TPC Deere Run Key Fantasy Stats

John Deere Classic

July 11th – 14th, 2019

TPC Deere Run

Silvis, IL

Par: 71 / Yardage: 7,268

Purse: $6 million

with $1,080,000 to the winner

Defending Champion:
Michael Kim

by Sal Johnson

Founder, Chief Data Officer, GOLFstats

E-mail me at:
sal@golfstats.com

This is based on the most vital stats from TPC Deere Run, based on data from last year’s John Deere and using data from all the players in the field with stats from 2019.
The most important thing to realize about TPC Deere Run is that it’s one of the rare courses on tour that benefits short hitters and those that hit it long have no real advantage, a matter of fact those that hit it long have to throttle back a bit because they run out of fairway. The course plays at 7,268 yards but the fairways are always firm and get a lot of role. In an era in which courses have six or more par 4s over 450 yards, Deere Run only has three par 4s over 450 yards. On top of that, all three par 5s are accessible in two even for the shorter hitters, so you can see why the winners’ ranks of late have short hitters like Zach Johnson, Steve Stricker, Sean O’Hair, Ryan Moore and last year’s champions Michael Kim winning.
Lot’s of birdies are always made on the course, last year 1,865 were made with only Trinity Forest and Glen Abbey seeing more birdies made. The greens are easy to read and do well on them so this course also caters to players who don’t putt very well. Now the tournament is being played the week before the British Open so the course should be firm and fast.
So in looking at our four categories, we see how much driving makes a difference. But instead of looking for those that hit it long, those that hit it short will at least have as much of a chance as the longer hitter. So it’s a perfect time to look at these strokes gained stats as our first two categories, first Strokes Gained Off-the-Tee and they Strokes Gained Approach-the-Green. After that Putting average is important because this is a course that is easy to putt, not much undulation in the greens so poor putters has a good chance this week. Last is birdie average, those at the top will make a lot of them and it’s a requirement to win. The course is pretty easy, last year it played to an average of 69.38 so a shot and a half under par making it one of the easiest courses on tour. Last year it ranked 46th hardest in a field of 51, so you can see that the winner does need to go low. Normally we would say that a non-marquee name will win, but that isn’t the case. In the last eleven years, we have seen Steve Stricker win three times, Jordan Spieth win twice along with Bryson DeChambeau, Zach Johnson, Ryan Moore, and Kenny Perry so the event has seen some marquee champions.

*Strokes Gained Off-the-Tee: Measurements off the tee to see who saves the most strokes with perfect drives on the course compared to the field

*Strokes Gained Approach-the-Green: See who saves the most strokes with the shots into the greens.

*Putting Average: The average number of putts in a round, based on the year.

*Birdie average: Calculates how many birdies a player makes per round

One thing, on driving distance we re-ranked the players from shortest hitter being number one to the longest being last.

Of the 156 players in the field, 117 have stats on the PGA Tour for 2019.

(beware that a lot of those top picks in DraftKings (like Hovland, Morikawa & Wolff) don’t qualify for PGA Tour starts because of lack of starts)

Click any column title in the table header to sort columns.