The following was done by new contributor Scott Huntington
The John Deere Classic typically doesn’t get a whole lot of attention. Located in the small town of Silvis, IL and taking place before the much larger Open Championship, both the big name golfers and major TV networks tend to sit this one out. In fact, Tiger Woods has only played in the area once, way back in 1996.
This leaves Deere with a bit of a challenge. How do you promote an event that the majority of the country ignores? This year, they went big.
Giant Golf Clubs
We weren’t kidding about going big. John Deere made an enormous golf club to promote their leg of the PGA Tour. This isn’t the first piece of giant golf equipment that the company had built to promote the tour. For the last 18 years, a giant John Deere branded golf ball has sat at the entrance to the TPC Deere Run on an enormous yellow tee, ushering golfers and spectators into the course.
This year, the lonely ball got a companion – a 2,000-pound club head attached to a John Deere excavator. What makes it even more impressive is that they only had four weeks to construct the giant driver and get it in place.
This giant golf club is the brainchild of Edwards Creative – the same team that built the giant golf ball that has decorated the course for the better part of two decades. This time, it’s attracting national attention.
Edwards Creative and John Deere
Edwards Creative and John Deere have been working together for a long time. It recent years, Edwards Creative has worked with the farm tool company to update their signs and improve their look, in addition to the work that they do every year to promote the John Deere Classic.
They’ve even worked with the TPC Deere Run to put a couple of pieces of equipment into the middle of one of the biggest water hazards on the course on a platform that makes it look like the equipment is floating on water.
The Tournament Itself
The TPC Deere Run has been home to the John Deere Classic since 1997 when the Quad City Classic suddenly needed a new home. John Deere stepped up and offered to lease the land needed for the course and even built the TPC Deer Run. The company also became an official equipment supplier of the PGA Tour.
Now, 21 years later, the company is the third longest running sponsor of the PGA tour in the world and they even claimed the title of Tournament of the Year in 2016, despite being one that misses the TV tour.
In addition to hosting the tournament, the John Deere Classic has raised millions of dollars for local charities ever year that it’s been held. In 2016, when it claimed the Tourney of the Year title, Deere raised more than $10.5 million which was delivered to local charities. Since 1998, they’ve collected more than $78 million in charity donations.
With as much effort as Edwards Creative and John Deere put into the creation of that 2,000-pound golf club, we will probably be seeing it at the entrance to the TCP Deere Run for decades to come. Who knows – maybe we’ll get a whole set of drivers in the future.
