Stay Tranquilo - Behind the Cognizant Classic Tournament: Todd Fleming on Elevating the Cognizant Classic Experience

Episode Date: February 25, 2025

Join Andre in this exclusive interview with Todd Fleming, Executive Director of the Cognizant Classic in the Palm Beaches. In this video, Todd dives into the inner workings of the tournament—from its innovative hospitality areas 🏨 and the exciting role of Cognizant as the new sponsor 🤝 to the expanding player field ⛳️ that’s drawing talent from Miami and beyond 🌴. Discover how the event is evolving, what it means for golf enthusiasts 🏌️‍♂️, and why this tournament is setting new standards in the world of competitive golf. Whether you're a seasoned follower of the sport or just curious about behind-the-scenes event management, this conversation offers unique insights into the future of the Cognizant Classic. #staytranquilo#golf#golftournament#cognizantclassic#pgatour#golfingInstagram: @staytranquilo Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

I got into the game of golf is in 2019, the USGA, which is the men's, women's and seniors, as well as the amateur U.S. opens, as we would know it. Different than the PGA of America, different than the PGA tour. Each kind of do similar things, operate tournaments and have asset mixes that are the same, but they do kind of their own deal. They issued an RFP for the 2023 U.S. Open, which was in Los Angeles, at very historic Los Angeles Country Club. Not many people get a chance to get through the gates at LACC.

They were issuing the rights for their hospitality. And I traditionally did not want to participate in RFPs. It's just tough. Everybody looks the same on paper. It's a race to the bottom kind of financially. But I said, I won us in the game of golf. So we got into it. Fortunately, won it.

So we delivered the 2023 U.S. Open in L.A. where we set kind of premium hospitality revenue records for a U.S. Open. That introduced me to what was happening in the game of golf, you're so familiar with. Like golf is the epicenter to me right now of like, what does it mean to go to a live event? What does it mean to have a hospitality experience? What does it mean to kind of go somewhere and spend an afternoon?

What do I get in return? And the PJ Tour is at the epicenter of that. What is going on, everybody? Welcome back to another St. Tranquilo episode. We're here with Todd Fleming. We're here on Whole 17. Todd, appreciate the time. We're going to have a fun conversation today and we're excited for the tournament this week.

Kind of hard not to have a fun conversation when you're sitting out in this. but I appreciate the opportunity, man. It's going to be fun to have this kind of. Absolutely. I'm glad we're here. I'm glad we're here to make it happen and the weather, thank God, is holding up. You never know.

It's open. It's hope it stays that way for the next seven days, right? You never know what's going to happen. But before we get into the tournament, I actually want to talk a little bit about yourself and kind of your story.

Yeah. Tell us a little bit how you got into the game of golf, how you kind of took over this role here at the, at the cognizant classic and just a little bit about your career. Yeah. How much time do we have? As much as you want. So I've had a pretty,

pretty long career all in the sports and entertainment space. But I got my start working in the NBA and the NFL on the team side of the business selling. I started out selling tickets in the NBA for the Cleveland Cavaliers. And this was pre-Lebron. So this was Cleveland. This was original Cleveland LeBron, not what we know him in Miami to be. And then obviously post that. But it was not much fun. I mean, I worked for a 17-win team, a 30-win team and a 32-win team out of 82 games. So it was learning how to build rapport and learning how to sell in some difficult situations. Then I got really lucky. I got a chance to go to Miami and work for the Miami Heat,

where I was in some managerial roles that were there during Dwayne Wade's first year. Oh, nice. And then Shaq's year. So I saw kind of the beginning of now what we know of heat culture, right, really to be. So I was fortunate to be part of that. And then I went up to New York, New Jersey, worked for the Nets on their move to Brooklyn, which was great. There was a couple things I wanted to get done in my career,

which was I wanted to be part of a city and state relocation and I wanted to be part of a new build scenario because those are just different from the business side. Those don't happen often. We've seen a lot of expansion in stadium growth over the last decade or so, but back then it just didn't happen all the time. And so I wanted to have that

because that was like kind of a badge of honor that you could wear on your sleeve and your career. I switched over, though, then, to the NFL. I worked for the Dallas Cowboys for a couple of seasons, really on their move into what we now know is AT&T Stadium. We called a Cowboys Stadium at the time. So I worked directly for the Cowboys and the family working on that. And it still is the largest revenue project that's ever been done in the world.

And it's still producing revenue for that stadium that's now going into its 16th season, I think. So it's a lot of fun to do that. I got recruited to go back into the NBA as the stadium opened in Dallas to go back. act and work for a gentleman, we may know him, Michael Jordan. Oh, yeah. Sounds familiar. It's really for the Charlotte Bobcats, now the Charlotte Hornets, he had the first ride of refusal to purchase the team.

And he was seriously considering that. So they wanted to put a team together in place that then allowed him to feel the comfortability to buy the team from a revenue standpoint. So I was a part of that. So I moved to Charlotte. I played basketball in college. So being around basketball Jesus felt like the right thing to do. It's unreal.

And, but while I was in Dallas, there was this agency that was being formed. And I wanted to be a part of it because it was very entrepreneurial. In the world on the business side, sponsorships and partnerships had always been kind of outsourced. Right. But the premium ticketing space, the kind of high-end experience space coupled with sponsorships, there had never been an agency that had ever done that. And that's what we were trying to create. The agency launched, and it's a company called Legends, right?

So the ownership group still to this day is Cowboys Yankees. There's a private equity firm that has 51% majority ownership, which is called 6th Street Capital. And so I went back in 2010, back to Dallas, to be part of this launch of an agency. And then I was fortunate. I oversaw a couple different of our verticals and services that we provided throughout the global landscape of sports and entertainment. And I did that for 14 years. And how I got involved here, and again, I told you how much time do we have. I'll speed this up. But it's, I got into the game.

game of golf is in 2019, the USGA, which is the men's, women's and seniors, as well as the amateur U.S. Opens, as we would know it. Different than the PGA of America, different than the PGA tour. Each kind of do similar things, operate tournaments and have asset mixes that are the same, but they do kind of their own deal. They issued an RFP for the 2023 U.S. Open, which was in Los Angeles, at very historic Los Angeles Country Club. Not many people get a chance to get through the gates at El

at LACC. They were issuing the rights for their hospitality. And I traditionally did not want to participate in RFPs. It's just tough. Everybody looks the same on paper. It's a race to the bottom kind of financially. But I said, I want us in the game of golf. So we got into it. Fortunately, won it. So we delivered the 2023 U.S. Open in L.A. where we set kind of premium hospitality revenue records for a U.S. Open. That introduced me to what was happening in the game of golf, which you're so familiar with. Like golf is the epicenter to me right now of like what does it mean to go to a live event?

What does it mean to have a hospitality experience? What does it mean to kind of go somewhere and spend an afternoon? What do I get in return? And the PGA tour is at the epicenter of that. So in December of 2023, I got a phone call from some people at the PGA tour that I had known and we had checked it.

We were very friendly and had kind of the quarterly check-in, how you doing? So this was December of 23. And I thought it was the happy holidays. phone call and so I picked it up I'm all jovial hey happy holidays where you're going very quickly they said stop that they said this is not what this conversation is when I when that phone call very quickly turned into the fact of there was private equity in an investment that was going to be made into the PGA tour I was

fortunate from the other side of it legends and our private equity from had been vetted for the for the investment so I knew probably an inch about what was really going on right so during the conversation we spent about a month talking about private equity. What does it mean? How do they speak? Because it's very, they bring a war chest of money. They bring a lot of ideas. But it also is a different type of speak, like handling spreadsheets and making decisions based upon data, a lot different than what some sports organizations do. So we spent time talking about that. And then we very quickly pivoted to Palm Beach in this event, which was transitioning from the Honda, the Honda Classic into the Cognoson Classic in the Palm Beach,

is what we know it today. And the combination of those two discussions over the course of 60 days, I got really excited about what the PGA tour meant and what it was going to be doing and how transformative it was going to be. And so I jumped at the chance to take over this opportunity to run this event and play a part from a corporate standpoint and some of the things that we'll do at the PGA tour going forward. That's a pretty incredible run down. I left out the fact that I'm married to a Colombian woman, so all of this stuff. So I've been very fortunate to be kind of exposed to this international landscape. At the agency, part of my responsibility was to be a part and oversee some of our international engagements. And so I've lived abroad. I've opened stadiums in Spain and

had work in Italy and in the UK. And so I've been very, very fortunate to be kind of exposed to this global kind of what do people expect and what partners want from a global landscape. So I left that out, but we can dive in whatever you want. Yeah, for sure. You brought up the fact was the Honda Classic now as the cognizant classic, right? It's a mouthful. Yeah, I remember last year when we came, I was like rehearsing. How do I say this? But I have it down back now. But talk a little bit about that transition phase, right?

Because you've been here now for a year, right? So you weren't necessarily there from the beginning of when that transfer happened, but you were already kind of involved. So tell me a little bit about that whole transition where you're getting a whole new title sponsor. Obviously, this tournament also changed dates, right? It was a different time of the year during the PGA tour season. And part of the reason was, hey, we need to bring this. more people here. We need to get a better feel here. So talk a little bit about that.

Yeah, I mean, look, it's, again, I wouldn't evolve in all of the discussions. I mean, I got a chance to kind of live with what was developed, which I'm happy with. But I think it starts with the fact of who used to own the event, right? Most of the co-s sanctioned world, which is a lot of the events on the PGA Tour calendar are PGA Tour events, but they're not owned by the PGA tour. We technically only own six weeks on the calendar plus the President's Cup. And so, you know, you take the other 36 some odd weeks of a calendar, those are co-sanctioned events. And most of those are 501c3, so not-per-profit entities that own that. And the PGA tour in the enterprises is a for-profit entity.

So the first thing that we had to start with was the entity, the 501C3 that owned this, which is a great local organization called Children's Healthcare Charities, they go by the nomenclature CHC. We transitioned them out of the ownership, but to our foundation partner, which I think was really key in regards to kind of keeping some of the goodwill inside of the community that you're going to go from a not-for-profit, for-profit, but yet the foundation kind of stayed in place. But then that brought in a kind of a level of discussion and rapport that needed to be

built with a board of that entity. So I've tried to spend a great deal of time meeting those executives and making sure that we have, everybody has the right alignment and the plan going forward. Then as you bring in cognizant, very, very familiar with sports and really sports sponsorship, right? I mean, you know, they have done Formula One. They just recently came off of that, but they've done. Formula One. They had an LPGA event. They're very heavy into cricket, obviously because of their

ownership group and the ties to India. And then they have also, you know, are our partner in the President's Cup. They have a big partnership with us every two years in and around the President's Cup. But now bringing them on as the title, it's different for them, different for us, different for the community. So trying to tell that story of what does it mean, what do they stand for, what do we want to stand for on the go forward was things that were kind of a work in progress. I think we got a lot of it right. There's probably a lot that I would look back on that we could probably do just slightly different, but that's normal everyday kind of life and business.

But then from there it was how do we recreate the experience? And we're looking at some of it now. And I thought it would be so intelligent to have my first week on the job be during tournament week last year. So it shows you that I'm not real intense. But it gave me an opportunity to just kind of take everything in as we were talking about earlier. It's just sit back, talk to a lot of people, digest, develop an opinion, but try to use data to help figure out whether or not we're building and putting on the experience that our marketplace really wants. And so I've set out for the last 12 months to try to do that to really kind of from this side of the house for the things that we can control, which is outside the robes, the experience of what somebody's going to show up to have is elevated over anything that they would have had underneath previous kind of iterations of this tournament. It's not derogatory to what was going on here.

It was really cool. But I've just tried to modernize it and I've tried to sophisticate it a little bit to meet the Palm Beach County marketplace. the other side of the house, player recruitment. You know, we, it's a huge thing. It's a huge thing. And it always will be a huge thing because players, you know, injuries and schedules and lives and things take over about whether or not what their schedule may be on a year by year basis. But we're fortunate in the fact of A, the players are vested now in the enterprise.

So they technically own this event. Right. The second part of it is we've got a lot of those players that live in this marketplace, right? really in South Florida in general. So we're very, very fortunate to be able to pick their brains, figure out what they like to see out of a golf course, what they like to see out of the amenities, what their wives and significant others like to see.

I mean, I've gone as far as trying to have conversations with agents and managers about what is the best elements of a tournament that they have. So I spend some time recruiting. I maybe do it differently than what others in my position at other tour events do. I'm not going to necessarily go and be the guy that's on the driving range all the time. I try to put myself in the position of a professional athlete that's trying

to go do their livelihood or do their job and win some money. I wouldn't want somebody trying to pitch me on a driving range. So trying to do it in different ways, like control the experience, make it different on the outside, really work with our resort here at PGA National, which has been a great partner of ours to how do we make the interior wise of when play is over and the players want to come inside or they want to stay at the resort and their wives are here. What are we doing, right? What are we doing on the inside to just make the experience so much more elevated? So I spend a great deal of time thinking about the consumer experience.

I spend an equally great deal of time thinking about the player experience and how we keep pushing and elevating both of those year over year. Yeah, no, it's definitely. It's interesting because there's so many layers to all of this, right? You have the player side and then obviously you have the consumer side. On the player's side, you know, the wives come, the kids come, right? Families involved. So how can you make them as comfortable as possible when they're in the way?

those experiences because like you said, they're going to pick and choose in the schedule what what they want to play, what they don't want to play. And especially nowadays, it seems like it's a little bit harder than it was in the past to get some of these bigger names to play in these tournaments that are not signature events, majors, things like that. No, I think that's a true, it's a true statement. I mean, the back end of it is too, is that, you know, for umpteen amount of years, the gentleman playing on tour, I mean, they're 20-year-old to 50-year-old men, right, before they transition over to the Champions tour. They're sole proprietor.

So for a long time, I mean, the type of grass that you have dictated whether or not I would play there, right? May not dictate whether or not I live in that marketplace, but it may dictate whether or not I play that course as part of my calendar. If I win another tournament, there's that sense of responsibility to go back. So it's an ever-evolving kind of discussion in landscape. For me, it's just like I approach it from there's certain things that I can control or the team that I have that's really, really polished and doing this stuff. what can we control? And that's focus on the things that we can control. And that may actually win the day

because we're going to put on a great event that everybody likes, particularly the players. And maybe that helps us in the recruitment effort as well. But you mentioned something too. I look at it as somebody's going to make a decision based upon what somebody else in their network experience that they have. So for the wives, for example,

we're doing something a little bit unique for this event this year in 2025. five, the Wives Association is going to actually host their event in one of our structures, right, on Wednesday of tournament week. So the wives and significant others get together. They do an activity and then they do a charitable kind of element to it. Nice. I said, please do that with us.

Don't kind of waste your money in and around town. Let's figure out how we do that here and keep it all right here, right? I mean, their husbands are here. You know, husbands or boyfriends are playing golf on the pro am that day. They're going to be on property. So that's just keeping it as one big happy family and let's try to accommodate everybody and see where that gets us in the long run.

That's awesome. You brought up something too. You talk about data that you kind of look at on the consumer side, right? There's been a lot of changes to the course this year and kind of your approach as to how can we bring more people in. One, what's some of the data that you look at to kind of inform some of those decisions

and then what have you done to kind of execute based off of that? Yeah, no, I think it's a, I wouldn't necessarily say I'm the most analytical person in the world. I mean, you know, at the end of the day, I'm a sales guy, so I like to roll from the gut a little bit. But data is, you know, in your business and my business, everybody's business, it's now the new frontier. You got to understand it.

You got to be soliciting it. So I would say we do it several different ways. I would say the things that we're going to do this year is there's going to be kind of monitors around the course. People won't see them. They'll be hidden and buried. But I'm going to be monitoring places of congregation and for how long? Like how long does, when somebody comes through the gates, how long are they standing in one

location? Because to me, it's like that's the experience. If somebody's, if we notice something on the front line, which is not traditionally a place where a golf spectator would go, but if we see people congregating there, well, let's figure out how we elevate that experience, whether it's through more activation for general fans, or whether there's an opportunity to really create an experience there that may be paid for. So I think it's like monitoring movement. The other part that we monitor, again, it's from the revenue side.

You're always going to be monitoring your direct buys. you're going to be monitoring the secondary market, and what is the value of the experiences that you've really put out there? So that way we're going to make the right decisions on price. We may have missed priced over. We may have missed price under, right? We may have missed price day by day.

But just really trying to find that sweet spot is what is our community saying, what is the buying community really showing from actual transactions that we can then layer into to make sure that we have the right price point that we bring people into our fold and buy from us on a weekly basis? So that's one element. And then the last element that, well, there's two more that I'm going to be really kind of tracking upon. And one is this local food and beverage kind of element that I wanted to bring into the tournament. And you'll see kind of as we spend time later today and when you're here during the tournament.

Palm Beach County is bigger than Rhode Island, right? I mean, it is bigger, from a square miles standpoint, it is bigger than Rhode Island. So Boca to Jupiter and everywhere in between is bigger, right? So we're never going to have what I would say, this central beacon like a Miami would have, like a Fort Lauderdale would have, or even Tampa, right, are kind of our counterparts. We don't have that. But it's an opportunity for us of how do we bring all elements of our county and make them feel like this is their tournament? And so to do that, I will do that if you have my bar, you have my restaurant, you have my chef, right?

Or you have my specialty cocktail that somebody has at whatever local establishment that I go to. So we're going to get some of that done in 2025. FP&L is a partner of ours that helped us create these fan villages. And then we've named them. You've got the Jupiter one that's going to be out here by 12, 15, 16, 14, 13. We've got the Palm Beach Gardens, which is actually our presenting partner in the Palm Beaches. It's going to be their activation space. And then we have the gardens as you're coming down the home stretch on 18.

Each of those are going to have local food establishments in it, as well as some expo tents, so that way people can learn a little bit more about those cities or that part of town. So we're going to try to push forward on that as well. I'm going to monitor the buys. Of course. I'm going to monitor the revenue that's there. I'm going to monitor how much time people spend in those activation zones. And then can we go out and can we get a Boca, right?

Can we get a Wellington? Can we get a Delray? Can we get some of these other cities that have kind of this cool kind of scene and their own kind of elements from a food and beverage standpoint? can we bring them to the tournament? And then the last thing I'm going to be really, really monitoring is the TV. Not that that's necessarily within my domain. And we obviously have a great partner in NBC Comcast. And then obviously we're on ESPN Plus from a streaming standpoint.

And we deliver this in 30 languages across the globe. But I'm just going to want to see how we stack up against other tournaments. Of course. And see if this rebrand, see if the elements that we're doing to try to evolve this, if that's actually translating into more and more people watching as well. Makes sense. You look at it from like the upper funnel, how can you get these TV views and bring them into maybe people that want to come to the tournament? That's exactly right. Yeah. And then and then and then and then try to aggregate all of that as quickly as you can to develop not only a go-to-market strategy for the future, but also the experiential side. I mean, we were walking around here a little bit earlier. I've already told you some things that I want to want to change for 2026. Not that I dislike the products. I think people will love them.

But maybe we just put them in a different place that elevates that experience. Right. So you brought up a couple markets around the area. There's another market that, you know, that exists a little bit down south. Yeah. What can we do to kind of attract more people down from Miami to this tournament, right? Yeah. You had an event years ago at Dural Trump, right? Obviously, that doesn't exist anymore now, but there's still a massive community down there, right? And there's an opportunity to be able to pull some of that market down here. It's not maybe right around the corner. but it's still close enough, hey, I'm a golf fan. I want to go watch a tournament. I mean, there's people that drive up to Arnold Palmer. There's people that drive up to players.

So why not drive you an hour, 15, hour, 20 minutes and come over here? So what is it that we can do to kind of bring more of that Miami element into the tournament as well? Well, look, now you're speaking my language, right? I mean, I loved my time living in Miami. I still have family that's there. And so this move back has been really good for my wife and I to make her feel more like she's in Columbia. Right. And so it's, but look, I think it comes from a couple different facets, right? I think it starts with the fact of most of our opportunities are daily, right? And again, I know what it is to jump on

bright line. I know what it is to get on the turnpike or try to come up 95 if you're going to travel that way. It takes a commitment, right? And I may not be able to do that all four days, but I may do it one. I may do it two. So I think really like thinking about the way that we sell our opportunities, I think it kind of intrinsically leads. to the fact of, hey, we're open, give us a chance. Right. Right. Now from there, what I've tried to bring

is a little bit of this Miami, South Florida flavor and feel to the tournament. And, you know, we're sitting in a structure right now that quite honestly really derived from the fact of, what does it mean to be like go to South Florida, right? And one of the coolest elements of South Florida is Soho House to me, right? The one that's on the beach, like I know the new one

that just opened in Windwood is really, really cool too. But that vibe, I mean, that is such a much. Miami kind of look and feel in such a relaxed scenario, but also at the same time, you know that you're going to get great food, you know that you're going to get great service, you know that you're going to have a great cocktail. Oh, yeah. So I've tried to create that here in this thing called the Yellow Flamingo Club, and then try to expand it to give them the best of the inside the resort and the best two locations on the

golf course to try to give them this kind of seen and be seen type of feel to products. So I think thinking through the products, not only how do we sell them on a day-by-day basis, but how do we really try to align with the segmentation and the market that we're really trying to go after? Right. This young, vibrant, kind of still highly qualified in the business sector. But just kind of try to appeal a little bit more to the younger demographic that is looking for that moment. Right. You don't have to know about golf. Right. Right. You have to know how to have a good time.

And you have to know, you have to be, hey, where's the most exclusive spot to be? So trying to create that. The other thing then is in partnerships, right? And to me, we've done a pretty decent job of being a. able to go down into Dade Coward and Broward County to a certain extent and get some of the businesses and people to come up. But we have a partnership with Brightline. And I think I want to like we want to expand that for sure in the future because I think that's probably the easiest way to make it accessible and easy for somebody to say, hey, I'm going to wake up. I'm going to go downtown. I'm going to catch the Bright Line. I'm here in an hour into West Palm. Can we have

a shuttle that's just specifically for Bright Line kind of customers and bring them immediately to our front gate. So I think you're, you're going to see it kind of in that type of facet, continuing daily to make it easy. Right. Trying to really think through the experiential to kind of meet kind of that consumer segment that, again, is so popular in Miami, and then ultimately have the right partnerships, at least to give somebody an option to get here much easier. Yeah. Convenience is always going to play a factor. And if you can tap in to just create some sort of convenience in it, it'll definitely drive. I would tell you, after living in Europe, I would have never thought that Florida, would it look like Europe from a train in a two perspective. But what they have going

is incredible. And I want to continue it. And you may see me on the bright line on a Sunday morning. I'll go down and hit Soho and I'll be down there, have a nice meal, sit on the beach, get some sun with the wife, and be back up here before the kids even wake up. So it's perfect. Hell yeah. That's awesome. So let's talk a little bit about the fields for this week, right? You got Shane Lowry here. You got Ricky Fowler. You got a couple other big names that are going to be here. and then you have the amateur and Luke Clanton that's going to be out here as well with a lot on the line.

A lot on the line. So we'll start with the big boys, right? So we've got 16 of the top 50 in the world right now. And they actually have till 5 o'clock tonight. This is filming on a Friday before tournament week. So they actually have until Friday, 5 o'clock tonight to drop their name in. So we may get a few more.

We have half right now of the top 30 and the FedEx Cup standing. So our field is strong. best golfers in the world they're playing the best golf right now are going to be here next week. And then you start to get into the fun kind of some of the exemptions that I've been able to give. And you mentioned, you know, we've got a lot of great guys that are coming on the exemption. Luke is going to get a lot of attention. Of course.

I mean, local, right, South Florida, Florida State, number one ranked amateur in the world. And what he has on the line this week is, I believe if he makes the cut, if he makes the cut, he's earned his tour card. So to me, this could be a. a really great story and it's been so fun to work with him and the people that are inside of his camp to make sure that this was a reality for him to try to do it in his backyard. What a story it would be. And then hopefully he performs really well, makes the cuds, maybe in contention coming down Sunday, secures his spot, and then now we earn a place in his heart for years over

the future that this becomes a stop as he continues to grow his career. But I've been elated with kind of the response from the players to, what they understand what we're doing, what I've tried to do with the resort and how we make that more easy and accessible and fun for them and their families. And then ultimately, you know, we could have a dark horse that shows up here.

I mean, our, our 2024 champion, Austin Eckro, I think he came in here last year, somewhere between ranked 80th and 90th in the world. Probably nobody would have known his name. He goes on and plays phenomenal golf last year and incurred the Sunday, delay and had a Monday finish and everybody stuck around and he had he had a you know the culmination of a great week and the beginning of something great for him he went on to win twice last year he's one

of only five or six guys to win twice and the other guys were all top 10 players so I really look at our field as we can have the best of both worlds we're going to have really really strong notable name players but we're also a place that somebody can start their career and he's the perfect example of what can happen of how this turn it propels you for the rest of the year. And he went on to win twice. And now he's ranked, you know, top 50 in the world, top 40th in the world.

And he's ready to come back and defend. So we're set for a strong field. And I think there'll be some really good golf that's played. Oh, 100%. That's honestly, one of the beauties of these type of tournaments is, like you said, there's diamonds in the rough in these fields that all it takes is them to just be clicking that weekend.

And all of a sudden, you know, their careers changed. We saw it with Jake Knapp last time last year with Mexico. Yeah. And look what the, you know, know, the run that he's been on since then. I think he finished top 10 or top 15 in FedEx standings last year, and he's off to a crazy hot start again this year. And we actually had an opportunity to talk to him last year.

And something cool that he mentioned was he had a ritual with his grandfather about a macanudo cigars. Oh. That every time he won, he would put a couple coins in there when he was a kid and be like, hey, here's like, you know, your reward for winning. Yeah. And then obviously as he got older, he would smoke a macanudo with his grandfather. So that's exactly what he did after he won in Mexico, then comes here and he plays. So those are the type of stories that come out of these type of tournaments that you really never know.

And then all of a sudden, now you've been watching this tournament all weekend and you're a fan of this guy that's, you know, that won here. Well, I mean, but that's the benefit of live sports, right? I mean, and entertainment in general is like, you always root for somebody that you don't know, right? I mean, you can root for obviously those that we know that are playing great and notable and so and so forth. But ultimately, at the end of the day, it's that dark horse. It's that person that you don't know and then you can latch on to it. That's what fandom is all about. We get a chance to do that each and every year.

I mean, it's so much fun. I mean, so I'm honored that Luke was happy to be with us. And I'm sure he's going to play great and go out here and dominate. But again, there's going to be somebody else in the field that does it as well. And, you know, for me on Sunday night, you know, I'd do something that's, you know, that was special to me I did last year. I'd do a champagne toast with the winner, private, after they've done with media and just kind of his, caddy and their family, so on and so forth. And so I'm really excited to do that again. And whoever it is, that's one, they've earned it. And we'll spray them with some champagne and get

them a little loose before they head up to Arnold Palmer and Orlando after us. Yeah. That's awesome. Well, before we wrap it up, we like to do like a quick rapid fire question called the sleeve. So first question, I want to ask you, what's your favorite hole on the course? It's actually on the front. Okay. If you can believe, well, so the back, I mean, everybody's going to say 17, which we're on, which I like, but it's damn hard, right? So, But actually one of my favorite holes on the course is number eight. It plays dead straight, but there's water and play off the tea for all of these guys. And then if the wind's kicking up, there's a crosswind that's always going to come.

So it fits my eye off the tee. I never seem to play it real well. But number eight's really good. Seven is fun. Long part three. We had two hole in ones there last year. But if you had to ask me my favorite hole on the back, my favorite hole in the back is probably 14. because again, it's your last kind of moment

before you hit enter the bear trap. I played it on Wednesday. I actually played the bear trap in pretty decent fashion. I love, obviously, you know, 15, 16, 17. And then 18 is a beautiful finishing hole. So it's hard to not like all of them. Of course.

I don't know why. I just, I like eight for that approach shot into that green and the Duffy zone is there in the back, so it's a nice backdrop. But that's my favorite one. I remember last year they added a couple bunkers Did they make any changes this year? No, we haven't.

We're talking about it for 26 and beyond. The resort went through an ownership change. So they're going to come in and put their feel and stamp on this as well. They're working with us every single day on what we want to do. There'll maybe be some tricks that get put into play, whether it's trees or bunkers. There's going to be something that will be different for 26. Cool. Favorite club in the bag?

Mine? Yeah. Shit. You're asking a tough way. It depends on the day. I'd say my favorite club is probably seven iron. Seven. I mean, it's everybody.

right i mean you can hit it 170 you can do little punch you can do little bumps and runs so the seven's probably my favorite in the back and then your wife's Colombian so i gotta ask you what's your favorite columbian dish oh favorite columbia impanadas for sure impanadas con carne for me um but the other one that's really good it's not a dish but i love lulo yeah the hugo i love lulo and but i do it with milk i do it with leche okay my wife thinks i'm crazy she's like solo agua solo so i'm always uh lulo con Conalice. Yeah. Nice. She big Agua diente too? Oh, well, she tried to get me on that. She didn't, she tried to

get me on it. Her and her father. But I didn't succumb to the traditional gringo. Yeah. To the traditional gringo where he passes out. But I do like Agua Deente, but I only like it from there. Yeah. It's cool. Because I do Sinazuka. Yeah. Sinai suca and that's the best because you can drink that all day.

All day, you can drink that shit and not have a hangover. It's great. Yeah, the first time I went to Columbia. I went to like the Colombian barbecue. They're cooking from like 9 a.m until 9 p.m. a little bit of everything. And I'm not even joking, like, the moment I'm there, they're like, we want our wedding and we were drinking

our way into from 9 a.m. until 9 p.m. And I'm like, I feel good. Feel great. I woke up the next morning and I was chill. That's the thing. It's like, not only do I, I can sip it, I can go all day, I can shoot it if I want to. Yeah.

As long as it's got Sinazuka, then you're good. Because I can wake up the next day and I'm good. But it's fun. I, in a different life, I was, I was Latino maybe, right? But since I've always loved the music. I think I can salsa meringue. Yeah. I met my wife in a salsa marangay club.

Oh, cool. And she's from Cali, so she's Kalania. So they think they're the best salsa is in the world, right? So, but, but yeah, I, I, I'm trying to bring some of that into the tournament. And, uh, because it's, I just want my, my family's touch on this a little bit too. It's fun too. People gravitate to it. Oh, wait.

I mean, how can you not? When you hear the, when you hear the drums and you hear the, you hear the horns going, you just start moving and you just can't stop. Whether you can dance or not, just start moving. It's true. Well, appreciate the time. This was fun. We're excited for this week and hopefully a good tournament. I appreciate it, brother. Thank you so much. Absolutely. Thank you.