The Hole Story by Craig DeVrieze

The PGA Tour pretty clearly is thinking outside the box in hopes of keeping current tournament sponsors in the fold.
Circled on that list of targeted sponsors, rest assured, is our very own Deere and Co.
John Deere Classic tournament director Clair Peterson, though, isn’t sure a fresh idea Tour commissioner Tim Finchem reportedly pitched last week at the Wyndham Championship in Greensboro, N.C., would carry much sway with the folks at the Glass Palace in Moline.
According to a Tuesday story in the News-Record out of Greensboro, Finchem told Wyndham leaders the Tour is considering a flexible schedule that would rotate tournaments with dates that are less attractive to the game’s top players.
While a temporary stop in June certainly would appeal to the folks at Deere, Peterson said the unattractive trade off of landing, even for just a year, in last week’s late August Wyndham spot likely would be a non-starter here.
Although in early July the JDC currently fights against the following week’s British Open, Peterson said late August would bring bigger problems.

Immediately ahead of the Wyndham were the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational and then the PGA Championship, a major just like the British.
Behind it come four FedEx Cup playoff events, starting with this week’s The Barclays in New York.
“It would not be an advantage for us to rotate through that date,’’ he said. “The other thing for John Deere is that it is farther away from their selling season. So those ads they are required to buy would be less impactful.’’
The bottom line is that one June week that wouldn’t necessarily be bolstered by an appearance by Phil Mickelson or, gasp!, Tiger Woods could mean three years of fields not as good as the JDC has drawn the last two years.
The common demominator those two years, of course, was a JDC-sponsored charter jet to England.
“We have quite honestly made this date into an advantage,’’ Peterson said, noting that 20 of the 44 American players who competed in last month’s British Open Championship teed it up the previous week at TPC Deere Run. “We have found a way to improve our own situation. It is quantifiable and it has made a big difference.’’
Indeed. Word of mouth concerning last year’s charter enhanced the ‘09 field considerably and feedback on this year’s flight offers additional cause for confidence.
U.S. Open champ Lucas Glover has talked about booking his father-in-law a seat on next year’s JDC flight to historic St. Andrews., Peterson said. Tuesday, this year’s JDC champ Steve Stricker told Peterson he never felt fresher teeing it up in England.
All of those encouraging signs, of course, won’t mean much if Deere and Co., in the coming months opts not to extend its sponsorship beyond next year’s tourney.
And Deere isn’t the only deep-pocket with an expiring contract on Tour. Hence, the out-of-the-box thinking by Team Finchem.
Even though the flex schedule couldn’t start before 2013, Peterson said the creative thinking is a positive sign.
“The good news to me is that, whether or not any of these ideas come to pass, they are trying to find ways to improve the quality of the fields at events that struggle because of their dates,’’ Peterson said.
So far, Peterson said Deere and Co., the Tour and the tournament only have spoken informally about a sponsorship extension to 2014.
At the moment, the Deere folks are a bit busy. On Tuesday, they announced the start of negotiations to renew a contract with the United Auto Workers that is set to expire at the end of next month.
“This is a little farther on the backburner,’’ Peterson said of a JDC renewal. “But at some point we will need to talk seriously and they will need to talk seriously about anything past 2010.’’

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 25th, 2009 at 3:30 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.