SILVIS, Ill. (KWQC) – Next time you’re out on the course at the John Deere Classic and you see the orange paddles that volunteers hold up at the tee boxes, take a second look. A longtime JDC volunteer came up with the idea for them after seeing a problem and deciding, he wanted to fix it.
Darryl Lokenvitz, who is volunteering at the JDC for his 46th year, has always loved golf.
Lokenvitz began volunteering when the tournament moved from Oakwood Country Club to Deere Run.
At the time, he was Hole Captain on Hole 14, and the next year, they asked him to be on the Marshal Committee.
“As I traveled around the different holes, I discovered that the quiet sign paddles that had a white background.. when you’re up against the clouds, you couldn’t see the paddle very well,” Lokenvitz said.
The paddles serve an important purpose as they’re used to determine the ball’s flight path after it’s hit off the tee box.
“So, I talked to my boss … and we came up with the idea of painting some old paddles a fluorescent yellow, in hopes of being able to see them better,” Lokenvitz said.
But the fluorescent yellow didn’t work, so Lokenvitz said he went back to the drawing board.
“So, we changed it to a fluorescent orange, and that really worked, it really worked,” he said. “It’s been about 20 years ago, a little over 20 years ago that we did that.”
Lokenvitz said changing the color of the paddles to fluorescent orange worked so much that 90 percent of the major golf tournaments use them today.
And there’s a process to how volunteers use the orange paddles.
“Basically, it starts out as a three-step program. As the player approaches the tee, we cross the paddles, and then as he gets ready. We hold them up straight,” Lokenvitz said.
“Once he hits the ball, we determine whether it’s going this way, this way, whichever, and how far, if it’s really bad out of bounds, or whatever, in the lake or something. But basically a majority of them are straight, so that’s how we determine them with the volunteer at the back side of the tee box.”
This week is also a special week for Lokenvitz.
“Twenty years ago this week, I met my wife out here as a volunteer on Hole 14, and then 17 years ago, we got married,” Lokenvitz said. “So, we’ve been out here volunteering ever since.”
Looking back on all that he’s accomplished, Lokenvitz said he’s proud to have such strong ties to the John Deere Classic.
“It makes me proud that I came up with the idea for the orange paddles,” Lokenvitz said. “It wasn’t a big problem for me to do that. I was happy to do it, to help out the tournament and make the job a lot easier.”
Meet Darryl Lokenvitz, he’s one of the many volunteers who keep coming back to the tournament to volunteer year after year.Married volunteers celebrate 20th anniversary of meeting at John Deere Classic.
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