The Scottish Open has guys like Rickie Fowler, Rory McIlroy and Henrik Stenson.
The John Deere Classic counters that with Steve Stricker, Zach Johnson and Daniel Berger.
Yes, the poor old John Deere has its work cut out — even Jordan Spieth has abandoned the good folks in the Quad Cities.
This is the tournament that gave Spieth his start, this is where he got his first win but sorry, these days Jordan Spieth is highly-ranked and desperately needs another major championship and he’s got to get better prepared. The TPC Deere Run isn’t the place.
John Deere is one of the major sponsors for the PGA Tour yet it falls in that awful spot on the schedule — the week before the Open Championship.
Normally it might not be asking too much to play the week before a major but when that major is overseas and in a time zone five hours ahead of the eastern seaboard, there’s some acclimation necessary.
The TPC Deere Run isn’t the place to get acclimated.
So it will be up to Steve Stricker or perhaps Zach Johnson to save the day.
Stricker is one of the most popular guys to play in the event. Same for Zach Johnson, who has won both The Masters and the Open Championship.
But as far as other name players go, picking are slim at the John Deere.
You’ve got Jamie Lovemark, who had a chance to win at the Greenbrier Classic last week but couldn’t make any putts on Sunday. You got feisty little Brian Harman who gave Brooks Koepka a run for his money at the U.S. Open and you’ve got Kevin Kisner, good player with that weird position at the top of his swing.
Take your pick, those are the name guys this week.
