Kids take over the John Deere Classic

The main events of the 55th John Deere Classic get underway on Thursday, and on Wednesday kids and the Savannah Bananas stole the show before Jordan Spieth, Rickie Fowler and more hit the stage this weekend.

“I’ve been coming here since I was a little kid, like his age, even my newborn son’s age,” said Samuel Geski, who took his family to Youth Day at the John Deere Classic on Wednesday. “And it’s cool just to do that now with my family and watch them have as much as I had when I was that age.”

The John Deere Classic puts the whole Quad Cities into the spotlight.

“Makes us proud of our hometown, really,” said Geski.

Youth Day at the golf tournament gives families the perfect time to experience all the tournament has to offer, without the crowds of the tournament.

“To be able to come today and it be more geared to kids,” said Alyssa Gelski. “Instead of it just being so much around the adults, it’s great.”

The fan zone was the perfect spot to immerse kids into the sport. They had carnival-esque activities, create-a-hole, mini golf and a golf simulator.

“It was good but a little bit hard, and also, it’s kind of scary whenever you hit the simulator if the ball is going to hit someone once it bangs off the thing,” said Ryann Keeley.

The Keeleys traveled from St. Louis to attend Youth Day.

“We drove up yesterday. Patton (his son) and I went to the tournament last year, and big sister wanted to join this year,” said Conor Keeley.

Ryann was all in on the John Deere Classic after she heard about the events and just how good Whitey’s ice cream was. The Keeleys picked up the treat twice on the hot and humid Wednesday.

Kids didn’t just get the opportunity to enjoy the fun in the fan zone. The John Deere Classic Pro-Am brought some big names to the course, including Illinois men’s basketball head coach Brad Underwood and the Savannah Bananas. The team that started Banana Ball is playing at Kinnick on the 4th of July.

“They are at the kids’ clinic at 3:00 pm, so we’re going to try to see them,” said a kid rocking a Savannah Bananas jersey at the course.

“We got to see some of them tee off,” said Alyssa Gelski. They had also come to see the Savannah Bananas at the Pro-Am.

Many fans and more will head back to TPC Deere Run Thursday morning for the start of the John Deere Classic. The first tee time will be at 6:40 a.m.

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