Magic Happened: Epilogue

Golf, People, Magic

It’s about the golf.

Of course, it is.

Let’s not pretend the impetus for launching the Quad Cities Open was anything other than the little white ball the men who would build Crow Valley chased around Arsenal Golf Club while a proud community basked in the afterglow of Jack Fleck’s 1955 U.S. Open win for the ages.

Whitey Barnard was absolutely obsessed with the game, and he was good at it, too.

“Whitey won a lot of amateur events, and took a lot of golf tours to Europe and elsewhere,” said Thom Cornelis, who once accompanied Barnard on a golf trip to Hawaii. When the young broadcaster went to the hotel lobby in advance of a morning tee time in Honolulu, he found his host bleeding from the head after falling into a coffee table.

“I said, ‘Whitey, you’ve got to get to the hospital,’’’ Cornelis remembered. “He said, ‘I’ll do it afterward.’ He tied a kerchief around the gash, and went out and shot 76, wiping blood the whole time.”

Jim Hasley suspects Bob Fry could have followed Fleck onto the pro circuit if he’d been a slightly better putter, and he is certain Fry would have succeeded if every PGA TOUR pin was tucked in the back left quadrant of the green.

“He hit a low two-bounce, right-to-left shot and he could just hit it stiff all day long,” Hasley recalled of his mentor. “He always played the Tucson and Phoenix Opens, and he usually made the cut.”

Fry was a winner on the golf course and at a gin rummy table, and his confidence could be contagious.

“We tried to qualify for the Tucson Open together and we both wound up in a playoff, seven guys for two spots,” Jim Jamieson remembered. “He said, ‘Let’s go get ‘em.’ We both birdied the first hole and got in the tournament.”

Contagious, too, was Fry’s persistent conviction to bring pro tournament golf to the Quad Cities.

“He always seemed to talk about it,” Jamieson said. “Once I got my TOUR card, he said, ‘Let’s put something together.’ And we did.”

So, yes. The Quad Cities Open was launched as a showcase for the great game of golf, and the John Deere Classic remains a showcase for great and magical golf today.

From the high comedy of putts rolling back to the feet of the combustible Tommy Bolt at Crow’s dastardly 14^th — “We played it in the morning when it was still soft, and you could see what was coming,” Gary McCord remembered. “After we finished, I said, ‘Let’s grab some beers and go watch this!’” — to the high drama of Jordan Spieth in the bunker at Deere Run’s 18^th, golf is forever the backstory for this golden anniversary tale.

Yet, once that little white ball got rolling, the real story of the John Deere Classic became the people.

If you have read this far, you know the heroic contributions of generations of decent, dedicated and determined Quad Citians are writ large across the incredibly inspiring and utterly improbable history of this thing we’ve called The Little Tournament That Could.

Not all of those heroes were drawn to the event by golf.

Vickie McWhorter didn’t even know what a birdie was until Steve Jacobs gave her an end-of-each-day assignment for a new charity initiative in 1992.

“So, Steve said, ‘When you get the scorecards, you need to count the number of birdies,’” she remembered. “I’ll never forget the look on his face when I go, ‘Uh, Steve … What is a birdie?’’’

It’s the kind of story McWhorter can be counted on to interrupt with a delightful self-deprecating laugh, one no one ever has tired of hearing. She and Sally Welvaert still return each year to volunteer. Of course, they do. Because this always was more than a job. In her volunteer role greeting patrons at the Welcome Pavilion, McWhorter said she has learned even more about the people she always knew were the real magic behind the Classic.

“They have really true, deep feelings about the tournament,” she said of her legions of fellow volunteers. “They love what they do. They love the charity. They love the camaraderie. Not so much seeing the players play. That isn’t the highest priority for a lot of them. It’s being part of something really big. Being part of a family of volunteers who get to know each other and are so excited when they see each other that one week every year.

“And then you can’t get away from the charity aspect, which is something that’s dear to me. You can’t get away from that. This little small community? And what we give to the charities? That means a lot to these volunteers as well.”

Who knows? Maybe Diane Lowe still would be orchestrating a marching army of standard bearers 46 years after double-shifting to help her cousin at the initial Oakwood Open had Birdies for Charity never taken wing. Then again, being able to lead her dedicated crew in collecting birdies pledges for her favorite charity, the Make-a-Wish Foundation, definitely has made the long hours seem more worthwhile, she said. It’s the payback Beman knew would drive the TOUR’s true driving force.

So, it’s not all about the golf.

Of course, it isn’t.

“I golf, but it’s not about the golf,” said Cris Nelson, who, like Lowe, was one of several tournament heroes whose volunteer experience lasted 40 or more years. “It’s the people. The volunteers out here are so unique. They are all such good people and they put so much time and so much of themselves into this tournament. So much love. It’s just incredible.”

Carol “CJ” Johnson volunteered for 29 years, returning with her husband, Tom, from their retirement home in Florida for the last several of those years. Prior to her death in 2017, CJ shared her pride in the event’s longevity and in the infinite positivity of Quad Citians.

“It shows the determination of the Quad Cities people,” she said as the tournament approached its golden anniversary. “When we want to keep something special here, we do.”

Family stories echo across the 50 years of the John Deere Classic.

Scott Schick and Amy Westfall honor their late fathers by filling the essential roles those two fine men defined. Gust Grevas is as proud of being a longstanding Grunt as his father, the late Dr. Ted Grevas, was of supporting the tournament by playing in every pro-am from 1971 through 2011.

Three-time QC champion D.A. Weibring’s affinity for the event goes beyond his legacy as Deere Run’s architect and his success at Oakwood. Like Payne Stewart’s maiden victory here, Weibring’s first win in 1979 was special and remains memorable because his late father, Donald Albert Sr., was at Oakwood to see it.

“My dad was a small-town guy. He felt comfortable here,” Weibring said. “Every year, I took him to Pebble Beach. I took him to Augusta. I took him as many places as I could. And the conversation would always come back around to Quad City. He and my uncle Jay, who I was very close to, would say, ‘I think you can knock off Quad City again. I think you can do that again.’’’

For several years, the senior D.A.’s death in 1984 made it easier for the son to play in the major championship across the pond than to come back to his dad’s favorite event. Weibring did finally return “to Quad City” and won twice in the 90s, of course. And it was his son Matt who challenged him to win in 1991. Matt would play in six John Deere Classics himself, including in 2002 and 2003, when father and son together tackled the golf course D.A. drew up.

D.A. Weibring wonders if today’s generation of TOUR pros truly understand what makes the John Deere Classic unique.

“I don’t know that they know the history, but I think it’s important that they understand it,” the veteran of 23 QC starts said. “This event has its niche. It has its crowd. It has its history. It has its charity efforts. It has its pork chop sandwiches. It’s got traditions. And it’s going to be around a long time."

Steve Stricker knows the history of the event, of course. He made some of it.

“I feel like I’m at home when I come down here,” he said. “It’s the same type of people that I grew up with in my small town. It just feels like home and that’s what makes it special.”

Zach Johnson, of course, feels much the same.

“I love everything about it,” he said. “I love coming back to familiar territory. I love how they do it. Their motivation is reaching out and helping others. This is an easy place for me to be.”

One former champion’s appreciation for the Classic has lasted 50 years.

“I care about the event,” Deane Beman said. “I always watch for it. I don’t think I’ve ever missed it once on television.

“A place where you won will always have a larger place in your heart. The success they have had, credit goes to great management, to the businesses in the community. Certainly, in later years to John Deere. But before John Deere got involved, local community leaders and the volunteers, they made it work. They kept it going. I think that’s a real tribute to the community.”

The tournament’s history is especially alive in the memories of the men and women who have served as volunteer chairs.

John Wetzel was the caddie who overheard the germ of an idea of professional golf in the Quad Cities as he followed Barnard, Fry, and friends at Arsenal Golf Club in the late 1950s. He later became the chair whose handshake guarantee on a $350 debt kept the tournament out of small claims court and, ultimately, bankruptcy in 1984.

“Every year at the end of the tournament, I just kind of smile and say, “Gee whiz, I was really lucky to have played a part in it being here today,”’ he said. “To provide this benefit to the community, all the good that it’s doing, that’s the kick.”

Having tackled a near-impossible task along with Cliff Montgomery and the Jaycees in 1975, Dick Farrell feels that same sense of contentment.

“So many people did so much with the hope, only the hope, that this could be saved,” he remembered. “Because you never knew from day to day what was going to work. They could have pulled the plug at any time.”

The Jaycees did have Ed McMahon and friends. And, they had Bob McGriff, his airplane and his knowledge of the TOUR in their corner, too.

“He was a tiger,” Farrell said. “He was very abrupt. Kind as can be and gentle, but kind of a rough cob, you know? One thing he said when we were so worried about the golf course, he said, ‘Don’t worry about it. These guys will play on a driveway if the money is there.’”

Gene Smith was a serious golfer before he came to the Quad Cities from Peoria. He couldn’t help but be drawn into the tournament universe working for early co-chair Art Swift at WQAD.

The Moline-based TV station is believed to be the only sponsor involved with the tournament over all of the 50 years, and with Swift as PR chair, early coverage was assured. “Art was the kind of guy who told you what was going to happen,” Cornelis said.

Although heavily invested in both the tournament and the TV station, Swift was good and gone the minute he cashed out on both in 1977. “He went to Florida and raced speed boats on the ocean in his 60s; he won rookie of the year,” said Smith, who saw Swift only once after he left the station.

Swift and Cornelis ushered in the half-hour WQAD highlight shows that gave those early years at Oakwood a boost, especially when Ed McMahon came by to co-host. The most memorable of those shows may have launched a different network announcing career, however.

“McCord and Bill Calfee came on bare-chested, with bullets and bandoleros,” Cornelis said of an infamous, wholly planned live studio moment in 1976. “I tossed it to a commercial, saying, ‘There seems to be some disturbance in the studio. We’ll be right back.’ When we came back from the commercial, there I am tied up with these two guys behind me with a list of demands. The funny thing is, it looked so real people were calling the station. Squad cars came up to the station.”

The nightly highlight shows continue to be part of the Moline station’s ongoing sun-up-to-beyond-sundown coverage of the tournament in its role as the Official TV Station of the John Deere Classic. But the tournament always has gotten copious coverage from all local media outlets — and better support than folks too close to the stories sometimes realize — dating back to the first days at Crow Valley.

Tom Johnston began covering the tournament as a part-time sportswriter in the early 1980s and now is part of the combined coverage of the Dispatch-Argus and the Quad-City Times. The Illinois newspaper starts counting down to the tournament from 100 days out, and, when the week arrives, Johnston and his friends in the bustling, noisy, fun and first-class media center will put in between 60- and 80-hour weeks to share as much breaking golf news and as many people-centric stories as possible.

Johnston said the tournament’s impact on the community, particularly with the success of Birdies for Charity, dictates that level of attention.

“It shows you how far this tournament has come, from being on life support three times in the 1980s to what it is now,” he said of the event’s $120 million charity total and $53 million in annual economic impact. “This tournament has found its spot on the PGA TOUR and they make it work. There’s no other event in the Quad Cities that draws this kind of national media coverage.”

Chicago golf writer Len Ziehm marvels that the John Deere Classic is still here, even while the PGA TOUR no longer stops in Chicago on an annual basis.

“I don’t want to be hokey here but it’s one of the feel-good stories in all of sports,” he said. “This mid-major market is all in for this thing. It really almost doesn’t matter what the field is. People are behind it. They’re looking for positives. 50 years? My hat’s really off to them. This is Illinois’ tournament. This is a fixture. This is golf in the Midwest.”

Including former directors Tony Piazzi and Kym Hougham, the Classic has helped folks from here move on to bigger assignments elsewhere in the game. Bob Combs’ skilled coordination of the Deere & Company news conference to announce the landmark deal in 1997, for instance, led to an invite from Finchem to become the TOUR’s senior vice president for communications for a dozen years.

Tony Navarro, of course, was among several local men who got a taste of caddying at the Classic, then joined the traveling circus. Even while he was trotting the globe with Greg Norman, however, Navarro continued to call Moline his home and does still. From a home-towner’s perspective, he simply couldn’t be prouder.

“We’ve got a lot of great people here. We’ve had really, really great tournament directors. Clair and Kym get a lot of credit for this success,” he said. “People think tournaments just run. We know better. We know the volunteer base, the people that really make things happen here. Sponsors? Yes. That’s essential, but it’s the tournament director, the committees, the staff that put a lot of effort into making everything run smooth.”

Navarro is willing to promote the event when he’s out on TOUR, but it’s not a hard sell.

“I hear it, the closer we get to the tournament, the excitement of the guys,” he said. “They say, ‘I really like the Quad Cities. I like that tournament. We always enjoy the Big Dig, the casinos, the restaurants, the people.’ They really brag on it. They like everything about this, other than the occasional heat. A lot of them say this is one of their favorite TPC golf courses. I’m proud of that, yes. But I’m also proud when people come up and mention that I’m part of this area and how much they like the people here. That brings a real sense of pride.”

One former TOUR insider just cannot say enough good things about the event, and how big a celebration its 50^th anniversary merits. And he should know. It was Duke Butler’s brainstorm of an idea that rocketed the JDC into the 21^st Century.

“I consider the John Deere Classic the most overachieving event in the history of the PGA TOUR, and I think it’s because of that great ‘We can do it’ Midwestern mentality,” said Butler, who in 2011 was invited to play in the pro-am alongside Sam Allen and later was presented a replica tournament trophy. “I’m a big fan of the John Deere Classic.”

You know who else is a fan of the Classic? The guy who made the most famous quadruple bogey in tournament history.

“I know the John Deere Classic is a first-class event and gets great corporate and community support,” said Tiger Woods. “It is well run, has a long track record of success and has given a lot of money to charity. I’m grateful for the support the tournament and fans gave me when I played there and I want to congratulate the John Deere Classic on its 50^th anniversary. That’s a pretty amazing accomplishment considering how often things change.”

Change is, indeed, constant. Change is inevitable. And, like everything over the sweep of the past half century, the John Deere Classic has reinvented itself a half-dozen times over. But as our Classic turns 50, the change that counts most are those pledged pennies that roll in with every birdie the pros bag at Deere Run.

Amazing, isn’t it, to think Birdies for Charity has soared to such heights that even Tiger Woods has taken note?

At $120 million and counting, every penny is a tribute to the vision of Steve “Big Bird” Jacobs.

Likewise, $53 million in economic impact is a tribute to the vision of founders Fry, Barnard, Jamieson, Swift and McGriff and their many, many, many friends and partners.

Every year this communal celebration takes the tee, meanwhile, honors the Jaycees and Ed McMahon. It honors all of the chairs, the hard-working directors and staff, and our many, many great friends on and at the PGA Tour. The tournament’s lasting impact also is a lasting dividend from the support of Miller Brewing Co., Hardee’s Food Systems, Inc., and, of course, Deere & Company; and for the countless regional and local businesses who support and leverage the event and drive its economic impact as much as they ride it.

Lastly, especially and most importantly, this golden celebration, is homage to the long-serving and well-remembered volunteers, the Glenn Blairs, Don Schicks, Chuck Austins, CJ Johnsons, Cliff Montgomerys and the thousands upon thousands of neighbors, family, and friends who made (and still make) the John Deere Classic an important part of their lives, and, thus, have ensured it remains an important part of ours.

No. It has never been just about golf.

It has always been about the magic.

(This content, first published in 2021, is shared with the permission of the Quad City Golf Classic Charitable Foundation. Please consider a donation to Birdies for Charity.)