Silvis, Ill. – PGA Tour regulations state that sponsor exemptions should be given, in part, by tournaments to players who wouldn’t normally be in the field and can generate extra interest in the event.
This week, the John Deere Classic had four unrestricted spots available. One went to Mike Small, the University of Illinois golf coach who recently qualified for this year’s PGA Championship. Another went to John E. Morgan, a British player who electrified the crowds with his runner-up finish here two years ago. A third was granted to Naval Academy graduate Billy Hurley as a nod to the Rock Island Arsenal, which, next to John Deere, is the area’s second-biggest employer.
Who got the fourth? Well, here’s a hint. She’s 16 years old, and really tall.
“You put on an event to fill the seats, you want to have people who fans are excited about,” said Clair Peterson, the John Deere’s tournament director. “Michelle Wie has met or exceeded every expectation we’ve had. No, she’s gone above and beyond anything we expected.”
Last year the little tournament played the week before the British Open had only six of the world’s top 50 players in the field, but nonetheless drew massive crowds as Wie missed the cut by just two strokes. This year, even though only two of the top 50 (Chris DiMarco and Zach Johnson) are on the premises, Peterson said there will be crowds of at least 35,000 today and Friday, with contingencies in place “for a lot more” over the weekend should the rangy Hawaiian become the first woman since Babe Zaharias in 1945 to make the cut in a PGA Tour event.
“I’ll tell you what it is,” Peterson said Wednesday. “I can remember my grandfather telling me 25 times about the time he watched Bobby Jones play in 1930 en route to winning the Grand Slam. There’s that component to people coming out to watch Michelle.”
Throngs of people were certainly what the tournament had in mind in January, 2004 as they watched a then 14-year-old Wie play in the Sony Open.
“We all thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be exciting if we could get her to play here?”‘ Peterson recalled as Wie played in a pro-am. “We contacted the family and began a relationship, but things didn’t work out schedule-wise. Then in the spring of 2005, we were contacted by the family about an exemption.
“This year, I think it was an easy decision.”
For her part, Wie, who was one shot inside the cut line with four holes to play on the Friday of last year’s tournament, is eager to prove the adage that with age comes wisdom.
“I made a couple of bad decisions coming into the final holes, but I was only 15,” she said Tuesday in a pre-tournament news conference. “I can make mistakes when I’m 15.”
New experience
The John Deere and the local tour stop, the International, will be linked next year when the latter replaces the Western Open on the new tour schedule. Traditionally, the Western, located just outside Chicago, was played the week before the John Deere, about a two-hour drive west. One reason more of the top- ranked players have been reluctant to come here is because the event is played the week before the British Open, a situation the International must deal with in its slot the week before the PGA Championship.
For some, that scenario is far from ideal in terms of preparing for a major championship.
“Obviously, this course, playing as soft as it is, does nothing to get me ready for next week,” DiMarco said, referring to a TPC Deere Run course that has been battered by rain of late. “Next week we do only once a year, and we don’t ever play; I don’t ever play courses like that.”
During the recent U.S. Open, a number of players commented on how happy they were to get a test as stern as Winged Foot. DiMarco wasn’t among them however.
“The British Open in itself is different than anything else we see,” he said. “The U.S. Open is just getting to me, it’s just getting more and more ridiculous every year we play.
“It used to be if you made a birdie on 18 you could win, now, making a par, or even a bogey, wins.”
Down to the wire
DiMarco is one of the players involved in what will undoubtedly be a spirited chase to make the United States’ Ryder Cup team. With a new points system, weighed toward 2006 results versus the old two-year model, the squad that will go to Ireland’s K Club in September may be the youngest in history. At the moment, there are five players – J.J. Henry, Zach Johnson, Brett Wetterich, Vaughn Taylor and Lucas Glover – in the top 10, which means automatic berths on Tom Lehman’s squad.
Lehman also gets two captain’s picks, meaning he’ll have to choose from a group that includes DiMarco, Davis Love III, Fred Couples and Scott Verplank, all of whom have played and starred on past teams.
“Tom talked with all of us at the beginning of the year and said the points are going to be really, really messed up, and they are,” said DiMarco, who is 20th in the Ryder Cup standings. “I’m going to have to play good.”
Staff writer Anthony Cotton can be reached at 303-820-1292 or acotton@denverpost.com.
