Aaron Dail Interview with Andrew Lehman, New John Deere Classic Tournament Director, June 20

Aaron Dail talks with Andrew Lehman about the big gets for this year’s John Deere Classic Tournament. Among them is West Des Moines’s Caitlin Clark, the celebrated Hawkeyes basketball guard, “the closest thing the state of Iowa has to The Beatles right now,” whose nine-hole club-off with Waterloo’s Zach Johnson will be well-attended. “We’ve seen such a positive response since we announced that [Clark is] coming,” Lehman said, “so we’re really excited to welcome her here, and all the basketball fans and golf fans and everybody who can get a chance to come out and see her.” Dail talks about how his eight-year-old daughter went to the Caitlin Clark Camp in Iowa City and how they discovered Clark was actually running the whole thing: Clark and her high-school coach had a real boots-on-the-ground presence and a palpable eagerness to engage with the campers — it wasn’t some mere celebrity endorsement of an otherwise humdrum outing. Dail told Lehman to expect “a lot of little girls, and who knows? Some of those little girls may want to give golf a try, too.” Lehman, who has a nine-year-old daughter and a twelve-year-old son, both big fans of Clark, says her appeal transcends age, “and what you’ve just described is everything we’ve come to know and love about her. . . you take her off the basketball court, I think she’s a heck of an athlete at whatever she would try to do.” Also, the Birdies for Charity is expected to drum up much support this year, given that it raised $13.9 million for 481 charities last year — the new record to beat. “We’ve got over sixteen thousand people who make donations for their charities,” Lehman said. “What the Quad Cities community means to all these philanthropic endeavors is so near and dear to our heart because the Quad Cities people are so giving; and to have these charities have so much success is the real reason why we wake up and come to work every day.” In 2020, amidst the shutdowns wrought by COVID-19, the community was still able to raise $12 million, without the enticement of golf to spur them on. With the 52nd John Deere Classic, Birdies for Charity will also celebrate its thirtieth anniversary, with $159 million raised during its existence to date. Other than those newsworthies, the Classic has its first Top-Twenty guy ranked in the field in Cameron Young; and, although Lehman couldn’t reveal the musical acts at time of broadcast, we’ve since learned that country stars Darius Rucker and Blake Shelton will perform live at the eighteenth hole for the Concerts on the Course events, July 8 and 9 (respectively). Sounds like an exciting time all around. . .