Welcome to our weekly PGA Tour gambling-tips column, featuring picks from GOLF.com’s expert prognosticator, Brady Kannon. A seasoned golf bettor and commentator, Kannon is a host and regular guest on SportsGrid, a syndicated audio network devoted to sports and sports betting, and is a golf betting analyst for CBS Sportsline. You can follow Brady on Twitter at @LasVegasGolfer, and you can read his picks below for the 2025 John Deere Classic, which gets underway Thursday in Silvis, Ill. Along with Kannon’s recommended plays, you’ll also see data from Chirp Golf, a mobile app that features both free-to-play and daily fantasy golf contests where you can win cash and prizes with each round and tournament.
The Midwest Birdie Fest continues this week in Silvis, Ill., as the PGA Tour heads to TPC Deere Run for the John Deere Classic.
This will be the last stop stateside before heading across the pond for a fortnight and the playing of the Scottish Open and the Open Championship. For the second week in a row, most of the big names have taken the week off. For the most part, it is largely the same field we had last week in Detroit, where Aldrich Potgeiter held off Max Greyserman and our selection, Chris Kirk, in a playoff. That is three times now this season that we have had one of our guys reach a playoff and lose — J.J. Spaun at the Players Championship, Justin Rose at the Masters, and now Kirk. On to the Deere.
TPC Deere Run is a shorter par-71, at just a few ticks under 7,300 yards. Former Tour player and three-time John Deere champion D.A. Weibring designed the course, which is now celebrating its 25th anniversary as the host venue of the tournament.
Last week at the Rocket Classic, we saw another bomber added to the list of champions at that event. This week? Steve Stricker and Jordan Spieth have won here multiple times. Zach Johnson, Lucas Glover, Sepp Straka and Ryan Moore are all recent winners. Bryson DeChambeau, a bomber for sure, has won at both TPC Deere Run and Detroit Golf Club. This year’s defending champion, Davis Thompson, is a big hitter who has also finished runner-up at the Rocket Classic — so it is really a mixed bag that have won here in the past 24 years. The fairways are tree-lined but also feature wide, generous landing areas. There are plenty of tight doglegs and a good amount of elevation change. The rough is thick, so finding fairways and greens will be very important.
There are a lot of areas of crossover between last week’s venue and TPC Deere Run. I believe that there is much less emphasis on distance off the tee here this week and more on efficiency. From there, much of it is the same — be dialed in from 75-150 yards and stumble into a hot week with the putter, and you just might find yourself hoisting the trophy on Sunday.
We mentioned the connection between Detroit Golf Club and Deere Run. I also used Royal Liverpool and TPC Twin Cities as correlated courses, as I did last week. This week, I added TPC Scottsdale — and we have also seen a great deal of crossover success with Colonial Country Club, host of the Charles Schwab Challenge.
Chris Kirk (38-1)
Yes, we are going to get back up and jump aboard the same horse again this week. We noted last week that Kirk is one of the very best in the game with the wedges from that 75-150 yard window. He drives it long and straight, and he is a former winner at Colonial. We also noted that he has three top-20 finishes in Detroit — to now go along with a runner-up — and has finished top-30 at the John Deere five times in seven appearances.
Lucas Glover (41-1)
Glover finished ninth the last time we saw him, three weeks ago at the Travelers Championship, firing all four rounds in the 60s. Like Kirk, Glover is one of the very best in this field from 75-150 yards. He is also very efficient off the tee, ranking 29th in this field for Good Drives Gained over the past 24 rounds. He’s been as high as fourth in Detroit, seventh at TPC Twin Cities, and at Colonial, Glover has finished top-25 twice, top-15 twice, and has one top-10 finish, back in 2021, the same year he won the John Deere Classic.
Michael Kim (50-1)
Kim is also a former John Deere Classic winner, grabbing top honors in 2018. He’s been on a nice run as of late, having made 10 cuts in a row, which includes three Signature Events and three major championships. He took 26th last week in Detroit, and earlier this season, he finished runner-up at TPC Scottsdale and 16th at Colonial (where he also was sixth in 2023). He’s yet another player in this field who is very strong from 75-150 yards out.
Christiaan Bezuidenhout (65-1)
A short-game specialist, Bezuidenhout is not only a great putter but also one of the better players in the field from 75-150 yards. He finished runner-up here in his debut in 2022. He was fourth earlier this season at TPC Scottsdale, and in his past four trips to the Charles Schwab at Colonial, he has gone 16th, 17th, 21st and 15th.
Kevin Roy (79-1)
Roy was eighth last week at the Rocket Classic, where he ranked third in that field for SG: Approach and fourth for SG: Tee to Green. Over the past 24 rounds, he is 11th in this field for SG: Ball Striking, eighth for Good Drives Gained, and third for SG: Par-4’s — and yes, he, too, is very good from 75-150 yards.
Sami Valimaki (95-1)
Valimaki took 19th last week in Detroit, shooting all four rounds in the 60s. He was 12th last year in his debut at the John Deere, where he opened with a round of 61. He’s excellent on approach and is one of the best putters in the game. Over the past 24 rounds, Valimaki is fourth in this field for Birdies or Better Gained, is eighth in hole proximity from 125-150 yards, and ranks eighth on Tour for SG: Putting.
Who Chirp Golf users are picking this week
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