Who is leading the 2023 John Deere Classic? PGA Tour event’s Day 2 leaderboard explored

The John Deere Classic's top pre-tournament favorite, Cameron Young, leads the leaderboard after two rounds. The second round proved to be extremely competitive, with many ties and ups and downs.

Young played at an exceptional level on Friday at the John Deere Classic. There were eight birdies with one bogey, to close with -7 (-13 overall).

He started the round very strong, with three birdies in a row and then kept the pace to climb to the top.

Tied for second place at the John Deere Classic were Adam Schenk and Garrick Higgo, who played for an identical -5 (-11 overall). They were joined by Brendon Todd, who carded -6.

'Rookie sensation' Ludvig Aberg scored -7 and climbed 18 spots to place T5 at the John Deere Classic. One of those tied with Aberg is Denny McCarthy, who turned in one of the best performances of the day.

McCarthy birdied seven of his last nine holes in the round. It was a total of 10 birdies that would have put him in a share of fifth place, but for an unfortunate double bogey on the 10th hole.

The other who put in a spectacular performance was Jim Herman, who made seven birdies in a row (from hole 7 to 13).

The competitiveness of the John Deere Classic's second round was so strong that six players tied for the best score of the day (-8). All of them made spectacular jumps in the leaderboard, the most important of them for Kevin Roy, who reached T5 climbing 36 places.

But it was not the biggest jump as Kevin Streelman and Jim Herman climbed 79 places to T10. Yuto Katsuragawa, meanwhile, jumped 97 places to T18 and Sepp Straka 104 to T29.

A case in point is Michael Thorbjornsen, an amateur who played the first round for +2, but "pulled out from under his sleeve" a -8 this Friday to achieve one of the best scores of his young career.

The cut line was set at -4. Among the players cut were Emiliano Gruillo and Adam Hadwin.

John Deere Classic full leaderboard after Day 2

The following is the full leaderboard of the John Deere Classic after Day 2. Only players who made the cut where included:

1 Young, Cameron -13

T2 Schenk, Adam -11

T2 Higgo, Garrick -11

T2 Todd, Brendon -11

T5 Aberg, Ludvig -10

T5 Mouw, William -10

T5 McCarthy, Denny -10

T5 Roy, Kevin -10

9 Hubbard, Mark -9

T10 Murray, Greyson -8

T10 Glover, Lucas -8

T10 Streelman, Kevin -8

T10 Kuest, Peter -8

T10 Gribble, Cody -8

T10 Herman, Jim -8

T10 Kirk, Chris -8

T10 Lashley, Nate -8

T23 Poston, J.T. -7

T18 Bhatia, Akshay -7

T18 Yuto Katsuragawa -7

T18 Sigg, Greyson -7

T18 Blixt, Jonas -7

T18 Power, Seamus -7

T18 Svensson, Adam -7

T18 Mitchell, Keith -7

T18 Walker, Jimmy -7

T18 Ghim, Doug -7

T18 Goya, Tano -7

T29 Smalley, Alex -6

T29 Werenski, Richy -6

T29 Duncan, Tyler -6

T29 Straka, Sepp -6

T29 Hardy, Nick -6

T29 Kodaira, Satoshi -6

T29 Cole, Eric -6

T29 Stroud, Chris -6

T29 Daffue, MJ -6

T29 Gerard, Ryan -6

T29 Thorbjornsen, Michael -6

T29 Hossler, Beau -6

T29 Merritt, Troy -6

T29 NeSmith, Matt -6

T29 Stuard, Brian -6

T29 Dufner, Jason -6

T45 An, Byeong Hun -5

T45 Thompson, Davis -5

T45 Ramey, Chad -5

T45 Champ, Cameron -5

T45 Streb, Robert -5

T45 Noh, S.Y. -5

T45 Baddeley, Aaron -5

T45 Smotherman, Austin -5

T45 Yu, Kevin -5

T45 Jaeger, Stephan -5

T45 Endycott, Harrison -5

T45 Henley, Russell -5

T45 Knox, Russell -5

T45 Reavie, Chez -5

T45 Griffin, Lanto -5

T45 Novak, Andrew -5

T45 Sargent, Gordon -5

T62 Higgs, Harry -4

T62 Ogilvy, Geoff -4

T62 Matthews, Brandon -4

T62 Hickok, Kramer -4

T62 Kuchar, Matt -4

T62 Johnson, Zach -4

T62 Landry, Andrew -4

T62 Hahn, James -4