Q-C Amateur 'harkens back' to past with name change
By Craig DeVrieze, The Quad-City Times
Friday, May 23, 2003

Gone is the John Deere Classic exemption that went to the past eight winners.

Back is the name.

The Quad-City Amateur — formerly known as the John Deere Classic Amateur — will tee off tomorrow at Valley Oaks golf Course in Clinton, Iowa, and Glynns Creek golf Course in Long Grove, Iowa.

It will conclude next Saturday at four Quad-City courses.

A field of 275 is entered, with 86 of those declared championship-flight contenders.

In the recent past, that flight’s winner won the right to play alongside the PGA Tour pros at the Tournament Players Club at Deere Run.

This year’s Q-C Am still will have a hand in helping a player into the JDC field, but only as one of nine events where First Tee of the Quad-Cities Amateur Tour members can amass points.

An exemption into the September JDC will be awarded to the First Tee Tour’s overall points leader.

“It is a good situation the way it is,’’ Q-C Am tourney director Ron Thrapp said of the change. “The overall Tour winner is going to be probably the best player and very deserving of the exemption.’’

The venerable tournament reclaims the name it carried for more than 30 years before becoming the QUAD-CITY TIMES Amateur in 1993. The Classic became the tournament’s name sponsor in 1997.

“It kind of harkens back to the old days,’’ Thrapp said of the new old name. “It was great having the John Deere Classic affiliated with the tournament, but it is kind of neat to have the old name back.’’

Although an exemption is not on the line, the tournament’s championship flight still is the dominant division.

Many of that flight’s leading contenders are First Tee Tour members, although missing from the Q-C Am field is Mike Jump, winner of the tour’s first two events.

Thrapp, for one, would like to see more non-championship flight entries. He believes those are the players the tournament has lost since its mid-1990s heyday, when fields numbered in excess of 500 players.

“The focus has been so much on the (First Tee) Tour that the average player hasn’t gotten into it like he did six years ago,’’ Thrapp said.

Missing, too, are women’s entries. Only six ladies will vie for the title, including defending champion D’Anne Gross.

Other flights include the senior and super senior division, plus several men’s open divisions that will be flighted after this weekend’s play.

A total of 52 seniors have entered, along with 14 super seniors.

Next week’s final rounds will be held at Palmer Hills golf Course in Bettendorf, Indian Bluff golf Course in Milan, Ill., and Geneva Country Club in Muscatine, Iowa, with the men’s and women’s championship flights being decided at Emeis golf Course in Davenport.

The men’s title had been decided with a fourth round the past two years at the Tournament Players Club at Deere Run in Silvis, Ill., but it won’t be this year because the exemption no longer is at stake.

A new champion will be crowned because last year’s winner, Kyle Hougham, is not entered.

Craig DeVrieze can be contacted at (563) 333-2610 or cdevrieze@qctimes.com.