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PGA CHAMPIONSHIPAugust 5, 2014Pete BevacquaTed BishopRory McIlroyStephen UrquhartLOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY KELLY ELBIN: My pleasure to call upon the 38th president of the The PGA of America, Ted Bishop. TED BISHOP: Thanks, Kelly. Appreciate everybody being here for an excitement announcement. First of all, like to thank Stephen Urquhart, who is the president of OMEGA and certainly a very special partner of the The PGA of America, and can't say thanks enough to PGA Champion Rory McIlroy. Happy to announce that Rory has agreed to be our spokesperson for the PGA Junior League, which is very exciting for the Junior League and speaks well for Rory's commitment to Junior golf. But we are here today to talk about OMEGA, which is the Official Timepiece of the The PGA of America. They are an Official Patron of Team USA and will be the Official Timekeeper of our U.S.‑based Ryder Cups as presenting partner and Official Timekeeper of the PGA National Championship. They have had a tremendous impact on our club professionals and our National Championship, and certainly those 20 golf professionals that are here this week. So today, we are very proud to announce that we have an agreement that has been reached with OMEGA extending our relationship with them and The PGA of America through 2022. This is our longest current extension for a PGA Patron, and Stephen, we are so happy that OMEGA has given its support to both the PGA for its major event and also for a lot of the grass‑roots initiatives which certainly translates to increased exposure to PGA professionals. I would like to turn it over to our Chief Executive Officer, Pete Bevacqua. PETE BEVACQUA: Thank you. As Ted says, this is an exciting day for our organization and it's really unprecedented for The PGA of America. It's a testament to what we have been able to do in a relatively short amount of time with OMEGA. We at the The PGA of America have a two‑part strategic mission: To serve our 27,000 members and to grow the game, and OMEGA is truly helping us do that each and every day, with a focus not just on major championships like the PGA Championship and The Ryder Cup, but real effort with our professionals at the grass‑roots level. It's an exciting day for us. For all of you on site this week, one of the areas of the facility that we are most proud of is the OMEGA Exhibition and I would encourage everybody to take some time to walk through that. It's over by the main entrance and what Stephan and his team have done there, with not only an emphasis on the The PGA of America and golf, but telling their role in the space mission story as well as the great history of James Bond, one of the great movie franchises of all time is truly interesting and something we are proud of at The PGA of America. When I look at the entities up on this table, The PGA of America, OMEGA and of course Rory and everything he's doing for the game and doing with us at the The PGA of America, it's exciting to wonder what we can do for the benefit of the game of golf over these next eight years. It's a great day. We are incredibly thankful, Stephen, and with that, I'd love to turn it over to you. STEPHEN URQUHART: Thank you for your very kind words. OMEGA is very happy and in 2011, we were very happy to enter a relationship with the biggest golf association out there. To be meaningful in this sport, you have to be with the best and we are with the best with The PGA of America, we've been in golf over 20 years around the world, but this really has been a confirmation of our mission statement. Coming back to the agreement, we agreed to take this further. Ryder Cup obviously is the icing on the cake with the PGA Championship, and as they said, the grass roots that we can do with all the 27,000 teaching professionals in the U.S. and now with the Olympics coming into the world of golf, it's really going to take hold of golf very soon in Rio, and even next month in Nanjing and OMEGA's long relationship with the IOC to really work together on this. I'm very happy to be sitting up here next to somebody special on my right. I was with Rory last week in Gleneagles, and we had planned for months an event up there and despite Rory's heavy commitment, he came and played one hole of golf with about 16 different teams up there. It was quite a boring day for him but it was an unbelievably good motivation for everybody concerned, and I really think it's great that we met up with Rory. We signed together a partnership in early 2013 and we are on a fantastic role, and with Rory and his family and his team, it's something that's so positive to OMEGA and it's great to have a face for a brand like ours to have an association that we can relate to and really support. Rory, on behalf of OMEGA, thank you. If you're going to win again or not, that's another issue. We hope so, but your game recently has been unbelievable. We never doubted it for one minute and we are going to be 100 percent behind you. Rory, thank you. RORY McILROY: Thank you, Stephen. I'll just reiterate what Stephen said. I think for me, OMEGA has been a great partner over the last 18 months, and I'm really happy to work with them, and the work that they do, trying to grow the game of golf and being a partner of The PGA of America, but also sport around the world. As Stephen said, the Official Timekeeper of the Olympic Games, very involved with the youth Olympics, as well and trying to grow golf and sport around the world. Very proud to be an ambassador for OMEGA and it's hopefully the start of a very good relationship. I've known Stephen for a few years now, even before I came on board with OMEGA. As I said, it's a great company. I'm very proud to be an ambassador, and looking forward to obviously playing this week at the PGA, Ryder Cup at Gleneagles. I played the 10th hole 16 times that day. STEPHEN URQUHART: How many birdies? RORY McILROY: Not enough. Not enough. I need to play it better during The Ryder Cup. But yeah, very proud to being an ambassador and looking forward to the journey ahead and looking forward to the 2016 Olympics in Rio, as well. A lot of exciting things coming up, and yeah, it's great to be involved. KELLY ELBIN: Gentlemen, thank you very much. Congratulations. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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