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THE GOLF CHANNEL MEDIA CONFERENCE

January 2, 2008

DAN HIGGINS: Hello, everybody, from Kapalua, Maui. We're at the Mercedes Benz Championship, which is the kickoff event of the 2008 PGA TOUR season, and it's exclusively on The Golf Channel. I don't know whether to say good morning or afternoon, given the time difference between us all, but hello.
Regardless of that, it's good to be here and we're excited to get our second year with the PGA TOUR off to a great start. 2007 was great, during our first year of PGA TOUR action on The Golf Channel, one of the subjects we'd like to cover today, but we're about to start 2008 and we're certainly excited about the things to come. Golf Channel will televise all or part of the 44 PGA TOUR events in 2008.
With me today is Kelly Tilghman, and we're looking for Nick Faldo, who is going to be here any minute, our hard-working broadcasting tandem who anchored 17 events together last year. Tony Tortorici, our Golf Channel executive producer and vice president of production also joins us. Among many things, Tony is charged with overseeing what viewers see on The Golf Channel when watching tournament golf, and he coordinates the many personalities that deliver that product.
And also it's my pleasure to introduce one of the biggest names in baseball and all of sports and also of golf, Joe Torre, who will be the newest manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers when they begin play. Joe was in the New York Yankees from 1996 to 2007, and during that time led the organization to post-season play in each of those years, including 10 American League divisional titles, six American League pennants and four World Series titles, and I'm sure he's hoping for similar success with the Dodgers. Joe is a big fan of golf and a big fan of the Golf Channel. Tomorrow during the first-ever opening drive ceremonies, which will be televised live on The Golf Channel, he will be serving as honorary starter for the 2008 season. He will have the pleasure of introducing Stephen Ames, who will take the first tee shot of 2008.
Joe, please tell us a little bit about your love of golf and your role in helping kick off the new year.
JOE TORRE: Well, I'm a little disappointed because when you say I'm the honoree introducing the first golfer, I thought I was going to hit the first shot, but I guess I'll have to live with that. I've been a fan of golf from -- I mean, the years when you used to watch it on TV and you couldn't see it until it hit the green or the rough or something. And I'm just thrilled to be here, as I am every year, at Kapalua. They put on a great show, and hopefully the weather holds up. But this is a great place for my family and myself to relax until we start the craziness of baseball, and this year it's going to be a little different obviously, starting back in the National League after 12 years with the Yankees. I'm looking forward to it.
I'm a big fan of the Golf Channel. I love it because I'm sort of an insomniac and I can turn it on any time of the day or night and there it is with something I haven't seen before. It's going to be fun being a part of this this year.
DAN HIGGINS: Thanks, Joe. We're going to open it up to questions in just a minute, for those of you who are on the call today. And any questions that you have of Joe, hopefully those will be golf-related, but I'm sure he won't mind a question or two about baseball.
Let me ask Kelly and Nick what they took away from the first year as a tandem and what they look forward to in 2008, and I'll ask Kelly to begin.
KELLY TILGHMAN: I think I took away the feeling that I have one year of experience under my belt, and that's pretty rewarding. It was all new to me in 2007. This time last year we were scurrying around and all encouraging each other and we were ready to set foot onto a big stage with the PGA TOUR. And looking back on this season I am very proud of our product, of our team, and of all the decisions that were made by Tony and all of his colleagues.
I feel like we did the best possible job that we could, and the good news is there's more improvement to come. That's what we do each and every year when we set out with our goals, is try to be better than we were the year before, and I think all athletes try to do that in their respective sports, as well. I'm very proud of what we did, and I had a great time with Nick. We had a lot of laughs, and I learned a lot from him and I look forward to doing that and more in 2008.
Nick, hopefully you feel the same way, and if you don't, just lie about it.
NICK FALDO: Well, it was a great experience. Yeah, I've been enjoying -- well, I definitely see this is now my transition into being an announcer, analyst. I'll tell you what, I'm on the road for a month and I didn't even bring my golf clubs this time, so how about that? Obviously it was a good year. Kelly and I got on very well. She said she learned a lot from me. I've got to ask her again what she learned from me because I don't know what I learned (laughter).
We're looking forward to it. That's the real bottom line. We're here again, fresh thoughts, fresh ideas, and ready to see what it throws at us.
DAN HIGGINS: Tony, since you are responsible for the product that people see on the air, what can Golf Channel viewers expect to see this coming year in terms of tournament product?
TONY TORTORICI: Well, just looking back at last year, we've just learned so much along the way, the experience that we've gained and put into practice going forward. As Kelly said, we had a tremendous year last year. The nature of television is you just want to keep improving. If you're not improving you're losing ground. We're going to continue to innovate. The next three weeks we're going to have this TrackMan technology, which I think Nick is really kind of uniquely qualified to talk about, the technical aspects of the game, and you'll be getting club head speed and all kinds of information that we think viewers will be able to help in their game with this information. We feel that's an important part of our broadcast, as well.
Lastly, I would say we're proud of our talent teams this year. We're starting off pretty much with the same group that we had last year at the Mercedes. In addition to Kelly and nick, we've got Mark Rolfing, Rich Lerner, Jerry Foltz, Dottie Pepper, and we've brought along Billy Andrade to join us on the course. We really like having a current player out in the fray because they're just so close to it, and it gives us a little different perspective than the rest of the team. So we're excited about it, and we can't wait to start.
DAN HIGGINS: Tony, talk a little bit about what people can see live versus our replay, which has been a great success for us this year, and how we're going to do the PGA primetime product going forward?
TONY TORTORICI: You know, another thing, I guess, that is unique about what we do, as Dan says, is the replay in primetime. A lot of viewers don't get the chance to watch during the day. They're working or playing golf, whatever it might be. They come back at night, you get to see the show as it occurred earlier in the day, but we also add elements to it, things like the graphics that we feel will keep the viewer tuned in, things like Tiger plays a drivable par 4, 14th in three minutes, see if he takes out driver, that kind of stuff, little graphics that kind of keep you interested in what's coming up and gives you a little bit of a clue as to what's happening.
We also in those replays put extra sound, press conference sound. We'll do things like someone hits a great shot, we'll ask them about it after their round and we'll insert it in during the broadcast of the replay soon after it happened. So we try to do as much as we can to kind of just make it a little bit different for those who have watched it before. But the reality, as we do know, is that these are a lot of times new viewers that will be watching in primetime because they didn't get a chance to watch earlier in the day.

Q. Joe, how's the knee doing?
JOE TORRE: The knee is four weeks old today, and it was okay. It's a little achy.

Q. Since we last spoke to you, the Mitchell report came out, and with both Roger and Brian having worked for you, wanted your take on everything that's gone on and the accusations Brian made and which of the two you believe at this point.
JOE TORRE: (Laughing) you're not going to get me in that. The only thing I can say is, first off, I'd rather just stay away from making any in-depth comment about the whole steroid/HGH thing. I respect what Mr. Mitchell did, took a long time to get it done. He was very thorough. But when you're talking about 80 players that supposedly were using one thing or another, you know, to me it may be incomplete. It's really tough for me to comment.
I know the two people really that they interviewed, and you talk about McNamee and the kid that worked over there for the Mets, that's why I think most of the New York players, or the ones that have come through New York, may have been named and it looked like a lopsided report.
First off, I obviously don't know enough information. The only thing I do know is that the most important thing for us in baseball is to make sure that when we take the field, that the fans trust us. So whatever we have to do to make that happen, I think that's important. But I'm going to -- I'm very close to Roger. When I say close to him, he was a great competitor for me, Andy the same way, and I certainly know they're two different individuals that only like to do the right thing. I'd just like to leave it at that.

Q. Was it directed at the Yankee players because they were the two primary sources from the New York area?
JOE TORRE: I think that's it. Don't forget, the Yankees have so many people come through there on a year-to-year basis. We changed over quite often, whether it's the player for the month of May, the player for the month of September. But I think a big part of it was the access, where these two people were both based in New York.

Q. I did want to ask you about your game. How often do you get to play and how would you describe it?
JOE TORRE: It's ugly, it really is (laughter). I mean, I love when they do -- like when Nick does the swing analysis, and if I could ever get my swing to slow down as he analyzes it, it would be wonderful. But for some reason, and you're talking to a guy who used to try to hit a 90-mile-an-hour fastball, for some reason I'm thinking that ball is going to move so I have to hurry up and get to it.
I just play, and tempo I could probably -- at best for me in the mid 80s, upper 80s, but I haven't been there in a long time. I love the game. I've been a big fan of the game. I've played with a number of pros here at the Mercedes, and it's been a great experience for me.
I remember playing a Pro-Am here with Jim Furyk, and he waited until we got to the 16th hole to give me a little bit of instruction, which sort of aggravated me because I thought he could have started on the first hole and I would have been better off. But it's a wonderful party here for the four days. I know the players that come here really have a great time, and the director of golf here, Gary Planos, has done a great job making these guys feel at home.

Q. When did you pick up the game?
JOE TORRE: I didn't really start playing until I was about 40 years old, and I thought when I got fired from my third managing job and I had all this time as a broadcaster I'd really pick this thing up in a hurry. But I could never really get over the hump, so to speak. Basically I guess in my 40s I picked the game up and have never really played it on a regular basis until I came out here for the month of January, which I do pretty much every year.
DAN HIGGINS: Tony, talk a little bit more about this TrackMan technology.
TONY TORTORICI: Sure. We're going to have it on two holes on the back nine, and as the players come up, we'll really kind of try to set it up and look to put it in contrast to the everyday golfer. We have a few of the celebrities who are playing out here this week. We've gotten their swings and we're going to kind of compare the data that we get from their swings to the pros' swings so you really can get an idea of what these guys are doing out here and why they're doing it, what is the spin rate and how important is that and what should you be doing into the wind or what can you do to hit it farther. It's just interesting. It's just another piece of technology that hopefully enhances the viewing experience.
DAN HIGGINS: Nick, can you talk a little bit about the field this week, who's here and who's not?
NICK FALDO: Apart from the obvious big names, we've got some good characters. That's the important thing. You know, we've got Aaron Baddeley, who won down in Australia not so long ago, in the last month. We've got Rory Sabbatini. There was drama at Tiger's event that will be good for us to talk about. A few guys will be taking it seriously. Calcavecchia has been climbing hills in Phoenix to get himself in shape. I was conversing in brilliant Chinese and Japanese earlier today. Vijay, as usual, was in the gym pounding medicine balls.
We've got a lot of exciting guys, a lot of characters. Fred Funk is here; Cabrera, he could be a dark horse on a fairway 72 yards wide. Henrik Stenson can hit it a mile and hopefully he can hit some of those 72-yard-wide fairways. We've got a lot of good characters this week. I need to sneak out and study a few swings to see who I think is going to win, but the guys have got a good test. It's been raining hard so it's a physical test this week. If you've got yourself prepared for this, you'll do all right.

Q. Tony, you were talking about the technology and the important part of how it translates to TV. Does there get a point where there's too much of this stuff on TV, and do viewers just want to see some nice, clean golf, or really from the input you get from viewers they really like to see this kind of information?
TONY TORTORICI: We put on a lot of golf. I mean, we check in with our viewers and see what they like. Last year we introduced the Putting Line technology that I'm really proud of, and I think that's a huge viewer enhancement. It's used in an instructional way, too, just to see whether the ball is going in the hole at 3:00; they don't all go in right straight in front of you. When the technology can be used to help the viewer's game I think it's a real bonus and that's what we're trying to do with this technology.
I hear your point, but when you look at two balls in the fairway, how they got there, they're two completely different paths, and it's kind of interesting. I think, again, we just want to keep trying to innovate and keep things fresh.

Q. Are you going to be able to use that technology with the Putting Line on more tournaments this year? I know you were limited to tournaments that you were producing.
TONY TORTORICI: We're going to pretty much double the number this year to about 15 events or so, so we're growing that product very nicely.
DAN HIGGINS: I guess we'll wrap it up if nobody else has a question. I want to thank Kelly and Nick and Tony and Joe Torre, of course, for being here to help us out, and we're looking forward to the coming year in golf. If any of you have any follow-up questions, please give me a call, and the transcripts will be sent out promptly. Thanks very much.

End of FastScripts

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