No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - NLU Podcast, Episode 128: Mike Whan

Episode Date: March 27, 2018

LPGA Commissioner Mike Whan joins the podcast to talk about his background, his time at the LPGA Tour, and the hottest topics surrounding the world of women’s golf. We talk about what it’s like to... The post NLU Podcast, Episode 128: Mike Whan appeared first on No Laying Up. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I'm going to be the right club today. Yeah. That is better than most. How about him? That is better than most. Better than most! Expect anything different! All right ladies and gentlemen welcome back to the No-Lang-Up podcast here, Sully here, Trance here, DJ Pies here.

We're gonna get to our interview here quickly with Mike Wan, but first wanted to teet up a little bit. We went to an LPJ event. Good for us, as overdue. We want to acknowledge that we've been definitely, this has been, it's an initiative for us, we wanted to get into more LPG coverage. It was actually the second, no, no, LPG event. That's true, Neil would take issue with the intro to this podcast. Because you went to the swinging skirts, right? In San Francisco.

And I also went to the Wendy's 3M challenge when I was like 12 so now he went like on behalf of no okay but we we've been wanting to do it and we got our eyes opened to the LPGA this week at the Kia Classic at Aviarra got a chance to interview Daniel Kang hopefully you guys heard that last week that was a phenomenal that was a blast she's a blast we learned pretty quickly the LPJ girls not too censored no it was I like I don't get uncomfortable very much and I was I was almost like you guys are pushing it too far for me even I'm gonna have to you're gonna have to rate it in a little bit I felt great about it but I would I would way rather miss on that side well sure it

was funny as we're talking the range before we played in the Pro Am about yeah but just make sure we don't say, I mean, we can't say that word. I can't say this. And the things that we were discussing not talking about wouldn't have registered among the top 50 vulgar things that were explicit. Yeah.

And it was just amazing how comfortable they were to how they just kind of don't have this corporate polish to them that we're so used to on the PGA tour, kind of the robotic approach. They love media. They love the opportunity to talk to us and tell stories. There's a lot of locker room talk. A lot of locker room talk.

Allison Lee and Bronti Law, that pod when that comes out, you guys are going to be kind of stunned with the banter back and forth with them. But a pretty cool opportunity to get to sit down with the commissioner of the LPGA tour in Mike Juan, try and work your impressions. I was ready to run through a brick wall about not even halfway through the afteries first maybe five minutes in there. He was just you know just infectious enthusiasm. That guy brings the energy and we got a lot of video stuff coming out from the Pro Am DJ's deep in the editing bay on that. It might already be out for all I don't know depending

when this podcast goes out. We'll get it out by in the next episode on that one already be out for all I don't know depending when this podcast goes out get it out by in the next it'll be up soon yeah it'll be up soon what was your impression of kind of we got to play with Tiffany Joe in the program in Jane Park what did we didn't get to do anything you guys got to play with them I was I was toting the camera yeah I was yeah I gave up my spot I was like the end of Rudy I hung up my jersey and and you guys to go play. I was blown away, man. I love going to like the, I don't know, I don't want to sound like a slight, but the PJ Tour events that I have the most fun at are the chillest ones where there's the smallest

crowds and kind of the less the least amount of arrogance, I guess, for lack of a better term. And that was definitely the vibe you get out of the LPGA kind of for better or worse as far as As far as kind of attendance goes, but Yeah, I mean, it's just stress-free everybody's there to just have a good time the people we played with obviously like Make sure we had a good time, but they're also they're talking to all the volunteers They're they're just making sure everybody appreciates everybody knows how much they appreciate them being out there. And that I thought that was really cool. Just walked away.

Yeah, exactly. And it puts you in a good mood. And it just, I mean, we're sitting before the program even went out. And we're sitting by 18. And we're just drinking beers, watching the program go on. And I mean, it's a beautiful day. And it's like, that's the kind of stuff that makes me like golf.

As lame as that sounds. I mean, it's like, I just, I hate the feeling when you're at a tour event. There's crowds and you're waiting in lines. And it just feels just stressful. And that's what makes you want to just watch on TV. This was the exact opposite of that. Just going out and watching them hit wedges. Like we could. How long could we have stood on the range of watch Brook Henderson. I was about to stroke out. She picked up a club, first shot of the day. It's a 50 yard wedge shot hits the target at Clanks. Yeah, it was like you're like local driving range

where they have the painted bucket out there at 50 yards. Yeah, awesome. And then the second shot she hits, same wedge, but 75 yard shot, sure enough, Bing. And yeah, I was like, I heard it from the other way. I checked him, I was like, she really did. It was impressive. You're gonna hear Mike one talk a bit,

a lot about sponsorship and kind of the top down approach he takes from the LPGA. It's the top that we haven't really discussed on the podcast a lot, but found it kind of interesting to see the trickle down effect of, you know, for a tour like the LPGA that doesn't have the, the, the, the throws of money coming in like the PGA tour does, kind of their approach

towards how they handle their sponsors. And after kind of getting, you know, we interviewed them and then we got to play in the program and kind of see how they treated Kia and how that whole process went along. I thought it was fascinating. I kind of saw it from like, this actually does make a ton of sense for somebody to sponsor an LPGA event.

One, it's like really fun to go play with those girls. You play from the same T's like and you like you play with nine holes with someone and then you swap out and buy nine holes with a new player. That whole process I thought was kind of good to see how that's done. The LPGA tour was pretty fascinating. It was cool. It was cool to see also that Tron's game sets up very well for the LPGA. We learned that a lot of hybrid a lot of hybrids, kind of seven woods, nine woods. What's I thought of Jane Park's bag? Once he put the ego away, it started playing out of Jane's bag. He was, he didn't miss a shot. Right. I mean, you hit her driver.

I went in with no ego. That's true. We got, they definitely teed us up well with personalities. So Tiffany Jo, you couldn't wipe the smile of her face. I mean, first of all, she was not there to practice. She was there to just laugh, have fun. And she ate a hot dog while we're out there. Like, that's just something you would not see on the PGA tour. We thought we, like, we nailed it with her. And we take the turn to the back nine. And Jane's like, I don't know who you guys are. I'm just kidding. I'm

big no, I'm probably like, yeah, she's't talk. Yeah, she's the bottom husband's a big big yeah, big no. I'm guys from London and her caddy Rocky was awesome. Oh, he caddy for Hail Irwin. He had all kind all the stories. I mean, nine holes with both those players was not enough. Also the nine and nine pro am thing. It's got to be done on the tour. It's so cool. Yeah. The pros are come with so much more energy. They only have to play nine holes. You get to play with two different pros. It's a great approach. So I think without further ado, let's cut to Mike Juan. It's a nice, it's a lengthy interview. There is also want to give a shout out. I mean, Jane finished T5, T5, the pro amp bump. Yeah. Bronti finished very high as well. She was like

top 20, I think Tiffany did not fare quite as well. Danielle started hot, unfaited. But the bump, it translates to other tours as well. And with it being a major championship week, the A&A inspiration, we thought it'd be good to roll this podcast out this week. And then after this, for the rest of this week and next week, obviously, we are full-bore with the Masters.

So two things, too. I want to say there's three PGA tour events without sponsors right now. There's, you know, I mean, I think it's worth noting, like Mike Wands increased the purses out there by 40 to 50 percent over the last five or six years. They've, like, maxed out their schedule schedule and now they're just trying to increase the quality of each event. From where they were six or seven years ago to where they are now, it's remarkable and to see him and to kind of hear him talk about it, you kind of realize why. And we're not here to preach.

We've not done a great job of forming you guys on it and being formed ourselves, but I'm telling you, like I'm checking leader board. After one week out there, I'm checking leader boards. It forming you guys on it and being formed ourselves, but I'm telling you, like I'm checking leader board. After one week out there, I'm checking leader boards. It's kind of way more interesting. I mean, it's a testament of just seeing personalities, what personalities do for making you, you want to follow, yeah, making you care

and making you want to go follow these people. Because it's just such an eye opening thing. And hopefully that translates in the video and the podcast and all that stuff. But as much as it was like a revelation to us, we knew this was out there. We just haven't had the podcasts and all that stuff. But as much as it was like a revelation to us, we knew this was out there. We just haven't had a time in resources. Yeah, so we're trying to obviously we're going to go to the to at least one more tournament,

probably two more tournaments in the rest of the season. But all right, without further ado, let's get to Mike one. Thank you everybody for tuning in. Real quick, before we start with Mike one, an update from our friends over at Odyssey Golf. They have been absolutely dominating the world's professional tours this year. It's not slowing down anytime soon. They are led by the new Oatworks, Red and Black line,

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I put the marksman immediately in the bag. How quickly? Like Chad handed it to me. Like day of. And it went not back. I'm still, I'm gaming the seven shape. It's, it's, it's, it just, it, it ball comes off so smooth, it stays online.

The micro hinge insert, I'm addicted to it. I love it. It's not coming it, it, it, it, it, the ball comes off so smooth, it stays online. The microhinge insert, I'm addicted to it. I love it. It's not coming out anytime soon. If you're ready to start making more putts, visit OdysseyGolf.com or get out to your local golf shop today. Try out the new O-Works putters, Odyssey the number one putter and golf. Finally, let's get to Mike one.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the No Laying Up podcast out here at the Kia Classic. We have the Commissioner of the LPGA tour and fellow Miami alum Mike one. What's happened? Both of us. Yeah, we're gonna. We need to walk up music. We need a little Miami. I know. I'm not sure why that music would be, but I'm not sure what that I remember what the place is totally. We, we, we, that's where we met there. So we graduated there in 08.

And I think the school has completely changed at least since. I went over three on my kids. I took all three boys to Miami, Ohio and I think my wife said like how can none of our kids go there and I said I'm clearly too excited because like I'm like that's where Taco Tuesday is you know that's what quarter of years is on Thursday and you know my son and my youngest said to me hey dad this this places your story like I got to go make my own story and I said to him I should have had you take I'm like she went to Miami too but she would have been cool. Yeah, Yeah, I of course I did like sit outside the fraternity house and tell them stories and they could care Well fraternity were you in pike okay? Yeah, I'm not if I should I was right on I was the K a

I was right. I was a fire truck. Yeah, I was a fireside But no, I went the day I went there. There's the only college is I took us again That's right But no, the day I went there, the only college visit I took, I said, yeah, that's where I'm going. Yeah, I made the mistake. I was a quarterback, and I was recruited by the kicker coach. So that should have told me something right off the bat that the quarterback coach wasn't hosting me. The kicker coach, but it was one of those beautiful Saturday mornings, we're walking down to the stadium, and all the fraternities were having like kegs and eggs parties.

And like sorority girls were laying out on the roofs of the houses. Right there on Tallahoundo. And like, you know, my neck is sore from looking up at the roof. And I looked back at my mom and I said, you know, I'm going to school here, right? She goes, well, they don't have an offer to do anything. I said, doesn't matter what they offer. Like, this is where I'm going to school. So did you play football?

I played football for three weeks. OK. John Padeini, who works with me, we met, walk on quarterbacks. He played for three years. I played for three weeks. So that should tell you a little bit about the town. I thought you were going to say three years when you started. No, no, no, no, no, no, I remember calling my dad saying, I dad, you know,

I'm never going to play in the NFL. And my dad, I thought my dad was going to be hard broken. He goes, well, good God, I know that. You're never playing in the NFL. I said, well, I've been playing football because I didn't want to offend you to stop. So it was one of those things. Yeah, I was reading your parents. I carried Kerala's article where she was saying, you've equated one of the awards you'd want to was reading the, I think your parents, you put a fairie in the crowd. I was an article where she was saying, you've equated one of the awards, you'd want to, you know, be in a quarterback,

but you weren't very talented in a quarterback, you said. Well, the last question I got, when I was interviewing for the job of commissioner, the last question, and she was the former CEO of Pepsi, and she was the chairman of the board, chairwoman of the board of the LPG, and she said,

can you describe your leadership style to the board? And I'm thinking to myself, I'm 45 years old, and I don't have a leadership style. But so, I'm, you know, my mind is racing. Well, that's not a good answer. So give her something better. And I said, I'm just going to tell you a story. When I was eight years old, I was, you know, trying out for popcorn or football.

And at the end of the first week, I heard my dad walk up to the coach and said, what do you think about my son, Mike? And I heard the coach say, I'll be honest with you, Mr. Ron. He's not very big. So he's not going to make it on the line of scrimmage. Even though he's small, he's surprisingly slow. So I don't think he's going to be a receiver. Tolly couldn't be.

Probably couldn't take the pounding of a running back. And I remember my dad saying, of course, I'm playing catch acting. Like, I'm not listening. My dad's saying, should we come back in a year and maybe let him get a little more size? And the guy said, I'll be honest with you. He's learned the offense in like seven days. And he's pretty comfortable, you know,

kind of ordering other kids around. So we're gonna try him a quarterback. And I remember thinking, well, that was the greatest non-complan of my life and so we were driving home and I start crying and my dad said, hey, this is a tough lesson to learn, but what that guy essentially said is, if you can get the ball out of your hands

and in the hands of a more talented person quickly, this team's got a chance of winning. And I remember saying to the board,'s got a chance of winning and I remember saying to the board I was 44 years old and I said I'm kind of the same guy like if you're looking to hire the most talented athlete keep looking because I'm not that guy but I'll surround myself with talent because I have to not that good and I'll make sure the ball's not in my hand very often I promise we'll win and we'll have a good win loss record but I'm not Tom Brady like I didn't go be because of me that's a great answer. It's a system core of that.

An answer of like turning your weakness into a string. That's such a perfect, I care too much. When you really have only weaknesses, you surround yourself with strings. Well, you have such an interesting backstory. So talk us through kind of your career path coming from Miami into what you've, all the things you've done before the, before the LPGA tour.

It might take a while, because you've done a lot of interesting stuff. Yeah I mean this is how I'm strange to both you guys but I went to Miami to be a sportscaster when I was in high school Tom Brennan. Does that name ring about? Yeah of course. So Tom Brennan and I would do the cube cable game of the week in Cincinnati. Now this is you guys are too young for this but when I grew up, cube cable was channel three and it was only one channel. You had the three networks in cube. So Tom and I would travel around. I played football and baseball and he didn't.

So we would go basketball season to a different basketball game every week and we covered the state championship at Miami of Ohio, which is my first time I saw it there. So I thought, Tom and I both decided we're both going to be sportscasters. He was a year old, I went to OU, I went to Miami. And I was about six months into it at Miami. And I remember, I don't know what class it was,

but I was in like my fourth communications class. And I didn't, I thought I needed more than this. And when you're at Miami, it's a business kind of driven school. So I transferred into finance and economics. And but I've been, I've said this many times, I'm 53 and I'm still undecided in career. So when I got out of school, I ran into these guys from Procter & Gamble.

They explained this brand management thing, which to me sounded like you didn't have to choose. It was a little bit of everything, little sales sales, a little marketing, a little manufacturing, so I went to P&G and became the brand manager Crest Toothpaste. So if you guys want to talk to our controller and go, I'm ready to go. But I was there for about seven or eight years, and I remember thinking that I love this. I mean, I really do get into whatever I'm doing, but my real passion was the game of golf. I was cutting grains and changing pen placements as a kid.

All the way until I graduated every weekend, I was working on like, I was on the grounds crew, never in a pro shop, because you'd work from 5'30 to 2'30 and get to play free golf. So you grew up in Chicago and then you moved to Chicago. It was a caddy for a summer, hated it. You know, I wouldn't very good at it, but the grounds crew guy offered me a job there.

I moved to Cincinnati, worked on a golf course all through high school and college in Cincinnati. What course was it in Chicago? that put the grounds crew guy off for me a job there. I moved to Cincinnati, worked on a golf course all through high school and college in Cincinnati. What course was it in Chicago? In Chicago, I was Crest Creek. And then when I moved to Cincinnati, it's Cold Stream. And so anyway, when I had been at PNG for a while, I told a recruiter one time, at some point,

I got to figure out how to put my two passions together, golf and work. And about a year later, he called me over, they were looking for a guy to run the golf ball business at Wilson, which seems like forever ago. And that started the journey. Because you were in both marketing and R&D at Wilson? Well, I was a general manager of the non equipment

side of the business. So yeah, I had two plants, two R&D managers. It was different. It was fun. But I was there for about a year and then had an opportunity to go to TaylorMade, from there. TaylorMade was a it was different. It was fun. But I was there for about a year and then had an opportunity to go to TaylorMade, you know, from there. TaylorMade was a weird ride too.

I mean, I started as the chief marketing officer, then became the chief sales and marketing officer. Then we got bought by Adidas. Adidas broke everything into regions. I became the general manager of North America for TaylorMade Adidas. And then I remember telling my wife, I flew back from a board meeting in Germany and said to my wife,

I think this is as big as this company gets. I mean, we're growing it like, you know, they want us to grow it like six or seven percent and we'd grown by 100 percent. We'd gone from 100 million to 750 million and I said, I don't think this company's getting any bigger than 750. Now they're about two billion, so it tells you about my forecasting skills. And left, I went into hockey business and told her, I think I learned all I can learn and golf. I really thought golf was in my rearview mirror. Were you a big hockey fan? I was a hockey fan.

If you go up in Chicago, you become a black hockey fan. I played hockey, not hockey in college. I played it like a fraternity team and an inter-mural team. I've always enjoyed the game of hockey. I'm not deep rooted in hockey, but loved the business. I worked for two owners of teams. One guy owned the San Jose Sharks, the other guy on the Minnesota Wild. Then this equipment company that was doing poorly, we're losing a lot of money. And they hired me to either shut it down or fix it, one of the two. And

we ended up kind of getting it turned around. We bought iTek, which is a company in Montreal. We added iTek to our business, and then we sold it in Christmas of 2008. Yeah. What kind of skills do you learn in such a unique path? We're not a golf specific path and all of a sudden you know you're with mission hockey right and then your next job was the commissioner of the LPGA tour. So what do you what do you learn about? Is it mostly a business function running this this tour? Well I think you know three things I mean business is business kind of no matter what what you apply it to the most important thing I think that came to me, I remember saying to the board of the LPGA when they said, we'd like you to become the next commissioner. I actually said, are

you sure? And they kind of chuckled and I said, no, I mean, really, I didn't grow up at a league. I don't sell TV rights for a living. I didn't really spend much time at professional sports events other than the ones I've sponsored. And I said to him, you know, the only time I'm really going to be comfortable in this job is sitting across the desk from somebody who's about to ride a five million dollar check. Because I've been that guy my whole life at Procter & Gamble, I sponsored every sport. When I was at TaylorMade at Wilson and then at Adidas, I've done, you know, NASCAR, baseball, football, virtually any sport I've been the sponsor. So I've been that guy wrote the four-year check. And that's when I said that, one of the board members said, that's exactly why we need you. We have

golf people. We can set up golf courses. We understand pin placements and camera angles. We can teach you that. Yeah. What we don't have in our building is the culture of understanding what it feels like to be a sponsor. And the business, you know, to be blunt doesn't go without sponsorship. So we need to build a mentality inside the building of what it feels like to be a check writer, not a check receiver. We have a lot of check receivers. And I would tell you that I didn't know that to answer your question when you started.

When I got to the LPG, I wasn't really sure what value I was going to add. You know, I didn't know if I could do this job or not. Pretty quickly on the job, I realized that we were a league, and I don't mean this in a bad way, acting like a league. All we talked about was what was important to us. We never talked about the check rat. I mean, in fact, a lot of our staff probably didn't even know who the checkrider was in certain events. And so, and I asked for 100 days when I started. 100 days of no decision making. Just let me

listen and learn. You've only met me for a few minutes now, so you see, I don't stop talking. So I knew that if I didn't build 100 days of listening, I wouldn't take it. So I said, I'm not going to make any decisions. I'm not going to lay out any strategies. I'm not going to make personnel changes for 100 days. And in that 100 days, I'm not going to make any decisions. I'm not going to lay out any strategies. I'm not going to make personnel changes for a hundred days. And in that hundred days, it became incredibly apparent to me that we needed to change the culture to what I call row reversal. And we've been doing that now for nine years. And it just means before if we're going to have a meeting about the key of classic, the first 50% of the agenda has to be about Kia. The second 50% we can talk about whatever we want to, but we talk

about Kia for the first half because if we get Kia right, we'll be playing for a long time. If we just get the tournament right, we'll be searching for a new person to put in front of the word classic. So it's, and you'll see it if you spend time around here. You'll see people walking around with these cards that talk about Kia. I mean, players get educated about Kia next week, they get educated about A&A. Last week, they were educated on bank info. If I want our athletes, our caddies and our staff to know what's important to the check writer because it's different every week. So talk me through, let's say like I'm a potential sponsor. How do you pitch? What's your pitch this morning with a with a company that we're talking to and he said

I only got 15 minutes so go that's exactly what he said and I said if we got 15 minutes you go and he said what do you mean? I said listen my first meeting with you I'm not gonna sell you anything the LPG you're not ready to buy it And I don't even know what you need so what I typically tell people if I come visit you the first meeting We're not going to talk about the LPGA. We're only going to talk about you tell me what's keeping you awake at night What's missing in your business? Tell me about your 20 biggest dealers and what percent of the business they represent. And we spend a lot of time learning somebody else's business.

And then I say, if I don't come back for a second visit, it's because I don't know how to deal with any of the stuff that you're facing. If I come back, I promise I won't waste your time. Because what I'm going to bring you back will address the things we talked about today So for me if you're going to be if you're going to be my wife always says that we're in a partnership And I guess she's right, so but sponsorship I think sometimes a bad word

It sounds like I sold you something you wrote a check and it deals over Partnership means we're in this together. So if I'm going to create a partnership with key if I'm going to create a Partnership with HSBC or Honda Thailand or you know or resorts. I got to make sure I understand what's important to them and I got to make sure when the tournaments over what we delivered what was important to them not us. Sometimes I get excited about TV numbers or who won the event or how many people came through the gate. Some of our sponsors don't care about those things. They care about other things to toward their business. So when we do our recap it's got to be built against

their objectives not ours. Most sports don't do that. As a former sponsor, most sports cash your check and they do everything that's on the legal agreement. If you want to really be in the business longterm, you got to do more than that. So what is, take me through what you, in your experience, what a sponsor is mostly interested in. Cause it's from the outside,

you know, look at men's professional golf and women's, I always think about how much money they put up and I'm like do they really you know does so and so sell that many cars and replace of their money but talk about like what a sponsor gets out of when they buy into a tournament. Well I would say generally when you talk to sponsors of the LPGA very different probably than the PGA tour or the NBA or NFL most of our sponsors will put hospitality at the top of their list. If hospitality like really get to spend time with your customers with our athletes at the top of your list, we win. If that's the most important reason you're going to get involved in a sports sponsorship, I do that better than

everybody else. And I'm not saying that to be boastful. It's just a fact. And you've, I assume, looked at your agenda, you've talked to other players that you see that. This is an engaging group of young female athletes. They're fun, right? They're different. They're going to tee off the same t-box you are. You're going to hit the ball about as young female athletes. They're fun, right? They're different. They're going to tee off the same tee box you are. You're going to hit the ball about as far as them. They're going to beat you by 30 strokes, but you're going to play a similar game, right?

If you're 155 out and you've got a 7-iron, I bet you she has a 7-iron. And you're not going to be TN off 40 yards behind you. And they're not going to be asking you, please don't step in my line. It's not going to be a practice round for them. It's going to be a fun day playing golf. So it's more relatable, right? It's just total. We go to the pro amp party tonight. You'll see 50 players in there hanging around. Go to a pro amp of another tour. Go to the night before an NBA game and tell me how many athletes you saw in the room.

It's not part of their DNA. It's who we are. So when somebody calls me and says the most important thing for me, Mike, is I want to get my 100 best somebody's together in some location and really spend time and get to know them. I'd say, well, then you call the right place. If somebody calls me and says, we're trying to launch a new four definition television. That's about how many eyeballs we can get. I say, hey, call Jay, you know, call Gadell. Those guys deliver more eyeballs than we do. I do pretty well globally.

But if it's just about eyeballs in the US, they'll win. So I'd rather have you go spend time with them because they're better at that. But if you want to talk about an experience on the golf course, I win. I mean, I'm the best at that. So generally what we sell is a great hospitality experience, not just on Pro AM Day, but the entire week. And then we sell an opportunity to have a great hometown event. So for Kia, we're going to have a great South, you know, Southern California event, but we're going to let the world eavesdrop. We're going to have 165 countries watch this event while we play. Very different from some other sports. You know, you can have a really cool, you know, really cool soccer event here, but generally speaking,

they're not going to be televised all around the world. I mean, this one is, this one is cool in the fact that this is all about Kia, North America. It's all about Southern California, but our viewership numbers in Korea, Australia, Thailand, Singapore will all be strong because some of those country's best female athletes are all here. So for them, it's like watching Gauph Olympics every week. It's their players at the LPJ. So really what we sell is three things,

incredible hospitality, engagement factor like nobody else, not just the staff, but the athletes, and a hometown event that the world will watch. So it seems like there's maybe a misconception about the LPGA tour, about there is such a foreign presence on the LPGA tour that it doesn't sound like that's a, I guess it may not resonate as much in the US as it does in foreign countries. That doesn't sound like it's a concern to you because of how much of a reach you guys

have in so many different places. If you think about it, it's really hard to find a brand anymore that says, I'd really just like my brand to be here regionally. I really don't want consumers outside of California to, I mean, I don't view that as interesting. Almost every brand I meet, they've got a hometown, they've got a core country, but they want their brand to be global. So, you know, when you're, when I'm talking to A and A next week I mean it's a Japanese based company, but they're expanding in the US They want to get their brand presence in the US really clear, but anything they do has to have global reach because the airline has

Global reach so we're a good fit typically when we were talking before about tell me your pitch Typically if I get a CEO talking three things are definitely gonna come up in that conversation Global they're either going global or come up in that conversation. Global. They're either going global or going global. In either case, they're not that good at it yet. Global's hard, right? And I usually say, diddo. You know, we're going global.

We're not that good at it yet, but we're pretty global. They'll usually talk about how, you know, their top 50 customers make up 80% of the business. I don't say, well, let's put on an event. It brings your top 50 together. Let's spend a week with the guys that make or break your business. And then they usually talk about something that's important to the company or the brand, whether it's charity or a women's movement or whatever those things are. I say, well, then let's bring that message home.

I can do all three of those things at an LPJ event. So that's why, if I can get the CEO talking, they'll typically bring up things that we can deliver. And then when I come back and deliver it, it feels like it was their idea in that mine. It says such a trickle down effect. We don't talk about a lot of these things a lot on this show, but it goes to, you know, when you're able to get the business side of it arranged, that means you're going to be

able to get to this many people in the tournament. And you guys, we were talking to Nadia earlier today who said, when you guys tee it up, you have 45 of the top 50 in the world almost every week. Every week. It's not the same on the PGH Tour, that's for sure. And from all around the world, you know, it's you know, you got you think about young girls are hitting balls virtually in every corner of this world. And in their case in the case of

women's golf, they've all got one dream. It's this dream. It's the LPJ. So everybody's on this strive to make it to this level. And when they make it to this level, it's it's pretty cool. You know, because if we just had an American tour, yeah, we'd have a lot of good American companies that are never going global. But what the best American would do is leave to go play the best players. I mean, it's what everybody who's at the top of their game

wants. The Christie Kerr doesn't want to beat the best Americans. She wants to beat the best players in the world, period. So she'd look at us and say, get them together. I'm ready to go. So that's what we try to do every week. Yeah, just in a little bit a few hours. We've spent with fewer players. They don't have the same kind of corporate polish to them and it's the it's charm. It's awesome. I mean, so that kind of yeah that experience you're talking about with the pro-am and stuff It was it's totally different kind of you know, they're not going through the motions when they sit down and talk to us

They're not it's not right, you know, they're not going through the motions when they sit down and talk to us. They're not, it's not, you know, this hit the ball here and then I did this. Now they're, they're showing their personality and stuff and I found that really interesting. It's refreshing. Yeah. I think people always found it fun. I remember a guy from a different lead call and he said, why do you put players, Twitter handers on the back of the caddy bibs? I'm not because I want the fans to follow them. This is why when you put your Twitter hand, that's what league would think, right? At NFL or something. And I said, listen, following a league is so uninteresting. Like we're corporate. You know, we're kind of sterile. Right. I mean, we can only do certain things. I said, follow Danielle Kering, you'll love her. And when you want to watch her, you'll

watch her on the LPJ. And if you follow Paula Kramer, she's interesting. Are Yani Sen or so young you? So if you follow those players, you're following the LPJ. So I don't have to, I don't have to compete with that I want them to be able to find our players and follow them socially because as you guys see them in They're fun and they're in the league or the tour is never gonna be in the more your stars are promoted the better your Product is also like following your players on Instagram just because they're always in crazy locations. Yeah So what is, how much has the tour changed since you started? Or what have been some of your big initiatives from 2010 to now?

Well, I mean, it's the first party question. Some of the bigger changes is the youth movement. It was young when I got here. It's silly young now, right? I mean, I think it used to be, if you go back 10, 15, 20 years ago, players would turn pro. And then when they turn pro, if you go back 10, 15, 20 years ago, players would turn pro. And then when they turn pro, they'd meet great coaches, great nutritionists, you know, physiotherapists, swing coaches, mental coaches.

They'd turn pro first. That's when you, you have to almost make it to a tour to meet those kind of people. You wouldn't even know what a physiotherapist is unless you were at that level. Now at 12, 13 years old, they have that staff. They already understand nutrition. They understand how to stretch. They understand swing coaches. And so by the time they're 16, 17, they're

the same as a 27-year-old used to be 20 years ago, in terms of really fine tuning and learning all the things. I mean, I used to worry about, you know, 22-year-olds traveling all over the world. But I'll meet a 19-year-old who's just, you know, just turned pro. And her amateur career has been nearly as global as the LPGA tour. I mean, just to be able to play

the best in the world. So it's incredibly, it's incredibly young. I mean, we have players who can, you know, are winning a million dollars this year but still can't rent a car in any of the cities we go to in terms of their age, you know. So that's been one big trend. The second is that when I got here,

people called us global, but we were generally global in a couple of places. We were big in the US, a couple of countries in Europe, big in Korea, and beginning to get interesting in Japan. Today, you just blow that out of the water, right? It doesn't matter if you're talking about China or Thailand or Malaysia or Australia. It really comes from all over, including all over Europe. If you look at our symmetric tour, the tour to make it on the LPJ, there's 46 countries

on that tour. That's more countries than played in the Olympics for golf, right? So it's more Olympic on the symmetric tour than it was in Rio. And that's just because, you know, it's what's happening. Players are coming from all over the place. The things I'm most proud of, I mean, there's really, you know, three things that stand out

that the event we just came from Founders Cup. One of the things I felt that the LPGA was missing when I got here nine years ago is I really didn't think it understood its roots. And my father used to use this comment to me all the time. It's probably because it made me come home, but he used to say, you don't know where you're going if you don't know where you've been. And it was really just, you know, remember the roots so you can figure out what the tree's going to look like. And so I had met the founders, but most of my players hadn't. I knew the stories of the founders, but most of the players didn't.

So we built the founders cup to make sure that today's players could thank yesterday's players and understand the persistence and the drive that those players simply wanted to make golf better for women in the next generation. So I would say players, you guys can do whatever you want you can do, but do one thing to leave the game better for your daughters or your daughters daughters because we're making strides. And so that event throws about a million dollars a year into the future of the game. And girls under the age of 18 are the fastest growing segment of golf in America right now. That was that would have been unheard of to say nine years ago. I mean, nobody believed girls under 18 were going to lead anything in golf. And the other was coming up this fall. It's an event we call the UL International Crown.

We had a lot of people asking me why we don't play the women's president's cup. And I said because that sounds like an idea that was one of the questions. I mean, I'd say that sounds like an idea that an American thought of. You know, America versus rest of the world, a great idea. If you spend time in the LPGA like I had, America versus the rest of the world is yesterday, right? I mean, we could do that. And I remember saying, because somebody said, well, it'd be great because Japan gets

to play with Korea. And I said, you know, buddy, I go to Korea and Japan every year. They don't want to play with each other. They want to play with each other. So I said, we got to let everybody paint their face with the flag and sing the anthem. And so the UL crown, when we sat down to design it, we said, let's create something that golf's never seen before. Eight countries, four players per country. The only way to qualify is your play. There's no back room. There's no selection committee that decides who gets it.

No coaches or captains. The players decide who they're playing with. And so the whole event is different. And so we played it twice in America. And we bring that thing to Seoul, Korea this fall. It's going to be a cannon shot. I mean, there'll be 100 plus thousand people out there. Probably all screaming for Korea,

but it's really going to be cool to show Asia on event that probably they've seen on TV, but have never been able to touch up close. I really think for golf it's one of the things we're going to leave in the game. It's going to be a new, you know, golf always says they want new, but when you launch new everybody critiques it, this one's been great, because everyone tried to critique it at the end, they said, well, I got to admit that's pretty fun to watch. How many events a year do you have, do you host in Korea? This year there'll be two and there'll be two long-term. So today we have one LPJ stop and we'll add the U.L. Crown, but it moves every two years. Next year we'll have the event in Seoul And we'll also have an event in Pusan. It's their second largest city

So it's about an hour fly away. So think LA San Francisco and your mind was it only a matter of time before the PGA tour Move to Korea just with the incredible boom that's going on there. Yeah, I didn't know if the PGA tour would go to Korea, but I knew they'd be I knew they'd be traveling through Asia. I mean the reality of it is when you get to the fall and the NFL and NCAA football starts no matter no matter what they tell you. The fact is those are tougher times in terms of TV numbers. You're competing against some pretty Americana things. I'm watching college football in the fall. So I get it, you know. So we go over to Asia, and I mean, I don't know what the PGA

Tour has experienced has been. I haven't been to a PGA Tour event in Asia, but when we show up in a country in Asia, it is a happening. I mean, the players may have told you already with the minute, we're the first four pages of the news section. We're the nightly new story on sports, you know, on sports that night. I mean, you turn on the TV and there's, you know, tonight at the LPGA is one of the future stories on, so it's, it's bigger. I think most Americans, we've, we've had a couple of media people travel with us. I remember one, we were walking down the, the fairway on the 17th hole in Korea and he said, I get it now. And I said, what do you mean? I said, I get why you guys come. And I said, do me a favor, come with us one more week, come to Malaysia next week, because

you think this is a Korea thing? And he did. And he said, I'm blown away, because Malaysia is the same thing. Yeah. Because I think you're thinking, of course, you're big in Korea. But for a lot of these countries, they don't bring the best athletes in the world to their country for anything. Like America, we take it for granted. Best hockey, best football, best baseball, best best, whatever plays here all the time. If you're living qualm for the best hundred anything in the world doesn't come to your country that often. So it's a it's a happening and it's pretty cool for us to be in the middle of it. What do you see as kind of some of your biggest challenges going forward for the tour? Well, you know, those those divide sometimes between between US and rest of the world. In

the US, my biggest challenge has been my biggest challenge for the last five years, once we built out the schedule, which is Network TV. We have an incredible partnership with golf channel. But if you think about the golf channel, I know what channel it is in Southern California, but in Orlando, it's 1154. You don't swing by 1154 when you surf in the channel listing.

And really, golf channel is essentially a prescription-based channel bought mostly by men. So it's a 75, 25 men to women. So I don't get a lot of women to stumble into the old people. You kind of got an A-Pol. Yeah, I'm going to be great on the golf channel. But when I do go on network TV, you know,

my 350, 400,000 viewers becomes a million. And of that, a million half of them don't watch golf all the time. So I get a chance to, and I'm jealous because the PGA tour gets that opportunity every weekend. Where they go out show the show the tour to a much bigger audience and then bring some of that audience back to golf channel. I wish I was that kind of partner for the golf channel. I wish I was on that much.

So when I started we had one network weekend. Now we have seven perfect world for me as if I get half my events, you know, over the next 10 years on on network TV, I think it changes the face of the LPJ in America. I think globally, it's really just continuing to build out our TV presence. I mean, we get incredible TV coverage in the countries where in you think 170 countries is enough,

but there's room for us to continue. Like today, we really don't have coverage in China. Shen Shen is slowly changing that and the longer she stays, number one in the world, the better for that opportunity. But, you know, expanding into TV in China. Shen Shen is slowly changing that and the longer she stays number one in the world the better for that opportunity but you know expanding into TV in China is a game changer for us both financially and in terms of viewers. How does that work when you you got you got two events in China correct we do yeah how does that work when you go in I mean golf is kind of it's kind of an awkward situation over there it's it's not I don't want to say taboo but it's

it's a little bit. Yeah, they're not sure if they love it or hate it. Yeah. The Olympics has really helped, to be honest with you, because one thing that the Chinese people like is a sport where they could be on the podium and the flag going up and the anthem going up. And so I think when Shen Shen got herself on the podium stand,

it made them realize, hey, this is a country pride. A lot of terms, you heard this term in Asia a lot, podium sports. And I didn't know what that meant back in 2010. Podium sports get government support. If it's a sport that the country could actually be on a podium, then we actually help it. So China has gone from rich man's thing.

We don't like it. It's for the elite to golf schools, driving ranges. Some of the biggest name coaches you know in America have schools now over in China. Because it's a podium sport The government is actually more into it than you know They feel like they can invest in it and they'll see tangible results I mean they look at that. I mean the Chinese people would say to you hey if you know if there's great Asian ladies playing in the LPGA

We're gonna be the best of them, you know because now we're gonna just like if there's great gymnastics from Asia We're gonna be the best gymnastics so I love that because there's a competitive spirit that it's driving That's driving the other thing I'd say to you is when we're going to be the best gymnastics. So I love that because there's a competitive spirit that's driving, that's driving. The other thing I'd say to you is when we started going to Thailand, we could have had that same question. Like women didn't play golf in Thailand. You'd go to a golf course, you wouldn't see a woman playing golf. So people would say, why is women's golf tour coming to Thailand? That's not us.

And today, 12 years later, we've got, I don't know, I would have to tell you, but I bet you we've got 12 players on tour from Thailand, another 12 or 15 on the semester tour. Last year, no, not last year, but the last year before, the number two country at QSchool was Thailand. US was one, and Thailand was two. Again, 12 years ago, women didn't play golf. Today, some of the best players in the world play on LPJ,

and it's caused all these young girls in Thailand to change their dreams. They're just like say, we did in Korea. I always say the Jutana Garnet sisters on my tour are the say, we have Thailand because young girls, I mean one of the best amateurs in the world right now is a 15-year-old from Thailand. And so I really believe together all of us, we can't take credit for it, have changed that country and little girls dreams And I think that's happening in more and more. So when we go to a country that doesn't really doesn't really get us yet I actually think it's a huge opportunity because it's you know, we can change What is what would you say is one of the bigger is the biggest or one of the bigger misconceptions about the LPGA tour? I said this one time on ESPN and I don't know if they agreed with me, but I think in sports

in general, if you ask people this, you know, your belief of that sport and you just say something I don't think about it, the typically the the stereotype of the percept and sport is right. It's just dated, you know, so like in a few to said to me, NBA five years ago, I said, oh, you know, thugs and choking the coach. And I was describing 1999. I'm not describing Durant or LeBron of the way that the sport is today. Or he asked me about baseball. I think about cheating and trying to soak the pants and the SOSA's bat being quirked.

Like that's not true to that. It's not Derek Jeter and the future of Mike Trout of the game. But I'm dated. I'm back 10 or 15 years ago. I think it's based in truth. It's just old, right? Especially if it's not a sport you're really connected to. And a lot of people know the LPJ aren't as connected to it. So I say LPJ to them and they say, oh, it's all foreign. Nobody speaks the language. I can't even pronounce you the names. Nobody can even talk

to you out there. And I always say, what a great description of the LPJ in 2004. Because I mean, that would have been fair. But if you walk into LPGA in 2005, I haven't seen an interpreter on a driving range in seven years. But when I started in 2010, I would see 12 interpreters on the range every day. It's just, we had a traveling language company with us for my first five seasons. We probably averaged 40 players a year

learning a different language, including Americans learning Japanese, Japanese learning English, Koreans learning Japanese. it was really pretty interesting time. But today, that's not our tour, you know, today if you come out, you're just going to be floored. I love it when somebody comes out for the first time and they're playing in a program and they go, look, I got, and they'll, you know, they'll say, I got this, this guy, I'm like, wow, is that going to be fun? No, I mean, that's going to be fun. I said,

she's crazy, you know, she's 23, she's from Spain, she's, I mean, that's going to be fun. I said, she's crazy. You know, she's 23. She's from Spain. She's, you know, she's a lot of fun. And so I think the misconceptions are probably based in truth. They're just really dated. That's just not us today. We're, so the language thing, like, was that something that you all encouraged as far as, or was it just,

ladies, just taking more ownership of, hey, this is a global tour and we need to. We just, you know, to me, it was it just, ladies, just taking more ownership of, hey, this is a global tour and we need to. We just, to me, it was like, you know, if I know you're thirsty, I just put the Diet Pepsi stand on the team next to you. Right, so I knew they wanted to learn language. I knew they were incredibly overachievers. I mean, when a player on tour says

she's gonna learn a new instrument, like I think at 53, that's a five year endeavor. She thinks in five weeks I'll play in front of people, because that's who these guys are. I mean, they're incredible overachievers, and they just do everything better than us. So, all I said is we're making it awfully difficult for a bunch of women who travel every week,

don't get home very often. When they get home, they're going to shower, sleep, and do laundry. Those are your only options, because you're going to take off again the next week. So, we look for a language company for those first five years that would travel with us because their downtime is rain delays.

Their downtime is an afternoon pro-amp time and the course isn't available in the morning. So they needed to learn all this stuff on their time. Their downtime is flying from here to, you know, from here to the next stop. So we just brought language to them. They paid for it. They decided what language they wanted to learn. We just brought the instructors to them. They paid for it, they decided what language they wanted to learn, we just brought the instructors to them. So if you, you know, five, six, seven years ago, if we had rain delay and you walked into a pro shop, you would see a bunch of players off-sitting

with individual coaches all learning there. I've never seen Beatrice or Kari one time, I said, what are you doing? She goes, I'm learning Japanese. And I said, why? And she goes, well, I speak five languages, it'd be really cool to speak a sixth. That's who we're talking about, right? She's got to be really cool to learn a sixth, you know? So, and you know, for me, I was embarrassed because I'm still struggling with English, you know? But that's, you know, they're very good at what they do when they set their mind to it.

We just needed to make it easy for them. And the language thing is history on our tour. That puts in perspective, yeah, anyone that says, like you just said about people not speaking English, it's like, well, hey, yeah, it's not that easy to learn a second language. And then for some people, it's not even their second language. And some countries, you know, where you come from, the cultural is, you don't speak another language. Do you really good at it? Sure. And I remember saying, I've sat next to, I'm

Yazada, remember from Japan. We sat in a plane, we were telling jokes the whole way. We were going, I think we're going to Arkansas. We got there and she was in the lead. And she went on the thing and she said, can I get my interpreter and I said you're interpreter I mean nobody speaks faster than me and you understand everything I said on the plane It's because you have it. I don't know if I speak English good enough And I remember thinking of myself and I said doing a couple of player meetings Americans will love you for trying and they'll actually really get a kick out of it You beat it up because we all beat it up English, you know

So it's just telling people it's okay to be okay. I mean, they're so good at their sport. They don't want to be asked anything else. I can't. And people in Arkansas will laugh at people in the yard. Right. So you you you kind of touched on earlier, but things that I've heard about from about the players on the LPGA Touring that they're so good at buying into the product, right?

And helping sell the product. So what are some examples of things that you see like your players doing to kind of just help promote the tour or do things that maybe it wouldn't be done on the BGA tour? Well, I'll give you a great living example all the way back to my first days. When I first got here, I used to, you know, be walking around and players would say, Hey, how can I help this week commission? Hey, have fun high five. And it's Christina Kim grabbed me one time and said, No, when we say how how can we help? Like, we really want to help. And I was almost not prepared for that question.

So I had created, I'll give you a sec card for you. So I had created, this doesn't work on a podcast, but I'll at least show you guys, and you guys can talk about it. I think I'm pretty sure. But I created these cards, I call it customer profile cards, and I created them for my staff, because I didn't want my staff to get out of an airplane,

and assume they know what key or HSBC or KPMG wanted that week. I wanted to make sure you understand. So we created this help card and HLP stands for something, but essentially it points out who's riding the check this week, not who's the title sponsor, but somebody's riding a check for us to be playing for 1.8 million in front of 170 countries. So we make sure we explain what their objectives are. What are they trying to get done? We make sure the player knows what are the two or three things as an athlete we need from you this week if we're going to deliver key as objectives I don't think LeBron shows up in his locker

tonight and gets a card telling the three or four things he's got to do before shoot around my players do we show pictures of the most important people they're gonna be there that week if you see these people thank them if you don't see these people here's their address somewhere to send your thank you card I give them one unwritten thank you card a week, already self-adressed to a CEO, and just say, fill it out this week, give it to any staff member, we'll mail it.

As a former sponsor, I never got thanked by an athlete. I wasn't offended by that, but I thought, it'd be cool if you did, and we could be the only sport doing that, you know? Pretty sure there's no other sport. And at the bottom, we tell them suggested social posts. All my players are gonna post a million things this week. If they can work in these four or five posts,

it would really make a difference in Kia's business. So every week they show up, they're gonna get that card. It's gonna change the information. Cause what funny thing is, we might play for different banks or different car companies. Some car companies are doing it cell cars, some car companies are doing it, to talk to their dealers.

We wanna make sure the players understand the objectives of the check writer. So the reason I tell you that is I get a call every week from a different CEO going, you never believe when I got in the mail the other day, what you get? I got 17 tanker letters. You're kidding me. No way, I love you. But it's important that the players understand that there's an appreciation side to this, important that the staff and the caddies, so I mentioned Christina Kim because one time she was playing this event about five years ago. She saw Michael

Sprag, who's the VP of sales and marketing for Kia North America. She was walking between nine and 10. He was there with his family. She ducked under the rope and said, are you Michael the guy from Kia? And he said, yeah, I mean, she shook her hand and she just, and she said, I just want to thank you on behalf of all these women for what you're doing. Doc's under the open goes hits on tennis is in the four days of competition. So of course he picks up a cell phone calls us and goes what was that all about. You know and we said well you know she's got your pitch. She knows a little bit about your background. It's important that she knows that you're an important player.

And this is a guy Kia who sponsors a lot of sports tennis basketball because I've never been thanked by an athlete before I said, well, that's why we do it. So, you know, it's a little thing, but you guys have met my players now and well enough to know that they not only respect it, but they do these things, and those are little things that make a big difference. And the media wise, too, we do a lot of PGA Tour stuff, and it can be hard to get to players sometimes,

and they just kind of see it as an obligation, and obviously they deal with it at a different level. Here, like people are like, hey, when are you guys going to come out to LPJA event? Like, come on, you need to come do this and we've been admittedly lacking. But remember we were we were in Des Moines and the guy came up to weird there for the soulhead. We didn't have quiet police signs that when the signs just said get loud. So when somebody put the thing up, they would actually say, get loud and this guy said to me, you know, I've been to a lot of golf events and you need some quiet police signs. I me, I've been to a lot of golf events,

and you need some quiet police signs. I said, you're been to an LPJ event, he goes, my first one, I said, then you need to spend more time in LPJ event. Because he goes, well, we're the quiet police sign. I said, we're not asking for quiet. You know what I mean? Especially the fact that you yell at these players

are going to yell back at you. If you yell at the wrong time, spectators will take care of you. You don't have to worry about you. So it's fun to be different sometimes. My players are refreshingly different, so we want to make sure that we showcase that. What kind of relationship do you have

with commissioners of other sports leagues? I've always envisioned it as this little special knock at the door. It's a group text altogether. I don't know if there's a knock, no one's given it to me. So maybe that should tell me something about myself. Not real close with the other sports, but pretty close and golf.

I mean, good personal friends with Jay, Monahan, Pete Bavoc, what Mike Davis, I mean, I consider all those guys good friends, same with Martin Slumberz or Keith Pelley overseas. I mean, we sit on a couple of the same boards, so we see each other four or five times a year. And the Olympics really help pull us as an industry together. I've said this in the same direction.

Yeah, just bottom line is, we're all trying to compete and win in our own individual tour or business, but the Olympics gave us common bond and common effort. And Rio wasn't easy. We had to build a golf course and figure out a lot of rules and regulations. I mean, Japan's a whole other thing in terms of being able to start with a country that already gets it

and has a lot of options for us to play. But it was really a lightning rod to bring us all together and talk about growing the game worldwide. And what works in Europe and doesn't work in the States versus Canada versus Australia. So I would say really close with the golf industry. In terms of other sports, I'm just because I've been in sports so long. I just know a lot of people at Major League Baseball or the NFL that I've known and worked with in other businesses. But I don't know Gidele well, I don't know Silver. I've seen, we've bumped into the same meetings, especially like I said, Olympics in Rio, I saw more of the NBA. But unfortunately, I think with all of us, our businesses kind of take us different

directions. But I'm really excited. What I left golf in about 2000, one of the things that was frustrating to me is that there just didn't seem to be any kind of common bond between the stakeholders of the game. When I came back in 2010, 10 years later, it was fundamentally changed and that was really exciting for me. It's like everybody knows the more popular golf is in general, all books rise. No doubt. I think too like anything else. When everything you and's working, you don't really have to work very hard. But when golf kind of dipped back down there, well, kind of the post-tiger effect, it really, I really think it made the industry, and all the stakeholders better, because now you've

got to figure it out, right? I mean, when your market share is going to be your market share, but the pie got smaller, better figure out how to grow the pie again. And I would say 20 years ago, the industry wouldn't have known what to do with Topgolf, and probably what had given it the Heisman. 20, I mean, but today, everybody in the industry understands what an important what to do with top golf, and probably would have given it the Heisman.

But today, everybody in the industry understands what an important aspect top golf can be and is, introducing the game to millions of people that probably don't know what it's like to stand on the first tee of an actual golf course. And we would have probably said that wasn't golf 20 years ago. And I think the great news is everybody realizes that's exactly what it is now, and it's a huge upside. So I think the industry smarter and certainly more aligned than it was, you know, at least when I was here back in the 90s.

I imagine this varies from sponsor to sponsor and for different parts of the world, but who are some examples of your most marketable stars in terms of like who a sponsor wants to play with in a pro-am or who's like the highest requested person usually? Well, I mean, you could be a moderate fan and probably think that, you know, Lexi, so young, you, you know, Paula Kramer, Kristi Kerr, the court of sisters, and it probably depends on what country. Like in Korea, I can tell you, you can go right down the list. I mean, Sun Young Park is going to be probably the number one player auctioned off.

You know, she's a winning machine and in Korea comes a lot of wins. When we go to Japan, Japanese players are sort of at the top of the list. So it's interesting. And when you go to Thailand, it's really funny for me to see a couple of really huge American stars leave the tea. And then the gallery gets big and I realize, oh, you know, Morio Gettana guards up next. Well, in the States, just the opposite would happen, right? She'd go off and then all those people would come up for the next American group.

So it's fun to me to see that change. But we've got 20 players that are big. Michelle Wees Gallery is big, no matter where she plays in the world. I think it's safe to say that Soya and you is a big gallery, no matter where she plays in the world. The quarter sisters are going to have a great following, no matter where they play.

And it's fun to see. There's, you know, our handful of stars that are borderless. And, you know, Shenzhen is becoming one of those stars where, you know, I remember playing in Asia, the US, people just want to come out and see your play. I only got to have every scene here without a smile on her face. Yes, she will not die of stress.

I don't know what she does when she gets old age, but it won't be stress. Because she doesn't get too wigged out about the job. To say, let's like for a casual golf fan that doesn't tune into the LPGA regularly, what would you say that they're missing out on the most? I think they're, you're never going to learn. I mean, I shouldn't say never and I don't know Bubba Watson but I what I was thinking is I'm never going to learn how to hit a 195 yard 58 degree wedge.

You know, so when I turn on the TV and see there's Bubba and he's got one 93 and they're slight downhill wind, he's got a 58 degree wedge. You know, so when I turn on the TV and see there's Bubba and he's got one ninety three and they're slight downhill wind, he's got a 58 degree. I mean that's, you know, that's, I can't relate to that. But if you ask me, um, how does Stacy Lewis, I don't know what she weighs, 105 pounds, you know, five foot, five 105 pounds, how does she hit it, 275? We all could learn something like that because I can't hit it 275 and I'm 200 pounds. So there ought to be, so what I would tell people is it's a much more relatable game. You're going to learn a lot more from watching Paula Kramer hit a golf ball than you probably are watching Roy McRory.

It's just, it's just the reality of it, you know, I don't know. It's a variety of shots. And they're going to, like I said, if you're 155 yards out, you're probably both hitting seven yards. So you're going to have a game that's similar. You're going to actually watch people that play a game that's at least like yours and you're going to be able to relate to. The other thing I think you're going to find is I always tell people, because some people say to me, you know, your sports is so global. I'm having a hard time getting my

head around it. I said, how do you get your head around the Olympics? They go, well, that's different. I say it's really not different. I mean, what happens in the Olympics is the best young athletes and the prime of their career coming together to see who's the best in the world. And you take the time to get to know them. And all of a sudden you find yourself cheering for the German Bob's letter and the Ukrainian gymnast because you get to know a little bit about them. If you take the time to get to know a little bit about my athletes, you will follow them forever. Because they're incredible. They're incredible stories. If you're 22 and one of the best 50 anything in the world, you need to understand that story because that's pretty amazing to be. So to me, I follow these women because I'm amazed at what they're able to do.

Like, I'm 53 and I'm never gonna be the top 50 anything in the world and they're 23. And there's virtually nobody better at what they do than them. So it's a relatable game. And I think, you know, go play around with Morgan Pressle and you'll be floored that she can beat you by 20 strokes. She can now hit you by 20 yards and you know you got 100 points in these. They're such a good tempo. And they're so beautiful. I feel like everybody could learn so much from their tempo.

Golf has turned into this. I'm this I'm I've fallen to this too this obsession with distance and wanting to crush the ball and feeling like it's a 400 hole I can hit a 300 and that leave me a hundred and then you watch just being out there for the couple a couple of holes today Watching some of these women play and it's like wow that's like a much that way to play it makes so much more sense Why do I never do that? So well same reason tiger would hit 10 to irons, right? I mean playing in the fairways a different ball game, you know? And we always laugh as, you know, our momarton hits 84% of her fairways in regulation. 84%.

And that's like, you got to wait a couple of tournaments to miss. And I was telling somebody the other day, I was flying back from Asia to our last season of the event. And I looked and said, if you hit 70% of your greens in regulation on our tour, you weren't going to be like in the top 25. 70%. So I said, you know, the accuracy on this tour is still... That would be probably what top three or top four on the 18th.

I don't know. I remember thinking to myself, you know, some kid on our tour is hitting 68% of greens and regulation, and she can't compete. I mean, that's not fair. We hear a lot about what a lot of the players do in terms of with junior golf and the relationship with junior golf. We were talking with Nadia Summary earlier, told us some stats on what has grown from a junior perspective and what kind of programs

you support in that regard. Can you tell us a bit about that? Yeah, so our LPJ foundation, our foundational effort to the LPJ is really based on a program we have with the USGA called LPJ- USGA Girls Golf. When I took a look at it 2010, when I got there, we were introducing a little over 4,000 girls a year to the game.

The whole idea is to introduce girls to the game in a girls only environment. What happens when you get a bunch of girls together and learn the game, it's safer, it's fun, or they come back. If you get boys and girls together, you tend to get about a 70% drop off in girls coming back. If you get girls to play together in the very beginning,

that doesn't happen, your retention rate is through the roof. So we looked at it and said, we know it works, we just haven't really fueled it. So things like the founders cup we talked about in the beginning have all been designed to generate funds. The women on tour donate about $250,000 a year into this program as well. So there's a lot of different people.

Pete, you know, Augusta National writes a significant check to this. USDA writes a significant check to this. We've got corporate sponsors involved, too, but today we're going to do about 80,000 girls a year. So we went from 4,000 girls a year to 80,000 girls a year being introduced to the game. And that's really what's changed in young women's golf. That's why, you know, we're doubled the size of girls under the age of 18 playing golf in America. I always say that for me, for as long as I've been in golf, junior golf and senior adult golf has always looked

the same. 80% men, 20% women, junior golf, 80% boys, 20% girls. So when people say, how do you feel about the future of the game? I'd say the same way I feel about the present because the future is just going to be supplied with the same percentages. Today, if you look at the future golf, a third of youth, a third of kids under the age of 18 are girls. We've never been able to say that. They've hovered around 15 to 20% for 100 years. So now if you think about when you talk about the future of the game, it's twice as much female as it used to be. So I don't know how many of those girls will be playing when they're 40, but even if almost all of them fall off, it'll be a bigger number. So the game's going to be more female in 20 years, whether people like it. And they're still conscious of golf even if they don't play anymore.

They'll be viewers, they'll be fans, they'll make golf trips. So yeah, I think the... I think if you love the game, you owe that to the game. Like let's let the other half in. And that's really what's happening in the last five or six years. Is there any emphasis on courses designed for women? Like I know, it's always interesting to me where, you know, just like, all right, play up a tier,

you know, our two or three, but it's never, hey, we're gonna make this course, you know, more, you know, place these bunkers in a certain spot. There's a couple over in England, like formbies like that where they've got it. There may be, I'd be lined if I said it was something that I'm spending a lot of time on because in my world, my players play from wherever the blue team markers are on your home course. I mean, I'll always be sitting with a cross from somebody and they'll say, yeah, but I don't know if this course is right for the LPG. I said, what do you, what do you, you know, your middle men's team markers play at? Not 6,800, it's

it perfect. You know, we're going to play somewhere between 6,400 and 6,750. That's sort of our sweet spot. And generally, almost every golf course that at least hasn't been designed in the last 20 years, that everything designed the last 400 years is kind of designed to be played around 6500 yards. So, it's like an opportunity then, because I feel like, you know, men's pro golf is getting squeezed out of all these awesome courses, and that's like an opportunity for you guys. No, no, I have said to Mike Davis a million times, you know, I know you're concerned that Mary has not long enough for you. It's perfect for us, you know.

So, I mean, it's exciting to see some of the places, whether it's Olympic or Pebble Beach or Shoal. I mean, we're playing some of the really classic golf courses in our majors. And if you think about what's happening with the KPMG Women's PGA Championship, same thing, whether it's, you know, Sahali or Olympic fields, I mean, we're going to, we're going to some of the true classic, what are meant, typically known as men's majors courses, and they're perfect for us. We're not redesigning anything.

We're not adding teas. We're not redesigning anything, we're not adding teas, we're not changing a thing because playing right at where that golf course was designed is really about the length we play. Yeah, we're coming this year. KPMT. Okay, good, excellent. Yeah, he worked for KPMT. I used to work for them for nine years in Chicago,

so we're, yeah. Now I kind of work for him. We're doing, yeah. What would you say is like something, like one of the most important things you've learned in your time as commissioner? I hate to admit this, but patience. I wasn't born with it.

I used to think it was a four letter word. I used to think when people talk about patience as a virtue and all that. I used to think patience was a lazy person supporting their pace because I'm a pace, I mean you can see my knees bouncing on the whole caffeine, like I go, right? And so to me, I would much rather make aggressive mistakes, apologize and fix it, then always be right because I took my time. I hate you to hate the term, let's sleep on it,

get back out to my mind, sleep doesn't make me change the way I think, let's go. You know, kind of the fail quickly. Yeah, I mean, unfortunately, I've proven that a million times in this job, because in this job, everybody writes about your fails, and I've certainly had my share. But what I've learned is in this job is,

to really, it's really not my LPJ. It won't be my LPJ when I'm gone. It wasn't my LPJ for I got here, but there are people that it is their LPJ. I mean, this is a Maryland Smith LPJ. It's Nancy Lopez's LPJ. It's Patty She and it's Pat, you know, these people built it.

They still own it. It's their brand. And so, you know, I might be sitting at the desk right now, but it's not only in my best interest, but quite frankly, it's my responsibility to make sure that the other members of the LPJ understand big changes. When I was gonna announce a fifth major,

which I realized was gonna, you know, have a lot of people setting things on fire, it took me probably six months to finally get to the microphone because I really wanted to sit down with Onika and have that conversation with Nancy Lopez. I wanted to talk to former commissioners like Charlie Meacham. I really wanted to hear all the different challenges. I sat down with a bunch of media people off the record and said, tell me about this. So I hate being that slow, but the job has forced me to gather some more input before taking on the biggest challenges. Not because I'm afraid of the mistake.

I really actually enjoy the mistake. But what I don't want to do is have any of our members who feel like this is their brand, their company, feel like they didn't have input, voice, and direction into that brand. And sometimes I'm in such a hurry, and I convinced I'm right, even when I'm wrong, that I just kind of go. And like I said, I don't mind failing. What I do mind is people that really live this brand. It's in their DNA, didn't feel like they were part of the process. So it forces me

to slow down sometimes to go faster. I've learned it. I don't necessarily like it, but I've learned it. Was that an uphill battle adding a fifth major? Or was it the... Yeah, that was straight. But we were biggest, biggest kind of... I was the number one. I mean, first off, I didn't come to the LPGA with the premise of having five majors. I'm a traditionalist, right? I've been watching sports my whole life, and I understand four, and Grand Slam, and I get all the stuff. And that's exactly what I would have said as a fan who doesn't care if the LPGA has a lot or a little exposure.

Right? I mean, most fans who go to that silly are also the ones who don't care that we're never on network TV. They don't care that they play for one fifth the money is the men. And if you want to keep us in that closet, I get it. You know, force us to play by the rules. But I don't want to be in that closet. I don't want to play on network TV one week in a year. I don't want to play for one fifth of the month.

I do want the media to cover us more often. And the reality of it is they do that when we play major. And these women get to change their career in major circumstances. Listen, if I was on the PJ tour and I had events like the players' championship or the Arnold Palmer or Jack's event or Pebble Beach, I get it. I mean, they get the same amount of exposure as the US Open. So no reason to change anything. Women don't have that. Our events don't get that kind of exposure, but majors do. And when I'm at a guy who said, I got a 30-year vision and I'm not money to help you deliver it,

I thought, you know what, my founders, my original founders would have figured out a way for that guy to help lift women's golf and that's really what's happening. So, it's totally different as a fan versus commissioner. I would have, I would have, I would still be the guy calling in saying, well, that's a stupid idea. And I get that, but I'm not trying to impress ideas. I'm trying to lift these women to higher ground. How's your game?

Well, so my game's pretty good in the off season. I have a female LPJ teacher who lives about a mile for me. So I take a lot of lessons from Thanksgiving until the end of January. And then the end of January we high five and she says, see it Thanksgiving because I go on the pro-amp tour for nine months. So, you know, now I'm right in the middle of the pro-amp tour. I don't haven't hit a bad shot the second time. I mean, a bunker shot in two months probably one for another seven months. So you know, it's funny. My wife was, how'd you play it? I'm like, ah, 12 under. You know, but I have

no idea how I played today. I was a scramble with the best player in the world. So I can play. I'm going to play my whole life. You know, I'm, I'm comfortable golfing in any scene or environment. I love the game. I'd play golf if I wasn't the commissioner. So the fact that I can and do this is really nice perk. Cool. All right. Let's wrap it at that, Mike. Thanks for, thanks for the hour. Thanks for having us out this week and best of luck with the rest of the season and we hope to do it again sometime. Glad to have you guys here.

Thanks Mike. Thanks Mike. Be the right club today. Yeah. Yeah. That's better than most. How about in? That is better than most.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That is better than most. That is better than most. Better than most. Thank you.