NEWSLETTER
John Deere Classic Tee Times – It’s time to put on a green mesh hat, crack open a few silver bullets, and turn on some country music to prepare for this week’s John Deere Classic. It’s a course that has seen a wide array of skill sets take home the title over the years, but fairways and birdies are always the main ingredients. TPC Deere Run gets a bad rap because the field often resembles a swing season event, but the course is more interesting than some of the other so-called birdie fests out there.
The John Deere Classic’s place on the calendar has shifted a bit after the Scottish Open became a co-sanctioned PGA Tour/DP World Tour event the week prior to The Open Championship. This has impacted the field strength again, but I’ll take TPC Deere Run over Detroit Golf Club and TPC Twin Cities any day.
TPC Deere Run is situated on the Illinois side of the Illinois/Iowa border, running along the Mississippi River. The course has wide sloping fairways, bentgrass greens, and many elevation changes and doglegs. It’s a course where strategic play is more important than power, and players who manage their way around the course effectively can score well. Winners of the last 14 tournaments have all scored 18-under or better, so recent strong performances at low-scoring events like the Travelers and Rocket Mortgage could indicate potential contenders for this week’s tournament.
This public par-71 course measures 7,289 yards and features three par-5s, four par-3s, and 11 par-4s. The longer and more challenging par-3s make scoring difficult. Eight of the par-4s are less than 445 yards, and all three par-5s are in the 550-600-yard range, making them reachable in two shots. The Birdie or Better rate is almost 44% on these par-5s, which favors shorter hitters.
Despite its generous and forgiving fairways, TPC Deere Run is not a course where long hitters have a significant advantage. The course is lined with trees but is not overly tight. The best strategy for many holes is to play it safe and avoid trouble areas. Straying from the fairways can be costly due to thick penal rough, strategic fairway bunkering, and uneven lies caused by creative mounding. The numerous doglegs also favor players who can shape the ball off the tee.
Finding the fairway off the tee is crucial, as approach shots from the fairway have an average proximity to the hole of 29.5 feet, while approach shots from the rough average 46.7 feet. This “Rough Penalty” margin of 17.8% is one of the largest on Tour. With a high percentage of greens in regulation and most approaches being wedges into soft greens, putting becomes crucial. Consistently making 5-15 foot putts is essential for success at this course.
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John Deere Classic Tee Times
Here are the tee time pairings for the first round of the 2024 John Deere Classic (all times ET):
| TIME | TEE | PLAYERS |
| 7:45 AM EDT | 1 | Patton Kizzire Kevin Chappell Josh Teater |
| 7:45 AM EDT | 10 | Beau Hossler Bud Cauley Robby Shelton |
| 7:56 AM EDT | 1 | Scott Piercy Wesley Bryan S.H. Kim |
| 7:56 AM EDT | 10 | Nick Watney Patrick Rodgers Ben Griffin |
| 8:07 AM EDT | 1 | Jhonattan Vegas Sam Ryder Scott Gutschewski |
| 8:07 AM EDT | 10 | Keith Mitchell Kevin Streelman Mark Hubbard |
| 8:18 AM EDT | 1 | Nico Echavarria Cameron Champ Stewart Cink |
| 8:18 AM EDT | 10 | Jake Knapp Luke List Sungjae Im |
| 8:29 AM EDT | 1 | Camilo Villegas J.J. Spaun Brandt Snedeker |
| 8:29 AM EDT | 10 | J.T. Poston Jordan Spieth Zach Johnson |
| 8:40 AM EDT | 1 | Ryan Brehm Kevin Kisner Matt Kuchar |
| 8:40 AM EDT | 10 | Nick Hardy Michael Kim Adam Schenk |
| 8:51 AM EDT | 1 | Nate Lashley Zac Blair Hayden Buckley |
| 8:51 AM EDT | 10 | Sam Stevens Will Gordon Harry Hall |
| 9:02 AM EDT | 1 | Chesson Hadley Alex Smalley Roger Sloan |
| 9:02 AM EDT | 10 | Cody Gribble Ryan Moore Andrew Novak |
| 9:13 AM EDT | 1 | Martin Laird Joseph Bramlett Justin Lower |
| 9:13 AM EDT | 10 | David Lipsky Justin Suh Carson Young |
| 9:24 AM EDT | 1 | Garrick Higgo Tyler Duncan Ryan Palmer |
| 9:24 AM EDT | 10 | Richy Werenski Doug Ghim Dylan Wu |
| 9:35 AM EDT | 1 | Zecheng Dou Hayden Springer Blake Hathcoat |
| 9:35 AM EDT | 10 | Thorbjørn Olesen Anders Albertson Wilson Furr |
| 9:46 AM EDT | 1 | Jimmy Stanger Michael Thorbjornsen Anders Larson (a) |
| 9:46 AM EDT | 10 | Rafael Campos Harrison Endycott Chase Johnson |
| 9:57 AM EDT | 1 | Trace Crowe Adrien Dumont de Chassart Kyle Westmoreland |
| 9:57 AM EDT | 10 | Erik Barnes Parker Coody Neal Shipley |
| 1:05 PM EDT | 1 | Ben Taylor Ryo Hisatsune Chandler Phillips |
| 1:05 PM EDT | 10 | Joel Dahmen Bill Haas Henrik Norlander |
| 1:16 PM EDT | 1 | Kevin Tway Ben Kohles Sami Valimaki |
| 1:16 PM EDT | 10 | Lanto Griffin Russell Knox Callum Tarren |
| 1:27 PM EDT | 1 | Dylan Frittelli Eric Cole Davis Thompson |
| 1:27 PM EDT | 10 | Austin Cook Greyson Sigg Max Greyserman |
| 1:38 PM EDT | 1 | Davis Riley Adam Svensson Denny McCarthy |
| 1:38 PM EDT | 10 | Brice Garnett Lee Hodges Andrew Putnam |
| 1:49 PM EDT | 1 | Lucas Glover Sepp Straka Jason Day |
| 1:49 PM EDT | 10 | Seamus Power Chez Reavie Brendon Todd |
| 2:00 PM EDT | 1 | Chris Gotterup Nick Dunlap Daniel Berger |
| 2:00 PM EDT | 10 | Peter Malnati K.H. Lee Chad Ramey |
| 2:11 PM EDT | 1 | Andrew Landry S.Y. Noh Brandon Wu |
| 2:11 PM EDT | 10 | Adam Long Vince Whaley Kevin Yu |
| 2:22 PM EDT | 1 | Aaron Rai Harry Higgs Tyson Alexander |
| 2:22 PM EDT | 10 | C.T. Pan James Hahn Sean O’Hair |
| 2:33 PM EDT | 1 | Martin Trainer Troy Merritt Kelly Kraft |
| 2:33 PM EDT | 10 | Maverick McNealy Matt NeSmith Carl Yuan |
| 2:44 PM EDT | 1 | Pierceson Coody Joe Highsmith Luke Clanton (a) |
| 2:44 PM EDT | 10 | Jacob Bridgeman Patrick Fishburn Tom Whitney |
| 2:55 PM EDT | 1 | Ben Silverman Jorge Campillo Kevin Dougherty |
| 2:55 PM EDT | 10 | Austin Smotherman Ryan McCormick Raul Pereda |
| 3:06 PM EDT | 1 | Chan Kim David Skinns Joshua Creel |
| 3:06 PM EDT | 10 | Rico Hoey Blaine Hale, Jr. Jackson Buchanan (A) |
| 3:17 PM EDT | 1 | Nicholas Lindheim Mac Meissner Cole Sherwood |
| 3:17 PM EDT | 10 | Alejandro Tosti Paul Barjon Tracy Vest |
