Jordan Spieth was just a kid – albeit a very promising golfer – when he played in the John Deere Classic for the first time in 2013.
To say he took advantage of the opportunity is putting it mildly. Not only did he win the title in the only annual PGA Tour event left in Illinois, his win was the stuff of legends and the golf community in the Quad Cities area – which embraces Moline and Rock Island in Illinois and Davenport and Bettendorf in Iowa – never forgot.
After missing the tournament the last nine years, Spieth returns to the JDC this week. The event begins its 72-hole run on Thursday (TOMORROW) at TPC Deere Run in Silvis.
Spieth was 19 when he won his first title in the John Deere Classic. After barely a year of college golf at Texas he had one runner-up finish and six other top-10s in his first PGA Tour season – but Spieth didn’t win until he got to TPC Deere Run.
Then he holed a 44-foot bunker shot for birdie on the last hole of regulation play – his fifth birdie in six holes – to get into a playoff. A tense six holes later he knocked off defending champion and Iowa favorite Zach Johnson and Canadian David Hearn to become only the fourth teen-ager to win on the PGA Tour, and the first since 1931.
The Spieth story didn’t end there. He was no one-day wonder, winning 11 tournaments in his first four years on tour including three major championships. After finishing seventh in his title defense in 2014 Spieth won the JDC in another playoff in 2015 — a season he which he also won both the Masters and U.S. Open.
And then Spieth moved on from the event that got his pro career off to such a great start.
“There’s no shortage of playing opportunities,’’ said Andrew Lehman, who replaced Clair Peterson as JDC tournament director in 2023. “A player will play in 18 to 24 tournament a year and he’ll have 40 to choose from.’’
Spieth chose the JDC only once since his last appearance, but that didn’t work out well. He was on the grounds but withdrew because of an injury without teeing off. The JDC staff never gave up on bringing Spieth back, however.
“We never stopped trying,’’ said Lehman. “A lot of people felt he’d never be back, but we kept working with him and his team. This year we worked with them for two-three months, but I thought it wasn’t going to happen because it was taking so long and we weren’t hearing anything. Then (about two weeks ago) they called and said that he had committed. We’re super excited. He’s the main guy on our sponsor visits that people always asked about.’’
Signature events — big money, small field, no-cut tournaments put on by the PGA Tour as part of its battle with the LIV Tour – were a threat to smaller tournaments. The JDC doesn’t have Signature status, but the tournament has coped with that dilemma.
“It’s been a tumultuous 18 months in the game of professional golf,’’ said Lehman, “but the last two years have worked in our favor.’’
This year the last of eight Signature events was the Travelers, in Connecticut. It was played two weeks before the JDC, and only the British Open (July 18-21) is left among the sport’s four majors. That left the JDC with a good week to get top players.
Spieth wasn’t the only one to fit it into its schedule. Jason Day is back after making just a few appearances in the Quad Cities early in his career. Sepp Straka is the defending champion.
“Our field this year is the deepest we’ve ever been,’’ said Lehman. “It’s hard to put a field together, especially when you throw in a holiday with it (the first round coincides with Thursday’s Fourth of July). But the dates this year benefitted us.’’
CDGA Amateur final
Winnetka’s Tyler Greeenspahn, a 19-year old Southern California student, was two-down with two holes to play in the 36-hole championship match of the 104th Chicago District Amateur but he rallied to beat Roselle’s Dan Stringfellow, a Medinah member, on the third hole of a sudden death playoff at Chicago’s Beverly Country Club.
Jarrett Fultz, of Queen City, Ariz., was the overall champion at the Chicago Adaptive Open on Cog Hill’s No. 3 course. Fultz, 23, was born with cerebral palsy that impacts his putting stroke but he shot 77-71 in the tournament rounds. Ryanne Jackson, of Madeira Beach, FL, was the women’s overall winner and Kirk Holmberg, of Hutchinson, KS., was the senior overall champion.
Andy Svoboda, the new head pro at Butler National in Oak Brook, has been named to the 10-man U.S. team for the 31st PGA Cup matches against Great Britain and Ireland Sept. 10-15 at Sunriver, in Oregon.