SILVIS — So, you want to know who is going to win the 2021 John Deere Classic that starts Thursday at TPC Deere Run?
Well, you have plenty of choices — 156 of them, in fact.
And it's tough to discount many of them ahead of the $6.2 million PGA Tour event.
While you may not be familiar with some of the guys in the field, rest assured they all belong. And they all have game that can net a coveted Tour title.
With all due respect to the most recent winners here, I can guarantee you that nobody (or very, very, very few) had 2019 champ Dylan Frittelli or 2018 winner Michael Kim as pre-tournament picks to walk off with the bronze buck trophy and become the 22nd and 23rd first-time winners here.
People are also reading…
OK, let's break this down a little bit ...
Want to talk about those trending? We have 33 golfers who finished among the Top 50 — 18 of the Top 25 — in last week's Rocket Mortgage Classic in Detroit, including playoff winner Cam Davis. Also here is runner-up Troy Merritt and a pair of players who tied for fourth — Alex Noren and Hank Lebioda. It was 34 until Brandt Snedeker withdrew on Monday with a reported injury.
We have golfers who have either played in majors this year or are major-bound next week. There are 14 golfers in the JDC field who have qualified for next week's Open Championship at Royal St. George's in Sandwich, England, and will be on Sunday's charter flight. Those are Byeong Hun An, Daniel Berger, Rafa Cabrera Bello, Lucas Glover, Brian Harman, Russell Henley, Zach Johnson, Danny Lee, Keith Mitchell, Sebastian Munoz, Kevin Na, Alex Noren, C.T. Pan and Chez Reavie.
There is a really good possibility that we could have more international flare at the top of the leaderboard than ever. Teeing it up this week at Deere Run are a dozen players who will represent their country in the upcoming Tokyo Olympics. Those are Sepp Straka (Austria), Mito Pereira (Chile), Sebastian Munoz (Colombia), Anirban Lahiri (India), Sungjae Im and Si Woo Kim (South Korea's team), Rafael Campos (Puerto Rico), Cabrero Bello (Spain), Noren and Henrik Norlander (Sweden), CT Pan (Taiwan) and Jhonattan Vegas (Venezuela).
Sidenote: Unfortunately nobody from the four-man U.S. Olympic contingent — Justin Thomas, Collin Morikawa, Xander Schauffele and 2017 JDC champ Bryson DeChambeau — is here.
And don't forget about courses for horses. It's hard to write off three-time champ Steve Stricker and 2012 champ Johnson. Those two top the tournament's all-time money list, each pocketing over $3 million from Deere Run alone. They always find a way to be there come Sunday afternoon.
Also, Las Vegas has its favorites. Berger, ranked No. 16 in the Official World Golf Rankings and No. 23 in the FedExCup race, is a 9-1 favorite.
If you put stock in numbers like those, Harman is at 14-1, Im is 16-1 and Henley 18-1. Illinois native Kevin Streelman is at 22-1. Looking for two wins in a row, Davis is 28-1, just ahead of Noren's 30-1.
Of course, you also have to factor in that 23 players have won their first tournament title here, so that opens the vault to another huge group of potentials. And there have been only seven first-time winners on Tour this season — the lowest number since 2012 (nine). So, odds are pretty good for the non-winners.
Hmmm. There are a few guys who check a number of those boxes, including Noren — a Swede who has been playing well in search of his first victory.
Is he the pick?
I wouldn't want to put that hex on anyone.
