The PGA Tour rolls into the John Deere Classic this week at TPC Deere Run in Silvis, Ill., and while the field doesn’t have the same punch as last week’s Travelers Championship, there are still plenty of recognizable names making the trip.
That matters for a tournament like this. After Viktor Hovland’s playoff win over Scottie Scheffler on Monday morning at the Travelers, the tour shifts to a different stage with a handful of players trying to find their footing, snap droughts, or keep recent momentum alive.
Jordan Spieth is one of the headliners, and he arrives as a familiar draw for fans. He’s had a decent season overall, but he’s still waiting on his first PGA Tour win since 2022.
Spieth has missed just two cuts this year, yet he still hasn’t managed to break into the top 10 in any event. At the Travelers, he finished T66, though he did close with a three-under 67 on Sunday.
He also picked up a different kind of win last week with his pizza reviews on social media:
Jordan Spieth rates pizzas.Enjoy.@FanDuel pic.twitter.com/ausu1iRbaJ
Rickie Fowler is in a similar lane as a fan favorite looking for a spark. He posted a T38 at the Travelers after missing three straight cuts, including at the U.S.
Open. Fowler has four top-10 finishes this season, with his best result coming at the Truist Championship in March when he tied for second.
His last victory came at the Rocket Mortgage Classic in 2023.
Max Homa comes in with a different kind of pressure. His last PGA Tour win was the 2023 Farmers Insurance Open, and the last few seasons have been rough.
He did manage a T9 at the Masters in April, but he also failed to qualify for the U.S. Open.
A few weeks ago, he finished T20 at the RBC Canadian Open. A return to contention would be a welcome sign.
Tony Finau is in a comparable spot after a stretch that hasn’t matched his best years on Tour. He hasn’t played in any of the three major championships this season and has only one top-10 finish, which came at the CJ Cup in March.
Still, there’s been some encouraging golf recently. At the U.S.
Open, the 34-year-old finished T4 after four straight rounds of even par, then added a fifth-place finish at the CJ Cup in May. He followed that with a T22 at the Travelers and is still chasing his first Tour win since 2019.
Brian Campbell also enters the week with some momentum. He won over a lot of new fans at the U.S.
Open, where he finished T4 after shooting four straight rounds of even par. Campbell also had a fifth-place finish at the CJ Cup in May, then came away with a T22 at the Travelers as he continues to look for his first win on Tour since 2019.
Chris Gotterup had a breakout run last year, winning three times on the PGA Tour and earning his first Ryder Cup team appearance. He hasn’t won yet this season, but he has logged a pair of third-place finishes over the past two months.
Keegan Bradley, the 2025 USA Ryder Cup captain, is also in the field after finishing T14 at the Travelers, where he was the defending champion. Bradley still doesn’t have a top-10 finish this season, with his best result so far a T12 at the RBC Heritage.
In Other News...
Paige Spiranac Is Using Her Golf Platform For Something Bigger
Paige Spiranac has spent years at the intersection of golf and social media, where her reach has made her one of the sports most visible voices and also one of its most scrutinized. The former collegiate and professional golfer has talked publicly about the anxiety and criticism that have come with that spotlight, even as she has continued to build a platform that reaches far beyond the fairway.
Now she is leaning into that audience with a new YouTube project centered on women in golf creators, a move that gives her profile a broader purpose than the usual influencer playbook. The response from golf fans has been encouraging, with plenty of support for the idea of giving more visibility to women in the game and the people helping shape its online culture. [Read more 🡒]
Scottie Scheffler Faces A Tense Monday Finish At Travelers
A rain delay pushed the Travelers Championship into Monday, and the weather only added to the pressure at the top of the board. After 72 holes in Connecticut, Scottie Scheffler and Viktor Hovland were still level at 21-under, setting up an extra day that neither player likely wanted but both earned by holding steady down the stretch.
The finish came on the 18th, where each made par to keep the tournament alive and send it into sudden death. The playoff begins Monday morning on Golf Channel, with the same closing hole set to be replayed until someone finally breaks through, a fittingly tense end for a leaderboard that never quite separated itself on Sunday. [Read more 🡒]
Scottie Scheffler Had The Travelers Right Where He Wanted It
A storm with electricity sent the Travelers Championship into a weather delay at TPC River Highlands just as Scottie Scheffler had worked his way to the top of the board. Scheffler birdied the par-5 13th to grab a one-shot lead before play was paused, with the event suddenly put on hold as the afternoon turned from pressure golf to waiting on the sky.
Viktor Hovland was still very much in the mix when the horn sounded, leaving Scheffler with plenty of company near the top and little chance to build on his momentum. For Scheffler, the interruption came at a promising moment in a tournament where he is trying to add another Travelers title to a season that already has him in familiar territory near the front. [Read more 🡒]