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This week's tournament field includes 32 of the top-100 players in the latest Official World Rankings, with 8 of those in the top 50. Notable top-100 players include Chris Gotterup (#14), Ben Griffin (#16), and Jacob Bridgeman (#27). This marks a decrease from last year, which saw 35 top-100 players and 7 top-50 players.

The field also features three players in the FedEx Cup top 25.

Past champions in the field include Brian Campbell (2025), Davis Thompson (2024), J.T. Poston (2022), Lucas Glover (2021), Dylan Frittelli (2019), Michael Kim (2018), Jordan Spieth (2015 & '13), and Zach Johnson (2012).

If you're serious about making the best picks this week, our GolfStats tools have you covered.

These tools are invaluable whether you're betting, setting a DFS lineup, or simply looking for an edge in your fantasy league. Check out the full blog post at GolfStats.com.

This week, the Tour is in Silvis, Illinois, for the John Deere Classic. For the first time since the Zurich Classic in April, most marquee players are taking time off to prepare for the British Open and the FedExCup playoffs. Only eight top-50 ranked players are in the field, but that doesn't matter for fans in the Davenport-Moline communities, for whom the John Deere is their Super Bowl. The tournament is well attended and has a good vibe no matter who's in the field.

Picking a winner here is never easy. The event has had marquee champions like Jordan Spieth, Bryson DeChambeau, Zach Johnson, and Steve Stricker, but nobody saw Sepp Straka coming three years ago. Straka opened with a 73 and looked done for the week, sitting T-33rd, before closing 63-65-62 for one of the best comebacks on Tour. That points to another out-of-left-field winner this year, in the mold of Brian Campbell or Straka.

We're also looking for that Emiliano Grillo type, a player who hasn't found his form all year but suddenly looks like a superstar over the weekend. The same goes for Kevin Roy and David Lipsky, both T-3rd last year. The key to finding that player: look for a great driver who doesn't bomb it out that far. TPC Deere Run rewards players ranked between 60 and 80 in driving distance.

So who do we like this week? Again, look for the short hitter who can do big things. Ben Griffin tops the list, finishing T-5th at the Deere in 2024 before missing the cut last year. He's hot right now, with a T-10 at Zurich, 3rd at Cadillac, T-14 at the PGA, T-3 at Charles Schwab, T-17 at the U.S. Open, and T-10 at Travelers. Denny McCarthy also stands out, having finished in the top-11 for four straight years at the Deere despite no top-10s this season and a driving distance rank of 132nd. And keep an eye on 50-year-old Zach Johnson, the 2012 champion who has made the cut in 17 of his last starts here and chose the Deere over this week's Senior Open.

Remember the golden rule at TPC Deere Run: it's one of the rare Tour courses that rewards short hitters and forgives poor putters.

The Deere also has a reputation for first-time winners. Since 1973, 24 rookies have won here, including 12 of the last 25 years, most recently Davis Thompson in 2024.

The John Deere Classic dates back to 1971, starting as the satellite Quad City Open in Davenport, Iowa. It moved to Oakwood Country Club in Coal Valley in 1974, then to its current home, TPC Deere Run in Silvis, in 2000. The event has been scheduled the week before (and now two weeks before) the British Open for most of its history, which has long posed a challenge in attracting top fields.

TPC Deere Run plays to 7,327 yards and a par of 71 (35-36), with a course rating of 75.6 and a slope of 145 from the championship tees. Long before golfers arrived, Native Americans were drawn to the site for its wildlife, its proximity to the Rock River, and its rolling hills and wooded ravines. More recently, the property was Friendship Farm, one of the top Arabian horse breeding operations in the country, which kept the land in its natural state and set up a near-perfect canvas for a golf course.

Designer D.A. Weibring removed fewer than 20 percent of the trees on the property, preserving its dramatic pitches and rolls. The course sits on roughly 170 acres, but Weibring and design associate Chris Gray disturbed less than 60 acres during construction. The result is 76 strategically placed bunkers, recently renovated, along with several blind shots and tricky chipping areas. Gentle doglegs reward precision over raw power, and the Rock River is visible from nine holes.

The course has hosted its share of history. In 2005, Michelle Wie nearly became the first woman to make a PGA Tour cut since Babe Didrikson Zaharias, sitting 4-under through 14 holes of round two before a double bogey on 15 derailed her bid. She missed the cut by one shot.

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TPC Deere Run is one of the rare Tour venues that benefits short hitters and forgives poor putters. Players ranked between 60 and 80 in driving distance have historically thrived here, and this week's field includes several names in that range worth watching, including Jacob Bridgeman, Ryo Hisatsune, Sungjae Im, Ben Griffin, Tom Kim, and Andrew Novak.

For a full breakdown of the numbers that matter most this week, check out our Key Fantasy Stats post.

For a broader look at how this week's field stacks up, check our Composite Rankings.

Inside: the short hitter riding a six-start heater, and why a 50-year-old Senior Tour winner is skipping his own major to chase an annuity at the Deere.