Golfweek has learned that the PGA Tour’s John Deere Classic will not be held this year.
The tournament was scheduled for July 9-12 at TPC Deere Run in Silvis, Illinois, and would have been the fifth event played in the Tour’s revamped schedule. The first four events, beginning May 21 at the Charles Schwab Challenge in Fort Worth, Texas, will not be allowing fans.
Sources tell Golfweek that John Deere Co., didn’t want to have fans at the popular Quad Cities event and risk a possible outbreak of coronavirus at a large gathering.
“They felt if we don’t have fans it’s just a TV show and that’s not what the tournament is about,” said a PGA Tour insider who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he wasn’t at liberty to speak on the subject. “They’d rather take the money they’d be allocating to the tournament and give it to the community.”
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But the Tour is working on contingency plans to fill the gap in the schedule. While sources say nothing has been definitively decide, the Barbasol Championship, which is scheduled as an opposite field event one week after the John Deere at Keene Trace Golf Club in Nicholasville, Kentucky, could jump into the opening. The Barbasol has a $3.5 million purse compared to the $6.2 million that was supposed to be offered at the John Deere Classic.
Efforts to reach JDC tournament director Clair Peterson were not returned at the time of publication.
This year’s tournament would have marked the 50th anniversary of the John Deere Classic.
It’s the 11th Tour event that has been canceled due to the global coronavirus pandemic.