It's been held in September and in July. It's been played just before the Open Championship and on the very same weekend.

This year's event has a new name -- the John Deere Classic -- and it's being played the week after the Open.

The course is still the par-70, 6,762-yard Oakwood Country Club in Coal Valley because the new Deere Run course is not yet ready.

The purse is $2 million, up from $1.35 million last year.

Steve Jones is back after winning last year's Quad Cities Classic. On the final day, Jones, the 1996 U.S. Open winner, rallied from a four-way tie for third, three strokes behind third-round leader David Toms, the 1997 winner here. Jones finished with a 4-under-par 66 and a 17-under 263 total.

Caddies this year can wear shorts. For the first time in the PGA's 83-year history, shorts will be proper attire for caddies as long as they are khaki, are hemmed and don't come above the knees.

With a forecast for hot, sunny weather, the change was generally welcomed here.

"It's been a long time coming. There are going to be a lot of happy caddies," Fred Sanders, golfer Robert Damron's caddie, told the Quad City Times. "I think that after the Western Open ... the tour has figured out it was risking a huge lawsuit if somebody did die."

Garland Dempsey, John Magginnes' caddy, collapsed during the Western but was revived on the course by medical personnel.

The Deere Run course in Silvis, five miles northeast of Coal Valley, will be used for next year's event.

After touring the new course Tuesday with designer D.A. Weibring, PGA commissioner Tim Finchem said it should meet or exceed the high standards of the tour.

"It is certainly going to be one of the better golf courses, if not one of the very top golf courses, among Tournament Players Clubs," Finchem said.