John Deere Classic Notes

This was the first time I was able to attend the John Deere Classic, and the first time I had been to the TPC at Deere Run. I enjoy golf, but its too expensive of a hobby for me right now. Plus I'm terrible at it. I wasn't sure how much I would enjoy watching PGA pros live, because I don't generally watch golf on TV. It turned out to be a very enjoyable experience.

In contrast to the baseball game last night, everything at the JDC seemed to run like clockwork. I parked in one of the unofficial lots, and they even had their own shuttle vans to the front gate. The parking lot at Bettendorf High School was served by possibly a dozen Champaign-Urbana articulated buses running quite often. If I had know the shuttles from BHC would be so frequent, I might have parked there.

I watched Michelle Wie birdie the 8th hole, and then saw her sit down on her bag while media types actually ALLOWED to bring their cameras in snapped pictures of her looking sick. I was about 50 feet away when she consulted with her parents and then withdrew from the tournament, and then I watched the media types chase the golf cart that carried her to the medical tent. It was really a shame that she had to withdraw, as she was doing pretty well today. It probably gave other golfers much bigger galleries than they would have had otherwise though. Hopefully her unfortunate health issues this time don't discourage Michelle from returning here like Tiger's underage gambling incident did with him.

It was so great to see people from all over the country and even the world coming to the Quad Cities to see something like this, and I wished I had my camera about every 5 minutes just to take pictures of the crowds of people enjoying the event. I'll definitely be returning next year, and maybe I'll apply for a media pass or something... I hope everyone interested in golf gets a chance to make it over to the tournament, and I hope that everybody stays safe in tomorrow's dangerous heat.