The John Deere Classic wasn’t always the John Deere Classic. Illinois’ only visit from the PGA Tour in 2014 had a modest beginning. For starters, it was called the Quad Cities Open and was only a satellite event on the circuit in 1971.

That first event was played on 6501-yard Crow Valley Country Club in Bettendorf, Iowa. Deane Beman – later to become the PGA Tour commissioner – took home a check for $5,000 for winning the first tournament, and Crow Valley got the attention of some prospective home buyers who purchased property around the course.

Things didn’t change much the next year. Beman won again (but this time his check was for $20,000) and there were more home owners around Crow Valley. Beman played one more year, finishing in a tie for sixth in 1973, and Crow Valley hosted two more times, Sam Adams winning in 1973 and Dave Stockton in 1974.

That’s how it all began. The tourney moved to Oakwood Country Club in Coal Valley, IL., the next year and remained until 1999. During its stay there the tourney had a variety of names – the Ed McMahon-Jaycees Quad City Open from 1975-79, the Quad Cities Open again from 1980-81, the Miller High-Life Quad Cities Open from 1982-84, the Lite Quad Cities Open in 1985, Hardee’s Golf Classic from 1986-94, the Quad City Classic from 1995-98 and – finally – the John Deere Classic.

Going back to Crow Valley and Oakwood is always fun. I’ve played both, most recently Oakwood last month. Both are still very nice private clubs, but TPC Deere Run was a big factor in taking the tournament to a new level.

John Deere, the official Golf Course Equipment Supplier of the PGA Tour, became the title sponsor of the tournament in 1999 and the tourney moved to TPC John Deere Run the following year.

For years the tournament, in one of the smallest markets on the PGA Tour, carried on with its future in limbo. That’s no longer the case. Now it’s one of the biggest success stories on the circuit.

The JDC will be held for 44th straight year from July 7-13 with a $4.7 million purse and no worries about the quality of its field. The tourney at first had September dates, in the days before the FedEx Cup playoffs. Lots of top players were reluctant to play after August’s PGA Championship in those days.

Then the JDC was moved to July, but in a time slot a week before the British Open. Many players opted to use JDC week for rest and more leisurely travel across the pond until JDC director Clair Peterson hired a jet to fly them directly to the British Open site a few hours after the last putt dropped at TPC Deere Run.

Peterson made that innovative move seven years ago, and the field has been solid ever since. This year’s has the most exciting young player in golf, 20-year old Jordan Spieth, as its defending champion and popular past champions Steve Stricker and Zach Johnson return as well.

TPC Deere Run is located in Silvis, IL. Like Oakwood, the course is on the outskirts of the Quad Cities – officially comprised of Moline and Rock Island in Illinois and Davenport and Bettendorf in Iowa.

Those Mississippi River towns roughly two hours west of Chicago have a combined 375,000 residents. Last year’s John Deere Classic helped raise $6.3 million for 467 charities in the Quad Cities area, ranking it first overall on the PGA Tour in per capital contributions. Since 1971 the tournament has helped raise $55.38 million for charity. Golf has indeed been good to the people of the Quad Cities.

“We’re so fortunate to have a golf course like this and an operation like this,’’ said Peterson. “Deere Run is one of the great venues on the Tour.’’

This year there was one significant change in the ranks. Alex Stuedemann is now the head superintendent, replacing Paul Grogan who has moved into retirement but is still involved.

Otherwise, it’s efficient business as usual with Laura “Divot’’ Ekizian heading the 1,400 tournament volunteers for a staff that is headed by Peterson, director of sales and operation Sally Welvaert, assistant tournament director Andrew Lehman, office manager Vickie McWhorter, administrative assistant Sara Stalf, Birdies for Charity leader Kristy Kethcham Jackson and Amy Orendorff, manager of charity development and services.

“This is truly a team of professionals, and they’re passionate about what they do and they’re committed to doing it the right way,’’ said Ekizian. “Within the PGA Tour ranks they’re respected for the results they bring year in and year out.’’

Peterson’s jet will fly to the British Open again, this time to Royal Liverpool, and his longstanding sponsor exemption policy has bolstered the tournament as well.

`We have a proud history of giving elite young players an opportunity to test their games against the highest level of competition,’’ he said. “By doing so, the tournament gives its loyal fans a glimpse of the PGA Tour’s future stars.’’

Provide a helping hand to a young player in need, and he’ll tend to remember that kindness down the road. That was never more evident this year, when Spieth prepared to defend his first PGA Tour title. He had received a sponsor’s exemption in 2012 when Johnson emerged the JDC champion.

Spieth would have received another invitation last year had he needed it, but he got into the 156-man field off his own record and the 19-year old went on to become the youngest winner of a top-level professional tour event in the last 80 years. He outplayed Johnson and Canadian David Hearn in a five-hole playoff after holing a bunker shot on the last hole of regulation play to stay in contention.

“There’s no way I win last year without that opportunity the year before,’’ said Spieth. “There’s no way that I’m able to feel comfortable and make the adjustment on the PGA Tour so quickly without the few starts I was given….This is just a very, very special tournament close to my heart, not because I won. It already was before that. This tournament just does it right. I love coming to the Quad Cities. There’s nowhere that has people this nice.’’

Johnson, a JDC sponsor exemption in 2002 and 2003, is on the tournament board of directors and has sponsorship from the tournament. Others who received invites to play in the Quad Cities include Justin Leonard (1994), Tiger Woods (1996), Matt Kuchar (2001), Jason Day (2006) and Patrick Reed (2013). Their careers have blossomed, and this year Peterson has given exemptions to four college stars – Stanford’s Patrick Rodgers and Cameron Wilson, Oklahoma State’s Jordan Niebrugge and Iowa’s Steven Ihm.

Rodgers is the world’s No. 1-ranked amateur. Wilson, ranked No. 2, won this year’s NCAA individual championship.

I found this interesting. My introduction to golf came at age 11 when my mother took me to Mission Hills, then a 27-hole public facility in Northbrook, IL., along with another mother and her son, who was about my age. We still lived on the northwest side of Chicago then and didn’t move to Palatine (actually then-unincorporated Inverness) until the following year.

Mission Hills was one of the older public courses then, having opened in 1926. I didn’t return to the place until about 1975, when the father-son architecture team of Larry and Roger Packard completely renovated the facility and turned it into what I believe to be Chicago’s first golf course community. It had 18 holes that weaved between high-rise condos, and the thinking then was that the housing was too close to the golf course in many places. Mission Hills became a private facility in the middle of a gated community shortly after its opening.

Fast forward to this week and a hot, humid mid-week day. Coupons arrived via email with an extraordinary offer — $25 for 18 holes with power cart at Mission Hills. This was a perfect time for a walk down memory lane.

Mission Hills had struggled economically as a private club in recent years and, like many others, took on public play after an ownership change last year. At that price it was a bargain. Though the clubhouse was undergoing some work, the course was in good condition. It was short and tight by today’s standards – I learned that only the No. 12 hole remained from the course I played my first round on – but the housing didn’t seem quite so close to the course as it did about 40 years ago.

What intrigued me was the price. What could the greens fee have been for my golf debut in 1955-56? My guess is about $25 — and this year the fee also included a power cart. They didn’t exist back then, of course. Golf was a walking game, and we walked this time. I could be wrong about the greens fee estimate, and welcome any more accurate appraisal, but the entire experience got me to thinking, at least a few things haven’t changed all that much over all these years.

The Champions Tour players didn’t all leave town after the Encompass Championship concluded. Many in Sunday’s field stayed around for Monday’s sectional qualifying round for the U.S. Senior Open at Village Links of Glen Ellyn.

Ninety players will battle for six spots in the Senior Open proper, to be held at Oak Tree in Edmond, Okla., from July 10-13. Among them are Champions Tour members Tommy Armour III, Tom Byrum, Jose Coceres, Rick Fehr, Anders Forsbrand and Brian Henninger. Because of its proximity to the Encompass, the Chicago sectional may have the strongest field of any of 34 qualifiers held across the U.S. to whittle the 2,715 entrants down to the 156 who will compete at Oak Tree.

Hinsdale’s Jeff Sluman didn’t have to qualify. He was already assured a spot in the Senior Open and looking forward to it with a touch of nostalgia. Sluman won his only major title there in the 1988 PGA Championship.

“In 26 years I went back just one day, and that was the following year,’’ said Sluman. “They had a Senior PGA Championship there, but that was before I turned 50. I know there have been changes made in the course, but I’ve been told the routing hasn’t changed.’’

Oak Tree is a Pete Dye design that Sluman is certain will be challenging.

“It had been labeled the world’s most difficult test at the time I won,’’ he said. “I led the tournament in fairways hit and greens in regulation. I’m excited because I know I can play that golf course well, but 26 years later? It is what it is.’’

Here and there

Professional Jeff Hart and amateur Jody Rotondo won the pro-am portion of the Encompass after the last pros finished their Saturday round on Sunday morning. They posted a 119 score for the two days and won by four strokes over pro Roger Chapman and amateur Andrew McCabe.

Bernhard Langer, leader in the Champions Tour’s Charles Schwab Cup standings, finished tied for 20th. It ended a streak of 20 straight tournaments in which Langer finished in the top 10.

Hale Irwin shot his age (69) on Sunday. The winner of a U.S. Open, Western Open and Champions Tour event in Chicago during his career, Irwin finished in a tie for 39th on Sunday.

Defending champion Craig Stadler won with a 13-under-par performance in 2013. He was 3-over-par in his title defense and tied for 68th place.

Sluman was the best of the locals, finishing in a tie for sixth after a 69 on Sunday. Gary Hallberg, who grew up in Barrington but has long resided in Colorado, tied for 39th and Lake Forest resident Chip Beck tied for 59th among the 81 contestants.

The 12th event on the Champions Tour’s 2014 schedule, the $1.8 million Encompass Championship, begins its 54-hole run on Friday at North Shore Country Club in Glenview.

Last of the event’s three pro-ams is on tap for Thursday and the first two rounds of the 54-hole tourney proper will have a tournament within a tournament, with each of the 81 professionals teaming up with an amateur in a two-man competition. Among the amateurs are a few celebrities types – Brian Urlacher, Patrick Mannely, Gary Fencik, Kyle Long and Joe Theismann (football); Chris Collins and Toni Kukoc (basketball); Jeremy Roenick (hockey); and Gary Williams (Golf Channel anchor).

Only the pros will play on Sunday, when the champion will receive $270,000. Here are five of the pros who warrant your attention:

1, BERNHARD LANGER – 56, Germany.

With Martin Kaymer winning last week’s U.S. Open, this might be a big year for German golfers. Langer is the only multiple-winner on the Champions Tour and is leading the money list and Charles Schwab Cup standings as well.

In his PGA Tour days Langer won the Masters twice (1985, 1993). He divided his time then between the U.S. and European tours, but he’s focused on the Champions Tour since his 50th birthday and has been the circuit’s leading money winning in five of the last seven years.

He opened this season with a victory at the Mitsubishi Electric Championship in Hawaii in January and also won the Insperity Invitational in Texas. He’s also had three second-places finishes and finished in the top 10 in all 10 starts, his worst finish being a tie for ninth at the Regions Tradition in Alabama last month.

Langer made his usual workmanlike showing in last year’s Encompass Championship, finishing in a seven-way tie for third place.

2, KENNY PERRY, 53, Franklin, Ky.

Though he plays more on the Champions circuit, Perry is still a factor on the PGA Tour. He was the oldest player in last week’s U.S. Open, finishing in a tie for 28th place at Pinehurst No. 2.

In part because he splits his time between tours Perry is down in fourth place in the Charles Schwab Cup standings, trailing Langer, Jay Haas and Colin Montgomerie.

Though he didn’t win a major on the PGA Tour (he lost the 1996 PGA title to Mark Brooks in a playoff and was runner-up in the 2009 Masters), Perry accumulated 14 PGA Tour victories including the 2008 John Deere Classic.

He has six wins on the Champions Tour including one of this year’s majors, the Regions Tradition. Last year he won back-to-back Champions majors – the Senior Players Championship and U.S. Senior Open, the first time that feat has been accomplished since Haas did it in 2008.

His tie for third in last year’s Encompass was just another good result that helped him win the Charles Schwab Cup and Champions Tour Player-of-the-Year.

3, JEFF SLUMAN, 56, Hinsdale.

Sluman has had a Chicago area residence since the 1990s, when he was a regular on the PGA Tour. He once held the record at Cog Hill’s Dubsdead course with a 63 in the Western Open.

A big fan of the Cubs, Bears and Formula One auto racing, Sluman is co-owner of a golf course in Rochester, N.Y., where he grew up. He’s also a serious wine collector, with over 2,000 bottles accumulated since 1957.

His biggest moment as a golfer came in 1988, when he won the PGA Championship, but he also included two wins in the Greater Milwaukee Open (1998, 2002) among his six PGA Tour victories.

He’s been a regular contender on the Champions Tour and has $595,726 in winning to show for this season. The last tournament has been the season highlight so far. Sluman teamed with Fred Funk to win the Legends of Golf two-man team event in Branson, Mo., two weeks ago.

Sluman played a major role in bringing the Champions Tour back to Chicago last year after an 11-year absence and he was in contention throughout, ending in the seven-way tie for third place.

CRAIG STADLER, 61, Denver, Colo.

No one gave Stadler, affectionately known as The Walrus, a chance last year since he hadn’t contended in a tournament since 2007. Stadler, though, put together rounds of 67, 65 and 71 for a 54-hole total of 13-under-par 203 to win the tournament.

He held off Fred Couples down the stretch to win the $270,000 first place check and that was a big reason he finished in the top 30 on the Champions Tour money list for the first time since 2008.

Hip and back injuries have hampered Stadler this season, forcing him to withdraw from two tournaments, but he showed signs of recovery when he teamed with Kirk Triplett for a third-place finish in the Legends of Golf.

Stadler won the 1982 Masters and played with his son Kevin in this year’s event, making them the first father-son team to play in the same Masters. Kevin qualified for a return in 2015, while Craig has said that will be his last appearance at Augusta National. He also has another son, Chris, who played football at Lake Forest College.

5, CHIP BECK, 57, Lake Forest.

No player in the Encompass field is more of a hometown favorite than the affable Beck, who not only lives in the area but is also a director in the Western Golf Assn. The WGA, based in Golf, administers the Chip Beck Scholarship, which sends recipients to college annually.

Beck may be best remembered as a PGA Tour player for the 59 he shot in the 1991 Las Vegas Invitational, but he did win four times on the premier circuit and was runner-up in the 1993 Masters as well as the 1986 and 1989 U.S. Opens.

As far as contending this week, however, Beck has to be considered a darkhorse at best. He’s played in only three tournaments on the Champions Tour this season, his best finish being a tie for 32nd at the Toshiba Classic in March, and his winnings are only $18,458.

Beck has played a limited schedule on the Champions Tour since 2006 with no wins yet. He had two second-place finishes in his first season on the circuit, though, and last year he tied for 32nd at North Shore.

For American golfers June is the biggest month of the year. It’s U.S. Open time, and this June will be different than all the others. This time you need a primer to know what will be going on, so here goes:

The men’s U.S. Open dates back to 1895 and the U.S. Women’s Open to 1946. Never before have they been played on consecutive weeks on the same course. This year they’ll be played at Pinehurst’s No. 2 course in North Carolina, with the men competing from June 12-15 and the women from June 19-22.

Back-to-back stagings on the same course may never happen again. It’s a grand experiment by the U.S. Golf Assn., and I think it’s a great idea. The women will have to play on a beat-up course, but they have the chance to show just how good they are in comparison to the men – and I think you’ll be surprised when the strokes are added up.

Chances are, this experiment may never be tried again. David Fay, the former executive director of the USGA, was instrumental in the scheduling years ago. He believes that Pinehurst is the only facility that could accommodate such a back-to-back scenario, but he does believe that Pinehurst officials will be happy enough with the results to be willing to try it again. Time will tell.

At any rate, the country’s best golfers like the idea. The tourneys drew a record number of participants – 10,127 for the men and 1,702 for the women. The men, who had to either designate themselves as professional or have a Handicap Index of 1.4, had representatives from all 50 stages, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and 75 foreign countries. The women, pros or amateurs with a Handicap Index of 2.4, had entrants from 46 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and 52 foreign countries. Thanks to the eliminations in May most of them have already been eliminated.

The men had 111 local qualifiers in May, and the survivors will kick off June at one of 10 sectional eliminations around the U.S. Unfortunately – and for the second straight year – Chicago doesn’t have one. The closest are in Ohio. Most of the PGA Tour players who aren’t exempt from qualifying have entered 36-hole eliminations at either Columbus or Springfield. That’s because the sectionals come immediately after the PGA Tour’s Memorial tournament in Dublin, Ohio – a Columbus suburb. More berths at Pinehurst will be offered there.

On the women’s side, there were no local qualifiers. Chicago did host one of the 13 sectionals, at Indian Hill in Winnetka. It had 71 players going after two spots at Pinehurst, and those advancing were Hannah Pietlia of Brighton, Mich., and Elizabeth Thong, of Thornhill, Ontario. Pietlia was medalist with 4-over par 146 for the 36 holes, two better than Tong. Streamwood’s Noriko Nakazaki was the top local player, finishing one strong behind Tony in a tie for third.

Both the men and women will have 156-player fields at Pinehurst, and both tourneys will cut to the low 60 and ties after the first two rounds.

The men’s sectionals in particular are always exciting, given that many name players don’t survive and quite a few competitors who aren’t PGA Tour players do. One of the latter with a seemingly great chance to do that is Vince India. A rookie struggling on the Web.com Tour, India was the talk of the local qualifiers.

The former University of Iowa golfer who grew up in Deerfield shot a 10-under-par 61 to earn medalist honors in a local qualifier at Waterlefe, in Sarasota, FL. India played there because it was close to his new residence in Lakewood Ranch, FL. India moved there after obtaining playing privileges at the Concession Club, the site of the annual Big Ten Match Play Championship.

Concession is also the home course for former PGA champion Paul Azinger and Tony Jacklin, the former U.S. and British Open champion. The name of the course was inspired by Jacklin, in honor of a memorable Ryder Cup moment when course designer Jack Nicklaus conceded him a short putt that led to the competition between the U.S. and Europe ending in a tie in 1969. Last month Concession hosted a new team event, the Concession Cup, which pitted amateur teams from the U.S. and Europe against each other.

“This is my third winter (at Concession), and Paul Azinger’s been quite the mentor to me,’’ said India, the Illinois State Amateur champion in 2010. “It’s helped for me to play at a facility that’s in major championship condition every day.’’

India didn’t survive the 36-hole cut in the rain-hampered South Georgia Classic, the previous week’s stop on the Web.com Tour at Kinderlou Forest in Valdosta, Ga. He spent time with Azinger working on his alignment after heading to Florida and it paid off with a six-shot win in the Open qualifier.

“I’d rather have the 61 in a tournament where they pay some cash out,’’ said India. “I’ve been struggling to post a number like this on the Web.com Tour this year.’’

India wasn’t the only Chicago medalist at the 18-hole local qualifiers. Chicago hosted two locals. Cog Hill teaching pro Garrett Chaussard was low man in the first, at George Dunne National in Tinley Park, with a 71. Northwestern star Jack Perry shared medalist honors in the second, at Knollwood Club in Lake Forest, with a 68. Chicago’s David Lipsky shot 66 at the South Bend Country Club to earn medalist honors there and Elgin’s Carlos Sainz Jr. – like India a struggling Web.com Tour player – was low man at Fox Hollow in Trinity, FL., with a 65.

Four other Chicago players got through the local at George Dunne – pro Andrew Godfrey of Homewood and amateurs Glenn Przybylski of Frankfort, Dan Stringfellow of Roselle and Kenneth Lee of Westmont. Max Scodro, the 2012 Illinois Open champion, and Libertyville’s Michael Schachner were survivors at Knollwood and University of Illinois junior Brian Campbell, the Big Ten player-of-the-year, qualified for sectional play in the Springfield, IL., local at Illini Country Club.

Przybylski had a big May, winning the 23rd and last staging of the Illinois State Amateur Public Links title at Harborside International before surviving his local Open qualifier. Przybylski had also won the Public Links event in 1994 and his repeat 19 years later should serve as a good springboard into U.S. Open sectional play.

In previous years most of the local survivors would opt for a sectional elimination close to home, but Chaussard and Campbell didn’t. A California native who played collegiately at Illinois, Chaussard planned to return to California for sectional play. Though sectional assignments weren’t announced at the time of this printing, the destination for both Chaussard and Campbell, also a California native, appeared to be Lake Merced and Olympic Club in the San Francisco area. Chaussard had particularly good vibes about playing there because he had qualified for the 2008 U.S. Open which was played at a California course — Torrey Pines – after getting through local and sectional qualifiers.

Just getting to Pinehurst would obviously be a great feat, but winning the title after going through 18 holes of local eliminations and 36 of sectional play would be astounding. Most champions are exempt from at least local play based on previous performances. The only players to win the Open after going through local and sectional play were Ken Venturi, in 1964, and Orville Moody, in 1969.