The 2026 John Deere Classic operates similarly to past editions, although quality conditions at the TPC Deere Run led to lower scores. Heading into the weekend, it looks like the players at the top of the leaderboard at the end of play will have a score of around 20 under or higher next to their name when the trophy is presented on Sunday.
Lucas Glover was the man who controlled the pace after 36 holes, posting a 6-under 65 on Friday to back up his first-round 63 to reach 14-under for the tournament and open up a two-stroke lead into the weekend. Glover has yet to make a bogey this week and has 14 birdies and 22 pars around the Quad City so far this week.
Grover’s tears for John Deere came out of nowhere. The 46-year-old hasn’t broken par in his last five starts. He’s only finished in the top 25 twice this season — a year after he had five top 10s in 2025 — but he found something to go with his swing this week and has a chance to pick up his seventh PGA Tour victory.
Glover leads the field in ball striking by a wide margin, gaining seven or more strokes on the field on approach play through 36 holes. He doesn’t hit the tee very well, making only 150-foot putts this week, but he was able to create a lot of great looks with his iron play, so he didn’t really need to hit holes from long range.
Entering the weekend with a two-stroke lead over Lee Hodges and only Zach Blair within three strokes of the veteran, Glover is sitting in a great spot. Last year, Glover stormed through the weekend to a T5 finish at John Deere. If he can repeat those performances on Saturday and Sunday this year, he will almost certainly win his seventh PGA Tour title.
Candidates participating in Moving Day
2. Lee Hodges (-12)
3. Zach Blair (-11)
T4. Jackson Suber, Tyler Duncan, Troy Merritt, David Lipsky, Ryo Hisatsune, Ben Coles (-10)
T10. Max Homa (-9)
T11. Chris Gotterup, Zach Johnson, Ben Griffin, and 5 others (-8)
T19. Preston Stout, Blaze Brown, and 8 others (-7)
Hodges shot one stroke worse than Glover in both of the first two rounds, posting a 66 on Friday to advance to Saturday’s final draw. Blair was tied with Glover after the first round, but was unable to match the pace on Friday, dropping to three strokes behind with a 68 in the second round.
Suber has appeared more and more on the leaderboard as the summer has progressed, posting two fourth-place finishes in his last five starts. He is in position to compete again this weekend and hopes to build on his strength over the next two rounds as he looks to win his first PGA Tour title.
It’s a welcome sight to see Homa on the first page of the leaderboard heading into the weekend, and he’s been picking up a bit of form lately with back-to-back top-25 finishes at John Deere. His best result this season was a ninth-place finish at the Masters, and he has a chance to surpass that if he has a strong weekend and maintains his good mood.
The T11 group includes some interesting names, including a past champion in Zach Johnson, two players with multiple wins on the PGA Tour in the past few years in Chris Gotterup and Ben Griffin, and a notable amateur in Preston Stout. Johnson cooled down a bit on Friday, but has to be considered a threat given his history at TPC Deer Run. Griffin got off to a slow start this season, but has recently returned to form and is putting himself in position to compete again this weekend.
Gotterup had the opposite season to Griffin, getting off to a hot start with his first two wins but struggling to maintain his quality into the summer. He hopes this week is the springboard for a breakout season in 2025.
The young player everyone was talking about this week was Jackson Koibun, who was making his pro debut, but with Koibun not making the cut, attention will likely shift to amateurs Preston Stout and Blaise Brown. Stout played very well through the first 36 holes, not only qualifying for the first time in his fourth start on the PGA Tour, but also earning him a spot on the team heading into the weekend. Brown is looking to make the most of his special temporary exemption to earn a full card in 2026, aiming for his third straight top-20 finish on tour and his third top-10 in eight starts this year.
Eric Cole is not ruled out for the weekend
Eric Cole, who shot a 5-over 76 on Thursday, could have been forgiven Friday for planning to take the Fourth of July off after performing well in recent marquee events. Instead, Cole went out and beat the numbers with an 8-under 63 in the low round of the day. Cole had two eagles in the round, including one on the par-5 17th, and needed to go 2 under on the final two holes to end the weekend, but his efforts on Friday earned him a tee time for the weekend and a payday this week.
However, not everyone was able to make such efforts.
Notable players who missed out
- Daniel Berger (-2)
- Max Glaserman (-2)
- Sudarshan Yelamaraju (-2)
- Michael Kim (left)
- Aldrich Potgieter (E)
- Andrew Novak (+1)
- Jackson Koibun (+1)
Berger and Yelamaraju entered the week in the top 50 of the FedEx Cup standings, but fell one stroke short at the end of the weekend. Kim, a past TPC Dear Run champion, was unable to get out of first gear and will miss Saturday’s tee time. And then there’s Jackson Koibun, who learned the hard lesson that even in tournaments without top stars on the PGA Tour, you still need to score. Koibun had eight bogeys in 36 holes, which is too many mistakes on a course like Deer Run. This will be a learning experience, as his professional career begins with a missed cut.
