‘Unique Trophies’... "Who Is the Tractor Hero?"

John Deere Classic Winner's Prize is a Tractor
Top Rankers Absent, 'Number 19' Achieves Best Ever Ranking
Lee Kyung-hoon, Noh Seung-yul, An Byeong-hoon, Kim Seong-hyun Participate

Winners of the PGA Tour in the United States receive prizes along with their prize money. These vary widely, including cars, surfboards, cowboy boots, luxury watches, rings, and vending machines.

Among these, there is a unique gift: a tractor. This is the trophy at the John Deere Classic (total prize money $7.4 million), held on the 6th (local time) at TPC Deere Run (par 71, 7,289 yards) in Silvis, Illinois.

John Deere, the sponsor of the John Deere Classic, is a company that manufactures various heavy equipment such as tractors and excavators.
[Photo by John Deere Classic official website]

The sponsor, John Deere, started as an agricultural machinery manufacturer in Moline, Illinois. In its early days, it produced tractors, combines, balers, and seeders. Since then, it has sold various equipment such as excavators and lawn mowers. The strongest player in the John Deere Classic is Steve Stricker (USA), who achieved a three-peat from 2009 to 2011 in this tournament. Stricker proudly said, "A tractor is the best gift because it can do many things like plowing fields."

This year, many top-ranked players, including world No. 1 to 3?Scottie Scheffler (USA), Jon Rahm (Spain), and Rory McIlroy (Northern Ireland)?did not participate. This is because the Genesis Scottish Open in Scotland and the final major of the season, The Open Championship in England, will be held consecutively starting next week.

The highest-ranked player in the world rankings is Cameron Young (USA), ranked 19th. Although he won Rookie of the Year last year, he has been struggling this year. In the past three months, he missed the cut twice in seven tournaments and has never finished in the top 10. He is currently 29th in the money rankings ($4,268,769), and it is a time when a turnaround is needed.

The PGA Tour's power rankings 1 and 2 are Denny McCarthy and Russell Henley (both USA). McCarthy has shown good form recently with finishes of 2nd, 20th, and 7th in the last three tournaments. Henley has shown strong performances in this tournament, finishing 2nd in 2019 and tied for 11th in 2021. Last year's winner, J.T. Poston (USA), is aiming for his third career win and a second consecutive victory. South Korea's Lee Kyoung-hoon, Kang Sung-hoon, Noh Seung-yul, An Byeong-hun, and Kim Sung-hyun are also vying for the championship.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.