Golfweek's Q&A with John Deere Classic tournament director Andrew Lehman
SILVIS, Ill. — The John Deere Classic has been a staple of the PGA Tour for decades, and as the festivities roll on with the final round Sunday, Golfweek sat down with JDC tournament director Andrew Lehman at TPC Deere Run for a conversation about this week’s event and its future.
Q: How would you say this week has gone at the 2025 John Deere Classic?
A: It’s been an awesome week here in the Quad Cities. To have the field we have this year, which is our strongest in the Official World Golf Ranking, it’s driven a ton of excitement in this community, which I think is awesome. The fact that we’ve got a leaderboard that excites people and obviously there’s concerts happening on Saturday and Sunday, we knew it was going to be a busy weekend. Trying to navigate the tricky part of being over the Fourth of July, especially from a corporate hospitality standpoint, we’re doing the best we can in trying to fill this place. The cool thing that we’ve seen by adding concerts on Saturday and Sunday, now that we have ticket data that we can track, folks that were introduced to golf in 2023 and 2024 are now buying tickets on the other days to come and follow golf outside of the concerts. From a crowd standpoint, from a charity standpoint, from an economic impact standpoint, it’s been an unbelievable week.
Q: John Deere just renewed its title sponsorship through 2030. What went into that decision and what does it mean for this event?
A: I think for John Deere, it shows their continued commitment not only to the PGA Tour, but this community, because we understand that if John Deere were to go away, most likely, this event doesn’t exist. The John Deere Classic still remains a staple of what the PGA Tour used to be with small markets. A lot of people ask the question, how do you compete out there when you’re going up against signature events? What I think has happened — and we’ve seen the results of this — these changes that the Tour has made, going from 100 down to 70 for the FedEx Cup Playoffs has worked in our favor. The changes that are coming in 2026, going from 125 card-carrying members to 100, all those things are working in our favor as we talk to players. Ultimately, being late in the schedule — two weeks after the last signature event, two weeks before the Open Championship, and just a handful of weeks before the playoffs — it’s been a really big recruiting tool for us when we talk to players and their agents.
Q: There have been 24 players earn their first PGA Tour win at the John Deere Classic since 1970, the most of any event on Tour. Do you guys take pride in that?
A: Oh yeah. And how many of those guys have gone on to have complete stardom who got their first win here at the John Deere Classic? It’s awesome. The first guy who comes to mind is Jordan Spieth, right? 2013, 19-year-old kid. Comes back here and wins again in 2015 when the entire golf world told him he shouldn’t be at the John Deere Classic. You know, I think in our conversations with players and agents, they recognize that it’s a launching pad. And there’s a decades-long thought process behind the sponsor exemptions to identify the next wave of talent. Luke Clanton would be a great example. He finished tied for second here last year [as an amateur]. Michael Thorbjornsen was a sponsor exemption and tied for second with Luke Clanton last year. So, we’re trying to do our part to get young guys their start here. We understand that this golf community loves our sponsor exemptions and we encourage them to get to know them because they’re here and they’re going to be stars and we recognize that. There’s a great mix in this field of young guys, guys who have been on Ryder Cup teams, guys who have won majors. And that’s the other thing, right? These guys are making their final push for the Ryder Cup, so we’re just trying to do our part and give players a great experience when they’re here. Ultimately, we know they’ll fall in love with the golf course and the community, and it’s our job to get them back here.
Q: You guys charter a flight to Europe on Sunday night for the players as they head to compete in the Scottish Open and the Open Championship. How long have you done that and how does it impact player commitment?
A: We’ve been doing it since 2008. For the first 10-plus years, we were taking guys to Open Championship, and now to be able to take guys over to Scotland who can get over there hassle-free — no risk of lost luggage or lost clubs — that’s a big recruiting benefit for us. This is the first year where we will be at 100 percent capacity on that plane. To have 35-plus players on that plane, along with their entourages, and get them over there, it’s pretty awesome.
Q: Being over the Fourth of July weekend, how do you get people to come out to the John Deere Classic?
A: We celebrated Folds of Honor Friday, which was really cool because it was actually on the Fourth of July this year. The Quad Cities has a very rich military presence in this community with the Arsenal Island, so thanks to Lowe’s and John Deere, we’ve got a military pavilion all week. We have over $ 75,000 worth of tickets in the marketplace for military members to come out here with a guest. Doing some different partnerships with some of the other nonprofits in town, there’s a Firecracker Run on the Fourth of July and anybody who registered for that race, they got a free ticket to come out here on Thursday or Friday because we knew the weekend would be so busy. Obviously, having the field we have gets people excited to come out on Thursday and Friday to see the full field.
Q: Can you talk about the charitable impact of the John Deere Classic?
A: We’re coming off a record year last year of $ 15.9 million raised, which is hands down the highest per capita on the PGA Tour. We’re operating in one of the smallest markets on the Tour, so to have that kind of support, those are boxes that are being checked with community impact. The title sponsor loves that charity is so high because John Deere is so philanthropic and civic-minded. We will cross $ 200 million in charitable giving this year, which I think is incredible. This is the 54th year of the John Deere Classic and 99 percent of the $ 189 million that was raised through 2024 has been raised since John Deere signed on as title sponsor in 1998, so that level of support from them to jump start that program is awesome. We own and operate the Birdies for Charity program. We license it out to a handful of other tournaments across the PGA Tour and the various other tours. But from John Deere’s perspective, with their community vision, the fact that we’re able to give back 100 percent of every dollar to these charities, plus a guaranteed 5-10 percent match on top of that, in a lot of cases the John Deere Classic is the largest donor for these nonprofits.
Q: We’re starting to see a lot more of the marriage of sporting events and live music. What have has the addition of concerts done for the John Deere Classic?
A: Well, it’s turned this event into a true community event. Whether you’re a golf fan, a music fan, potentially a fan of both, we feel like we’ve got something for everybody. As far as PGA Tour events go, I think we’re the only one brave enough, or maybe silly enough, to go out and try to do it on the 18th hole at the end of our hospitality run, but what that’s done from a visual standpoint on TV, with this hillside pack on Nos. 16, 17 and 18, it looks awesome on TV. John Deere is over the moon because the reaction to the concerts has been so positive. Prior to 2023 [before adding concerts], our radius was always about 2½ hours — Des Moines to Chicago and maybe up to Madison and Milwaukee. What we show now in the ticket data is that radius is closer to 4½ hours now. We’re starting to see St. Louis creep into our top 10 ticket-purchasing markets, and [the concerts] have just drawn a ton of excitement. For us, I think we’ve introduced a bunch of new people to golf who just came for the concerts maybe in year one or year two, and we’ve turned them into golf fans, so I think that’s pretty cool.
Q: What are the goals for this event moving forward?
A: Obviously we want to give a great experience to the players and their families when they’re here. Being a summer event, a lot of these guys travel with their entire family. The Big Dig remains a highlight of the PGA Tour schedule in terms of player parties. From a golf tournament perspective, we’re always trying to be innovative and come up with new and fresh ideas and try to bring something new to life every year. We want people, from the moment they park their car in the parking lot to the moment they leave and get back to their car, we want it to be a seamless experience and we want them to have a great time. By doing those things and trying to have areas where you’re going to have great vantage points and it’s not always from a hospitality perspective. Sometimes, if you can get a venue sponsor that’s open to the public and you can give a spectator an enhanced experience, we want to make sure we’re doing that.
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: John Deere Classic 2025: Q&A with tournament director Andrew Lehman
