2022 John Deere Classic golf picks, long shot bets, field, odds

This will be quite the week in the world of golf.

While the PGA Tour heads to TPC Deere Run in Silvis, Ill. with perhaps the weakest field we’ve seen all year, the LIV Tour will make its Stateside debut with a handful of new names like Patrick Reed, Bryson DeChambeau, and Brooks Koepka. And overseas the DP World Tour (formerly the Euro Tour) is hosting the Irish Open, which always attracts some star power.

You could make a solid argument that, based on field strength alone, the PGA TOUR event this week should be playing third fiddle. And while that may not sound all that appealing for a casual observer, the lack of elite players at TPC Deere Run could open the door for a longshot to come away with the title.

Here are a couple of names to consider at long odds. All lines courtesy of FanDuel.

John Deere Classic longshot golf picks

Matt Wallace (+9500)

It has not been pretty for Matt Wallace over the past 18 months, but the Englishman has started to show signs of life after missing eight of nine cuts (not including team events) to start his 2022 PGA TOUR season.

A quick trip to Europe seemed to do Wallace some good, though, as the Englishman finished T5 at the Dutch Open and then T18 at the Porsche European Open before coming back to this side of the Atlantic and making back-to-back cuts at the RBC Canadian Open and Travelers, where he shot a 66 on Sunday. Wallace is always a candidate to finish dead last, but his upside is high enough to take a shot against this field.

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Ryan Moore (+8000):

An injury left Ryan Moore on the sidelines for much of the spring, so there’s certainly the chance that he’s still shaking off the rust, but there’s going to be risk with every player this deep on the board. And while Moore’s long layoff definitely is concerning, he made the cut in both of his starts since returning from injury and, most importantly, he boasts a strong track record at TPC Deere Run with a win (2016) and a runner-up finish last year. If Moore was going about his business as usual this year his odds would not even be close to this number. This is a good buy-low spot.

Chris Gotterup (+9500)

One of the up-and-comers on the PGA TOUR, Chris Gotterup has not looked all that out of place in his first four tournaments in the big leagues. The Little River, N.J. native and product of Rutgers has made three of four cuts — including at the U.S. Open — and has a top-10 finish to his name already. While his track record is obviously lacking, the John Deere is as good a place as any to take a shot on a player like Gotterup before the market starts to take notice of his talent level. 

Hayden Buckley (+9500)

Buckley featured on this list at last week’s Travelers Championship (along with Sahith Theegala, but let’s not re-visit that painful collapse) and responded with a decent effort, shooting three rounds in the 60s before falling off the pace on Sunday. Although he didn’t contend for the lead at TPC River Highlands, Buckley was hanging around the top-20 for a while until tumbling down to T43 at the end of play.

While that performance may not jump off the page, it came on the heels of a T14 at the U.S. Open, so Buckley’s game is heading in the right direction and that’s really all you need at this price in this field.