The PGA TOUR is in Illinois for the week at the John Deere Classic, which has been held in the Quad Cities region since 1971. There are lots of great ways to get in on the action this week with fantasy golf picks and player props highlighted throughout DK Network’s full golf coverage. One fun way to dive into the event is by picking some winners from the tournament trios available on DraftKings Sportsbook. Picking the winner from the full field is extremely difficult, and picking a head-to-head matchup doesn’t offer great odds. These groups are always some of my Golf Best Bets since they offer a “sweet spot” that balances risk and reward.
The format of 3-ball picks is simple to understand—three golfers are placed in a group and you select the winner from that group for the tournament. You can find the five available trios for this week in the tournament groups section of the John Deere Classic page.
With plenty of course history to consider and lots of recent form for most players heading into the summer, it’s a great week to find some winners to build your bankroll from these tournament trios. With three players in the group, almost all options come at plus-money odds. It should be a low-scoring week at the Deere, so let’s pinpoint some golf best bets from these trios this week.
Ben Griffin (+140)
I usually avoid picking the favorite in these tournament trios unless it’s extremely obvious that they’re the best option. In this trio, though, it’s obvious how much more reliable Griffin is coming into this week’s event than Jason Day (+180) and Denny McCarthy (+200).
I’ve used all three of these players extensively in my lineups this season and all have high ceilings, but Griffin has been locked in at another level over the last few weeks. I wrote about his current form and impressive results in my cash game plays for this week. The short version is that he has finished in the top 15 in each of his last six events and also finished T5 last year in his debut at this course.
Day has had a few strong showings this year with five top-10 finishes, but he hasn’t been nearly as consistent as Griffin. He missed the cut at the PGA Championship and has only played two tournaments since then. He has the potential to win this week, to be sure, but his form hasn’t been nearly as consistent as Griffin’s has been over the last several weeks.
McCarthy is also a player who has a high ceiling and could win the event, but this isn’t the kind of course that suits him best. McCarthy is a par-maker who excels at scrambling and avoiding disaster. He typically does well on layouts that play difficult relative to par rather than low-scoring birdiefests like this week’s event usually is.
Even though that’s generally the case with McCarthy, he has finished in the top 10 each of the last three years at TPC Deere Run, so he definitely could pull the upset here from +200. While I considered swinging for the fences with McCarthy, Griffin’s consistent excellence seems the much more likely outcome this week.
Bud Cauley (+175)
Cauley is in one of two trios with exactly even odds for all three players. He’s paired up with Ryan Gerard (+175) and Michael Kim (+175).
Kim won this event in 2018 but has missed the cut in each of his four appearances since then. He has had a much better season this year, though, and has made the cut in six straight events and has three top-10 finishes on the year. He has only one top-25 since THE PLAYERS, though.
Gerard comes in with slightly better recent form, with two top-25 finishes in his streak of seven straight made cuts coming into the week. He finished T8 at the PGA Championship and also has three top-10 finishes on the season, but he has only played this event once in his career, finishing T26 in his debut last year.
Cauley has four top-10 finishes this year and also battled his way into the U.S. Open with qualifying in Ohio. He missed the cut at Oakmont but bounced back with a T25 at the Travelers in his most recent start. Caulty has a strong history at this event, although it dates back to before his accident and extended recovery. From 2014-2019, he made the cut four straight times with three finishes in the top 12. Last year, he made the cut but only finished T61 as he started his long road back to form.
The 35-year-old ranks fourth in the field in Strokes Gained: Approach, fifth in Total Strokes Gained, and ninth in Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green over the last 36 rounds, and his comeback story has been truly amazing to watch this season. He’s an easy storyline to cheer for, but he’s also been playing well enough to deserve to be one of my golf best bets from the tournament trios this week.
Kevin Yu (+185)
Yu has the longest odds in this tournament trio, where he’s matched up with two former champions at TPC Deere Run. J.T. Poston (+150) won in 2022 the year after Lucas Glover (+185) won in the return to the event after a one-year cancellation due to COVID-19. Of the trio, though, Yu is my pick to win the week even if he is the only one who hasn’t triumphed on this track in the past.
I had Yu in my top fantasy golf pivot plays for the week and love his blend of current form and course history. He broke through for his first PGA TOUR win last fall and has made 12 cuts with seven top-25 finishes in his 18 events in 2025. In his last start, Yu finished T25 at the Travelers after a third-place finish at the RBC Canadian Open behind Ryan Fox. He also finished just behind Fox and one stroke out of the playoff at the ONEflight Myrtle Beach Classic. In the last 30 rounds, Yu ranks sixth in the field in Total Strokes Gained and seventh in Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green.
Yu finished T20 last year at the Deere after debuting with a T6 in 2023, and his ability to go low in birdie-fest weeks like this one gives him a very high ceiling as one of my golf best bets of the week.
Obviously, both his competitors can go low as well since they have done exactly that to win on this track before. However, their recent form hasn’t been quite as strong. Glover is coming off a top-10 at the Travelers but missed the cut at the U.S. Open and the Memorial just before that and hasn’t played a ton since the spring. Poston has been steadily making pars and grinding out strong finishes but has only one top-10 in his 18 events this season.
Both have done fairly well in their returns to TPC Deere Run, so it will take a good week from Yu to win this trio, but I like him as a good value play in my golf best bets at almost 2:1 odds in this trio.
