Associated Press
Wednesday, July 26

SILVIS, Ill. -- Those familiar with previous incarnations of the John Deere Classic -- staged under four other names but always on the same course -- will encounter an entirely revamped event at its new home this week.

	Lewis

It is being held at the Tournament Players Club at Deere Run, a par-71, 7,080-yard course that opened in June. PGA commissioner Tim Finchem said Wednesday the course, built specifically to hold the tournament, is a sign the once-struggling event is maturing.

"I think the fundamentals are in place," he said. "It all starts with a great golf course, and this course is very good and will get better."

This year's purse is $2.6 million, up from $2 million.

The tournament is moving to Deere Run from its former home at the par-70, 6,762-yard Oakwood Country Club in Coal Valley. Deere Run designer D.A. Weibring, who won the event three times at the old site, said tournament veterans will face a tougher layout.

"A wayward shot will be more penalized, without question," he said.

Oakwood is centered on a relatively flat-topped bluff with few trees and lots of rough to protect fairways. Deere Run winds up and down a heavily wooded ridge overlooking the Rock River, with thick prairie grasses edging the hardwoods that line fairways.

Weibring said players can expect a moderate rough and greens that might run a touch slow because of heat and lack of rain. But the real variable could be the stiff winds that often swirl up to the top of the ridgeline from the river below.

"I think the course is going to have a nice personality," Weibring said. "When it's damp or the wind blows, it can play different every day."

Fans apparently are excited about the new site, too. Weekend tickets sold out more than a month ago, and organizers expect 35,000 to 40,000 visitors each day. Tournament director Kym Hougham said weekend ticket sales were cut off for fear of overcrowding on a course that's never hosted a gallery.

Although gallery space is limited on a few holes because of trees that crowd the fairway, the up-and-down nature of the course should lend itself to spectators. From behind three greens -- No. 4, No. 6 and No. 17 -- fans can see action on multiple fairways.

The field includes several past tournament winners, including defending champion J.L. Lewis. The tournament also has drawn some well-known players on the tour, like John Daly, Fred Funk, Peter Jacobsen and Fuzzy Zoeller.

Some tour veterans who played the course in advance predicted it would help attract quality fields.

"I rate the course a 9 (out of 10) and that's worth telling people about," Jacobsen told The (Moline) Dispatch and Rock Island Argus after playing Deere Run earlier this month.

In years past, the tournament has been called the Miller Classic, Quad Cities Open, Hardee's Classic and Quad Cities Classic. This is the second year it has been sponsored by Moline-based John Deere & Co.

Finchem said Deere appears to be committed to the event, a commitment symbolized by Deere Run.

"I can't recall us having a new facility that is so well received," he said.