The John Deere Classic Predictions, Betting Odds & Picks

• The tournament returns to the schedule after being canceled in 2020
• The last opportunity for non-exempt players to win a place at next week’s Open
• Daniel Berger heads the betting

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The John Deere Classic Odds

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The John Deere Classic Predictions and Picks

Doc Redman is the each way outright pick at +4000 with William Hill

Ryan Moore can grab a top 10 at +600 with DraftKings Sportsbook

Back Zach Johnson over Aaron Wise in their matchbet at +100 with BetMGM

How to Watch The John Deere Classic

The John Deere Classic Profile

Amazing — give it two weeks and the entire major championship season for 2021 will be over! But let’s not wish our lives away.

We’ve got one more event before the golfing summer peaks and that represents not only one final warm-up opportunity, but also there is a final place at the Open next week available to the top finisher in the first five not already exempt. The scene of this last gasp exercise is well-known to the tour: TPC Deere Run, the par-71 home of the John Deere Classic and a long-term pre-Open venture.

It’s a course that typically yields plenty of birdies and one that has often favored the smart golfer rather than the gung-ho one.

Because while the fairways are not especially testing, there is definitely a premium on hitting them.

That comes partly from the rough, which is a little tricky, but more because once the ball is in the fairway, it’s time to attack with short irons and wedges. So, if big-hitters try to overwhelm the course from the tee they’re really putting their foot in it. Just keep the driver in the bag, find the fairways, and then knock it close.

Zach Johnson, who has logged no less than six top-three finishes in the tournament, describes the challenge as “a tee shot and putting course” which gets to the heart of the matter.

The field is not strong, because many of the stars are preparing for, or traveling to, the Open, but that gives a chance to Daniel Berger, who heads the betting at +1000.

Take the Doc’s Medicine

Back in 2017 the US Walker Cup team included Collin Morikawa, Will Zalatoris, Scottie Scheffler, Cameron Champ, Maverick McNealy, and Doug Ghim, all of whom have either won, thrived, or impressed at the PGA Tour level already.

Another name from that team, who has so far, to some extent, thrived and impressed can now take the next step and win. That man is Doc Redman whose only previous experience of the course was when finishing T37th, but he was also T11th at halfway and his stats were good.

In fact, he ranked seventh for Strokes Gained Off the Tee and 14th for SG Putting – useful numbers if we remember what Zach Johnson said about the course. Redman was second at Detroit two years ago and had high hopes returning there last week, perhaps too high in retrospect (he missed the cut). He was also tied second at the start of last month in the Palmetto Championship and he can easily return to that sort of form again this week.

Take William Hill’s offer of +4000 with the each-way option paying a generous eight places.

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Ryan Can Taste Moore Top 10 Success

At first glance Ryan Moore is struggling a little for form: he’s landed only one top 50 in six starts and that was T39th. But he’s also made five cuts in six starts and at this level the margins are fine – it wouldn’t take much for those results to turn from average to very good. Moreover, he carded a 65 last week, his best score in that run, and the T39th came on one of his favorite courses. Now he heads back to another.

In fact, Moore is something of a Deere Run specialist: he’s played the course 11 times and made the cut in 10 of them. He was tied eighth in 2012, tied seventh in 2014, the winner in 2016 and T18th in 2019 (when he was fifth heading into the final round).

That’s a solid bank of the form: he’s landed three top 10s in 11 starts and on another three occasions he’s headed into the final lap one shot outside the top 10. Last week’s 65 can fire him back to form at this happy hunting ground.

Take him to make yet another top 10 with DraftKings Sportsbook offering +600.

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Wise Choice is Zach Attack

Aaron Wise has landed a couple of recent top 10s and it’s led to him being highly thought of this week. That’s not entirely surprising – he’s a very good player. But whether he should be the favorite in BetMGM’s match-up with Zach Johnson is another question entirely.

The veteran leads their head-to-head count 19-15 since the start of 2019, 11-5 since the start of 2020, and 7-3 since the beginning of this year.

The count at TPC Deere Run is 1-1, but that’s large because Wise hasn’t played there that often. Johnson, on the other hand, has and he’s logged 15 cuts made in his last 16 starts, 13 of them top 40s, 10 of them top 25s, seven of them top fives.

Wise would have had to play very well to better that record and I’m not sure he’s up to it. He only needs to better Johnson this one week, of course, but the numbers are on our side.

Take Johnson to continue his love for Deere Run and polish off Wise at +100 with BetMGM.

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