2023 John Deere Classic: PGA Tour Betting Odds
Denny McCarthy is favoured on the golf odds.
What really hit this event hard was it being moved from a week before the British Open last year to two weeks ahead. Whereas many guys would play in this tournament with the hopes of earning one of the final spots in the British Open and then take advantage of the tournament-provided private flight overseas, that’s less of an incentive now. Many guys already are in Europe and will play next week’s Scottish Open as their British Open warmup.
The former Quad Cities Open has been around in some form since 1971, although it was canceled in 2020 due to COVID. Two players have won the event a record three times: DA Weibring and Steve Stricker – Stricker is the last player to win any PGA Tour event three straight years, which he did in the John Deere Classic starting in 2009.
TPC Deere Run in Silvis, Ill., is the host course, a par 71 at around 7,300 yards. The signature hole is the gorgeous par-3 16th called “Mother Earth.” It’s one of the easier tracks on Tour and most likely will take at least 20 under par to win. The tournament record score was 27-under 257 by Michael Kim in 2018. A 59 was shot here in 2010 by Paul Goydos.
The defending champion is JT Poston as he continued the American dominance of the event by shooting 21-under 263 to beat out Christiaan Bezuidenhout and Emiliano Grillo by three shots each. Poston was the first wire-to-wire winner of the tournament in 30 years. Poston said not long ago he rewatched his 2022 win for some confidence as he hasn’t won since and is not having a great year with 10 missed cuts in 22 events.
““I have watched it back since last year. That’s something my agent has told me to do a few times if I have bad stretch. Hopefully I can get on a similar run like I did last year. It’s one of those were golf is a funny game. I feel like I’m there but the results just haven’t been there in the last month or so. I’ve played out here long enough to know that it comes in waves regardless how you’re playing,” Poston said. He’s +3500 to repeat.
Maybe the biggest star at this event will be playing in the Wednesday Pro-Am: Iowa basketball sensation Caitlin Clark, the National Player of the Year in women’s college hoops this past season. She’s got some golf game, too, and will be teaming up with Cedar Rapids native and U.S. Ryder Cup captain Zach Johnson, a 2012 winner here. Silvis is basically on the Illinois/Iowa border.
“I have some power, I can hit it pretty far. Obviously, that helps when I’m lifting weights this time of year. Honestly, I’ve been getting some lessons recently because I need to be dialed in for this event. Other than that, the worst part of my game is putting, which isn’t good. I’d say my best part is probably my driving,” Clark said.
Gordon Sargent, the world’s top-ranked amateur, will tee it up for the second straight week on the PGA Tour. He missed the cut at the Rocket Mortgage Classic last week in Detroit.
John Deere Classic Golf Odds
Probably the first time we’ve written a PGA Tour story where American Denny McCarthy is the (+1400) tournament favorite. Good player ranked No. 34 in the world who comes off a T7 two weeks ago at the Travelers Championship. He was a career-best sixth here last year.
Russell Henley is +1600 with Cameron Young +1700 and Ludvig Aberg +1900. Henley was a runner-up to South African Dylan Frittelli in 2019 and 11th the next year. It’s Young’s tournament debut. Aberg, a 23-year-old rookie from Sweden, hasn’t missed the cut in five events this year. Through 36 holes at the Rocket Mortgage Classic over the weekend in Detroit, he was just a shot back of the lead before fading to T49.
Canada’s Dave Barr won this event in 1981 in a playoff over fellow Canadian Dan Halldorson as well as Woody Blackburn, Frank Conner and Victor Regalado. David Hearn (and Zach Johnson) lost in a 2013 playoff against Jordan Spieth. Michael Gligic was the top Canadian last year at T10 with Adam Svensson at T24. David Hearn, Nick Taylor and Adam Hadwin missed the cut. Roger Sloan withdrew. Hadwin is +2100 this week with Taylor +4700, Svensson +5900 and Gligic +52600. Hadwin is -256 to make the cut and +180 to miss.
John Deere Classic Golf Predictions
Our winner is Emiliano Grillo at +3100. He has a win already this year in Texas and was T2 last year at the John Deere in his tournament debut.
