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John Deere Classic odds 2024: The cold hard facts against Jordan Spieth
Editor's Note: This article is published in partnership with Read The Line, a Golf Digest content partner.
James Gilbert
It has been a wild Monday on the odds board for the John Deere Classic. When the field of 156 players was posted on Friday, there was one name we all didn’t expect: Patrick Cantlay. Odds dropped on Monday morning with Cantlay as the betting favorite, despite Cantlay never competing in the John Deere during his 13-year professional career.
Just a few hours into odds being available Monday morning, Cantlay withdrew. It was a race to bet on the rest of the field whose original odds on Monday showed some significant value. Losing the betting favorite always cuts the remainder of the field from an odds perspective.
As the world’s best pack for Scotland and prepare for Royal Troon, why are the players at the top of the board—Sungjae Im, Jordan Spieth and Jason Day—at TPC Deere Run? Im is the most recent one to play TPC Deere Run in 2021. Spieth has won here twice, and we haven’t seen him since that second victory in 2015. Day takes us even further back to his last John Deere start in 2011. A quick look at their world rankings reveals the reason why the Quad Cities is their office for the week. Each of them needs a positive push prior to the season’s final major and summer FedEx Cup playoff run.
The Jordan Spieth bias on the odds board is something to take advantage of. Spieth sits at 18-1 and pushes others up in value. Spieth’s season has been a shaky one at best. He finished 63rd at a no-cut event in Connecticut losing 7.5 strokes to the field. In his last 10 starts, he has lost strokes on approach seven times and five times with his putter. He holds 18-1 odds because he won here twice, albeit a decade ago. With just two wins in the last seven years, Spieth is the one to stay away from at TPC Deere Run.
Watch the below video for our favorite bets and players we're fading for the 2024 John Deere Classic:
Im on the other hand has been trending much more positively. Sungjae has four top 10s in his past six starts. Sitting at 20-1, his number will definitely drop based upon the Cantlay news and savvy bettors staying away from Spieth. I’m sure those two will have switched places on the betting board by the end of the day. Im is the class of this field and unlike Spieth and Day his world ranking has not dropped significantly this season. Sungjae is gaining four strokes total against the field in his last five starts and an excellent scoring machine on TPC courses.
Sungjae Im is my Monday play. He can definitely win this event following a third-place finish at the Travelers. Make him your Monday move quickly and grab the best odds we will see there before the round one fireworks begin on July 4th! Watch our above video for all of our favorite bets on Monday (and watch out for Hennessey, who has picked back-to-back runners-up in this column the past two weeks!).
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Keith Stewart is a five-time award-winning PGA professional, a betting contributor and content partner with Golf Digest and founder of Read The Line, the premier on-site live golf betting insights service covering the LPGA and PGA Tour. Subscribe to Read The Line’s weekly newsletter here and raise your golf betting acumen. Keith's winning content can also be found on SportsGrid, Bleacher Report and The Sporting News. Follow him on Twitter @readtheline_.