Spieth holds on as Koivun misses cut at Deere

Jordan Spieth fought back with three birdies on the back nine to survive the cut at the John Deere Classic, while Jackson Koivun fell short in his professional debut. Ben Griffin surged with a 65, keeping his weekend spot, as Eric Cole’s 63 put more pressure o

SILVIS, Ill. — The difference between making the weekend and watching it from home came down to a stretch of holes, and at TPC Deere Run on Friday afternoon it felt brutally simple: Jordan Spieth found a way, Jackson Koivun didn’t.

Spieth battled back from a rough second-round start and needed three birdies on the back nine to make the cut on the number at 3 under. He didn’t try to pin it on bad fortune after an unsettling bogey on the par-5 10th. the shot that kicked his day into gear. “It was actually one of my better swings of the day. ” Spieth said of a pulled iron shot into a native area that led to a 6. “The problem was I had made so many bad swings I was protecting from right. So no, I just wanted to try to make good swings. And if it was going to work out, it was going to work out. If not, then it wasn’t meant to be.”.

Koivun. making his professional debut. couldn’t find the form that had powered him to a T11 at the John Deere a year ago. His 1-under 70 on Friday was three shots better than his opener, but it still wasn’t enough. His weekend ended with him turning his attention to next week’s ISCO Championship in Louisville. Kentucky. where he’s chasing his first professional made cut.

Ben Griffin, the third member of the marquee threesome, cruised instead. He posted a second-round 65 that helped him move up 40 spots on the leaderboard, positioning him among the players who will return on Saturday.

Griffin is also one of 10 players in the top 50 of the FedExCup Standings in the field at TPC Deere Run, and all but two of those—Daniel Berger and Sudarshan Yellamaraju—will be in the group of 80 players teeing off Saturday.

While Spieth’s comeback was built on back-nine birdies, Eric Cole’s push came from a different place entirely. After new irons were overnighted by PXG, Cole fired an 8-under 63 to erase a Thursday 76. The round included a pair of eagles. “It was just like I kind of had nothing to lose,” Cole said of the day. “Yeah. It was a good day.”.

But the cut didn’t spare everyone who knows this tournament. The defending champion Brian Campbell is now gone with the rest of the weekend plans. After a 1-under 70 in the opening round, Campbell made the Friday afternoon turn at 2 over. He managed just a lone birdie coming home and finished at 1-over 142, four shots back of the cutline.

Past John Deere winners Dylan Fritelli (2019) and Michael Kim (2013) joined Campbell on the sidelines.

The pressure only grew because the course itself asked for more. In the previous two years, the TPC Deere Run cut fell at a record-low, 5-under par. This year. players faced a slightly muscled-up par-4 fourth after disease forced changes to the course’s centerpiece: the Hewitt Tree. which guarded the middle of a double fairway. The TPC network replaced it with left and right bunkering separated by 30 yards of fairway.

Those hazards sit about 300 yards from a new tee that lengthened the hole by 50 yards. Players now have to choose whether to challenge the bunkers or lay back and come into a narrow green with longer irons. Pros played the hole to an average of 3.909 in 2025, making it the course’s 10th most difficult hole. This week’s average through two rounds is 4.199, ranking as the second most challenging.

By the end of Friday’s scoring, the weekend lineup had a clear story: Spieth’s scramble delivered survival, Koivun’s debut ended early, and even the people who’ve won here before still had to answer to a course that demanded sharper decisions at exactly the wrong time.

Jordan Spieth Jackson Koivun John Deere Classic TPC Deere Run Ben Griffin Eric Cole Brian Campbell ISCO Championship FedExCup standings golf cut