(Craig DeVrieze will share bonus insights from the 2024 John Deere Classic on Substack this week. For more of his Classic coverage, visit pgatour.com.)
Some kind of turnkey operation is the John Deere Classic, ably led by Tournament Director Andrew Lehman and his hard-working staff in collaboration with the TPC Deere Run staff and the PGA TOUR.
And, of course, Deere and Company and an incredible army of 2,500 volunteers.
With evening thunder showers in the Saturday forecast, TOUR officials and tourney leaders made the wise decision early Friday afternoon to push up third-round tee times and send players in threesomes off both the first and 10th tees. Typical weekend rounds feature twosomes off the first tee only and are timed to bring the leaders to the back nine just in time for a 2 p.m. start to network television broadcasts.
Compounding the rescheduling challenge was Saturday’s “Concerts on the Course” appearance by country star Dierks Bentley, which was to follow golf action around 5 p.m., and obviously needed to start and finish before the rains came.
Mission effectively, efficiently, and tunefully accomplished. CBS quick adjusted its schedule and showed the golf live to its national audience. And Bentley and his band began tuning up mere minutes after defending champion Davis Thompson assumed the 54-hole lead with a tidy birdie at the 18th hole.
A solid 30 minutes before the rains came, Bentley completed his hour-plus set, and a healthy-sized crowd made a quick and orderly exit from the course via a ready fleet of school-bus shuttles to outlying parking lots.
It was truly a well-executed model of pre-planning and foresight, owed in no small part to the TOUR’s traveling crew of on-site meteorologists and their remarkable capacity to perfectly anticipate — to very nearly the minute — the inclement weather that’s endemic to a year-round traveling outdoor circus of 48 events.
I have been impressed at how smoothly and quickly JDC patrons have been transitioned from the hillside concert setting overlooking the 18th fairway since the post-round weekend shows were added to the tournament schedule three years ago.
Full confession: From my quasi “office” located under the clubhouse veranda outside the Media Center, I have enjoyed each of these concerts while filing post-round reports for pgatour.com. Fuller confession: My motivation for this setting is less to enjoy the music than to type in the company of a fine cigar. A pillar blocks my view of the stage, and my laptop keyboard commands my attention at the expense of focusing on the tunes. (Although I did pay slightly closer attention when the Counting Crows, a personal favorite, entertained on Saturday last year.)
All in all, though, it’s an enjoyable way to work and does afford a front-row view of the orderly progression to the shuttles. Never seen or heard a ruckus. Just well-entertained golf and music fans respectfully exiting stage right.
As much as this smooth operation is a testament to good planning and execution by the tournament staff and its dedicated force of volunteers, it is also a credit to the patience, cooperation, and downright decency of Quad Citians.
Importantly, so is the ongoing success of the Classic. If you read the chapters of “Magic Happened” shared here over the previous three weeks, you already know how important community spirit, dedication, and the persistence of an indefatigable force of volunteers have been to keeping the tournament in this community for 54 years.
But it can’t be said often enough how much the success of “Birdies for Charity” is owed to the immense generosity of the entire Quad Cities. And so I will say it once again. Later this year, I have absolutely no doubt that Lehman and his staff will announce that the cumulative Birdies total generated for local charities who do so much for so many has exceeded $200 million.
That is amazing.
That is astounding.
That is who we are.
Look for a classic Sunday finish from a leaderboard packed with great players. And the Zac Brown Band to wrap up a great week
Max Homa, Davis Thompson gear into position on higher-scoring Saturday
By George, Jackson Koivun is having good fun in father's old hometown
Nicely said. I'm Craig's brother, so I might be biased.