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THE GOG BLOG, by Rory Spears. Editor and Director of Content, Follow Rory on Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter @GogBlogGuy. At the John Deere Classic.

This past week I was at the John Deere Classic, so were BIG 3 partners Tim Cronin and Len Ziehm. Val Russel from the Chicagoland came down for the final round. But nobody else from the Chicago Golf media made the trek out to Silvis Illinois, better known as the Quad Cities.

But my point here is not who was at the John Deere Classic, but who wasn’t. Yes there was the Olympic Golf going on, and the U.S. Sr. Open as well was playing in Ohio. Illinois golf coach Mike Small was in the field there, and made the cut.                         But what bothers me is the field that didn’t come out to the JDC this week. I asked Zach Johnson the two-time major winner and past JDC Champion, Johnson also serves on the JDC Championship board had other players talked to him about playing the John Deere Classic this year.

Johnson admitted he had not been sought out like he thought he would be and was disappointed by that, and planned on doing some recruiting on his own. Regardless of what happened, or in this case didn’t happen as in players not coming, the JDC field was not it should have been.

I feel bad for Johnson and people like Tournament Director Clair Peterson who put on a great show, and offer the players a pretty good week while in the Quad Cities. It became obvious when the date change got announced last year, Peterson thought he could turn it into a positive. Perhaps land some top players who always “talk” about playing the Deere but because of it’s week in front of British Open dates they never do. When some top players pulled out of the Olympics, there was hope they might play the Deere. But they didn’t.

Just maybe several top players needing Ryder Cup and or Fed Ex Cup points would jump in. That for the most part did not happen either. I know it’s a crazy schedule year, and the Olympics make things even tighter.

Tiger Woods of course is out action, but Phil Mickelson is not. Jim Furyk must be still celebrating his 58 from Hartford last week. There are a few other top players on the Fed Ex Cup points list, that could use some Ryder Cup points and vice-versa.

What’s even more amazing is that Illinois based players like Luke Donald continue not to play at John Deere, and this year Kevin Streelman skipped out as well. Both players went to Connecticut last week, and skipped a home game in their back yard. Most PGA Tour players don’t do that.

Deere was in the middle of a three week gap between the PGA and start of the playoffs, you would have thought players that need a break would have grabbed a week off after the PGA and a week off in front of the playoffs to rest up. But that didn’t happen.

Peterson and Deere do a great job of giving the players of the future a chance to play a PGA Tour event while still an amateur, or give out exemptions to new professionals. Two players that have really benefited from that in recent years have been Jason Day and Jordan Spieth, neither showed up this year after pulling out of the Olympics and Spieth is the JDC defending champion.

I spoke with Peterson yesterday afternoon and asked him to sum up the week, date change, rainy and hot weather, how did it work out.

Peterson said they (the tournament) were thrilled on how all weekend after the rain finally went away the community showed up in big numbers to support the event, and how the sponsors continued their support even with the date change.

When asked if the JDC could avoid a conflict in 2020 when the Olympics return, Peterson admitted he hasn’t thought out ahead that far yet. But maybe somewhere in 2019 when the tour starts to think about the 2020 schedule, it would be nice if John Deere and the tour could make sure the John Deere Classic doesn’t get the short straw in an Olympic head-to-head again. It’s time the PGA Tour hear’s the Deere.

ILLINOIS GOLF, it was a great week for Illini golf. Steve Stricker, Charlie Danielson and Scott Langley played well at the Deere, coach Mike Small made the cut at the U.S. Sr. Open at Scioto in Ohio, and Illinois alum Thomas Pieters almost earned a medal at the Olympic games in Rio.

Seeing this type of play on different tours and in different countries show that Mike Small is really building a solid golf program at the University of Illinois.

NEMACOLIN WOODLANDS RESORT in Pennsylvania is my destination of the week. The resort some 50 miles from downtown Pittsburgh is really growing. They have one 18 hole course and another under construction. Former Illinois PGA professional Mike Jones is now Director of Activities there and I’ll be on site to check out this rapidly growing golf destination.

THE GOG BOG RETURNS this week, stay clicked in. RS