June 2024 - Hackers and Pros Alike Dig Deere Run

John Deere Classic host course is an 'underrated gem' for Chicagoland golfers

This article appeared in the June 2024 edition of Chicago District Golfer.
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An aerial view of the par-3 16th hole at TPC Deere Run located adjacent to the Rock River. (Photograph by JR Howell)

Watching a sizzling Sepp Straka race across the TPC Deere Run back nine last July with the 2023 John Deere Classic title and a sub-60 round in his sights was both thrilling and unfamiliar to a crew of avid Chicago area golfers.

Villa Park’s Pat Pohl, along with Dan Peterson, Rob Gancarz, Mike Matson and Steve Wallace, all from west suburban Lombard, know the feeling of pursuing a tournament title of their own on Deere Run’s picturesque closing stretch. The stakes for the Hacker Open, an annual traveling two-day event pitting as many as 24 of Peterson’s most golf-crazed pals, are hardly as high as those for the $7.4 million PGA Tour event that returns to Deere Run July 3-7. Yet, in three trips to Silvis, members of the Hacker Open have experienced some of the thrills and spills the pros encounter there.

Straka, who played on last year’s European Ryder Cup team, scored his second career PGA Tour win with a final-round 9-under 62 last July. Unfortunately, his bid for a historic sub-60 Sunday drowned with a pulled approach into the green-side pond left of Deere Run’s challenging finishing hole. The resulting three-putt double-bogey was decidedly familiar to Pohl, whose own 18th-hole misadventure cost his crew the Hacker title in 2022. But at least Straka won.

“Pohl cost us a lot of money,” mock groused Wallace, a teammate that day. “A lot of money. And it was all on the 18th hole.”

Pohl protested that telling (but only a little) in the amusing way golfing buddies bicker over a post-round brew. Yet, no one in the gathered group of Hackers cared to argue that tackling a top-ranked track the pros play is anything less than a marvelously memorable experience.

In fact, Pohl said, it is that and much more.

“We tell all our friends it is the best dollar value for golf in Illinois,” he said of Deere Run. “The course you get for your money, it is just phenomenal. When you can say you’re playing a golf course the pros play, that’s something else. But it is also the beauty of it, the whole package. It is just a gorgeous, gorgeous golf course from tee to green.”

Contestants in the annual Hacker Open gather for a group photo in front of the giant deer statue in front of the TPC Deere Run clubhouse.

Short Drive, Big Challenge
One of 13 daily fee facilities in the 29-club TPC Network, Deere Run is a 2-hour-and-change trip from any western suburb, virtually a straight shot across I-88.

“It’s less than two hours to get there from Aurora and not much more to get there from where I live in Elmhurst,” said Dan Roan, the longtime WGN-TV sports anchor who is well familiar with Deere Run, and even more familiar with the man who designed the Silvis course.

Roan was an Illinois State University college roommate and teammate of D.A. Weibring, who went on to win five times on the PGA Tour, three of those in the Quad Cities tourney 90 minutes north of his hometown of Quincy. His QC success was a key reason the emerging golf course architect was named Deere Run’s player design consultant in 1997, when the Tour partnered with Moline-based Deere & Co. to build a John Deere Classic host course on a pristine Silvis horse farm formerly owned by John Deere’s great-great-granddaughter. “I was actually over there during a little bit of the construction and went to the grand opening, and I was blown away by how great it was,” Roan recalled. “I thought they did a terrific job of putting it together. It was a great piece of property, obviously, and D.A. took advantage of just about everything that was on it.”

Roan has played several of Weibring’s new builds and renovated designs, including TPC Las Colinas in Dallas. He believes Deere Run stands up to the best of those and many, many others.

“I think it’s probably a hidden gem for a lot of people here in Chicago,” he said. “Make sure you tell them I said it’s worth the trip because it really is. It’s a lot of fun to play.”

Birdies (and Bogeys) in Bunches
In 2023, Golfweek ranked TPC Deere Run No. 2 among public-access courses in Illinois, behind only Cog Hill G&CC’s Dubsdread in Lemont.

Host of the John Deere Classic since 2000, the 24-year-old PGA Tour-managed Deere Run isn’t the toughest track Straka and his peers encounter each year. Yet, it’s also not the easiest.

In 2023, the field averaged 69.472 strokes over four Deere Run rounds, an average of 1.528 shots under par across the 7,268-yard par-71 track. That ranked 40th among 59 courses the Tour pros tackled in 2023.

“I really enjoy watching the John Deere Classic,” Roan said, “and I’m always amazed at how many birdies those guys can make. It speaks to how great the conditioning of the place is. But, man, they tear it up. And what’s more fun than watching guys make a bunch of birdies? It’s a player’s course. It’s playable obviously for those guys but given whatever sets of tees you want to use, I think it’s totally playable for almost anybody.”

Among the Hacker Open crowd, Deere Run is more challenging for some than others. Their handicapped tournament typically includes some who travel from as far away as South Dakota, Indiana and Michigan. The Hackers have ventured to some of the Midwest’s other top courses in addition to Deere Run. Previous stops include Blackwolf Run, Lawsonia and Geneva National in Wisconsin, Tullymore in Michigan and WeaverRidge in Peoria.

Typically, the group will travel to the destination early Friday morning, play a round in the afternoon, stay the night at a nearby casino or resort then play another round on Saturday morning. Some play a second nine that day and stay a second night for yet another round on Sunday. Nowhere, they say, have they experienced a more accommodating welcome than in the Quad Cities.

“That’s a big part of it. It could be a great course, but if the people weren’t nice, we wouldn’t go back,” Peterson said. “I brag about that, too. They appreciate your business there.”

2023 John Deere Classic champion Sepp Straka

A Chicago Destination
Todd Hajduk, Deere Run’s longtime general manager and director of golf, said 70% of the facility’s rounds are played by visitors from more than 70 miles beyond the Quad Cities. Of those, 35% come from the Chicago area.

“We offer an “Unlimited Package” where you pay a flat rate to play as much as you want for the day, which has been very popular,” Hajduk said. “Chicagoans definitely like to take advantage of this package and stay here for the day.

“They are always surprised by the low rate compared to Chicago area golf courses and our quality vs. what they get back home,” Hajduk added. “Coming here and getting a championship-level golf course for less than what they pay in Chicago is typically what we hear.”

Equally affordable are the hotel rates offered in partnership with local casinos such as Bally’s Quad Cities.

“For value, you can’t beat it,” said Peterson. “I play a lot of good courses. You can’t go wrong with that place.”

Craig DeVrieze has covered the John Deere Classic since 1984 for two Quad Cities newspapers, Golf World magazine, and pgatour.com. He authored "Magic Happened: Celebrating 50 Years of the John Deere Classic,” published in 2021.

Fireworks Likely at Star-Spangled JDC
Like the Western Opens of days gone by, this year’s John Deere Classic (JDC) will be a star-spangled, red-white-and-blue affair, with some international flavor included.

The 2024 event will tee off on Thursday, July 4, with native Austrian Sepp Straka (pictured) defending the 2023 title he collected with a fast-closing final-round 62. Straka’s second PGA Tour title preceded a runner-up finish at the British Open two weeks later and helped secure his berth on the winning European Ryder Cup side in September.

Another thrilling finish likely is in store at TPC Deere Run, where Sunday fireworks are nearly as common as those on the Fourth of July. Straka’s rally from four behind to start the fourth round marked the 24th come-from-behind Sunday victory in 52 JDCs. That includes Jordan Spieth’s sprint from six behind to start the day in 2013 and Bryson DeChambeau’s rally from four back in 2017.

Straka topped a final-round leaderboard that included runner-up Brendan Todd, a three-time Tour winner, and fourth-place finisher Ludvig Aberg, the rookie standout from Sweden who would join Straka on the Ryder Cup winner in Italy.

Three berths in the July 18-21 Open Championship will be awarded to the top JDC finishers not otherwise qualified.

Weekend tickets for this year’s $8 million John Deere Classic will include admission to post-round concerts featuring the Counting Crows on Saturday and rising country star Lainey Wilson after Sunday’s finish.

Advance tickets are available at johndeereclassic.com.