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John Deere Classic Says, "Bye Bye Birdie"

Doug Milne (left) and Clair Peterson (right)
QC Times
/
Nikos Frazier
PGA Tour Coordinator Doug Milne (left) and Clair Peterson (right)

The John Deere Classic tees off this week and is Executive Director Clair Peterson's final tournament, after 20 years. Tournament Director Andrew Lehman will be stepping into Peterson's shoes, once Peterson sets a retirement date.

And as the pros played practice rounds on Tuesday before the tournament begins on Thursday. He's confident his replacement will do a good job.

" It's one of the things that makes it easy to pass the baton. The staff we have right now
Andrew Lehman is in the front row there, I know it's almost time for me to leave because Andrew's starting to wear a white shirt. So that's never happened before. A little observation." said Peterson.

Peterson attributes his time and the success of the tournament to John Deere's backing as well as his own adaptability.

"To me this is a present moment business and you better be in the present
moment if you want to survive. There's so many things that you have to accept and adapt to..." emphasized Peterson.

On Wednesday June 29th, the John Deere Classic will hold its Classic Pro Am which has reduced admission of 20 dollars.

Susanna Kemerling is WVIK Quad Cities NPR's 2022 Fellowship Host/Reporter. She graduated from Northern Illinois University for Media Studies in Communication and spent the last year working as a Teaching Assistant through the graduate program at NIU.