After Viktor Hovland claimed the final Signature Event of the season by beating Scottie Scheffler in a playoff, the PGA TOUR heads to the Midwest for its annual stop in the Quad Cities at the John Deere Classic. The 2026 John Deere Classic will be played at the historic TPC Deere Run in Silvis, Illinois, along the Rock River. The tournament will tee off on Thursday, July 2 and will conclude on Sunday, July 5, weather permitting.
Let’s start the week with a look at the format, history, and course for the John Deere Classic this week.
The Format of the John Deere Classic
As the calendar turns to July, the John Deere Classic typically starts the final stretch of the season for the PGA TOUR, with the FedExCup playoffs just over a month away. The full field with the typical cut line of top-65 and ties will be battling for critical FedEx Cup points to secure their status on the PGA TOUR for next year.
The purse for the John Deere Classic is a total of $1.584 million, along with 500 FedEx Cup points.
The history of the tournament
The John Deere Classic began in 1971 as the Quad Cities Open, which was originally a “satellite event” before joining the main tour in 1972. John Deere has sponsored the event since 1999, and in 2000, the tournament moved to its current home at TPC Deere Run.
The event was especially notable in 2005 and 2006 when Michelle Wei played on a sponsor’s exemption, and in 2013 when Jordan Spieth won the event just a few weeks before he turned 20. He was the first teenager to win on the PGA TOUR in over 80 years.
The field is typically not one of the strongest on the schedule, especially with the holiday weekend in the mix. It does give a great opportunity for young players to break through for their first win though, and for players on the rise to stand out by going low with a birdie barrage. In addition to Spieth, Brian Harman, Bryson DeChambeau, J.T. Poston, Sepp Straka and Davis Thompson are recent notable winners. In the history of the tournament, 25 of the winners claimed their first PGA TOUR win with a triumph here, and many of them went on to long and profitable careers.
Brian Campbell won last year’s event, picking up his second PGA TOUR win of the season by outlasting Emiliano Grillo in a playoff.
Check out the full field and odds on DraftKings Sportsbook to see all the players teeing it up this year.
A Closer Look at the Course
TPC Deere Run typically sets up as one of the lowest-scoring weeks on the PGA TOUR. Last year’s playoff was “only” at -18 after Davis Thompson set the tournament record with his -28 in 2024. Birdies will likely be flying again as players attack these wide fairways with receptive bentgrass greens and plenty of different angles to choose from. While the course is not extremely difficult relative to par, it does require players to manage their way around the course and convert birdie putts.
Over the years, many different styles have led to success, but it typically favors accurate drivers who have good wedge games and a high percentage of Birdies or Better. It’s not an extremely long track, so keeping it in the fairway should give players opportunities for par-breakers.
The course was donated by the descendants of John Deere, who hired course designer and former PGA TOUR winner D.A. Weibring to lay out the venue. The site used to be a horse farm, and it winds along the Rock River, using dramatic elevation changes through the hardwood forest with ravines and small ponds around the course.
The par-71 includes three par-5s, four par-3s, and 11 par-4s. The par-3s are longer and more difficult, with three of the four averaging over par. The most famous is the par-3 No. 16, which is next to a cliff that leads down to the Rock River. Hole No. 17 is a reachable par-5 with a unique green and hole No. 18 is a tough par-4 with water guarding the left side of the green. For more info on each hole, check out the info on the official site of the John Deere Classic.
Since it is usually a birdie fest, Birdie or Better % is the top metric to target this week, followed by Strokes Gained: Approach, Strokes Gained: Par 4, and Strokes Gained: Easy/Very Easy scoring.
As you get ready for this week’s trip to the Deere, be sure to get your DFS fantasy golf lineups and betting cards filled out with help from DK Network! We’ll have ongoing coverage throughout the week to help you enjoy this weekend’s tournament.
