On Course: Field of dreams

SILVIS

The Tournament Players Club at Deere Run in Silvis, IL, is something of a field of dreams for D.A. Weibring.

"Build it and they will come … it's been a little bit of that theme," says Weibring, 48, an Illinois native who not only designed the majestic golf course along the Rock River, but also was integral in other phases of its creation, from securing the property to working out the deal with the PGA TOUR to develop the sylvan 386 acres into another prime TPC destination.

So Weibring built his golf course in America's heartland.

And the PGA TOUR did come. The TPC at Deere Run, which opened in 2000, is the annual site of the John Deere Classic.

And the customers have come to this semi-private playground, discovering not ghosts in the corn, but great golf in the confines of a relatively undisturbed setting replete with water and trees, ravines and bluffs The critical acclaim has come, too.

"I rate the course a 9 (out of 10) and that's worth telling people about," fellow PGA TOUR veteran Peter Jacobsen said upon seeing the course shortly after it opened.

What makes the golf course deserving of such a compliment is in its attention to detail as well as a forthright presentation laden with options.

Though a new layout, Weibring instilled a bit of old-time philosophy and feel to the golf course, which stretches to 7,183 yards, an intimidating length for a par-71 track. Some 70 bunkers are strategically placed throughout the course and vary in depth and shape. There are a few blind shots. There are chipping areas to confound the best players. There are gentle doglegs, requiring precision more than power.

What's more, the natural features of the former horse farm high above the Rock River Valley have not been compromised.

The Rock River is visible on nine holes. Weibring extracted a few trees (less than 20 percent), but he essentially left the property, with its dramatic pitches and rolls, intact. The course inhabits roughly 170 acres, but Weibring and design associate Chris Gray of PGA TOUR Design Services disturbed less than 60 acres during construction.

"It has all the things I think you'd like to have in a golf course," Weibring, who has won four of his five PGA TOUR titles in his home state, including three victories in the Quad Cities Classic, the forerunner to the John Deere Classic. "There are elevation change, great views and scenery, hardwood trees. You have the Rock River complemented with small ponds, deep ravines … and there's no real estate."

Weibring, whose Golf Resources Group, which designs and constructs golf courses and has worked on more than 50 projects in 14 years, is a stickler for traditional golf on traditional-looking courses. If it appears contrived, he will tear up a hole until it meshes with the landscape. If a hole does not provide options for all levels of players - and a challenging mixture of options for the best players - then that hole is a failure.

The TPC at Deere Run is not a target-oriented layout. It requires shot making and maneuverability, plus imagination with the short game.

Weibring, who lives in Plano, Texas, is partial to chipping areas because higher handicap players can extract themselves from trouble relatively easily (though not always near the hole) while top amateurs and professionals can make a score if they choose wisely they type of shot they should play.

Providing options is a theme that runs throughout the course.

Five sets of tees for every level of player are available.

There are risk-and-reward challenges, including the 358-yard, par-4 14th hole, named John Deere. The hole is drivable because it plays downhill, but coming up short of the small, elevated green leaves a player with a blind shot from the U.S. version of the "Valley of Sin," a tightly mowed chipping area. Go long and the ball can careen down a 60-foot bluff.

There is the par-4 fourth hole, dogleg right, 450 yards, with a large oak tree in the middle of the fairway defying golfers on the tee. Players have to choose which way to drive around it, but provided is 54 yards of real estate (32 yards on the left side of the tree, 22 on the right, where a well-struck drive offers a shorter and easier approach).

Perhaps the most enticing stretch of holes begins at the par-4 15th through to the finish. Weibring and Gray achieved a stadium feel and look that is common to many TPC designs, but they did it without moving much earth. The holes, including two long par-4s, cut through the trees and a ravine, making for a natural stadium golf setting.

Weibring was mighty proud of that section of the course, though all of it has met his approval - as well as the approval of others.

"It turned out just like I wanted," Weibring says. "Just like I imagined it." Like something out of a dream, you might say.