SILVIS, Ill. — Since Thursday afternoon, swirling winds and crispy greens have led to atypically higher scoring that made the 2025 John Deere Classic feel like something less than the typical TPC Deere Run track meet.

By late Saturday afternoon, however, the Concerts on the Course countrified twang of Dierks Bentley, and at least one very familiar name atop the leaderboard brought back the standard echoes of golf in the Heartland.

Defending champion Davis Thompson bagged a 10-foot, 7-inch birdie at the closing hole minutes before Bentley took the stage to secure sole possession of the 54-hole lead, the same position he held toeing the Sunday starting line a year ago.

As for a typical Deere Run track meet? That would appear to be decidedly in store, as Max Homa, Brian Campbell, and Emiliano Grillo, a trio of veterans with PGA TOUR wins in their past, will be joined by David Lipsky in starting a shot off the lead, with nine others just two behind and another 12 within four shots.

The 26-year-old Thompson has struggled to validate last year’s win. He returned to Deere Run with only a pair of top 10s in the year since his first TOUR victory.

His 15-under three-round total of 198 is six short of the blistering 21-under pace he set en route to a tournament-record 28-under winning total in 2024. But the pole position is familiar and he feels his game is trending upwards, much as it was 12 months ago.

“Excited to go compete,” he said, after losing his second-round lead with a two-birdie, two-bogey frontside but finishing fast after a pep talk from his caddie at the turn. Thompson’s four backside birdies, including at 17 and 18, keyed a 4-under Saturday round of 67 that made him leader of the pack again. “I was kind of trending last year coming into this tournament and obviously played well. This year kind of feels the same way. I can't really focus on last year, but excited to be in this position again.”

Thompson’s leading total is the highest at Deere Run since 2009, and the 69.620 scoring average for the field is the highest since 2015. Yet, anticipated Saturday night thunderstorms are expected to soften a firm fast track a bit. Coupled with winds predicted to be half as strong as the swirling 15 to 16 miles per hour breezes that confronted Saturday’s field, Thompson and his pursuers should find a golf course far more amendable to scoring Sunday.

“It was really windy today and yesterday afternoon,” Homa said after a 3-under round of 68 kept the six-time TOUR winner in position to make amends for a frustratingly forgettable year that features just a single top 25 finish, and brought him to Silvis ranked 122nd in the FedExCup standings. “Wind is obviously the ultimate test for us. It was hard to get the ball real close to the hole today.”

Homa, who paired four birdies to one bogey, was T2 in Driving Accuracy and eighth in Strokes Gained: Off the Tee. He is chasing his first victory since 2023, at the Farmers Insurance Open.

“Golf is just been very boring for me this year,” Homa said. “I haven't had a whole lot of stress, and you want to be stressed out. So I look forward to the butterflies in the morning; I look forward to the first tee shot.

It's just nice to get to feel that again. It's been a while.”

Kurt Kitayama’s 5-under 66 was the lowest Moving Day total, lifting him into a four-way tie for sixth, two off the lead. He’s joined there by fellow past TOUR winners Austin Eckroat, Seamus Power, and Camilo Villegas.

Five players, including 47-year-old nine-time career winner Matt Kuchar and Jackson Koivun, an amateur 27 years Kuchar’s junior, will start Sunday four shots back of Thompson’s lead.

Looking to become the fourth back-to-back winner in John Deere history, Thompson will take to the first tee at 12:45 p.m. on Sunday in the company of Lipsky, a fourth-year pro looking for his first win in 129 TOUR starts.

Homa and Grillo will precede them, while Kitayama and Campbell will take the course as the third-to-last pairing. Campbell will be looking for his second win of the year, and will also have a chance to prevent Thompson from becoming the first repeat winner at the Deere since fellow University of Illinois alum Steve Stricker won his third in succession in 2011.

While that won’t be foremost on his list of motivating factors, Campbell vowed to give it the old college try. “I guess I'll have to help Stricker out a little bit tomorrow,” said the February winner of the Mexico Open at VidantaWorld.

All of Sunday’s contestants will be looking to enhance their FedExCup standings, with Thompson’s No. 48 position best among the lead pack.

Back in his familiar position atop the John Deere leaderboard, the soft-spoken Georgian is eager to see what Sunday brings.

“It shouldn't change a whole lot, but I feel like your focus sharpens a little more,” he said of being in the hunt. “I find it easier to commit to every shot when I'm in the lead, as opposed to the back of the pack.”

Speaking of familiar feelings, Thompson will sleep on the lead in the same bedroom back at Trophy House, the nearby Airbnb that has produced the John Deere’s past three champions.

His Saturday night plan, other than relaxing over cards with his housemates?

“I'll take a look at the weather and the hole locations and get a game plan together for tomorrow,” he said.

And come Sunday, he will run the race.

“Early on probably not going to be scoreboard watching at all,” he said. “By the back nine, see where I am and go from there.”