John Deere Classic Preview & Picks - Best Picks For TPC Deere Run

With most of the world's elite golfers skipping this week's PGA Tour Tournament, the best of the rest will have a chance to capture a title and secure places in the upcoming Open Championship. 

Lucas Glover returns to defend his title after his triumph in 2021. 

Past Major winners who will tee off on Thursday include Jason Day, Jason Dufner, Lucas Glover, Zach Johnson and Webb Simpson. 

The tournament offers exemptions to the 150th Open Championship to the leading three players who finish in the top 10 and ties who are not already exempt.

These are our selections that could win the title this weekend.

Webb Simpson has not had a noteworthy 2022, but has shown in recent starts that he is returning to his best.

In his first seven starts of the year, the American golfer had results of T61 at the Sony Open, MC at the Players Championship, T48 at the Valspar Championship, T35 at the WGC Dell Technologies Match Play, T35 at the Masters, T59 at the RBC Heritage, and MC at the Wells Fargo Championship.

Simpson then notched up two excellent results when he finished T20 at the PGA Championship and T27 at the Charles Schwab Challenge but stumbled at the US Open by missing the cut.

However, he produced a T13 finish at the Travelers Championship this past weekend, his best performance of the year.

The 36-year-old has not played at the John Deere Classic for more than ten years. He has had past results of MC in 2008, T39 in 2009 and T21 in 2010.

Simpson has shown in recent starts that he has turned the corner and should be in the mix in Illinois this weekend.

Adam Hadwin's first five tournament starts for 2022 were good, finishing T25, MC, T16, T26 and MC.

The Canadian golfer then stepped up his game with excellent results, placing T9 at the Players Championship, T7 at the Valspar Championship and T4 at the Valero Texas Open.

His form dipped a bit when placing T26 at the RBC Heritage, MC at the AT&T Byron Nelson, and finishing T71 at the PGA Championship.

However, he refound his touch by placing T18 at the Memorial Tournament, T35 at the RBC Canadian Open and T7 at the recent US Open.

The 34-year-old has achieved excellent results on the two occasions he has played at the John Deere Classic, placing T18 in 2015 and T8 in 2016.

Hadwin has had four top-10 finishes in his last nine starts and will be confident he can claim his second PGA Tour title of his career come Sunday. 

Cameron Davis had a good start to his 2022 when placing T10 at the Tournament of Champions and T27 at the Sony Open in Hawaii.

His next six starts were poor, finishing T56, MC, T48, MC, MC and 46th at the Masters, but he regained his touch around the greens at the RBC Heritage, where he placed T3 overall.

The Australian then missed the cut at Wells Fargo Championship, finished T48 at the PGA Championship and placed a credible T7 at the Charles Schwab Challenge.

Davis could not replicate that performance when he finished T53 at the Memorial Tournament and T56 at the Travelers Championship this past weekend.

The 27-year-old has played at this event twice, with results of T53 in 2019 and T55 last year.

Davis has secured three top-10 results this year and is the long-shot pick at the John Deere Classic.