John Deere Classic: Stephan Jaeger And Nicholas Lindheim Withdraw

(Image credit: Getty Images)

published 4 July 2025

After shooting a three-over round of 74, Stephan Jaeger decided to withdraw from the John Deere Classic after the end of his opening 18 holes, and he was followed by Nicholas Lindheim just ahead of round two.

The German never looked at ease at TPC Deere Run and his 74 would have left him facing a tough task to make the cut - which has become a theme of late as he's missed the weekend in two of his last three tournaments.

That's very much against the run of things for Jaeger, who has a pretty solid record of making 109 cuts from 170 PGA Tour events he's played during his career, but he's clearly struggling of late.

As the World No.56 was certainly heading towards another missed cut at the John Deere Classic when he decided to call it quits - with no injury or illness given as a reason for his withdrawal by the PGA Tour.

Lindheim was one shot worse off than Jaeger after a first-round 75, and he withdrew just before Friday's second round due to a back injury.

Jaeger's withdrawal after the first round added to the five players that pulled out ahead of the tournament - Norman Xiong, Danny Walker, Aaron Baddeley, Davis Riley and Vince Covello all opted not to tee it up in the event.

The 36-year-old has three top 10s to his name this year, but just one T7 since The Masters when results have generally been below what he'd have expected.

Jaeger called it a day after finishing with two birdies and two bogeys - but one triple-bogey seven on the par-4 fourth hole did all the damage to his score.

That left him on three over and 12 shots off leader Doug Ghim after his flying 62 which contained seven birdies and an eagle.

Ghim only leads by one though after Max Homa and Austin Eckroat both shot 63s on a day generally of low scoring at TPC Deere Run.

A total of 102 players finished under par for their first round, with 83 of them breaking 70 and 16 rounds of 65 or better.

Along with a welcome return to form for Homa, Rickie Fowler was another notable name starting well as he shot one of those 65s as he looks to climb inside the crucial top 70 in the FedEx Cup standings.

Paul Higham is a sports journalist with over 20 years of experience in covering most major sporting events for both Sky Sports and BBC Sport. He is currently freelance and covers the golf majors on the BBC Sport website. Highlights over the years include covering that epic Monday finish in the Ryder Cup at Celtic Manor and watching Rory McIlroy produce one of the most dominant Major wins at the 2011 US Open at Congressional. He also writes betting previews and still feels strangely proud of backing Danny Willett when he won the Masters in 2016 - Willett also praised his putting stroke during a media event before the Open at Hoylake. Favourite interviews he's conducted have been with McIlroy, Paul McGinley, Thomas Bjorn, Rickie Fowler and the enigma that is Victor Dubuisson. A big fan of watching any golf from any tour, sadly he spends more time writing about golf than playing these days with two young children, and as a big fair weather golfer claims playing in shorts is worth at least five shots. Being from Liverpool he loves the likes of Hoylake, Birkdale and the stretch of tracks along England's Golf Coast, but would say his favourite courses played are Kingsbarns and Portrush.

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