2023 John Deere Classic: Best PGA Longshot Odds, Picks & Predictions

With last week’s Rocket Mortgage Classic in the rear-view mirror, we now look forward to this week’s John Deere Classic in Illinois. TPC Deere Run will host this event, which it has done annually since 2000.

TPC Deere Run is a par-71, 7,289-yard track designed by D.A. Weibring that benefits strong ball strikers and those who excel on bentgrass greens. Looking at the top of previous leaderboards, the greatest predictors of success at this course are strokes gained tee to green and greens in regulation percentage (GIR%).

Below, I will give out my two best longshot bets to win the 2023 John Deere Classic.

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2023 John Deere Classic: Best Longshot Bets

These plays are 0.3u and 0.15u, or 0.3% and 0.15% of your betting bankroll.

Sepp Straka (+5800 via DraftKings): 0.3u

The first golfer we are targeting this week is Sepp Straka, who currently sits at 58/1 via DraftKings. Straka was in prime position entering last weekend at the Rocket Mortgage Classic before his game completely fell apart on Saturday.

With that said, he bounced back with a solid performance on Sunday and I still believe he is one of the stronger golfers in this field. Straka has now made five of his past six cuts with two T20 finishes over that span, including his T7 performance at the PGA Championship among much stronger competition.

Oak Hill hosted this year’s PGA Championship, which is a course that also featured bentgrass greens. In fact, Straka has gained strokes putting in each of his past four appearances on bentgrass greens.

TPC Deere Run is a course where Straka has performed well previously, highlighted by a 26th-place finish in 2019. A good ball striker, he enters this tournament ranked 53rd on TOUR in strokes gained tee to green and 45th in GIR%.

Mark Hubbard (+6000 via DraftKings): 0.15u

Another golfer to target this week is Mark Hubbard, who currently sits at 60/1 via DraftKings. Entering this tournament in good form, Hubbard has made seven of his past 10 cuts, with four T20 finishes over that stretch.

One of those finishes was his T9 performance at the Charles Schwab Challenge, a course that also features bentgrass greens. Now, to be fair, two of those aforementioned three missed cuts have occurred in each of Hubbard’s past two tournaments, but that is why we are getting such a generous price on a well-rounded golfer who should fare well at this course.

Prior to those two missed cuts, he finished T6 at the RBC Canadian Open, a performance that hinged on his strong ball striking. In fact, Hubbard ranks 40th on TOUR this season in strokes gained tee to green and boasts a GIR% just south of 66%.

Therefore, it is not surprising to learn that he has made each of his past two cuts at TPC Deere Run, including his 13th-place finish last year.

Tony Sartori is a featured writer at BettingPros. For more from Tony, check out his archive and follow him @tony_sartori.