SILVIS, Ill. — Before the magic of the John Deere Classic can begin, it takes a village to set the scene.
WQAD is your official station of the JDC Tournament and for years, we've been bringing you exclusive coverage from the course on our set, The 19th Hole.
But making each broadcast happen requires an all-hands-on-deck effort from both Channel 8 and Uncommon Ground, the tournament's official landscape company and a proud sponsor of The 19th Hole.
Crews begin building the set in the weeks leading up to the tournament. Bricks, flooring, flowers, broadcast equipment and a tent all have to be hauled in while lights are hung and power cables are strung.
To see what that process looks like, you can view the video at the top of this page.
But such a huge undertaking is required to create the course's best broadcast.
"About a week after we finish the classic, we start planning for next year," said Mike Cavins, vice president of Uncommon Ground. "We love this event. It's a fantastic team-building event for our company. Everybody is involved from top to bottom."
The landscaping business does work across TPC at Deere Run, including supplying more than 3,500 pink petunias. To accomplish it, Uncommon Ground begins growing the flowers each winter.
For The 19th Hole, Cavins was initially inspired by the television sets at the Masters.
"We build this set because we want the Quad Cities to be bigger than people think the Quad Cities is. And when you see The 19th Hole, it looks bigger than what it is," Cavins said. "It's so much fun to do and the guys have such pride when it's done that they've built that and they see it on TV every night."
For all of the hard work and long nights that the John Deere Classic requires, Cavins says it's that pride that keeps him coming back each year.
"It never gets old. Everytime I see the work that my guys do, it never gets old," he said. "There's joy in it, to be out here and get to do that... it's really a blessing."