Illini alumnus Brian Campbell anticipates defense of his John Deere Classic title
This article appeared in the June 2026 edition of Chicago District Golfer.
To read more Chicago District Golfer stories, head to our article archive.
Photos courtesy of John Deere Classic
Brian Campbell lifts his 35-pound John Deere Classic trophy for all to see after winning the tournament on the first hole of sudden death over Emiliano Grillo.
Brian Campbell’s story is one of grit and perseverance. Once a collegiate star at Illinois and a regular contender on the elite amateur circuit, the 33-year-old native of Newport Beach, California navigated a start-and-stop journey to the PGA Tour largely defined by injury. Finally, after seven years on the Korn Ferry Tour (KFT), he reaped the fruits of his labors last year, winning twice, including a victory at the John Deere Classic (JDC).
Yet, even last year Campbell played hurt.
“I felt like I was hitting the ball with one arm,” said Campbell, who will defend his title, July 2–5, at TPC Deere Run in Silvis, near the Quad Cities. “I wasn’t 100% physically, but it allowed me to be 100% mentally… I was just focused on hitting every fairway I could. There are a few demanding tee shots. And if you take care of those, you can attack the rest of the course.”
Campbell won last year’s JDC on the first hole of a sudden-death playoff with Argentina's Emiliano Grillo after both players finished regulation at 18-under par. On the playoff hole (No. 18), Campbell, one of the shortest hitters on Tour, fired a 286-yard drive down the middle of the fairway and stuck his 192-yard second shot to within 16 feet of the cup. Playing second, Grillo hit his tee shot in the right rough, flew his 168-yard pitching wedge approach over the green and failed to get up-and-down. Two putts later, Campbell was doing his victory interview with CBS’ Amanda Balionis. It had been 10 years removed from Campbell’s first Deere, as an amateur on a sponsor exemption.
What does Campbell feel when he anticipates his return to the Quad Cities?
“I love the area. I love the farm feel of it. It takes me back to college.”
And Deere Run?
“Excitement,” he said. “I just love the course. Can’t wait to get out there. Picturing the finishing holes, where so much can happen. It brings back amazing memories.”
Campbell also loves the number of Illini fans who were cheering him on at Deere Run.
“It was pretty incredible to have that many people on your side,” he said. They’re sure to be back in even greater numbers in 2026.
His victory at the JDC was his second of 2025. The first came at the VidantaWorld Mexico Open in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, where he defeated Aldrich Potgieter of South Africa on the first hole of sudden death. That triumph occurred in February of 2025, qualifying him for last year’s Masters. His Deere victory, in July, got him an invitation to this year’s Augusta National competition.
Unsurprisingly, Campbell said his experience at Augusta was “incredible. It’s Disneyland for golf only so much better. We got there early, our family stayed in a house not far away [from the course], and we got to play the course on Saturday and Sunday when it was quiet.” He finished T32 in 2025 with a 4-under par 68 in his final round.
Campbell said his injuries started during the 2020 COVID-19 break when he strained his right hamstring and glute.
“I had no strength in my right leg,” he said.
In favoring the leg, he hurt his neck, shoulder, left arm, left elbow, left thumb and left index finger. “It’s all one piece.” In the 2020 KFT season, he had only one top-10 finish; he missed the entire 2021 KFT slate, most of the 2022 campaign and recorded only two top-10s in 2023.
Everything changed in 2024 after he finally got relatively healthy. He made 21 of 25 cuts on the KFT, had seven top 10 finishes, made $521,038 and earned his PGA Tour status. That success set up his 2025 campaign, although the injury bug had crept back in by the time July’s Deere rolled around.
Brian Campbell shows the John Deere Classic trophy to his then-girlfriend, now fiancée, Kelsi McKee.
Campbell competed in the FedExCup Playoffs last year, making it through the BMW Championship. He played two fall events then shut it down Oct. 9, giving himself a good two months to recover physically. With help from his college coach, Illini legend Mike Small, he made a few minor adjustments to his game and now, he said, “When I hit balls, I don’t hurt.” The result has been more distance, which now has caused him to hit the ball too far, resulting in a lot of missed cuts. The Masters was an exception, where he finished T24 despite the lowest average driving distance (279.62 yards) among those who made the cut.
“I’ve been hitting it 285 [instead of 277, 180th place on Tour] but two or three times a round I’ll hit it 290 to 320… It’s affecting my caddie.”
Not that long ago, winning on the PGA Tour used to mean more than it does today. A two-year exemption. First dibs on which events to play on the circuit, most of which had 156-player fields. The luxury of choosing one’s own schedule and not playing only in tournaments where openings are available. But while the Tour has always been a meritocracy, recent changes in qualification criteria for elevated events means fewer playing opportunities for those below the shrinking FedExCup season standings cutline, where Campbell found himself this year as a result of several missed cuts.
For example, this year at the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill, Campbell showed up as an alternate for the 72-player Signature event and didn’t get into the tournament until Keegan Bradley withdrew. As luck would have it, Campbell’s pro-am partner was Charles Barkley, the NBA Hall of Famer turned TV analyst for all things basketball, who happens to love golf.
“This sport is different and challenging because you have to earn your keep every year without any guarantees,” Barkley said. “They are under enormous pressure. [Campbell] is a really nice guy, helpful, courteous and he was very engaging with the players in our group, rather than just doing his own thing. That’s why you want to pull for a player like Brian.”
Players who sit atop the Official World Golf Rankings [OWGR] always will drive attendance, viewership and revenue. But for longtime golf fans, a door seemed always to be open to players like Campbell to stay around a while. The magic of the Deere is that it continues, for now, to serve as a pathway to success just as it did for Jordan Spieth, Brian Harman and Sepp Straka. It also o
ers a chance for a comeback, perfectly demonstrated by former U.S. Open winner Lucas Glover, who went a decade without winning until he won the JDC in 2021.
For Campbell, the Deere is meaningful and not only because he received that long-ago exemption to a tournament in the state where he went to college.
“It’s where Jordan [Spieth] got started. It's like a mini signature event in my eyes,” Campbell added. “I've always thought of it as a really special event where I've watched the best players in the world play and win, and then [fellow Illini alumnus and three-time Deere winner] Steve Stricker do his thing.”
George McNeilly is an award-winning broadcaster and writer who has covered professional golf, the Olympics on four continents, and 17 Super Bowls. He spent 11 years as a senior ESPN executive and currently teaches Sports Business Models at Full Sail University in Florida when not out on the PGA Tour.
Barry Cronin contributed to this report.
Campbell's victory in 2025 at TPC Deere Run was his second on the PGA Tour.
Second Tier Status
Tour’s future still could include small-town classic
As the PGA Tour’s Senior Vice President for Tournament Business Affairs, Duke Butler brought the John Deere Classic (JDC) into the 21st century by proposing a landmark agreement to build a TPC golf course and make Deere and Company the official golf and turf equipment supplier of the Tour’s worldwide TPC network.
In exchange, Deere assumed title sponsorship of the longstanding Quad Cities (QC) tournament based just a stone’s throw from the Fortune 100 company’s hometown of Moline.
That partnership will celebrate its 28th anniversary in July, when the $8.8 million 2026 John Deere Classic tees off.
How many more JDCs will follow will likely be revealed the week prior.
That’s when first-year Tour CEO Brian Rolapp is expected to unveil radical schedule changes that will carry professional golf into the future. Included in that anticipated announcement will be the answer to the questions of if and how the John Deere Classic may fit into that future.
Based on very preliminary information Rolapp revealed at The Players Championship in March, Butler believes the event he once labeled “the most overachieving tournament in the history of the PGA Tour” again will survive.
“Nobody is more on the outside than a former insider,” Butler said in late March when asked if he believes the Quad Cities will remain on the Tour calendar. “But, yes, I do.”
Rolapp has said not every current Tour event will survive beyond 2026. But working in favor of the QC event’s survival, both Butler and fourth-year JDC Tournament Director Andrew Lehman believe, is the existence of host course TPC Deere Run, the growth of Deere’s golf and turf division through its TPC network affiliation and the myriad ways Deere and Company has found return on investment through its second-longest-running sponsorship on Tour. Deere’s title sponsorship agreement also runs through 2030.
Like golf fans everywhere, Mara Downing, Deere’s Vice President, Global Brand and Communications, is eager to learn what the Tour’s future holds.
“The PGA Tour has been a valued partner for nearly three decades,” she said, “and we are proud of our 28-year relationship and the shared legacy we have built together through the John Deere Classic.”
In March, Rolapp said the Tour’s Future Competitions Committee is looking to double the number of big-money Signature Events with fields expanded from 70 to 120 players. He wants to return to major markets, like New York and Chicago, with new events and to create a “second tier” tour through a merit-based relegation system.
Depending on how the latter system works, Lehman said he heard nothing that would leave the Tour’s smallest surviving market completely off its new map.
A place on a so-called “second tier” should not radically alter the QC event’s customary status as a launching pad for young talent. Since 2023, when the huge-money Signature Events were invented in order to compete with LIV Golf, JDC fields have grown deeper in talent, as established players came seeking to retain their Tour cards and earn their way into 70-player, no-cut Signature fields. That benefit might be altered, but not necessarily eliminated, when changes are revealed in Hartford, Lehman said.
“Our honest reaction was, it’s business as usual,” Lehman said.
Craig DeVrieze covered golf in the Quad Cities for various newspapers for more than 30 years. He is the author of the book “Magic Happened: Celebrating 50 Years of the John Deere Classic.”