Keegan Bradley a wanted man at John Deere Classic

SILVIS, Ill. – It's Zach Johnson's image on Quad Cities billboards promoting the John Deere Classic, and it's Johnson who is the defending champion.

But the phrase “Major Impact” on those billboards also applies to others in this year's JDC besides the 2007 Masters champion from Cedar Rapids.

Take Keegan Bradley, for instance. He's making his first JDC appearance, and a good get it is for the PGA Tour event that begins today at TPC Deere Run.

Bradley is ranked 16th in the world (Johnson is 31st), won the PGA Championship two years ago and tied for third in that major last year, and matched Johnson's 3-1 record in 2012 Ryder Cup play.

In other words, Bradley is world-class. Just like Louis Oosthuizen of South Africa, who won the 2010 British Open and holds the No. 10 spot in the World Rankings. He's here, too.

“It is a fun track,” said Oosthuizen, an ardent consumer of John Deere products. He toured John Deere Harvester Works in East Moline on Tuesday. “I mean, I really enjoy it.”

“I've always wanted to play the John Deere,” Bradley said. “I've heard great things about it. All the players seem to love it.

“The people especially are very thankful for me coming here, which is something I've never really felt before at any Tour event."

Bradley and Oosthuizen will join Johnson and 23 others on the charter flight the JDC will send from Moline to Edinburgh, Scotland, on Sunday night after the final round here is done.

Actually, there will almost surely be an additional player on that flight if he has his passport with him here. The player who finishes the highest in the JDC's top five and isn't already qualified for the British will earn one of the tourney's last two available berths.

That adds to the dreamy best-case scenarios for Iowa's other two representatives in the 156-player JDC, former Iowa Hawkeye Sean McCarty of Solon and current Hawkeye standout Steven Ihm of Peosta.

Ihm, a first-team All-Big Ten player this year, is here on a sponsor's exemption. McCarty won last year's Iowa PGA professional championship to claim his spot.

McCarty is the head pro at Coralville's Brown Deer Golf Club. He was an All-American in 1995 for Iowa, and has been a force on the state's pro golf circuit ever since. This will be his fifth JDC appearance, but first in five years.

In 1997, McCarty was on the leaderboard halfway through the tourney, then held at Oakwood Country Club in Coal Valley. He finished tied for 23rd. He didn't make the 36-hole cut here in 1998, 2003 or 2008.

“I'd love to make the cut,” 40-year-old McCarty said Wednesday. “I haven't done it here in a long time. That's my first objective.

“I love it here. It's a good course, a good tournament. It's good to get back with the big boys.”

A limousine will transport 15 players from Brown Deer's Thursday Night Men's League to Deere Run this afternoon, and many more members of that league will arrive separately to support their club pro.

McCarty's tee is 2:05 p.m. Ihm will start play at 9 a.m. The threesome of Johnson, Steve Stricker and Davis Love III will start at 7:30 a.m., off the 10th tee.

Stricker, by the way, is the world's No. 11 player. He won this tourney in 2009, 2010 and 2011, then tied for fifth last year. He is 84-under-par here over those four years and 288 holes.

That's right, 84-under.

But after being the fact of this tourney for three years, Stricker said "It's kind of the focus and the attention is a little more on Zach, I would say. So that's nice."