Deere Steve
Two months ago Steve Stricker opened an e-mail and came face-to-face with the design for this year's John Deere Classic billboard. He promptly responded to tournament chairman Clair Peterson with a text. "Who is that guy?" Stricker asked. "I never do that!"
The billboard shows the moment that electrified the Quad Cities last summer—Stricker shouting and giving an emotional fist pump. He had just holed a 25-foot putt on the final green for an amazing birdie after an even more amazing shot from a fairway bunker.
It was the shot that won Stricker a third straight John Deere Classic—or simply the Deere, as locals call it. And it was the shot that put the Deere on the golf map. The Deere has long been a beloved PGA Tour stop for players who enjoy the event's small-town hospitality. It is the only connection to anything major league in the Quad Cities, where summers are almost quiet enough to hear the corn grow and folks are understandably proud of their slightly-off-the-beaten-path tournament. (You want to stump contestants on Jeopardy!? Ask them to name the Quad Cities. The question, Alex: What are Rock Island and Moline, Ill., and Bettendorf and Davenport, Iowa?)
The Deere, thanks to Stricker's historic run, gave the area an identity.
"All year long, a week didn't go by that somebody didn't stop me in the mall or the grocery store to talk about the finish," Peterson says. "It was Tiger-like. Remember that Canadian Open and Tiger's six-iron from a bunker over a lake [in 2000]? It's not unreasonable to describe Steve's finish here that way. And Steve was the top-ranked American in the world when he did it.
"There's a pride in having a guy like that carry your banner. Steve has redefined our event the last four years."
Stricker's run at history came up short last week, but just barely, as Iowan Zach Johnson won the Deere in a wild playoff over Troy Matteson (page G4). Stricker made his points, however. One, the Deere is a big deal in a small market, and there's nothing wrong with that. His giant head protruding above the billboard's border, and its accompanying GET PUMPED! and STEVE GOES FOR THE STRICKER SLAM messages weren't simply advertising gimmicks, they were a monument. The billboard's location—along the busy four-lane road that passes John Deere Co. headquarters and leads to TPC Deere Run—was perfect. Stricker's visage stands between two Midwestern icons—a towering marker for Blain's Farm & Fleet store and a sprawling new Menards home center. "Yeah," Peterson says, "you can see Steve while you go in and buy work gloves."
Two, Tiger Woods doesn't have to be in the field for an event to be a success. For one week in July over the past four years, Stricker was better than a reasonable facsimile. "Here," Peterson says, "he is Tiger Woods."
Stricker's effect on the Deere was absolutely Tiger-like. He drew motivation from Tiger himself, after Tiger needled him the previous week at the Greenbrier. "Only one guy here has won four in a row," he told Stricker. Woods meant himself—he's in company with Walter Hagen, Gene Sarazen and Young Tom Morris. Tiger added, "Get it done."
Stricker, three shots back of Matteson after three rounds, wasn't able to pull it off on the closing nine in Sunday's humidity. He had three curiously pulled drives, a couple of missed putts—his fearsome putting stroke is currently on the fritz—and maybe, just maybe that extra four-peat mental baggage weighed him down. "I wasn't worried about four in a row," Stricker said afterward. "I was trying to win the tournament." Still, the man who had been unbeatable at Deere Run beat himself this time. "It was weird," he admitted. "I didn't feel as if something good was going to happen, you know?"
Nevertheless, it was a good four-year run, and Deere fans have adopted Stricker—who lives three hours away in Madison, Wis., and played collegiately at Illinois—as a favorite son. He got the Tiger treatment on a smaller scale. In addition to the billboard, the Quad Cities River Bandits, a Class A affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals, gave out 2,000 Steve Stricker bobblehead dolls at a Saturday-night game before the tournament. The makers got the logos right—Titleist on the hat, and NYSE and Allianz on the shirt—but the face was generic and the doll had dark hair, not Stricker's blond.
"I was having dinner with Jhonny Vegas and asked him when he got a bobblehead, because mine looked more like him than me," Stricker said with a laugh.
The tournament's focus was on Stricker from start to finish. Johnson called the event "the Steve Stricker Invitational," and good pal and fellow Madison resident Jerry Kelly, an obvious interview candidate, barked at an earnest reporter from The Dispatch in Moline, "I'm not answering any more Steve Stricker questions!"
Before he warmed up on Saturday, Stricker banged out on-camera spots for CBS, Golf Channel and PGATour.com. The fans treated him as if he was a superstar too. A crowd of 20 or 30 gathered at the putting green to watch caddie Jimmy Johnson meticulously scrub Stricker's grips for 20 minutes before the Great Man arrived. Once he appeared—like Tiger, out of nowhere—the gallery doubled in number to watch him putt. They spoke in hushed tones. "Ryan and Jimmy, over here," a man commanded two youngsters to his side, then pointed at Stricker. "That's him," he told the boys. "That's Stricker."
Everybody loves Steve, and why not? He's nice and polite and very Midwestern in his lack of ego. Asked if he thought other players would be intimidated by his Deere record, he shrugged and said, "I wouldn't be intimidated by me." When he arrived at the 1st tee last Saturday, the first thing he did was introduce himself to the walking scorer, the sign bearer and two honorary observers, and then he enthusiastically shook hands with nearly everyone else inside the ropes.
It's a two-way love-in. Stricker, an avid bow hunter, loves the tournament's trophy—a buck leaping over a rock outcropping, symbolic of the John Deere logo. "To get a trophy with a deer on there," Stricker says, "that's pretty cool."
So too were his heroic, Tiger-like shots. In the first round Stricker holed an 80-yard wedge shot at the short 14th for an eagle that sparked him to a 65. A solid 67 on Friday morning left him three shots off the lead and at the 1st hole of the third round, he stiffed another wedge shot to within inches. A fan loudly suggested it was a gimme, but Robert Garrigus, paired with Stricker, said, "I don't know if I can give it to him. He's kind of shaky on this course." The gallery laughed. Stricker too, of course.
On Sunday, Stricker ran out of miracles. "I'm a little disappointed," he said, "but I had a great run. It was a good week."
He signed autographs on his way to the media center, smiling and thanking one starstruck youngster who told him, "You played awesome today!" After another interview session, he headed to the locker room for a shower. He had a flight to catch—the Deere-funded overnight charter to England. This is British Open week. Stricker will play for history ... again. The ghost of Young Tom Morris might want to take notice.
SAL'S STAT
Punters' alert! Zach Johnson is a lock not to win the British Open. Since 2004, when the Deere was first scheduled the week before the British, the winner at Quad Cities has never cracked the top 10 in Great Britain. Steve Stricker came closest with a 12th last year at Royal St. George's.
—Sal Johnson
SAL'S STAT
Troy Matteson lost the playoff at the Deere but won the final spot in the field at the British Open, and he was on Sunday night's charter from the Quad Cities to England. Hope he packed his waterproofs. Matteson had planned to play the True South Classic this week, in muggy Mississippi. The forecast for Lytham: cold, wind and rain.
SAL'S STAT
Roger Chapman of England didn't do much on the European tour, but he joins some select company by following his win at the Senior PGA with a victory at the U.S. Senior Open. Only four other players made majors their first two Champions tour wins: Arnold Palmer (1980 Senior PGA, '81 Senior Open), Jack Nicklaus (1990 Tradition, '90 Senior Players), Peter Jacobsen (2004 Senior Open, '05 Senior Players) and Mike Reid (2005 Senior PGA, '09 Tradition).
HOME RUN
Iowan Zach Johnson won the Deere with a bunker shot to remember and most likely locked up a spot in the Ryder Cup
It was perhaps the Shot of the Year by perhaps the Player of the Year. And it was struck by the no-doubt-about-it Board Member of the Year.
After Zach Johnson, who has been on the board of directors of the John Deere Classic for the last three years, won the Deere in a two-hole playoff over Troy Matteson, tournament chairman Clair Peterson could only say, "Most successful board member ever."
No argument there. You won't see many better shots under pressure than the six-iron Johnson struck from the left fairway bunker at the 18th on the second hole of the playoff at TPC Deere Run. It was a stroke of genius that rivals Bubba Watson's shot from the pine straw in this year's Masters. Looking into the glare of the afternoon sun, Johnson couldn't see his ball run to within two inches of the hole, but he could hear the roars of the fans, so he knew the shot was exceptional. CBS reporter David Feherty gave him a colorful description of the result. "I won't repeat what Feherty said," Johnson said, "but he said it was close."
The remarkable shot capped a wild final round. Johnson, a 36-year-old from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, about 90 minutes from the Quad Cities, appeared to have the tournament won when he birdied the 17th hole to take a two-shot lead. Then Matteson, the leader after each of the first three rounds, holed a 60-footer for eagle on the same hole to tie for the lead. On the first hole of the playoff, Matteson pitched out of the right trees and into a water hazard. Johnson's shot from the left fairway bunker bounced on the bank near the green before also finding the water, and each player made a double-bogey 6. Back to the 18th tee. Johnson drove into the same bunker, but his approach was markedly better.
It's time to give Johnson his due. He is a Masters winner (2007), and this year only Tiger Woods has more victories than Johnson's two (Colonial). He also finished second at the Players and the Heritage. This is his third multivictory year since '07 and his eighth win since then. Only Woods (21), Phil Mickelson (11) and Steve Stricker (9) have more. The fact is, Johnson is quietly playing his way into the World Golf Hall of Fame. He has nine career wins, including the major, and the Deere victory most likely sewed up a spot on his third Ryder Cup team.
Johnson won without his regular caddie, Damon Green, on the bag. Green took the week off to play in the U.S. Senior Open, in which he finished 17th. Mike Bender, Johnson's coach, replaced Green at the Deere, and the hierarchy of the player-caddie relationship was established from the start. After the opening round, Johnson was asked to assess Bender's performance. "Mike was awesome," he said. "He made two bogeys, I made five birdies."
On Sunday evening, they were both still smiling.
PHOTO
Photograph by CARLOS M. SAAVEDRA
SO CLOSE Stricker got within a shot of the lead on Sunday, but his bid to join Woods, Hagen, Sarazen and Young Tom Morris fell short.
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CARLOS M. SAAVEDRA
DOUBLE DOWN For the third time in the last six seasons, Johnson has multiple victories, and only Woods, Mickelson and Stricker have won more since the start of 2007.
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GREGORY SHAMUS/GETTY IMAGES (CHAPMAN)