SILVIS, Ill. — With the John Deere Classic officially underway, the course is filled with spectators and their phones and media and their cameras. And this year, the story of the classic is taking over social media too.
All week long, a team of content producers are in town taking photos and videos and editing reels for the official John Deere Classic social pages. They're new to the tournament this year.
"I knew someone on the ops team and we had crossed over at a different golf event, and they had asked me to come and shoot the event the last two years," content producer Matt Hahn said. "When they asked me to come shoot this year, I came back and was like, hey, what do you think abut putting a social team together, and we'll be come and kind of give you the quote, unquote like major championship treatment, but with a John Deere spin on it."
While the team of three has never covered the John Deere Classic, they bring combined experience from PGA championships, U.S. Opens, Ryder Cups, LPGA, just to name a few.
"It's Thursday and we've already said it's probably the most fun we've ever had covering an event," Jeff Marsh said. "Just goes to show how important the people are. You can tell that this is a really important event for the Quad Cities area. And, you know, I think in the golf space, it may not be known as an elevated or marquee event, but to us that doesn't matter. It's fun to just be around people that truly care."
The team makes about six to seven posts a day. Some are still photos of tournament play or events happening around the course. Others have been reels with the grounds crew, volunteers on the range or making a putt with the giant excavator.
"It's vital, it really is," Marsh said. "If you're trying to grow your event, you kind of go where the audience is and especially with a new wave of golfers over the last few years, you know, younger and more diverse, I think we can reach them on various platforms. So that's kind of what we're doing this week is focusing solely on social so you name the platform, we're creating some fun stuff for it."
They've been working with some of the longtime tournament administrators to learn about the classic and get ideas to bring to the story to life online.
"I think my favorite part about the tournament is just that smaller feel, like it's so important to everybody that's here," Hahn said. "And that energy, like, passes through to us. Everybody that we've talked to that's either a volunteer here as a fan, or even some of the players, it's one of their favorite tournaments of the year and it's because it has a different feel and a different vibe to it."
Marsh hopes to return to the JDC in the future and thinks his kids would enjoy it too with all the John Deere equipment to see and play with.