Two of the John Deere Classic’s major drawing points revolve around the Open Championship that follows the Quad-Cities PGA Tour stop.
One aspect is the charter flight tournament officials offer to get players across the Atlantic Ocean to the site of the season’s fourth major, scheduled for Royal St. George’s in England.
The other is that a spot in the Open Championship has been available to the highest JDC finisher among the top five and ties. However, that final qualifying spot was not being offered this year because of adjusted qualifying procedures forced by last year’s Open cancellation.
On Monday, that changed.
“We got a note from the R&A with no real explanation,” said Clair Peterson, JDC tournament director of finding out the exciting news. “I guess we can speculate that things have opened up and their field is such where they felt they could bring that back into the qualifying process. I really don’t know and part of me really doesn’t care except for the fact that it’s back.
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“I am so pumped about that.”
This restores the exemption the John Deere Classic has offered at the behest of the R&A since 2004.
Peterson was not sure how that qualifying spot for the Open Championship will affect the field for next week’s $6.2 million JDC field at TPC Deere Run in Silvis.
“That’s a good question,” said Peterson, noting the success of JDC players in recent Open Championships, including Open winners Zach Johnson and Francesco Molinari who played here the week before thier major victories. “I don’t know if that will change people’s decision-making coming here. It has been a factor in the past.”
As of Monday, 14 players qualified for the British Open are in the John Deere Classic field. They are: Byeong An, Rafa Cabrera Bello, Lucas Glover, Brian Harman, Charles Howell III, Sungjae Im, Zach Johnson, Si Woo Kim, Danny Lee, Keith Mitchell, Sebastian Munoz, Kevin Na, Alex Noren, and C.T. Pan.
Munoz was the latest addition to the commitment list on Monday, according to Peterson. He joined Mitchell and Na, who committed last week.
JOHN DEERE CLASSIC FIELD AS OF MONDAY, JUNE 28, 2021
Byeong Hun An, Mark Anderson, Ryan Armour, Aaron Baddeley, Sangmoon Bae, Chris Baker, Ricky Barnes, Ryan Blaum, Jonas Blixt, Dominic Bozzelli, Joseph Bramlett, Ryan Brehm, Scott Brown, Bronson Burgoon, Jonathan Byrd, Rafa Cabrera Bello, Rafael Campos, Sebastian Cappelen, Greg Chalmers, Cameron Champ, Kevin Chappell, K.J. Choi, Austin Cook.
Cam Davis, Jason Dufner, Tyler Duncan, Matt Every, Harrison Frazar, Dylan Frittelli, Brice Garnett, Michael Gellerman, Doug Ghim, Rhein Gibson, Michael Gligic, Lucas Glover, Fabián Gómez, Will Gordon.
Bill Haas, Chesson Hadley, Brandon Hagy, James Hahn, Brian Harman, Scott Harrington, David Hearn, Russell Henley, Jim Herman, Kramer Hickok, Harry Higgs, Bo Hoag, Charley Hoffman, J.B. Holmes, Beau Hossler, Charles Howell III, Mark Hubbard, John Huh, Sungjae Im, Zach Johnson, Sung Kang, Michael Kim, Si Woo Kim, Chris Kirk, Patton Kizzire, Satoshi Kodaira, Anirban Lahiri, Martin Laird, Andrew Landry, Hank Lebioda, Nelson Ledesma, Danny Lee, K.H. Lee, Tom Lewis, Luke List, Adam Long.
Hunter Mahan, Peter Malnati, Ben Martin, Denny McCarthy, Tyler McCumber, William McGirt, Maverick McNealy, Troy Merritt, Keith Mitchell, Ryan Moore, Sebastian Munoz, Grayson Murray, Kevin Na, Matthew NeSmith, Alex Noren, Henrik Norlander, Sean O'Hair, Rob Oppenheim, C.T. Pan, Cameorn Percy, Mito Pereira, Pat Perez, Scott Piercy, Ted Potter, Jr., Seamus Power, #Chad Proehl, Andrew Putnam.
Chez Reavie, Doc Redman, Wes Roach, Patrick Rodgers, Sam Ryder, Rory Sabbatini, Adam Schenk, Chase Seiffert, John Senden, Robby Shelton, Roger Sloan, J.J. Spaun, Kevin Stadler, Scott Stallings, Kyle Stanley, Shawn Stefani, Sepp Straka, Robert Streb, Kevin Streelman, Steve Stricker, Brian Stuard, Zack Sucher, Hudson Swafford.
Ben Taylor, Nick Taylor, Vaughn Taylor, Josh Teater, Michael Thompson, D.J. Trahan, Martin Trainer, Kevin Tway, Peter Uihlein, Bo Van Pelt, Erik van Rooyen, Harold Varner III, Jhonattan Vegas, Kris Ventura, Camilo Villegas, Johnson Wagner, Nick Watney, Richy Werenski, Vincent Whaley, Tim Wilkinson, Aaron Wise.
Spots are being held for the following: Sponsor-KFT Finalists (2), Sponsor-Members (2), Sponsor-Unrestricted (4), open qualifying (4).
Alternates: David Lingmerth, Andres Romero, George McNeill, D.A. Points, Charlie Beljan, Richard S. Johnson, J.J. Henry, Jason Bohn, Tommy Gainey, Arjun Atwal, Parker McLachlin, Ben Crane, Derek Ernst, Robert Garrigus, Carl Pettersson.
