
2017 - Bryson DeChambeau -18 55.054/1
2016 - Ryan Moore -22 32.031/1
A statistical look at the John Deere Classic
The last ten winners here have had an average Driving Distance ranking of 33.0 and an average Driving Accuracy ranking of 24.5 so what you do off the tee is largely unimportant.
Lucas Glover only ranked 15th for Greens In Regulation in 2021 but last year's winner, Brian Campbell, ranked fifth, Thompson ranked ninth two years ago, the 2023 winner, Sepp Straka, ranked first, JT Poston ranked fourth four years ago and the two winners before Glover ranked second and seventh.
No winner in the last 10 years has ranked any worse than 34th for GIR (Jordan Spieth in 2015) and the average GIR ranking for the last ten winners is 13.4 so approach play is clearly important, but this event is nearly always won on or around the greens.
Campbell only ranked 30th last year and Poston only ranked 27th for Putting Average in 2022, which is surprisingly high given he's such an excellent putter, but Thomspon ranked first two years ago, Straka ranked second in 2023, Glover topped the PA stats in 2021 and although Dylan Frittelli only ranked 22nd in 2019, he ranked second for Strokes Gained Putting, and he made all 53 putts he faced inside seven feet. He missed just two of 62 inside ten feet and Russell Henley, in second place, ranked first for PA.
The 2018 winner, Kim, ranked first for both PA and Strokes Gained Putting, the first two home in 2017 ranked second and first for SG:P and the average Putting Average ranking of the last ten winners is 9.3.
A hot putter is usually essential but so too is a deft touch around the greens most years.
Last year's playoff protagonists, Campbell and Emiliano Grillo, ranked second and first. Straka ranked only 42nd for Scrambling three years ago but three of the first four ranked inside the top six for Scrambling, Poston ranked third in 2022, Glover ranked fifth in 2021, and three of the last nine winners have ranked first.
The average Scrambling ranking for the last ten winners is 11.0 despite Straka's lowly ranking three years ago.
Look to Colonial and Copperhead for clues
Form at Colonial Country Club, home of the Charles Schwab Challenge, is well worth scrutinising and the Valspar Championship at Copperhead is an event to look at closely too.
Since this event moved to Deere Run, Steve Stricker, Zach Johnson, Kenny Perry, and Jordan Spieth have won both this event and the Charles Schwab and Tim Clark has come close to winning both, finishing runner-up in each event.
Sean O'Hair, who won this tournament in 2005, finished tied for second at the 2017 Charles Schwab Challenge, alongside Deere Run specialist, Jordan Spieth, and the 2014 JDC winner, Brian Harman, finished tied for seventh alongside Stricker. The 2019 Charles Schwab winner, Kevin Na, finished second here in 2021 and this year's Charles Schwab winner, Russell Henley, was second here in 2019.
The 2023 Charles Schwab winner, Emiliano Grillo, finished second here on debut and behind Grillo in sixth in the CSC (beaten by three) was the surprise 2018 JDC winner, Michael Kim, and that was only his third top six finish on the PGA Tour since he won here five years ago.
Grillo was also second last year, being matched at a low of 1.564/7.
Straka boosted the link between the two tracks when he finished fifth at Colonial last year and last year's Charles Schwab winner, Ben Griffin, missed the cut 12 months ago but he finished fifth on debut in 2024.
The 2016 John Deere Classic winner, Ryan Moore, should have won the Valspar at Copperhead a decade ago and he was fifth there in 2024.
As many as four men have won that tournament as well as this one - the aforementioned Spieth, John Senden, Sean O'Hair and Vijay Singh - and the link was boosted again this year when David Lipsky finished second to Matt Fitzpatrick in the Valspar, just eight months after he finished third here last year when priced up at 1000.0999/1 before the off.
Decent event for long-shots
Having finished ninth in the US Open and second in the Rocket Classic in his two previous starts, the 2024 winner, Davis Thompson, was bang in form and fairly well-fancied at 24.023/1 but short-priced winners are rare and last year's victor, Brian Campbell, was a huge outsider, going off at 560.0559/1.
Although they all went off at a double-figure price, none of the four winners before Thomspon were well-fancied and the 2018 winner, Michael Kim, must go down as one of the strangest ever winners on the PGA Tour.
Matched at 800.0799/1 before the off, Kim came into the event with form figures reading MC-MC-18-MC-MC-MC and although he's been resurrecting his career over the last three years, he's been largely disappointing since he won here.
Brian Harman was another triple-figure priced winner in 2016, but you have to go all the way back to 2001 to find the previous winner to go off at more than a double-digit price. Dave Gossett was around the 125/1 mark.
Bryson DeChambeau was a 50/151.00 chance eight years ago and Spieth was 40/141.00 when he won his first PGA Tour title here 12 years ago.
This is a great place for up-and-coming players and six of the last 11 winners have been getting off the mark on the PGA Tour for the first time here. In addition to the top-class Scott Hoch, who really should have won the 1989 US Masters, major champions, David Toms, Payne Stewart, Jordan Spieth, and Bryson DeChambeau all won their first PGA Tour titles at the John Deere Classic.
Winner's position and Betfair Exchange price pre-round four
2025 - Brian Campbell - T2nd - trailing by one 12.523/2
2024 - Davis Thompson - led by two 2.26/5
2023 - Sepp Straka T14th - trailing by four 70.069/1
2022 - J.T Poston led by three 2.111/10
2021 - Lucas Glover T12th - trailing by four 50.049/1
2020 - Event Cancelled
2019 - Dylan Frittelli T5th - trailing by two 16.015/1
2018 - Michael Kim - led by five 1.422/5
2017 - Bryson DeChambeau 2nd - trailing by two 9.417/2
2016 - Ryan Moore - led by two 2.166/5
In-running trends at Deere Run
Cambell was never more than a stroke adrift after sitting tied eighth and three back after round one 12 months ago and Davis was inside the top four all week in 2024.
Poston won wire-to-wire in 2022, and prior to 2021, we had to go all the way back to 1981 to find the last player to win the title from outside the top-ten after 54 holes but two of the last five winners have sat outside the top 10 and a slow start can be overcome.
Lucas Glover caused a bit of a shock in 2021 when he won from tied 12th with a round to go and Straka was matched in-running at 1000.0999/1 after a dreadful start in 2023.
The Austrian sat tied for 133rd and 11 strokes off the lead after a two-over par 73 on Thursday and he was still seven back and tied for 27th after shooting ten strokes less on Friday.
A 65 on Saturday saw him go into round four trailing by four in a tie for 14th and trading at 70.069/1 but after a late stumble by Brendon Todd, who was matched in-running at just 1.758/11, Straka's brilliant 62 on Sunday saw him win by two! And Straka wasn't the only recent winner to start slowly.
Although inside the top 10, Jordan Spieth was six back with 18 to play in 2013 but he birdied five of the last six to claim his first title and he confounded the stats two years later too. He sat tied for 101st and eight adrift after round one but he led by two after round three following a 64 in round two and a 61 in round three.
Bryson DeChambeau's finish in 2017 wasn't too dissimilar to Spieth's in 2013 as he birdied seven of the last ten holes to take the title and in-running drama is quite often witnessed at Deere Run.