The 2026 John Deere Classic is operating similarly to past editions with quality conditions at TPC Deere Run leading to low scores. Heading into the weekend, it appears as if whoever tops the leaderboard at the conclusion of play will have a score around 20 under or better next to their name while hosting the trophy on Sunday.
Lucas Glover is the man who has set the pace after 36 holes, firing a 6-under 65 on Friday to back up his first-round 63 to reach 14 under for the tournament, opening a two-shot lead entering the weekend. Glover has yet to make a bogey this week, cruising his way around the Quad Cities so far this week with 14 birdies and 22 pars.
Glover’s tear at the John Deere has come out of nowhere. The 46-year-old hasn’t broken par in his last five starts. On the season, he’s finished in the top 25 just twice — a year after capturing five top 10s in 2025 — but he’s found something with his swing this week that has him in a flow and threatening to pick up his seventh career PGA Tour victory.
Glover leads the field in ball-striking by a healthy margin, as he’s picking up more than 7 strokes on the field with his approach play through 36 holes. He hasn’t been great off the tee, and he only has 150 feet of made putts on the week, but he hasn’t needed to hole much from distance because of how many great looks he’s been able to create with his iron play.
Entering the weekend with a two-shot cushion over Lee Hodges — with Zac Blair the only other man within three shots of the veteran — Glover sits in prime position. Last year, Glover made a weekend charge into a T5 finish at the John Deere. If he can replicate that kind of performance on Saturday and Sunday this year, he’ll almost certainly walk away with his seventh PGA Tour title.
Contenders entering Moving Day
2. Lee Hodges (-12)
3. Zac Blair (-11)
T4. Jackson Suber, Tyler Duncan, Troy Merritt, David Lipsky, Ryo Hisatsune, Ben Kohles (-10)
T10. Max Homa (-9)
T11. Chris Gotterup, Zach Johnson, Ben Griffin and five others (-8)
T19. Preston Stout, Blades Brown and eight others (-7)
Hodges has shot one stroke worse than Glover in both of the first two rounds, earning his way into Saturday’s final pairing with a 66 on Friday. Blair was tied with Glover after the first round but couldn’t quite keep pace on Friday with a second-round 68 to fall three shots behind.
Suber has been popping up on leaderboards more and more as the summer has gone on with two fourth-place finishes in his last five starts. He’s once again in a position to contend on a weekend, and he will hope he has a charge in him over the next two rounds to capture his first PGA Tour title.
Homa’s presence on the first page of a leaderboard heading into the weekend is a welcome sight, and he’s been finding a bit of form of late with back-to-back top 25 finishes coming into the John Deere. His best finish on the season is a T9 at the Masters, and he’ll have a chance to better that with a strong weekend to keep some good vibes rolling.
The group at T11 features some interesting names, including a past champion in Zach Johnson, two players with multiple PGA Tour wins over the past couple of years in Chris Gotterup and Ben Griffin and a standout amateur in Preston Stout. Johnson cooled off a touch on Friday, but he has to be considered a threat given his history at TPC Deere Run. Griffin started slowly this season but has regained some form of late and is putting himself in position to contend again this weekend.
Gotterup has had the opposite season to Griffin, starting off red-hot with a pair of wins but struggling to maintain that quality into the summer. He’s hoping this week can be a launching pad going into the portion of the season that saw him break out in 2025.
The young player everyone was talking about this week was Jackson Koivun, making his pro debut, but after Koivun missed the cut, the attention will shift to amateur Preston Stout and Blades Brown. Stout has played extremely well over the first 36 holes to not only make the cut for the first time in his fourth PGA Tour start but also get into the mix heading into the weekend. Brown is trying to make the most of his special temporary exemption to earn his full card for 2026 and is looking for his third straight top 20 finish on Tour — and third top 10 in eight starts this year.
Eric Cole would not be denied the weekend
After shooting a 5-over 76 on Thursday, Eric Cole would’ve been forgiven if he packed it in on Friday and planned to take the Fourth of July off after a number of strong finishes in signature events recently. Instead, Cole went out and fired the low round of the day with an 8-under 63 to make the cut on the number. It took a pair of eagles in his round — including one on the par-5 17th needing to go 2 under on his final two holes to make the weekend — but Cole earned a weekend tee time and a paycheck this week with his effort on Friday.
Not everyone was able to make such an effort, however.
Notable players who missed the cut
- Daniel Berger (-2)
- Max Greyserman (-2)
- Sudarshan Yellamaraju (-2)
- Michael Kim (E)
- Aldrich Potgieter (E)
- Andrew Novak (+1)
- Jackson Koivun (+1)
Berger and Yellamaraju entered the week in the top 50 of the FedEx Cup standings but failed to make the weekend by one shot. Kim, a past champion at TPC Deere Run, couldn’t get out of first gear and will also miss out on a Saturday tee time. Then there’s Jackson Koivun, who learned a harsh lesson about the scoring required on the PGA Tour, even in an event without the game’s top stars. Koivun put eight bogeys on the card over his 36 holes, which is too many mistakes around a track like Deere Run. This will be a learning experience as his pro career begins with a missed cut.