LPGA Commissioner Mike Whan

attracts new listeners, and it's much appreciative. So if you haven't yet, please rate and review our podcast in the app Store. Thanks, and without further ado, here is Mike wand I miss a Green. For example, I'm already upset when I find my ball in the bunker, I'm really upset.

You are still managing a budget where you know, I learned other places and all the other companies I've been a part of, we've taken brands global, So you know, going global was something the LPGA was right in the middle of when I got here. So having I was talking about global is like going through a tunnel. Having been through the tunnel before made it a little bit

easier to navigat in the dark. Usually when you when you're going through a tunnel, the first you know one hundred yards is dark, and everything in your body says, turned back, go back to what you know. The same is true when you're taking a brand global, it gets dark for a while. When I joined the LPGA in twenty ten, it was pretty dark in terms of the global transition, but I'd seen the other side of the of the tunnel. I knew it was okay, and it was It was a comfortable place for me to say,

trust us, we know where this is heading. It doesn't mean it's going to be easy for the next couple of years, but it was I had less of an urge to turn back, I think than the rest.

about that on the inside. The toughest thing is you you can't get comfortable in how you do business because how you do business in Boston is not the same and how you do business in Thailand, and how you do business in Thailand has nothing to do with how you do business in Korea. And just because you figured

out CREA doesn't mean you figured out Australia. So you you have to remain you have to be in a learning curve all the time, and you have to understand that the check writer is the is the leader of the business, not the commissioner. And so you know that that took me a little bit a while to figure out too, But it's I think the hardest part is just knowing that there is no model, there's no formula. People tell me, how do you sell the LPGA. That's no,

there's no answer to that. The answer is depending on who's sitting across from and what they're looking to do. So it's I don't think you ever really get comfortable, and you never really feel like you figured It's kind of like golf, right, you never just when you think you figured it out, you have the worst three months of your life. And same is true as commissioner. Yeah, It's like the.

going to be conflict free, you don't take any chances. Curious, since since becoming the commissioner of what are some risks or chances that you've taken the paid off and maybe one that didn't work out as well as you hope.

do all that for seven yards? Well, commission, if I could be hitting eight iron in versus seven and my closest to the bend and they knew all the facts, you know where I could be. And I used to think these twenty year old kids have the guts to change their whole you know, their whole life and do it publicly, because they all get worse before they get better. In fact, they tell you they're gonna get worse before they get better, and they tell you that it's gonna

happen on TV. But they realize if they don't do it, they can't take their game to the next level. I can't tell you how many times has Tiger rebuilt this swing. And I remember thinking I was flying back. I think I was flying back from Carl's bed. I remember the plane and we were having a debate. You know, I was online on WI fi in the air, having a debate with some of the folks about whether or not

this would work or this wouldn't work. And I remember just suiting an email to somebody saying, our players wouldn't stress over this. They'd see the outcome and they know that if this one doesn't work, they'll try it another way. But they're getting to seven yards longer they do and they figure it out. And we got to have the We got to be the same. We have to have the same guts and belief and faith and unhappiness with

status quo that they do. And I've told players many times when we've made mistakes, I'm gonna keep making them because you're going to keep making them. You got to give me the same freedom you give yourself to break down my swing, try it a different way. They won't all work. I remember the first time I suggested we play prorams at nine and nine, where you play nine holes and you leave, another player comes in and she

plays with you on the back nine. I had played in a lot of programs with a lot of sponsors, and I kind of felt like by the thirteen or fourteenth hole, I'd said everything I needed to say to that player, and we learned that my brother and her brother went to the same school or whatever. But it was really exciting on that first tea when you're meeting for the first time. So we started doing nine hole and nine hole prorams turned out to be great. PGA

Tours adopted it. Now you know, they do it too, but when we first started doing it, everyone kind of looked at us we were crazy. We introduced a tournament where we weren't going to play for a purse, called the Founder's Cup, and the whole idea was to remember that we got to pay it forward. That may not have been my greatest idea, but it's turned into a really great tournament with a really great, you know attitude.

And we introduced the UL International Crown. Number one media writer said, why do you feel like you have to present a whole different format to golf, Like there's already a format. Just do the President's Cup. Just be the women's President's Cup. And I remember thinking, you know, that's got a better I hope I never fall for that, that whole easy way out thing. So and all of those examples I just gave you didn't work when we started and did work later. That's part of breaking down

your swing. You got to know what's going to get worse before it gets better.

And in the end of the day, like now, I personally think, you know the President's Cup, they should do something like the U All crown instead, because you know the President's Cup, it will always be the younger brother of the Ryder Cup.

game changer. And so when you see Team Thailand walk out of the locker room and they got the Thai flag on, and they got Thaie colored ribbons in their hair and the national anthem gets played when they walk into the first tea, it is I see grown athletes who are the best in the world shake and get nervous, and I love that because that's what we'd feel like

on the first team most time. And so you know, I always say that, you know, playing America versus the rest of the world doesn't make sense in women's golf today, probably won't make sense long term and men's golf, but right now it probably still does. But in women's golf that when you've got players coming from all over the world, When top fifteen in the Rolex World rankings come from ten different countries, it just doesn't make sense to try

to create a rest of world team. And we didn't get everything right about you all International Crown, and I'm sure we'll make changes as the years go on, but it was it was our goal to try to create something different for golf, more customized to who we are.

so much more you know, feeling of a team. You know, it's always easy for America to bond together as a team because like, you know, it's America.

can have three different teams tied for the lead. If that happens, the teams have fifteen minutes to go back to their to their their country room, and after fifteen minutes, they have to come back and hand us on an envelope the name of one player who will play sudden death for their country. I said, one of these times this is going to happen. Imagine how cool it is that there go the teams, they got no coaches, no captains, and they got to walk out and choose one of

them to play sudden death for the whole thing. And it's just to me, it's fun because it creates leadership opportunities and differences. And they, like I said, there's no one, there's no one to blame. It's the four of them in a room and they make all the decisions for whatever team they represent.

two or three matches a day. But to me, match play gets really interesting on the tenth t. It would be incredible if at the tenth t was the first t and if you lose the first hole of a nine hole match, it's game on so hard, and I think it'd be really cool to you know, you find the right golf course that might have twenty seven or thirty six holes, we'd play these speed nines and it would be you know, it'd be a little bit more

like we do today. I think the other the other thing that I think the world is ready for, we just got to figure out dates and everything else is

is playing the PGA Tour and the LPGA together. Whether that means we're all playing our own ball on the street him and leader boards, but I think a pretty big cood will see Bubba Watson and Lexi Thompson as a team and he's been down reading her putt and she's suggested he can hit his driver over that corner and and you know they're paired up against you know, Jude Tanagarn and and and Justin to Justin Dustin Johnson, and I think it would be I think golf's ready

for it. I know the fans are ready for it. I think it would create the kind of you know, bonds and fun. Unfortunately, both of us now have pretty full schedules and we're rarely in the same even part of the States, let alone part of the world. But I think that that's something that the good news for me is that both sides are really interested in trying to figure out.

work and ideas it doesn't work. And I always tell people that if you evaluated my tenure at the LPG on my first year of every new idea, people would say, my god, he's having a terrible run as commissioner, which they may say anyway, And I always say, if you like the vic Open and I love it, don't evaluate it based on our first year there, give me three or four years and watch what happens to that event.

Because I really do believe we're on the brink of something really significant that's going to have more and more sponsors joined the party, more and more TV coverage joined the party. I know that our players, from just talking to him this week, are really enjoying the experience. We really enjoyed the Pinehurst back to back. Just the interaction with the athletes is positive for both the men and the women. So I believe it's the start of what's going to be three or four of these over the

next you know, five or ten years. But vic Open will be the one that really set the standard. And I think, I think, just sit back and watch that grow because the seeds of that thing is unbelievable. With a little bit of nourishment, I mean, that thing's going to grow into something pretty powerful.

saw and heard from the coverage. I didn't watch all of it, but like they did a great job of showing like the men play through and then the women play through a hole or the women, and you could see the differences, and so you see how how they you know, the different games, And I think that's it's such a cool fan experience too, because you're you're also

in exposed. Like everything in life, variety is so great, and it gives you variety at a sporting event, which is so rare because like you know, as a fan PGA Tour golf or LPGA is it becomes ben honest versus like you got to change up, like Oh, who's in this group? Who's in this group?

I agree with your comment about variety. I mean, we introduced four new events for twenty nineteen. Three of them are formats we've never played before. And you know, I'll be honest. When I was joined in twenty ten, I felt we needed to build enough of a stable schedule so that we could do other formats. Yeah, you have to provide enough of a routine schedule so you can really identify who's the best golfer in the world at

the end of that season. But at the same time, once we built it pretty strong and robust schedule, I felt like we both we had both the freedom and the responsibility to bring different not just for us or our fans, our players too. Our players like the variety. So we played the Diamond Resorts. We were playing with a bunch of former, former and current athletes and country music singers and comedians. We're playing the VIC Open this week. We watched what happened to the Zurich Classic on the

Men's Tour and I loved it. I loved it from the first time they had the teams to the last time. Whether or not that works long term in the PGA Tour almost doesn't matter to me because I knew the day I saw it that would work for the LPGA. So together with Dow we've launched that starting this year in nineteen. So I'm excited about the fact that we're growing our schedule right Yeah, Midland, Michigan, and it's a two person you know, two person team event, very similar to the

Zurich Classic. In fact, we literally called the PGA Tour when we saw the first one and said, if you wouldn't mind sharing with us sort of all the data you used, and how does this really work? How do you play for official money and FedEx Cup points in a team format? Because that's always been the hang up on team is how can I make it be official if it's two of you and it wasn't all your performance.

And we walked through their thing. We shared it with our board and said we think they're onto something, and we literally stole the same logic they let us. So we have seventy two two person teams starting at Dow. It's kind of cool at Dow because it leads in to Aviance. So it'll be a Saturday finish and there'll be a Wednesday through Saturday, and even the Wednesday, I think I'll get more coveragean anything we've done before.

like so massive. The Web obviously does it in Jamaica where you don't get that, but you know, with like the World Cup of watching primetime golf like this winner when they were playing at Metropolitan, Like found myself transfixed on golf in December and outside of the Wednesday through Saturday. Have you looked into ever thought like looked into doing like a Sunday through Wednesday type type of week.

And I just knew we couldn't live in that window. The good news for US is over the course of twenty ten to kind of twenty fourteen, we quickly became the number two watched tour. So what that means is is when the PGA Tour on a Saturday or Sunday flips over to network TV and that three to five or three to six window opens up on Golf Channel, the next best watch tour typically gets that window that's

now US. So here's my challenge is when I play a Wednesday to Saturday, I have a really good Wednesday, I mean, you have a Wednesday that we wouldn't normally get. But a super Wednesday, I mean a super Wednesday is worse than a really bad Sunday. And that's just a reality. Since and since I don't lose Saturday and Sundays anymore, I have really good TV windows, it's really not for me. So if the web dot Com Tour doing that totally

makes sense, I would have been doing it too. But as we grew viewership and really kind of took off here in the States, we took that secondary spot. And it's just it's too good for me to pass up three to six on Saturday and Sunday of live TV because I can't make up for it on a really good Tuesday.

greatest impact on that sponsor's business. And eight out of ten times they'll tell me where that is. Wherever they have all their suppliers coming together, wherever they have their national sales meetings, wherever they have the greatest customer, wherever their business is expanding the fastest. So I might meet with HSBC in London, thinking I'm gonna have a London event, but we played the event in Singapore. I met with Chicago Merchandile Exchange thinking we were talking about Chicago, but

my events in Naples. So the reality of it is I play where I can have the greatest impact on the check writer's business. But you're right. I mean, if you look at the LPGA's both history and current status, we're at our best when we're in those second and third kind of tier markets. We're not competing with you know, Yesterday's NBA game, Tomorrow's Major League Baseball game, and Sunday's

NFL game. You know those those markets get pretty saturated and spoiled, right, I mean, having the best one hundred and thirty five female golfers in the world World into Town is less of a big deal in New York than it is in Toledo. It's less of a big deal, you know, sometimes in London than it is in Thailand. So we go to where we can really make the biggest splash. I mean it blows people away that for

the first time they'll travel with us to Asia. And if you open up the paper in Taiwan when we're playing time, we're the first three pages of the sports section. We're the first story of sports at night on TV. And I think for people that follow the LPGA only in the States, they probably don't get that. But we go to where we can have the greatest impact.

in terms of growing, you know, growing purses. So we're playing for enough one. I've always said, I don't need to grow huge purses. So the richest player on tour can be a lot richer. But the difference right now between playing on the LPGA Tour and playing on the PGA Tour is if you finish one hundredth on the PGA Tour, you make a million dollars. If you finish twentieth on the LPGA Tour, you make a million dollars.

And our travel expenses are dramatic, you know. So to me, I want to make sure that if you're one of the best one hundred female golfers in the world and you make it to this tour, which is not easy to make it to financially, you've got a good career and I don't want to make it to You got to be in the top thirty or forty or fifty to have that answer. And to do that, I've got to build purses to a level where if you make it to the LPGA, it might not be easy to stay on the LPGA, but if you do, it's a

quality income and a quality lifestyle. And quite frankly, if you're the best one hundred anything in the world, you got to be able to figure out a way to make that worthwhile from a living perspective. So one is a pursas the other, which was related to that is in the States, it's Network TV. You know, right now, we're really lucky to have the Golf Channel as our partner. They produce almost five hundred hours of TV a year. When I got here, we had a little less than

two hundred. Now we have five hundred. It's almost all live. It used to be all tape delayed, and we produce that to one hundred and seventy five countries all over the world. So because we have that partner, the rest of the world watches us, and that's the great news for me. The bad news is, Golf Channel is made up of guys like you you know that buy it. It's more men than women. It's you know, golf fanatics. It's not Channel four. It might be channel one, one,

eight four in your local markets. So people don't casually find their way into the LPGA. You don't stumble into the LPGA. My wife doesn't get to see the LPGA because she doesn't turn on the Golf channel. So we've got to figure out a way. When I started, we had one network weekend. Now we have seven or eight.

I should know that, but it's seven or eight. If we can get that seven or eight to fifteen or sixteen and play about half the time on some network TV during the weekend, we become more of a water cooler sport. We're less of a nitch sport. We become part of ESPN's Top ten and the discussion happening on Fox Sports. Otherwise, we kind of live in a smaller niche smaller audience, mostly male, watches us every week, and

that's great. I love that audience. But if I was a better partner to the to the Golf Channel, I would spend some time on network, attract an audience it doesn't watch us all the time, and bring them back to the golf chann. I feel like the PGA Tour does that for the Golf Channel and we don't. And if we can do that, that not only makes us a better sport, but also changes the financial portfolio for our players as well. If you're a top player on tour and your hat is on Golf Channel thirty weeks

a year, that's worth one thing. If your hat's on Golf Channel fifteen weeks a year and fifteen weeks a year on NBC, that's worth four times more.

those are. I think you'll you'll see an influence in streaming on the LPGA telecast, not only in the States, but certainly around the world. There's certain countries they just don't televise women's golf, they don't televise golf, and they certainly don't televise much women's golf, and they'll become definitely a Netflix. Like to your comment, there'll be a subscriber based opportunity for that that you'll see role around the world and will be part of a lot of those places.

I think in the States it'll probably be a combination of our TV partner and some of their streaming work. It may not be a TV partnern't us doing streaming on the side. We I've always believed that, you know you you partner with people to do what they do for a living, and we do what we do for a living. I want to find a media partner and I have one, you know that that this is what they do for a living, and then together I want to be there incubator when they want to try something new.

I want to be the first brand they think about trying it with.

if you will, I mean that term. I never knew what that term was, but I lived it in two thousand and nine, when golf was entered into the Olympics, the Olympic Movement began and countries all around the world started investing in golf. And when you invest in golf, you invest in women's golf. And so we went from countries who viewed golf as a rich, elitist, old man's sport to what they call podium sports. I heard this

term all around the world, podium sports. And what I mean is, if you're a sport that might be on a podium with our flag one day, the government invests in you. If you're not, you're just a sport and good luck to you. And we were just a sport before that. So what I saw is driving ranges and golf schools and world renowned teachers opening up teaching facilities to young girls all over the world that didn't exist just ten years before that. So by the time we

got to the Olympics, we'd already won. Women's golf had already won, and golf was really taken off all over the world. The fact is, you know, then, to your question about TV ratings, here's a good example. So Innby Park from Korea wins the gold medal a year before that. She was playing to win her fourth major in a row. I mean, the greatest historic move in the world. And when she did that in Korea, we had an eight rating.

And an eight rating is you know, that's Tiger Wood's worthy rating in her home country when she won the Olympics in the middle of the night. By the way, in Korea, it was a twenty four point one rating. So I mean, this is the difference between playing for the Olympics. As MB said to me, I wasn't really famous in Korea until I won the gold medal, and now I'm famous in Korea. The same thing was true,

you know on the men's side. You know, we got players that won majors and had ten times to viewership in their home country when they stood on the podium of the Olympics. So I think, you know, people forget what an incredible viewing audience that the Olympics delivers. And the good news for US is the majority of that audience didn't really pay attention to golf before that, and we've seen that lag effect in all of our international country sense, not just for viewership, but more importantly for

investment in the game. And so this whole Olympic movement thing, it's real. I didn't buy it when I started in twenty ten. My first Olympic board meeting, I said to Tim fincham, do we really need golf in the Olympics, Like we're we're good, right? Like I was totally clueless. And he said to me, Mike, you know, it's funny. Mike, I used to think that too, But watch it for

a few years and let's talk again. I never brought it up with him again because I saw what he knew, and that the movement that was happening worldwide was powerful.

and they swim for a different medal every night. I'd like to see some stroke play that's a shortened amount of stroke play for the men and the women, and right in the middle of that, I'd have a men and women team competition for country. That could be stroke play, it could be match play, but I would rather we play for four or five different Olympic stages over the course of the same two weeks, with the same number of athletes. Why not have Lexi Thompson trying to win

the individual stroke play on Saturday and on Monday. She's partnered with with Ricky and they're trying to win for us in that play and then maybe Ricky's doing something on Tuesday when Lexi's gone. I don't I feel like we almost are limiting ourselves by bringing all these athletes together this incredible format and we have one podium moment.

a lessened achievement. I don't agree with that, but I know that there's some people that feel that way, and I get that. You know something at the end of the day. Like I said, it's a there's a lot of different voices. I think right now the best thing is golf's in the Olympics and will continue to be an Olympics. And we delivered. I mean, we weren't a tertiary sport when we showed up our ratings, our social followings,

the media, we brought you. The quality of fields were really super high, and we really delivered back to the IOC, just like they delivered back to us. So I think the good news is I think golf and the Olympics are going to be partnering together for a long time and we really do bring a world sport and a world following. I remembered somebody not with the IOC, but an Olympic employee, said to me, how many countries are here this week for the women? I forget what we had,

like thirty four countries and it is wow. How cool is it, Commissioner that you get to show up an event that has thirty four countries? And I said, well, there'll be thirty four countries at my event next week too. But I understand that if you don't follow golf all the time, you may not grapple with how global it is, and not every sport in the Olympics delivers that amount of worldwide both attention and participation. So we really felt like,

and I really think it's true that we belonged. It wasn't. We didn't feel like we had a sponsor invite into the Olympics. When we walked in there. We really felt like we were as global as anybody else.

the world. Yes, there's a lot of great players from Korea, a lot of great players in Japan, a lot of great players from America, and they probably lead in terms of countries, but there's also great players from countries that ten years ago women didn't even play golf there.

I mean, sometimes the price tag is is too significant, Like I said, on some courses are just saying not interested unless it's a you know, unless it's a major and you're gonna come once and not come again for thirty years. So but there's but there's certainly courses we'd like to play and haven't played yet, and I think we will in time. In my ten years on tour watching what's happened to our major venues has been really fun to watch. I mean we, you know, we used

to play the LPGA Championship at places we could play. Now, together with KPMG and the PGA of America, we're only playing venues that have hosted a men's Major or a Ryder Cup. I mean we're you know, we're you know, from Olympia Fields, you know, to Kemper to you know, Hazel Team to Baltus Role. I mean, we're, you know, best of the best watching what same thing has happened

in the US Open. I mean I remembered saying one time when I first got here to the United States Golf Association committee, will we be part of a pebble Beach Olympic, you know kind of rotation, and and we weren't then in terms of we weren't on the plan. But those are all things that are happening in the

in the in the years coming. So I think if you're a young, you know, twenty two year old LPGA player and you're looking out at major venues, same has happened overseas, you know, when we're talking about the best of the best, you know, playing Saint Andrews, and and and and playing the courses you grew up watching the men play the British Open. That's where we're going now. So it's it's it's it's a great time to be

a young LPGA pro. As it relates to playing venues that you grew up watching men only.

the prices. Right. So, when I met with Chicago Merchandelics Change and I thought we were talking about Chicago event and he said, I bring my three hundred biggest customers every year to Naples, Florida. Would you play in Naples? I said, I play where you play, you know, so we go to Naples, Florida. When we went to Naples, Florida, initially a couple of the courses we wanted to play it weren't available in the dates that because we had to play around their conference and when those when those

became available, we moved too. So, you know, playing at the RITZ was important to them because they do all their work at the RITZ with their customers. We wanted to make it easy for his top three hundred customers to be part of the program, part of the tournament. So we play at the RITZ. That probably isn't the least expensive place for us to play in Naples, but it works the best for our sponsor. We had the money in the in the in the budget to do it,

and so we we work it out that way. But a lot of them are like I said, they're really about where the tournament and the customer feel best fits their needs. Sometimes it's all about how many people can we get in here because it's all about a big hometown event. Sometimes it's all about the program experience and what they could do from the program, and sometimes they look at us and say the best, the best course

you can get on in this market. Obviously, for us we don't struggle with some of the things the PGA Tour. We want to play sixty five hundred and sixty six hundred yards almost every course we go to and we say, what's sixty five hundred yards? Well, those are our blue Teas or or something along those lines. But generally speaking, we're playing the golf course the way it was originally designed, and that makes it both easy and enjoyable for us.

angle into a green. So I mean, I'd personally love to see some sort of and I talked with Jeff Ogilvie on on a few podcasts ago, some sort of you know club to step up and become the Augusta National of you know, the LPGA, where you know, whether it be you know, a great Northeast club that's got an unbelievable classic course that says, hey, we know that you know, the men's game is long gone, but we like we want to showcase the great golf course we have.

And I think that there's a major opportunity in in the in the women's game too, because it's so much more relatable to the every golfer.

can keep growing. I'd almost rather see what we're doing with KPMG than just one location, because we we'd like to hit a lot of them as opposed to just one of them.

special for us. And so now if you think about it, three of our majors rotate to the three really incredible you know venues each year.

sixteen seventeen different countries every year. So you're talking about a twenty twenty one, twenty two year old kid landing in Thailand and we played two hours from the Bangkok airport and then you know, do you you know, are you trying to rent a car in Australia and I try to figure out a shuttle bus in Taiwan. You know, all of our pro am parties are are alcohol related, right, there's alcohol in these pro am parties, and you know you're playing with guys my age, right, it's fifty year

old men and it's little things. But you know different, security for us is a little different. You know, we we probably have, you know, more stalker related things and they might have in other sports. We try to be really accessible and make sure that the ropes are are not so far away on the LPGA. But at the same time, you know, job number one is safety and security of these athletes, So you know, you're it's it's

it's a little different. People say to me all the time, like, you know, why why would you turn down that petition of that sixteen year old player who's obviously a good golfer, And I'm said, you know, being on the LPGA Tour is about more than just good golf, and it's you know, it's a pretty grown up thing. And you know it's uh and you know, thirty years ago you could play on the LPGA and never get out of your car. Today you couldn't play two events and probably stay in

your car. So it's it's, it's it's quite a bit different. And you know, the the the interesting thing is what's really happening in youth and I see it happen every day. Is used to be. You know, twenty years ago you would make it to the LPGA. And when you made it to the LPGA, you learned about diet, you you learned about physiotherapists, you learned about great coaches. All of a sudden you met some of the best coaches in

the world. You learned about stretching, you learned about sleep, and all that stuff really became aware to you as a professional. That's the stuff you learned as a professional. Today athletes are learning that at eleven and twelve and thirteen. Great coaches, great physios, they know how to eat already, they know how to stretch. It's by the time they show up at our level, they've had all that training

and it's all second nature. And that's why you're seeing people win at a much younger age, especially on the LPGA, because what used to take place in your twenties is taking places in your early teens, and so those things are all second nature to you, and so the learning curve is happening before they even get to us.

Championship in Naples. I drive home that Monday when that event's over, and I play a lot of golf. I don't watch any golf. I don't watch Golf Central, I don't read the media for probably about a month. It's the only, Like I said, it's the only way to stay sane. I would have watched it. I mean, to me, anything new in golf is worth is worth it to me? I don't. I'm I'm not sure how it went or didn't go. I didn't watch any I didn't watch any tape delayed versions of it. But I hope that no

matter how good or how bad it was. It doesn't stop us from trying new things, because it's when you stopped. I said this many times. When I got here and introduced a fifth major. You everyone were sure I was the anti Christ and I was killing golf and how

could he be doing that? And I remember saying in one ESPN interview, Hey, I don't know how you guys reacted when they added a a three point line in basketball, or a twenty four second shot clock, you know, or baseball changed, you know, to a different ball where we got rid of the wet we added the designated here. I know all those things were sacrilege. I remember sitting there listening to a guy argue about Inner League playing baseball. I was gonna kill baseball. I remember thinking, my gosh,

I mean, it's just playing another team. And I think, if you're not willing to change, you just in the beginning of the end, you're just becoming a dinosaur and you don't know it. So golf's got to be willing to take some chances. Then they're not all going to work. It's the same thing we talked about in the beginning, whether the match was good of the match was bad.

I hope next year, they add two women of the match and have you know, have Phil be Danielle Kang's partner, and have Michelle Wee beg Tiger's partner, and I'll break my off season no watching habits.

But when we get to that off season, it's it's a break you just got to take.

But we don't go after slow play because I'm so worried about what it means to the viewers at home or what it means to players. I think if you're a slow player, it's an unfair disadvantage sometimes to players who's not, and so it's more about creating a competitive set where everybody's on the same stage, because a player who plays a little faster, you know, can really be a disadvantage there. So to us, I mean that the

slow play thing is about. I mean, honestly, somebody has said to me before, why don't you have a rules official in every group? Well, I don't really need that for penalty for penalties of drops and that kind of stuff. The only way I'd ever get to that is just to make sure that play is consistent. I think it's unreasonable to think I have all my buddies saying I mean, you know what, I played golf in four hours, in one minute or three hours. We played in three hours

and thirty minutes today. We did that, but I didn't put too many four footers. He knocked a lot of them back to me, and none of my forefooters were for one hundred and twenty grand. So I mean, it's it's unrealistic to think you're going to put one hundred and forty four people on a golf course where even if they play fast, they're gonna get stuck at the

turn anyway. But you know, can you know, but we've proven we can play in four and a half hours, and knowing that we can means that it's doable and something we want to keep pushing for it. There's also certain golf courses we play, We're playing in less than five hours is just not going to happen for all

kinds of reasons. But making sure we're playing that course in a consistent pace so every player at least gets a consistent experience has got to be a consistent goal, and we're, you know, we're willing to penalize to do that.

one fifty six at all times. But there's there's certainly a number of players who, if they were honest with you, could tell you about being penalized in twenty eighteen.

might do it this offseason. Is when players are on the clock and they know that they essentially have the time to hit the shot. Generally speaking, everybody plays faster when they're on the clock. I really want to track whether or not the player's average score on the clock is better or worse. My hunch is that the players play a little bit better on the clock than when they don't, but I'm not sure if that's true.

you could play in three hours and twenty minutes. But I'm one hundred percent certain if I made you play every shot from every lie and I added one hundred and forty three people in that field, untild, you were playing for two and a half million dollars. Your three twenty is for twenty right now, and then we go from there.

to that. But I think again, if you have one, if you have one arena and thirty four and thirty four thirty four cameras faced on that one arena and one ball in play, those things a lot interesting. We have six miles and one hundred and fifty six players. What sounds like a really interesting thing for the match isn't really realistic for a tournament.

all of them standing still at an individual time. And so when somebody says to me, geez, your coverage is is the PGA Tour, I say, I can't argue that, because if I had twice as many cameras, I would have better coverage. But there's a budget limit to everything we.

shine in that event. It's also you see the interaction our players enjoy playing with them, they enjoyed the crowd. But that would be a great that'd be a great starter. Kit. I think once you went the Diamond Resorts, you'd say to yourself I'm gonna go watch more LPGA events. You might go there thinking you're gonna go watch Toby Keith or you're gonna go watch the cable guy. But I

promise you're gonna end up. You're gonna end up watching Christy Kerr and Danielle Kang and so young you and then and then it'll lead to more things.

and the best. So it's it's funny. I have sponsors that will say to me Mike, I want minus nine to I want high single digits. And I'm always say, you know, I love you. You're probably really good at your job, but that's not happening here this week. You know you got to sit back and enjoy the enjoy the game. And I to me, I mean, I don't care if thirty one underwins or three underwins, as long as we've created a golf course that's gonna separate and

figure out who's the best player this week. And quite frankly, I like thirty under more than I think all the other fans do. We had an event last week where I think thirty or last year we're thirty and one under one. And but I enjoyed watching players in a flat out shootout, like if you weren't Birdie and you were going home, and you know, get it, I get it. I like watching majors too, where they're going to grind over every butt and a bogie's a good score. But

I don't like that weekend and week out. I mean, I can be I I enjoy being miserable on a golf course. I don't enjoy watching somebody else be miserable on a golf course.

was going low. I don't consider that any less of an Open championship. In fact, I loved it, you know, I mean it was a great and at the same time, somebody might go three three under because the wind's blowing. I think the whole focus on the number sometimes gets us away from, you know, the bottom line, you're gon win a tournament or a major. You're gonna be the best golfer there that week, and you're gonna have to

beat the conditions, whatever those conditions are. And if it takes if it takes twenty two under to win or two underwin, I'm not sure we need to get so wigged out about that.

I don't know. Certainly, I'm sure the greenskeeper from that golf course remembers, but it's not what makes the event great.

Nancy just she just gets it. I mean, she's just from the very beginning, she she understands their business more than her business. She wants to make sure that whatever we do it works for them. As I've heard her say to other players before, as long as this works for them, we'll be playing here for a long time, so let's not worry so much about about us. That's you know, that is that is home. But I honestly could could rattle off a bunch of players who get that.

I mean, I mean, every time we go to the Founder's Cup and we bring out some of the players that played before Patty, she and could give a could give a could give a clinic in this. You know, Pat Bradley, you know could give a clinic in this. You know Big Mama is is you know is the clinic in this. And it's just they understand that. I mean as one player is. One player on the Legends Tour said to me, Wednesday's pay day. You know it's payday for you. We'll play over the weekend for our

pay day. But we got to make sure we deliver their pay day. And that's just a mentality that I hope we never lose.

player dining later. But there's I think there's there's five or six players that might be falling under the radar of the American Like I remember playing in a tournament program with Minji Lee a couple of years ago, and I said to my group later, get to know her story, and they said, why I said, because she's gonna be the number one player in the world. And she was probably twenty at the time. I mean not she might have been twenty years old, but she was also twenty

in the world rankings. But I just said, you know, I just played with a player who has every shot in the bag, who has a who has a great mind for the game. That kid's gonna sit on top of the world rankings. I remember saying the same thing about Soe Young you know, ten years ago, you know, I mean, you play with somebody that that you just see it like it's it's all there, the hunger, the ability, you know, the the game. It's when you when you

see it. I remember, I remembered I met Danielle Kang when she was an amateur and thinking, Okay, that kid's gonna that kid's gonna win a lot of events at the LPGA level. And so we got to figure out her story now, because we're gonna be telling her story for a long time. I would say the the easiest stock purchase right now would probably Nelly Korda. It's you know, there's it's just the whole package, right, great great athlete. Anyway, in my in a family. That's that's you know, that's

built great athletes with a swing. That's that's unbelievable. And I don't think a lot rattles, or if it does, I don't see it come out. And she's got a great support system between her, her brother or sister, her mom and dad. They really get it. I mean, her dad made those kids put down their golf clubs a lot. They don't play all the events all the time because he wants them to, you know, enjoy their life and be hungry when they're out there. So I remember seeing it.

I mean, Jessica was one of the first players who petitioned me as a commissioner when she was not yet eighteen, and it was one of the first, maybe the first petition I approved in my tenure. And then I watched her sister go through the same thing. They're an easy stock purchase.