CHAMPIONS TOUR MEDIA CONFERENCE

March 2, 2004

Peter Jacobsen

PETER JACOBSEN: Thank you very much. I was fitted for dentures this morning, I'm yanking all the old ones out.

PETER JACOBSEN: The round birthday number matches the shape that I'm in now at 50, round. That is a shape, isn't it, the last time I checked. I'm very happy about where I am in my life, and with my game. I feel like I've really been working hard on my game the last -- well, the last 28 years, I've been working hard. I had hip surgery a couple of years ago in 2001. That was a challenge. And I worked myself back into shape and back into golf shape enough to win last year in Hartford. So that was a great accomplishment, a personal accomplishment for me to be able to come back from a pretty intense surgery and to win. I don't care if you're 49 or you're 29, when you have a major surgical operation, it's great to be able to come back and win. And having that be at the age of 49 was quite a surprise to me. It didn't shock me because I have been playing well for the last year leading up to Hartford, but it was quite a surprise and quite a welcome surprise, but I'm very much looking forward to the second half of my golf career. I'm going to continue to play on the PGA TOUR for at least the next two years, and I have an exemption on the PGA TOUR and start transitioning into the Champions Tour.

PETER JACOBSEN: Absolutely. I was in Kansas City last year. And I was in Portland at the JELD-WEN Tradition, so I had a chance to say hi to a lot of my friends, Mark Lye and D.A. Weibring and Sam Torrance and Bruce Fleisher. I see a lot of Champions Tour players throughout the year. PJP is involved in a lot of charitable outings and corporate outings, and we hire both PGA TOUR and Champions Tour players to compete, so I see quite a few throughout the year.

PETER JACOBSEN: Yes, the Champions Tour JELD-WEN Tradition, which is one of the five majors on the Champions Tour false the same week as the newly named Buick Championship in Hartford. I've decidesed to play that week in the JELD-WEN Tradition for a couple of reasons; one, it's a major championship; and number two, it's in my hometown of Portland, Oregon. I created an event there about 18 years ago called the Fred Meyer Challenge in an effort to bring golf back to Portland. I remembered watching the Portland Open so many times with my father, when I was a young boy, and watching tournaments like the U.S. Senior Open in '82 and the Alcan Golfer of the Year in 1979. I wanted to bring golf back to Portland, so we created this event. When the Fred Meyer Challenge ended, we worked very hard with the PGA TOUR to bring the Champions Tour to Portland. It's the first time I'm eligible to play in a major championship in my hometown and it's something that I want to take advantage of. I know I'm probably going to upset the people in Hartford by not defending my title, but I sincerely hope they understand, and I hope we can get the dates changed so that I can come back and defend my title one year removed in 2005.

PETER JACOBSEN: Yes, I think, Jeff, a lot of the players that have cut their teeth in golf along with me, players of my age, I think we all understand the days and appreciate the days when we actually had to pay for range balls on the range. Actually, I can remember back when there were no range balls and you had to bring your own shag balls. And to get food in the locker room and the clubhouse, you had to pay. A lot of those players that have those memories are on the Champions Tour, so I know that when I get out there, I'll probably look at a couple of them, like Morris Hatalsky and Dave Barr and Ed Fiori, D.A. Weibring, and we'll look at each other and giggle because here we were at 50 years old still playing the game that we love, and we're playing it because we love it, not because we're playing for money. We're playing for the enjoyment of the game.

PETER JACOBSEN: That's a good question. The victory last year at Hartford, for all the reasons I said earlier, coming off of surgery and being 49 years old, was kind of a redemption win for me, coming back from not even thinking I would ever be able to play golf again, to standing on the 18th green with a trophy, that was very special. Probably the event that stands out in my mind is 1984, when I left my father in Portland, Oregon, to head down to the Colonial National Invitational in Fort Worth, my father just had throat cancer and he was in the hospital for a week, and I was going to withdraw from the Colonial because I wanted to stay with my father, because quite honestly, we didn't know if he was going to live much longer from that day of operation, because he had cancer in his tongue. So I went down there with the intent of winning the golf tournament. I ended up getting into a playoff with Payne Stewart, whose father was also suffering from cancer, but he didn't know it at the time, so when we went into the playoff, I ended up birdieing the first hole, the 15th hole at Colonial, and I beat Payne. And I remember Payne give me a hug and said, "This one is for your dad." He said, "Give your dad my best." I just remember that had such an impact on my life. And then ironically, the next week, Payne's father was diagnosed with cancer and his father passed away before my father did. But any time you've got those type of motivating factors it becomes bigger than the money, the title, it becomes a lot more about somebody else other than yourself. So in 1994, the Colonial National Invitational, winning for my father and winning in that vein was probably the most special for me.

PETER JACOBSEN: I would have done it less. I plan to play the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Amand the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic until they have to wheel me off in a cart, simply because I think those tournaments are so very important to the future success and the ongoing success of the PGA TOUR, for obvious reasons. The Bob Hope, you have a chance to play with amateurs and celebrities in the game, and the AT&T, because you have a chance to meet and greet all the CEOs that support the PGA TOUR, so those events are very near and dear to my heart. Winning at Hartford did turn my schedule on its head. I had planned starting next week at SPC to play full time on the Champions Tour, if I did not have an exempt status on the regular Tour, but the win did give me an extension on my career on the TOUR through at least '05, so I'm going to continue. I fought for 28 years, as every player does, to keep their card. You see players that lose their card go back to the school. I'm not going to willingly give that up just because I turned 50. I'm going to continue to fight and scrape and see how well I do against the young boys.

PETER JACOBSEN: It is. We have three children. Amy is 24 and she graduated from Syracuse. Kristin is 22. She is a senior at NYU graduating in May, right now going through medical school applications and interviews. And our son Mick is a freshman down here in Fort Meyers, actually, at Florida Gulf Coast University. So we knew that we were empty nested and that long flight back to Portland after a week off in Florida, that's a tough task. We've been doing that for many years. So we've moved officially -- we moved our home down here to Bonita Springs, Florida. We still have our home back in Portland and feel we've got both ends of the country covered.

PETER JACOBSEN: I think it's a very tough situation. I wasn't there. I only saw what happened when Davis turned and went to the spectator. I don't know if the spectator had said something previous to that hole. If he had said it 20 times, 30 times. Mike Tirico alluded to the fact that the word "No Love" kept popping up during the day. I know Davis is quite an intense competitor. I'm an intense competitor, too. If it were me, I don't know what I would have done. I might have gone after the guy, too. I remember a few years ago it happened to Greg Norman. Davis Love is one of the classiest guys on the PGA TOUR and I would always look to players like Davis and Hal Sutton as how to handle these situations. Not being there, I don't know what happened, but I think if it happened on a continual basis, definitely he probably needs to be dealt with sternly by the officials or the security. And if it continues, yes, I think it's important to get him off the golf course. Because when you've got a match-play situation and you've got two of the best players in the world, there's going to be lines drawn. Tiger is going to have his fans. Davis is going to have his fans. There's no reason to cross the line. We've seen that in the Ryder Cup, in the last four or five competitions, get out of control and get out of hand. Europeans are yelling things at Americans, and Americans back at Europeans. There's no need for that in the game. Golf is a gentleman's sport and should be handled accordingly.

PETER JACOBSEN: Whenever I've been heckled -- I come from the belief, kill them with kindness. If somebody doesn't like me or somebody is saying something, I'll turn to them and I'll try to diffuse it with a smile or comment and try to bring him into my camp rather than keep them out of my camp.

PETER JACOBSEN: Well, I think it's going to go hand in hand with how I feel golf should be played. A couple of years ago when Tim and the policy board made those changes, I couldn't have been happier. I think the fan-friendly atmosphere out there is so vital, not only to the Champions Tour but to the PGA TOUR, as well. It's great when you see Tiger do these ads -- the new American Express ad where he does the Bill Murray impression. That's fabulous. That casts players in the proper light, and I'm looking forward to the fan-friendly features. I'm actually looking forward to the two Pro-Ams, Wednesdays and Thursdays. I love playing in Pro-Ams. It's a chance for me and all the other players on Tour to interact with the true golf fans, the corporate guests or the individuals that love the game of golf. They simply want to walk and talk with the golf professional, and where better to do it than the Champions Tour where you have a chance to talk with somebody who has played on the PGA TOUR for 20-plus years and they have victories under their belt and experiences they can share. That to me is probably -- I'm actually looking for the Pro-Ams, as well as the competition.

PETER JACOBSEN: I'm looking at four guitars right here right now. I have a 12-string Martin that I just had an electrical pickup in, and I have got a ^ Guild and a brand-new Taylor that I just picked up. And I just wrote three songs over the last three days. They're all silly and stupid, but they're mine.

PETER JACOBSEN: Well, I think the biggest swing flaw I see is that golfers feel they've got to swing their club and their arms down the line. Golf is a side-on game. As I stand to the side of the golf ball, and if I'm right-handed I look over my left shoulder to the target, so I've got to make sure that I swing like a baseball player. The bat goes inside on the back side and comes inside on the follow through. What happens in amateur golf I see in the Pro-Ams is, the amateurs make a good backswing, the club follows their body turn on the backswing, and then they try to jam their arms and their hands down the target line toward the pin, and that absolutely interrupts their turn through the ball and is in conflict with what a good rotation would be through the golf ball. You don't see Mark McGuire, when he hits a home run, or Barry Bonds, hit a home run, you don't see them jam the bat down the line at the pitcher's mound. If you're Barry Bonds, they swing almost into the visitor dugout to the right. If you're Mark McGuire, he almost hits the guy standing in the on-deck circle to his left. The average golfer fails to make a full rotation in his golf swing. And I think that's why golfers come up short so many times. Amateur golfers come up short with the 8, the 9, the 5, the 6, whatever iron they're hitting because they fail to make a full 100 percent turn on their golf swing.

PETER JACOBSEN: I remember Valencia fondly. I remember the golf course was hard and fast. I remember how difficult it played. I thought going from Riviera to Valencia -- I had heard it was a good course, but I personally thought it was a great golf course, and I'm very much looking forward to coming back. I did miss the cut by a couple of shots in '95 when we played there, and I remember it being long and being tough and the greens being very, very difficult. I haven't been back there since then, but I'm very much looking forward to playing again.

PETER JACOBSEN: I'm very impressed with the metal outlook of a lot of players. So many players have different swings, Lee Trevino, he aims way left and he has the club going outside the line, inside the line. You have got Nicklaus and Palmer, who played a draw. Tiger seems to fight his swing. I've never seen a player win so many times fighting his golf swing, as he says, and then you take a player like a John Daly who never fights his golf swing, it's effortless. But the thing that sets these players apart is they go above and beyond emotion. These players do not get emotional down the stretch. They don't get scared. There's no fear, no frustration. You may see Tiger or another player slam their club, but that's more out of disgust and frustration than it is anything else, but I think the great players go above the emotion, and they go above the fear and they look at it as a challenge. You can see that each week on the PGA TOUR when a player has a chance to win. There's really no back off. Well, you do see -- I can't see say that. You do see some back off and we could probably talk about some instances of that. The one I love to look at is Tiger. Tiger will not play his best golf, but he will win the golf tournament by sheer guts and sheer determination alone, and that's very impressive. Nicklaus would do the same thing, so would Watson, and so would Seve Ballesteros. Seve would hit the ball all over the lot. He made Tiger look like Mike Reid, and Seve would hit incredible miraculous shots and make par, birdie. Tiger plays a lot like Seve. They're very similar in their games.

PETER JACOBSEN: June 22nd.

PETER JACOBSEN: The most important thing to a community is when you have a player like a Tom Watson or an athlete like a Tom Watson, and it could be a baseball player, football player, basketball player, it doesn't matter, but when you've got someone like a Tom Watson who is willing to commit his time and efforts to the Children'S Mercy Hospital in Kansas City and commit 25 years of his time to raise money, that is what being a community-minded individual is all about. And I don't think it exists anywhere as well as it does on the PGA TOUR. You can talk about Nicklaus and Palmer and players that nobody even knows about that are Hooter's Tour players and Nationwide players, it's so refreshing and so wonderful to see so many players around the country doing one-day and two-day tournaments like Tom in Kansas City. And that event means so much to the community that I know when it goes away, people are probably going to be banging on Tom's door saying, come on we need to continue, we need to do it again. But that's where the Bayer Advantage Celebrity Pro-Am event comes in, the Champions Tour event that Peter Jacobsen Productions has been hired to run. This is our second year. We're simply trying to add to what is already a great landscape of charitable fund-raisers and sporting events in Kansas City. Last year was a successful event. This year is going to be even more successful. We have a new tournament director by the name of Bob Burris, who came to us from, among other places, baseball, the world of golf. He ran the Champions Tour event down here in Naples for a couple of years, but we are really trying to add to what is already a great landscape there, and look down the road and try to continue to do great golf events in Kansas City. Tom was so fabulous last year. He did the junior clinic and helped us with George Brett's 50th birthday, which was celebrated during the week. So we have a good foundation, and the National is a fabulous place to play. Tom Watson and Jim Allen are the proprietors out there. They really care about the golf tournament. And John Paine, who is the CEO of Bayer Advantage. They really care about golf and they care about their communities, and that's what sets golf apart.

PETER JACOBSEN: I fight my weight. I don't know about you, but I fight my weight. I'm getting gray hair. I actually feel pretty good physically. I'm fortunately married to a very beautiful girl, we've been married for 28 years, who is in fabulous shape. She does yoga, she walks, she runs, she does everything possible to keep herself in shape. She is so young looking, she looks like my third wife. I'm constantly trying to keep up with her, and that keeps me young and healthy. I will say this, it is interesting, when you get older, I come from the generation of golfers who were told never pick up a weight, don't go swimming, don't exercise, don't do anything to strengthen your muscles because they are not good for golf. Here we're looking at probably arguably the greatest player in the history of the game, Tiger Woods, who spends two hours a day in the weight room. So those two views represent 25 to 30 years of thinking on the PGA TOUR. I need to continue to stay in the gym as much as possible, ride my bike, do the elliptical machine, do as much stretching and yoga and Palates as I can. I'll never be 25 again, but I can try to stay as close to a 25-year-old as I can through exercise. I'm more keenly aware of exercise and diet now than I ever have, because as you get older it gets away from you. I'm probably 15 to 20 pounds overweight and I'm constantly working on my weight, but that's one of the things that happens when you get holder.

PETER JACOBSEN: What plans I have to celebrate, I have got my brother and my sister coming down from Portland and my golf teacher Jim Hardy is coming in. We're going to have dinner at the house on the fourth and then play golf on the fifth. Very, very quiet, very, very private. I actually tried to do something kind of big. I wanted to do kind of a roast. I talked to the Golf Channel about starting kind of -- one of the things I think is great and I think is missing on the PGA TOUR are big blowout celebrity dinner/festival functions. I thought it would be fun if we started a roast. Roast a player in the game every year on The Golf Channel or on ESPN. And I thought let's do it this year, let's start with me as the guinea pig, and then next year maybe roast Peter Ueberroth or Clint Eastwood, and the next year maybe roast Mark O'Meara or Arnold Palmer, kind of start like those old Jackie Gleason friars roasts, but we couldn't get it off the ground, probably because I was the subject. Nobody had any interest.

PETER JACOBSEN: It's so hard to know. Whenever I tee it up in any golf event, you hope to win. You want to compete. You want to do your very, very best. I don't know how I'm going to do. I don't know how I'm going to do from week to week. I don't think any player knows how he's going to do from week to week. Even Tiger doesn't know how he's going to do. He's more than likely going to make the cut. That's pretty much set in stone. But I think it all depends on your short week that week, how the golf course feels to you, how does your game set up for that golf course. Stadler is a very talented player, obviously. He's one two majors, the U.S. Amateur, and The Masters Championship. Craig is very adaptable. I do my impression of Craig. When Craig was at USC, I was at Oregon at the same time, so we go way back. I like to do an impression of Craig, because Craig always looks like he's mad at the world, but nothing is further from the truth. He might hit a bad shot and bury his club. You might walk over to him and he might say with a scowl on his face, "Where do you want to eat dinner tonight?" So Craig is very flexible and very adaptable. I feel like I'm the same kind of player and the same kind of person. We probably wouldn't have lasted this long if we had been tight and get out of sorts a lot. I don't know how it's going to be. I just know that I'm looking forward to playing with my old friends, Watson and Purtzer and Bruce Fleisher and Hale Irwin and a lot of guys like that. I'm looking forward to playing golf with them.

PETER JACOBSEN: I've gotten to know him very well the last couple of years. He came from New Orleans and has done a fabulous job.

PETER JACOBSEN: The one thing that has to happen, whether you're the Commissioner of the Tour or running the Nationwide Tour or Champions Tour, whenever you're in an authoritative position, you need to be a no-nonsense guy, and that's what Rick is. He understands that decisions has to be made. It's like when you're twelve years old. Your mother makes you eat your green beans whether you want to eat them or not. She knows they're good for you, you may complain about it, but in the long run you know she's right. A lot of times that's exactly the situation that exists on any organization. And in this situation we're talking about the Champions Tour or the regular Tour. Rick really has a great grasp for what the players need and what the players -- well, the players think they need one thing, but in actuality they need something else. The PGA Tour and Champions Tour exist, our core business is hospitality and relationship building. In the old days, it used to be just a player and his caddie and a rope and a stake and an outhouse every six holes, and maybe a hot dog stand at the turn. It's big business now. So the PGA TOUR and Tim and Rick George, they do understand that, and they need to understand the players have to do more for the sponsors, the guests, their customers, and the golf fans, we have to do more, and that not only includes Pete Jacobsen, but that includes Tiger Woods and everybody else on the regular Tour, we have to continue to look for ways to make our product better, because we're in the entertainment business, we're selling tickets just like the Lord of the Rings, the Passion of Christ, and NASCAR.

PETER JACOBSEN: Somebody gets hurt in all three of those.

PETER JACOBSEN: I don't think that's such a bad thing. As I said earlier, as long as it's done for a player not against a play. I hate it when someone yells something against another player. I think the passion the players have brought to the game, they elicit that response from the crowd. We really saw it when John Daly came on the scene, because John Daly really appeals to the common man. And what Tiger has done is phenomenal, what he has done. He's done the same thing that Arnold did when Arnold burst on the scene. They bring out very emotional, very passionate people to the game. Having said that, we have to understand that and we can't overreact when somebody gets a little bit excited. You have to simply appreciate that they are excited. If they're saying negative things like what happened with Davis, that has to be dealt with, but if somebody is screaming, "Tiger, I love ya, I love ya, I love ya" or "Davis, I love ya," that's what we want. The other thing is, when someone brings their cell -- I disagree with -- the TOUR has a rule you can't have a cell phone. We can't expect the spectators to do something that we don't expect ourselves to do. If somebody has their cell phone and it goes off in a crowd and bothers your swing, that's the price of playing the PGA Tour, I guess, back off your shot. He might be a doctor on call and somebody might be delivering a baby. We need to appreciate those facts and move on.

PETER JACOBSEN: That's exactly right. That's what spectator sports have become. I love the passion. I love the excitement that the spectators bring. Look at the 16th hole in Phoenix. How cool is that? Some players don't like it. Some players like it. I think it sets our sport apart and what makes golf so exciting and such a great sponsorship opportunity for major corporations around the country.

PETER JACOBSEN: The Champions Tour has to understand that the fan is first. And if the golf carts that the players are riding, if they outrace the fans to the golf ball, then that's a problem. It would make sense to me, if I were riding a cart, I would at least have my cart go the same speed as someone who is walking with me, because if I jump in my cart and I drive lickety-split to my ball, meanwhile I have a crowd of 1,000 people walking with me and they're not anywhere near my tee shot when I hit my 8-iron to the green, what are they doing other than walking around the golf course just looking at the trees and the birds. Again, I have not played in a Champions Tour event, I have not ridden a cart on a Tour event, nor do I plan to ride a cart. Now in maybe ten years I might feel differently. I will leave that judgment to Rick George and the TOUR. They know a lot better than I because I haven't been out there. But again, that's why they've got the inside the ropes, they've got the fans that walk with the players. Those are important aspects of the Tour, to let the player get more involved with the fan. Could you guys hold on one second? There's someone at the door and it's the plumber. Hang on. My wife is out doing errands. She didn't ask me, she told me to be here when the plumber came.

PETER JACOBSEN: I'm definitely playing at Pebble Beach at the First Tee Open. I look forward to it. Pebble Beach is my most favorite course in the world. I love playing there. Again, I think growing the game, it starts, obviously, with the kids. If we don't continue to grow the game, the golf courses today will be housing develops of tomorrow. We have to get kids more engaged and passionate about the game. The First Tee is such a great program. Not only do we need to give kids instruction and the knowledge and equipment, but we need to give them access. If you give them a golf club but they have nowhere to play, then that golf club is going to sit in their closet. I'm very, very excited about that event.

PETER JACOBSEN: I did. Lucky.