Tournament that is Deere to his heart
Defending champion Johnson says event ‘kind of my fifth major’
The third leg of northern Illinois’ informal 2012-13 Grand Slam won’t draw the interest it deserves, and that’s understandable.
The Ryder Cup, which was held last fall at Medinah, is as big as it gets in the world of golf. The BMW Championship, which will be held Sept. 12-15 at Conway Farms in Lake Forest, will showcase the best the PGA Tour has to offer as a FedEx Cup playoff stop. And the Champions Tour’s return to the Chicago area got off to a great start last month at North Shore Country Club in Glenview, with Craig Stadler outlasting Fred Couples.
But the John Deere Classic, which begins Thursday at TPC Deere Run in Silvis, has been putting on a good show for years. And this year should be no different for Illinois’ only regular PGA Tour stop, an underrated event that’s an easy 21⁄2-hour trip from downtown Chicago.
‘‘I love coming back here,’’ said defending champion Zach Johnson, a native of Iowa City who credits his early opportunities in the John Deere Classic with helping him win the Masters in 2007. ‘‘It’s kind of my fifth major.’’
With the late addition of Ryder Cup standout and PGA Champion- ship winner Keegan Bradley, the field will feature at least 10 major winners. That group also includes David Duval, Lucas Glover, Todd Hamilton, Trevor Immelman, Davis Love III, Louis Oosthuizen, Mike Weir and Y.E. Yang. The champion will earn $828,000 of the $4.6 million purse.
To attract such a top-notch group, the tournament again will have a 100-seat Boeing 767 warming up on the Quad Cities tarmac to transport players to the British Open. About 20 to 25 players, plus members of their traveling parties, are expected to be aboard.
‘‘The jet enables us to compete for players we might not have been able to attract before we had it,’’ tournament director Clair Peterson said.
Look for local heroes Johnson and three-time winner Steve Stricker (2009-11) to be in the hunt again on the rolling, woodsy hills of Deere Run, where the winner has gone at least 20 under par the last four years.
The tournament also will be an opportunity to see a large Illini contingent that includes Stricker, D.A. Points, Joe Affrunti, Scott Langley and Luke Guthrie. Chicagoarea golfers scheduled to compete include Mark Wilson (Elmhurst), Kevin Streelman (Winfield) and Eric Meierdierks (Wilmette).
While Stricker sank a dramatic 72nd-hole putt from the fringe to win the tournament in 2011, John- son delivered a clutch 193-yard 6-iron on the 72nd hole last year to force a playoff, where he edged Troy Matteson.
‘‘I think the great finishes come because guys are close to the lead,’’ Johnson said. ‘‘The back nine is exciting. When you have the best players in the world playing those last five holes, it just adds more drama, whether it’s Stricker’s putt or my 6-iron or whatever. This golf course just does that. It’s hard to break away from the field on this golf course because the field is so good and [because] everybody is just kind of right there.’’