Hey look! GCM's art/production manager Roger Billings is an alumni of Graceland College in Lamoni, Iowa.
What fireworks stands are to Missouri, roadside casions are to the great state of Iowa.
Now, on to the Classic. Here, competitors pour over the parings for Monday's pro-am prior to the start of dinner at the pairings party Sunday night.
The pairings party was held at John Deere's world headquarters in Moline, Ill. This is a special display area that features a wide array of equipment, including a $250,000 combine.
And pro-am day is here -- we arrive at a church just outside of the gates at TPC Deere Run where we meet up with our caddies.
Pro-am participants wait in line to register and meet their caddies for the day. The caddies were local high school students who were earning money for their prep golf teams.
Here is my man for the day, Zack Rogers from Davenport, Iowa, getting his caddie bib in place. That's also my obnoxiously purple K-State golf bag on the left.
We're now at the course. This deer statue -- for some reason, there are plenty of those around these parts -- is right in front of the clubhouse at TPC Deere Run.
We spent about two hours around the practice areas at Deere Run getting ready for the pro-am.
Well-appointed Buick SUVs transported us to our starting hole, which was No. 3.
Here is our opening hole, the par-3 third. The pros will play it at about 195 yards, while we played it at around 170 yards.
These may very well be the best tee markers on the PGA Tour -- mounted miniature John Deere equipment.
One of my teammates today, Robert Hertzing, the superintendent at Valencia Country Club, just north of Los Angeles. In short, he's a player.
The finish of our pro, Nick Thompson, a first-year PGA Tour player who played four years at Georgia Tech. His best finish on the year is a 55th at the Honda Classic.
Just off the 16th tee is the Rock River, so Thompson decided to blast a ball as far as he could into the river. Trust me, that's a long, long way.
Here goes Thompson, hammering a drive into the Rock River. If you want to know why your drive doesn't go as far as the pros, check out his extension on this swing.
This is the 16th hole, a par-3 that played about 150 yards for us amateurs. That's Jason Kubel, the superintendent at the TPC Tampa Bay, and his caddie sizing up the hole.
Just had to get another shot of my caddie, with my name on his back, on the golf course. That never gets old, really.
In the pond just to the right of the 18th green at Deere Run sits this magical floating John Deere lawn mower.
The 18th hole at Deere Run has plenty of hospitality areas, including this one.
Here's the team after a steamy round of golf -- (from left) Kubel, myself, Thompson, John Deere's Matt Armbrister and Hartzing.
As we waited for a lift back to the clubhouse, the grounds crew at Deere Run hit the course. And surprise, surprise! They were all riding green equipment!
More Deere equipment rolling onto the course to take care of Monday afternoon's maintenance routine.
We wrapped up our day with a dinner and reception in the skybox overlooking the 18th green. Our combined score of 11-under-par 60 (par was our friend, by the way) didn't sniff the overall champ, which finished at 52.
Day two at the John Deere Classic took us to Deere's Coal Valley test facility where we got a demonstration on some of the company's construction equipement, including this massive front loader.
The assembled attendees watched the demonstration portion of the ride-and-drive event from a customized viewing building on the property.
The biggest of the big dogs -- the 844 loader -- got up close and personal with the observation area.
Bet you didn't know a road grader could do this? Here, the blade lifts the entire machine into the air. The blade can also be fully rotated into multiple positions and angles.
After the demonstration, it was our turn to take some of Deere's big equipment for a spin. Here, the attendees wait in a light drizzle for final preparations to take place.
Deere personnel were on hand to help instruct attendees on the finer points of operating the machinery.
Three different sizes of back hoes were available for testing. A little later, I'll give you more shots of the largest one, which I took for a spin.
Dean Lindsey, the superintendent at the Club at Pradera in Elizabeth, Colo., moves some dirt in a back hoe at the ride-and-drive event.
My playing partner from Monday, Jason Kubel, wasted little time in test driving the biggest machine on the lot -- the 844 loader.
Kubel showed took to operating the 844 in pretty short order and soon had pinned in a trio of us who had climbed to the top of this rock pile to take pictures.
Kubel may have a job in construction if this superintendent thing doesn't work out.
The large loader in the previous pictures, plus this large excavator, drew crowds during the test drive.
