With many of the world’s best golfers taking a break from the weekend of July 4th, the 2025 John Deere Classic offers players a great opportunity for groundbreaking victory. After Thursday’s first round, two big names on the field, Max Homa and Ricky Fowler, positioned them as having a chance to finish in 2025 with their first victory and the PGA Tour.
Fowler shot an opening 6-under 65, bringing Doug Gimm back to 9-under for 18-hole lead. Fowler went for a birdie by dee double bogey and opened the round (starting with the back nine) and went out at 36. However, he charged the leaderboard with a 6-underboard and tore the front side with a TPC Deer Run to position himself as a threat to keep an eye on all weekend.
But he was not a low round for his group. Homa shot an 8-under 63 to move to T2 on Friday, finding something a little from the tee and moved into the competition in a tough year, getting hot along with the putter. Homa has no top 10 finish this season and is visibly annoyed by his swing. Although not on Thursday, there are three more rounds to go to courses that normally recognize many low scores, but Homa said he enjoys putting together a full day of great golf after the round.
“I’m leaving here today, so that won’t be my lasting idea,” he said after being asked if his opening round effort felt sustainable. “I had a good round of golf. Every day is different. It feels like I found a driver and all the long clubs and a little something. It was good to do that with 18 full holes. I didn’t hit one crazy shot today, so it was cool.”
Homa and Fowler are paired with Jake Knapp (-3) again on Friday afternoon, and the group is about to continue the good vibe. Asked about playing a course where you know the winner’s score is in your 20s, Homa said the challenge is to stay patient and not force anything that isn’t there as many opportunities are presented later.
“Patience is very important even if your score is really low,” he said. “Look at the rounds like Ricky played today. He had some blips early and his swing shot really low numbers. So it’s important to be as patient as you always feel like a track encounter in your head and you can drill a hole here.”
These two chase after Ghim, who hit 12 of 62 fairways and had an incredible ball-straking round to shoot 17 of 18 greens in regulation. He made one bogey all day and did it while losing strokes to the field with putters. It’s not often you’ll see someone take the lead without getting a stroke on this side of Scottie Scheffler, but that’s because Ghim played Tee-Green. If he bottles that swing feeling all week and gets something from his putter, the Texas product is a threat to win his first victory on the PGA Tour.
leader
1. Doug Pin (-9): He misses more of a cut than the top 25 this season, but appears to be in the best shape of the year, coming out of the rocket classic and solid T19. His challenge is to convey that throughout the weekend and maintain the pace of scores that Homa points out, given the numbers Homa usually wins at John Deere. As he stated, he is not too worried about putting up statistics, highlighting some of the ways in which the data can be skewed, and how his ability to score without submerging lengths was positive.
“Hit nearby. You hit a lot of fairways. You didn’t miss a lot of greens. You had to scrape off 17 greens, so it probably hurt the stats. You had to come to the corner of the bunker so you didn’t go up and down,” Ghim said. “Statistically, it probably looks worse than that. Honestly, it hits very close all day. I probably didn’t get much when I tapped for birdies. I putt twice for birdies.
Candidate
T2. Max Homa, Austin Eckroth (-8)
T4. David Lipski, Sam Stevens, Justin Lower, Michael Kim (-6)
T8. Ricky Fowler, Siu Kim and 7 others (-6)
Everyone in the top seven on the leaderboard teeed off as part of the morning waves as they enjoyed the soft and gentle state before things got a little firmer in the afternoon. Friday will see if there are wave benefits or if they will get the same benefit in the morning in the second round, but for now, those who scored the tee time early on Thursday look like they’re lifting their legs.
Eckroat joins HOMA at T2 at 8 under and is looking for a third career victory after winning two titles in 2024. Meanwhile, Kim wants to see Farrer wins like Fowler and Matt Kucher. Someone a little earlier, like under five Denny McCarthy, and three-under Sargeke Knap and Sanjae Im, are once away from stabbing the competition that enters the weekend.
2025 John Deere Classic Update Odds, Picks
Odds via betmgm
- Doug Pin (10-1)
- Max Homa (12-1)
- Austin Eckroth (14-1)
- Kevin Yu (16-1)
- Michael Kim (16-1)
- Sam Stevens (16-1)
- Similarly (16-1)
- Denny McCarthy (20-1)
- Emiliano Grillo (25-1)
- Ricky Fowler (25-1)
This week we’re talking about who can stack the low rounds as this tournament is usually won with a score of 20 or higher. Of the names on the leaderboard, Eckroat has serious staying power and is worth 14-1. His iron play is second only to GHIM on Thursday, and I don’t expect him to ski much on Friday. Plus, McCarthy is a pre-tournament favorite, only four shots from the lead after it’s time for the respectable 66.iif to grab some value on the great iron player and putter. It is currently 20-1.
