Now that I have picked up golf in this space, I try to find an interesting betting tidbit each week on the PGA Tour. Last week, regarding the Signature Event Travelers Championship outside Hartford, it was that the tournament had the longest drought of an international winner on Tour with the last in 2016. What happened? Norway’s Viktor Hovland won in a weather-delayed Monday playoff over world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler.
This week’s Tour stop is the John Deere Classic in Silvis, Ill., and if we are being honest, it’s perhaps the weakest field of the year. But that makes sense following the U.S. Open with guys heading over to Europe for next week’s Scottish Open and then the British Open the week after at Royal Birkdale. The John Deere, which used to be played the week immediately prior the Open Championship, is simply in an awful spot on the slate.
Thus, neither Scheffler nor Hovland nor any of the world’s Top 12 players are teeing it up. And what I find rather interesting is that the pre-tournament favorite hasn’t won the John Deere Classic since Jordan Spieth in 2015 when he was priced +350. The favorite hasn’t finished better than T12 this decade – there was no 2020 event due to COVID.
American Ben Griffin is your +1500 favorite at FanDuel this year, and he was the favorite in 2025 as well but missed the cut after a T5 in his first John Deere start in 2024. Griffin is the first golfer to be the pre-tournament favorite in back-to-back years at the event since Spieth in 2014-15. It marks Griffin’s third career Tour event as the pre-tournament favorite with the other the 2024 Myrtle Beach Classic, which was a weak-field opposite event that year opposite the Wells Fargo Championship Signature Event.
Griffin finished T16 at that Myrtle Beach event but has won three times career on Tour – all in 2025. He has four Top 10s this year, including a T10 at last week’s Travelers. At BetMGM, Griffin is taking the second-most tickets to win at 5.3% behind Eric Cole (+3300) at 6.7%. Tom Kim tops in handle at 13.3%, which has dropped him from an open of +4000 to +2500. Kim is playing well of late this year but missed the cut last year in his only trip to Silvis.
Most-wagered John Deere props at BetMGM
- Zac Blair Top 20 (+500)
- Tom Kim Top 10 (+300)
- Blades Brown Top 40 (+100)
- Ben Griffin Top 5 (+300)
- Hole in one: Yes (-135)
There has been no repeat winner at the John Deere Classic since Steve Stricker won it a third straight time in 2011, the last time on Tour a player three-peated at an event. USA’s Brian Campbell and Argentina’s Emiliano Grillo finished 72 holes last year tied at 18-under 266, and Campbell won in the first hole of sudden death – the first playoff in the event since 2015.
We haven’t even had one edition decided by a single shot since 2017. Campbell is having a brutal year without a Top 10 and a single Top 25 in 18 starts and I can’t say I recommend him at +22500 to repeat even if he is familiar with the state having played four seasons at University of Illinois.
Campbell is one of nine former champions in the field. Johnson, the 2012 winner who grew up in the general area (Cedar Rapids, Iowa), is tied for the most top-five finishes in tournament history with seven and +1800 for another this week. He has 17 consecutive made cuts at the John Deere Classic and is -132 to make another cut.
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This is definitely a “Horse for the Course” for Spieth (+3300) to win on Tour for the first time since 2022. His first career PGA Tour win was here as a 19-year-old and then again in ’15. Spieth hasn’t played here since a T26 in 2024 and enters with three straight finishes outside the Top 50 on Tour this year for the first time since 2020.
If you happen to be up looking to bet someone to have the 54-hole lead, consider Davis Thompson – he’s +5000 to have that and +5500 to win. He has held the 54-hole outright lead at the past two John Deere Classics. He lapped the field in 2024 by shooting a tournament-record 28-under 256 but last year shot 1 over on Sunday and finished T18. That marked the second-worst finish by 54-hole leader in John Deere Classic history. There have been five first-time winners in the first 25 events on Tour this season. The last first-time winner here was Thompson two years ago.
Perhaps the most interesting name in the field is former Auburn star Jackson Koivun making his official PGA Tour debut and +2200 to win. Koivun not long ago helped the Tigers capture their second NCAA championship in three years – he totaled 11 individual wins in that span and won the Haskins Award as the nation’s top golfer twice. He did play here last year as an amateur and finished T11. Koivun also played this year’s U.S. Open (T23) and then turned pro.