The guys who run the John Deere Classic, staged the week before the British Open, know they have a tough lot in life.
Few top-tier players have elected to play over the years because they mostly head overseas early in order to make the time-change adjustments, find the golf clubs that the airlines invariably lose (happened to a half-dozen guys last year or thereabouts), or to get the lay of the linksland, so to speak. Not to mention get used to life with only a handful of TV stations.
Anyway, in an attempt to build the field strength, tournament officials have taken the Deere by the horns and chartered a jet plane for a Sunday-night redeye flight to Manchester, promising to ferry for free the players and their families to the British in time to practice on Monday morning. Tournaments have been in an all-out arms race to out-hustle one another with gifts, spa treatments, free food and the like, but this is a novel idea that just might boost one of the weaker fields of the regular season.
From the sounds of it, the jet seems downright posh. Clair Peterson, the Deere tournament director, said they have lined up a 100-seat 767 that will be parked at the Quad Cities Airport, warmed up and ready. All the seats are first class, he said, and it should arrive by 8 a.m. in England.
"It's a big deal," Peterson said. "Obviously our date and our location have made it difficult for players to get to the British Open. We had eight players last year that played here and made the trip over. Our expectation is that we'll at least double that this year.
"The key points to the offer is that a player has automatically three seats in his name that he can use as he sees fit. If his wife is going over, and obviously the caddies will be an important part of the team going over, agents may be going over. But there are three seats guaranteed.
"At the end of June, when we have an idea how many players will be taking advantage of the offer, June 30th there's a qualifier in Michigan to identify, I think, about 12 players who, if they haven't already become exempt, will become exempt to the British. So that will be a new group that will certainly want to come our way, we feel."
The jet has frequently been used by Mark Cuban's NBA team, the Dallas Mavericks, and is going to run more than $300,000, a Deere tournament official said. Rather than choosing to dump the money into the purse, where it wouldn't have attracted much attention from the players, they figured the jet service would make a splash.
"I think it's just an awesome service to provide to the players," said Jonathan Byrd, the defending Deere champion. "I think a lot of guys like playing the week before a major, but guys like getting to the British early because they could lose their luggage or something bad could happen. It's a difficult trip.
"So I think you get the best of both worlds with this new flight. You get to play the week before. So your game stays sharp. But you also get to get over quickly."
The $300,000 charter tab was quoted to the event before fuel costs spiked, so it could escalate to an even higher figure with gas approaching $130 per barrel. The same plane will ferry players from the British back across the pond to the Canadian Open, to be staged the the following week. Players will receive two meals on the flight to Manchester and a shuttle service to the Royal Birkdale course upon arrival.
Hey, that type of largesse might even be enough to make guys want to play regardless of the fact that drug testing is set to be unveiled that very week, the PGA Tour has indicated.