The 2021 John Deere Classic will serve as the last warm-up for most golfers in the PGA TOUR before The Open later this month. Many of the big hitters are not going to play this week at TPC Deere Run, which means the upcoming tournament could be a wild, wide-open race for the entire field. With that said, here are three names on our sleepers watch.
Streb has been cut half the time this season. He’s reached the weekend just 11 times in 22 starts, but at least he could say that he’s already won a tournament this season. He topped the field in the 2021 RSM Classic way back in November 2020. He seems to be finding his rhythm of late, though. He has made the cut in four of his last five starts and in both of his last two. He went with a T19 in the 2021 Travelers Championship and T38 in the 2021 Rocket Mortgage Classic. He is also 4 of 7 at TPC Deere Run, highlighted by a solo 14th place finish in the 2015 edition of the John Deere Classic.
Like Streb, Stricker has been on some form of a groove of late. By finishing with a T44 in the 2021 PGA Championship, Stricker has now made the cut in five of his last six starts. He has started in just nine PGA TOUR events this season, but has made the cut six times and finished inside the top 25 thrice. His best finish to date this season was a T4 in the 2021 Waste Management Phoenix Open. Here’s the thing that makes him a tasty sleeper pick for the the 2021 John Deere Classic: he is 13 of 14 in his PGA TOUR career when playing at the TPC Deere Run.
After seeing his streak of seven made cuts end when he struck out in the 2021 Travelers Championship, Snedeker rebounded just fine, as he finished with a T38 in the 2021 Rocket Mortgage Classic. This season, he has a pair of top 10s and five top 25s in 23 starts (14 made cuts). Snedeker is making a return to the TPC Deere Run course for the first time since 2009. That year, he finished runner up after scoring 17-under 267.
