Writing from Silvis, Illinois
Thursday, July 2, 2026
For 55 years, the John Deere Classic – by that name for the last 27 playings – has been the shining light of Quad Cities sports.
The Deere, played at TPC Deere Run, is the Green Bay Packers of the PGA Tour, the big deal in a metropolitan area of about 375,000 people.
Now imagine if the Packers, the last “town” team from a group that once included the Moline Tractors and Rock Island Independents, were shoved out of the NFL to a lesser circuit.
That’s what the Deere apparently faces after the 2027 tournament, thanks to the PGA Tour’s formally making the current de facto system of Signature weekends and everything else into the Champions and Challengers divisions.
The prospect of a radically different Deere in 2028 hangs over this year’s soiree like the ghost of Banquo. This year’s tournament includes two-time winner Jordan Spieth, Tony Finau, Rickie Fowler and a bunch of other luminaries, notably Jackson Koivun, whose professional debut will occur this morning at 7:35 a.m., when he joins Spieth and Ben Griffin on the 10th tee.
Koivun, who tied for 11th last year as an amateur, is the latest in a long line of college stars touted as the next big thing. He starred for Auburn, leading the Tigers to this year’s NCAA championship, made the Walker Cup team, was co-low amateur in this year’s U.S. Open, and so on. But now he plays to earn a living, and that’s a bigger difference than a driver and a putter.
“College is so much fun and you have six to eight really, really close friends you’re playing and competing with every day,” Koivun said. “Out here, you’re definitely by yourself. You have your select friends, but you’re playing against each other and playing for a job.
“I definitely felt that a little bit last summer. I think I’ll feel it a little bit more now.”
Koivun and the rest of the field is playing for a first prize of $1.584 million from a total purse of $8.8 million, an enormous sum considering the locale of the tournament. Deere has kept pace with the Tier II crowd even as some Deere & Company executives drool over the prospect of occasionally jumping up with the Signature/Champions swells.
But, unlike most tournaments, the charity side of the Deere is even bigger. Thanks to the Birdies for Charity program, started in 1993 to involve local non-profits, last year the tournament raised almost $17 million for 460 participating charities, running the lifetime total to $206.59 million.
That, more than giving pros a place to fight for the purse, is what drives tournament golf. In turn, the afterglow from Birdies is what drives Deere, whose business is the largest in the Quad Cities, to remain involved with the tournament. (Deere also has a successful golf course equipment division and supplies said equipment to Tour-owned TPC courses, but that’s a small part of their overall business of everything from farm implements to lawn mowers.)
The Deere, from its Quad Cities Open days and with everyone and everything from Ed McMahon to Hardees burgers to Miller High Life attached to the tournament, has always been an identifier of your talent. First-time Tour winners include Spieth, Payne Stewart, Roger Maltbie, D.A. Weibring, Brian Harman and Bryson DeChambeau. That group also includes Mike Morley and David Gossett, proving anyone can have a good week.
The combination of local involvement, identification of new talent and Deere’s stewardship gives the tournament an identity on the Tour. In the coming new world, presuming it ends up in the Challenger camp, it would be the standout in that field, boasting a half-century plus of play, CBS cameras on the scene and deep roots.
By the time 2028 rolls around, perhaps the Tour will tweak the rules to allow players on the Champions circuit the right to come back and play in a limited number of Challenge tournaments. There’s even a scenario that a Challenger winner would get bumped up to the Champions level and be told me can’t defend his title the next year.
“That is probably one of the stranger parts of the whole situation because most of the time guys go back to try to defend their titles,” Spieth said. “It’s definitely something that it’s almost like an unofficial job.
“I don’t know what events are going to do there. I think they’re still working on that. That would probably be the strangest part of the entire deal.”
For now, all are welcome. Spieth goes off No. 10 at 7:35 a.m. with Ben Griffin and Koivun, the New Guy playing with a guy who’s been The Guy and wants to be again.
Around Deere Run
Illinois basketball coach John Underwood was a popular guy to follow in Wednesday’s pro-am. … First tee shots are in the air at 6:40 a.m. … Golf Channel coverage begins at 3 p.m., but PGA Tour Live is on all day via ESPN+. … Five Illinoisans are in the field: Kevin Streelman (Wheaton), Nick Hardy (Nortbbrook), Doug Ghim (Arlington Heights), three-time Korn Ferry Tour winner Nicholas Lindheim (Lake Forest) and recent Marquette graduate Patrick Adler (Winnetka).
– Tim Cronin