The Cheat Sheet provides DraftKings fantasy golf players with course info, player history, and the most noteworthy trends of the week to help them with their roster selections.
Set your DraftKings fantasy golf lineups here: PGA TOUR $700K Sand Trap [$200K to 1st]
The Field
The field this week will again feature 150-plus golfers. With only two weeks to go until the Open Championship — and with next week having a big tune-up event on the schedule over in Scotland — many of the top names have decided to skip this week’s event.
As of now, the top player in the field is Chris Gotterup, who sits 14th in the OWGR. Ben Griffin, who sits 16th in the OWGR, is also in the field. Behind him, names like J.T. Poston (who won this event in 2022) and Rickie Fowler will attempt to give this field a little more star power.
Along with the players anchoring this event at the top of the board, there are also some intriguing young names in the field. Michael Thorbjornsen is playing again, as is Eric Cole, who opened with a 63 in Hartford. This event will also award two qualifying spots to the Open in two weeks to the highest two finishers who have not already qualified for that event, giving players who haven’t qualified for the last major event even more incentive. The regular cut rules (top 65 and ties make the weekend) apply.
The Course
TPC Deere Run — Silvis, Illinois
Par 71 –7,268 yards; Greens: Bentgrass
This is traditionally one of the easiest courses the players see all year. The winning score at TPC Deere Run almost always hits 20-under-par, or better, and it wouldn’t be shocking to see some players threaten for a 59. In 2022, Poston won the event at 21-under and gained over 4.5 strokes on approach and around the greens, and last year, Davis Thompson broke the scoring record for this event by shooting 256 (-28). Last year in Round 1, Hayden Springer also opened with a 59 after arriving in poor form.
As for the setup, TPC Deere Run is a shorter par 71 and features three par 5s, all of which play very straightforwardly and are holes that must be taken advantage of by those planning to compete for the win. Of the past seven winners, only one (Jordan Spieth in 2013) has finished outside the top 10 in par-5 scoring for the week.
That part is obvious, and any player who doesn’t score at least reasonably well on the easiest holes this week will fall behind quickly. The par 4s are also much more manageable than a typical par 71, as only a couple of them tend to play over par for the week. Seven of the par 4s come in under 450 yards in length, making distance off the tee somewhat irrelevant, but finding fairways and short iron play extremely important.
Winners at Deere Run don’t dominate off the tee from a power perspective, but finding an abundance of fairways has been a trait of most recent winners. While Thompson is more of a powerhouse off the tee, the two winners before him are not big hitters. However, both Sepp Straka (2023) and Poston (2022) gained over 2.5 strokes off the tee, which set them up for a big week on approach.
For stat purposes, players who are gaining fairways at a high rate could be great targets this week, but putting and approach play is still where winners have tended to gain the most on the field. Last year’s winner, Brian Campbell, had some of the wildest splits you will see in terms of a winner’s strokes-gained profile, losing an astounding -3.9 strokes OTT, while gaining 6.8 strokes putting and 5.6 strokes total on approach. Deere Run does feature some of the purest greens on the PGA, so we often see an overabundance of putts made from 15-25 feet. In 2022, players sank 18% of their putts between 15 and 25 feet, the fifth-highest rate on the PGA Tour.
In 2024, Thompson gained an ungodly 7.4 strokes putting for the week, while Straka (2023 – +6.8 strokes putting) also outperformed on the greens. In this respect, while approach play is important, this is a week where players’ finishing positions are generally made or broken around and on the greens. So if there is a player who is coming in, hitting the ball well, and can flip the script and go positive with his putter, a big week is possible.
2026 Weather Outlook: I wouldn’t expect the weather to be a major factor this week. Temperatures will be hot on the first day, with highs in the 90s, but will cool off a touch afterward. It is the middle of summer, so some rain and thunderstorms are in the forecast for Days 2 and 3, but it doesn’t appear there will be anything more than a brief stoppage or two. Rain could soften the course considerably. If I were targeting one wave on the first two days, I would want my player teeing off earlier on Thursday rather than later, when the heat rolls in and the greens get crusty. That said, the difference is likely to be negligible this week. Overall, the hotter temperatures may make around-the-green play slightly more important, but if rain comes in, expect a very low winning score once again in 2026.
Last Five Winners
2025—Brian Campbell (-18 over Emiliano Grillo playoff)
2024—Davis Thompson -28 (over Luke Clanton, C.T. Pan, and Michael Thorbjornsen -24)
2023—Sepp Straka -21 (Over Brendon Todd -20)
2022—J.T. Poston -21 (over Christiaan Bezuidenhout and Emiliano Grillo -18)
2021—Lucas Glover -19 (over Kevin Na -17)
Winning Trends
- 12 of the last 16 winners of this event had all played at TPC Deere Run in a previous year and made the cut at least once before their win.
- Seven of the last nine winners had gained over 3.5 strokes on approach in one of their previous four starts before winning the John Deere Classic.
- Eight of the last nine winners of the John Deere Classic played in the PGA event the week before their win at TPC Deere Run.
Winners Stats and Course Overview
2025 Winner: Brian Campbell (18-under par)
2025 lead-in form (MC-WD-MC-T55-T34)
SG: OTT—-3.9
SG: APP—+5.6
SG: Total—+11.4
SG: ATG—+2.8
SG: PUTT—+6.8
- Campbell was one of the biggest longshot winners in this event’s history, coming in with zero prior form.
- Campbell also lost nearly -4.0 strokes off the tee for the week, posting massive divergence in splits from his approach and putting numbers.
- In 2022, Poston continued the trend of winners being very elite with their approach play at Deere Run, but also very solid off the tee, gaining 2.8 strokes OTT.
- Davis Thompson also dominated off the tee, gaining 3.2 strokes OTT for the week. While it’s a short course, setting yourself up well on the par 5s and longer par 4s is critical.
- Thompson and Poston also played extremely well around the greens, gaining over 5.0 strokes ATG. We have also seen other players, like Spieth, dominate at this venue with the short game.
- Straka didn’t play as well as TTG as Poston or Thompson in 2023, but still had a great week with ball striking and putted to his ceiling, gaining over 6.5 strokes on the greens.
- Each of the last eight winners of this event before Campbell in 2025 gained more than 1.0 stroke off the tee, and between 2019 and 2023, only one top-five finisher at this event gained less than 1.0 stroke off the tee.
- Overall, good weeks off the tee have set past winners up well at this event to take advantage of strong iron play and putting, where they do most of their damage.
Finding Values on DraftKings Sportsbook
Rico Hoey +4900 and $7,600
Comparables:
- Taylor Pendrith +5200 and $7,700
- Mac Meissner +5100 and $7,800
- Christiaan Bezuidenhout +5100 and $7,800
Pierceson Coody +2900 and $8,800
Comparables:
- Jacob Bridgeman +3000 and $9,500
- Michael Thorbjornsen +3200 and $9,000
- Rickie Fowler +3700 and $8,900
All odds are provided by DraftKings Sportsbook, and are subject to change.
HORSES FOR COURSES
1. Lucas Glover (best finishes: win – 2021, T6 – 2023): Glover has multiple top-10 finishes at this event over the past five seasons and won the Deere Classic back in 2021, his first win on the PGA Tour in over a decade. He’s flashed some decent play of late and could be ready for another big week at Deere Run.
2. Jordan Spieth (best finishes: win – 2013, 2015): Spieth won this event twice between 2013 and 2015. As a veteran, the course hasn’t brought him as much success, but he did finish T26 here back in 2024.
3. J.T. Poston (best finishes: win – 2022, T6 – 2023): Poston was starting to become like the modern-day version of Zach Johnson at this course, who got in contention every season at Deere Run for nearly a decade. He finished T30 here in 2024 and missed the cut last year, so he will be looking for a better result in 2025.
4. Adam Schenk (best finishes: T4 – 2021 and 2023): Schenk loves these tree-lined, classic setups. On top of finishing Top 6 at Deere Run on three different occasions over the past five years, he’s also finished runner-up at Colonial and Copperhead.
Recent Form
1. J.T. Poston ($9,300; T69-T4-win): Poston did regress last week, but it was a perfectly understandable regression spot after winning and posting a T4 at the US Open in back-to-back starts. Overall, he’s playing some of the best golf of anyone on the PGA right now.
2. Ben Griffin ($10,500; T10-T17): Griffin continues to shine a year after his breakthrough season. He’s been competitive in far stronger fields of late, so challenging for another trophy this week wouldn’t be overly shocking.
3. Tom Kim ($8,700; T3 – T15): Kim posted a strong US Open, one week after a top-15 finish in Canada. His approach game was particularly strong at Shinnecock, which seems like a great sign for this week.
4. Doug Ghim ($8,600; T15-T28-T31): Ghim has shown some solid form of late. He’s made six cuts in a row and shot four rounds of 69 or better at TPC Toronto in his last start.
DRAFTKINGS DFS STRATEGY
Big Field Punt Plays:
Mark Hubbard ($6,800): Hubbard has come close on multiple occasions to winning one of these lower-level events and posted a T6 finish at TPC Deere Run back in 2023. While his last few events haven’t been great, he posted a T2 at Myrtle Beach and makes for a great boom-or-bust target at this salary.
David Skinns ($6,600): Skinns has made a habit of showing up on leaderboards in events like the one we’re getting this week. He shot two rounds of 65 in his last outing in Canada and was T8 in Puerto Rico back in April. Overall, I like his profile for DFS GPPs, as he’s been a weekend player capable of landing top-20 finishes when he makes the cut.
Core Plays:
Ryo Hisatsune ($8,100): The Japanese youngster is on an 18-event made cut streak and has shown good upside at other technical venues like Torrey Pines and Pebble Beach. While he hasn’t excelled at this venue in the past, this will be his third time playing the course, so a big jump in results seems likely this week.
Michael Brennan ($8,500): Brennan is the exact sort of young golfer we’ve seen have success at this week’s venue in the past. His T6 finish at Colonial, another classic setup, is a great example of the sort of upside he’s capable of this week.
MY PICK: Tom Kim ($8,700)
This feels like a stellar price on Tom Kim, who likely would have been priced at $10k-plus if he had played this event in years past. The South Korean is coming off a massive US Open, where he broke through with a T3 finish, and has now posted top-15 finishes in three of his last five starts. He played this event last season, missed the cut by a shot at -4, and shot a second-round 66 in the process.
Despite a great US Open, Kim tends to shine in easier events where players need to race to extremely low numbers. Already a winner at the Wyndham Classic and Shriners — played at two of the easiest venues on the PGA TOUR — Kim feels like a great bet to go well this week. He gained over a stroke on approach and putting per round at Shinnecock Hills and won’t have to deal with a potential disadvantage off the tee this week, given the shorter, narrower venue, where accuracy tends to matter more than power.
It remains to be seen whether Kim is back to his peak form, when he competed regularly and won 1-2 times per season. But if he is, this DFS price and the +3500 outright price for Kim on DraftKings Sportsbook feel like a gift this week.
MY SLEEPER: Daniel Berger ($7,500)
Berger’s form has been on the downswing since he blew the lead late at the Arnold Palmer Invitational in March. However, the American finally made some inroads at the very competitive Travelers last week, shooting rounds of 66 and 65 on the weekend to post a T25 finish after a slow start. While his short game and putter carried him at times, Berger’s short-iron play has often been his best strength, and a confidence-building weekend may help him rebound in that area this week, too, against a weaker field.
A former runner-up at TPC River Highlands and a winner at Colonial, Berger has always taken to these more classic, tree-lined venues and was once among the favorites at this event in both 2021 and 2024, when he last entered. This season, despite the decent performance last week, he comes in at just $7,500 on DraftKings for DFS, which seems like a pittance to pay for someone with his career record and a player who nearly won a signature event just a few months ago. For betting, both the +6200 outright price and +465 top-10 and ties odds seem more than fair given the recent spike in form.
