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THE McGLADREY CLASSICOctober 22, 2014Joe AdamsTim FinchemDavis Love IIISEA ISLAND, GEORGIA SCOTT REID: Welcome, everybody. Welcome to the fifth anniversary of the McGladrey Classic. My name is Scott Reid. I'm the tournament director. On behalf of Mark Love, our executive director and myself, we'd like to welcome everybody to Sea Island Golf Club and the beautiful Golden Isles of Georgia. Sorry about the weather in advance. Hopefully it will get better as the week goes on. We've got some exciting news to share with you, so we're glad that you're here. It's hard to believe that less than five years ago, I was fortunate enough to have a conversation with Davis Love and Mark Love about a new PGA TOUR event that was going to be what was in then the Fall Series, and now look at where we're at, a full FedExCup event, part of the regular wrap‑around season with our champion receiving an invitation into the Masters, as well. We've come a long ways, and as many of you know, PGA TOUR events are all about charity. We certainly are no different. In four short years, we've raised more than $1.8 million for charity, including Special Olympics and The Boys & Girls Club of Southeast Georgia, which is our local Boys & Girls Club chapter here. The mission of the Davis Love Foundation is to help any charities that can benefit children and their families in need. An example of that was some of you saw that right behind us we had a really fun event we started a few years ago. We call it our Charity Putting Challenge, and we had 12 PGA TOUR players out there, each with a Special Olympics athlete and a representative from the Boys & Girls Club. McGladrey executives served as the scorekeepers, and they play a 12‑hole putting contest, and it's really been a popular event, especially among the players. We enjoy continuing that tradition. Included in our charitable efforts, as well, we started a program a few years ago called Birdies Fore Love. Much like other Birdies For Charity programs that you hear, Birdies Fore Love gives the opportunity for folks to go out and get pledges in their communities and have a the chance for people to guess the number of birdies at the McGladrey Classic, and a couple years ago we engaged McGladrey to really get involved with this program, and they have really taken it to a new level. More than 70 offices across the country participate in the program. They each get to designate a charity in their community. The employees go out and get the pledges, and the money is directed right to the charity of their choice, and we do some fun contests throughout the year for all the offices. With that program alone, we're going to make an announcement in a couple weeks, but it's going to be $400,000 just through the Birdies Fore Love program, so it's been a great success. We're also proud of the economic impact that we've had to our community and the state of Georgia here. We did a study last year, Georgia Southern University helped us, estimated more than $10.6 million of economic impact in our region here. With such a great beginning, we're here today to talk about the future. With some special guests, of course our host Davis Love III, the Commissioner of the PGA TOUR at the end, Mr.Tim Finchem, and then the Managing Partner and CEO, Joe Adams. With that I'd like to invite the commissioner up to say a few words. TIM FINCHEM: Thank you, and good afternoon, everyone. What a beautiful day in this part of the world, which is one of the more beautiful parts of the world. We're delighted on the PGA TOUR to be able to partner with these folks to have a tournament here because it is such a special place. You know, in four short years, this tournament has grown nicely. It's got great momentum. The players love coming here. It looks great on television. It creates good economic impact, and it's become a fixture on the PGA TOUR in a short amount of time. McGladrey, their leadership, Joe and his team, have made major commitments and contributions to allow this to grow, and they are an enlightened, aggressive sponsor, which is what you want to see, a company that believes in giving back, that sees what the platform can do to help people, and as a consequence, that's why it's grown. You know, the formula on the PGA TOUR that you see all across the country is a partnership. It's a partnership of a local organization which is dedicated to helping people. It's a partnership with the community, with the fans in the area, with people that want to come out and volunteer, and with the players, and we represent those players. But those are the key pieces. But the sponsorship position is the glue to that partnership. The sponsor, a proper sponsor, a sponsor that pushes everything along, helps really drive the growth of the tournament, so that's why we're delighted to announce today that McGladrey has agreed to extend their sponsorship for five more years of the McGladrey Classic, and we thank you for that, Joe. Before I introduce Joe, I'd just like to make a couple comments about what this means. It's a big deal. Continuity and the ability to plan and strategize and grow is what makes our tournaments successful. A good tournament is one that gets better every year. You have 50 things that went right, you've got 15 things that you could do better. You fix those 15 the following year, and then there's another list of 15 or 20, and you keep doing it, and you get better and better and better. The longer the key partners stay together, that grows the equity that the sponsor has, it grows the recognition that the tournament has, and it allows that improvement to continue. It allows folks to look at the longer term. It allows our television partners to know that this tournament is going to be around now for the next five years. They can plan on that. I know Tommy Roy, the great producer of golf on NBC, was here playing in the pro‑am today because he's going to be producing the telecast next year, and there's nobody on the planet better than Tommy Roy and his team in bringing what you all do here to the world, here and around the globe. So this is a big day for the tournament. Joe, I just want to, again, thank you and your executive team for the original decision to make this happen, and now after these number of years to say we're ready for the long‑term, and we can look forward to the next five years. Thank you, and come on up and say a few words, Joe Adams. JOE ADAMS: Thank you, Commissioner Finchem. It has been a great five years. I still remember looking back on the inception of the McGladrey Classic. I guess it was four years ago. This is our fifth year with the McGladrey Classic, and we really had a high expectations, and I would have to tell you that those expectations have all been surpassed. Obviously our commitment to renew is certainly an indication of that, but we started this with the intention of really three main purposes: One, of course, was to build our brand as the really top choice advisor in accounting, tax and consulting services for middle market leaders, and I think we've really been able to leverage this McGladrey Classic into our brand. In addition to that, it's a great place, the resort, the beautiful weather, the scenery, the golf, a great place to bring our clients and prospective clients, and they come here with a high expectation, and they leave here totally thrilled with their experience. I think we had a number of them who have already been here and left today. I've gotten a number of emails from many of them talking about what a great time they've had, and it's the hospitality, the Southern hospitality of this region, it's the respect on the golf course that they get from everybody here associated with this event, and it's really something that makes a difference for us, and most importantly, as Scott said, it's a great opportunity to give back, and we've raised in this tournament over $2 million in its first four years, and so we want to continue to add to that. The Birdies Fore Love program is a way that we've been able to engage our employees, so maybe we're on to a fourth purpose. As Commissioner Finchem said, you want to get better every year, and we've really tried to bring our employees more and more into the event, and the Birdies Fore Love was a great opportunity for everyone to choose a charity of their choice in their location, raise funds, great participation with the Davis Love Foundation, and it's really been a tremendous success for us and for the tournament. With all those great things going, we also have our players. Davis, one of our sponsor players, and Chris DiMarco, the first McGladrey sponsor player, and then Zach Johnson, and the three of them just do so many amazing things, stand up so well in terms of engaging with our clients when we bring them here and spend a lot of time to make everyone feel comfortable, and obviously work very hard on this tournament to make it such a success. It's really easy to get to this point where we really want to see it continue. There's so much more we can do, and in the meantime, I just continue to hope that we keep getting weather like this because this week has just been phenomenal. I don't think there's ever been a delay. A little fog delay one year in the morning, but not any rain or anything like that in the five years we've been here, so we've been very fortunate, and I will knock on wood. But I do want to introduce and just acknowledge a couple people that are here, including Teresa Carlin, who is our Birdies Fore Love champion and the leader who took on this challenge in the firm to organize the events and get all the various locations organized, and so she's done a marvelous job with that, and thank you for doing that. Our board of directors, of course, who support and who have to sign off on any decision of this magnitude, Craig Radke, our chairman, is here, and thanks, Craig and the board, for your support. I know many of the board and our leadership team is here, and they certainly have done a great job in building our firm and leveraging the opportunity that the McGladrey Classic provides. And then finally, Andy Bosman, who's our chief marketing officer, he and his team who had to work through the contract and who have really organized and developed and supported this event and really put all the action into making it run smooth and making it a seamless event for us coming here, a lot of work goes into this and working with the Davis Love Foundation. Our team really does a great job of pulling off a very challenging organization to really make it run as smoothly as it does. Thanks to all of them, and then finally, I guess, certainly thanks to the Davis Love Foundation. Thanks to Davis and his team, Scott and Mark, and also to the PGA TOUR, and then finally this great resort that has made it all come together in a very special way. It's great to be able to do this. We look forward to the next five years after this. I guess it's six more years because we have one year remaining plus five, so we're in for the long haul, and we can't wait to get at it tomorrow and a great tournament this week. Thank you, all, for coming. Davis? DAVIS LOVE III: Thank you, Joe. It is an exciting day for the Davis Love Foundation, for the McGladrey Classic, for the PGA TOUR. I've been fortunate to do a lot of things in golf. This is certainly another one of the biggest days of my golf career, and it's especially fitting that Robin and I and Bill Jones III were trying to decide if we could grow our little weekend fundraising tournament into something else, and Bill Jones wanted to step up from having USGA events or a Walker Cup or an SEC Championship. He said, what's the next big thing, and I said, well, the next big thing would be a TOUR event. And to have a partner like the PGA TOUR believe in us, have a partner like McGladrey believe in us, and then the Sea Island Company to put so much behind it, it's been an incredible five years, and I'm excited to work just as hard through 2020 to keep this tournament growing. We find more than 15 things a year that we want to fix, but the great thing is we do more than 50 things well. This tournament has gotten rave reviews from the players, from the caddies, from the sponsors. It's just amazing that my only problem, and I've said this before, my only problem with the tournament is I can't get across the parking lot or through the clubhouse or to the driving range because so many people come up and thank me for hosting such a great tournament. They all make me look good, but my brother Mark, Scott Reid, our whole staff does an incredible job. We have a guy that we stole from the Charlotte tournament, Tony Schuster. His whole team do an incredible job building our tournament. I don't do much other than try to play golf. I have a 12:30 tee time tomorrow that I'm going to get prepared for. That's my main focus, and this whole team does an incredible job of making this an exciting event. We couldn't do it without the support of the community. The Golden Isles has really gotten behind us. I keep saying that one of our friends at Southern Soul Barbecue told me a few years ago, I have McGladrey fever, and that has really become the calling card for this tournament, that the whole community has a passion for it and a fever for it and gets behind it, our 1,200 volunteers and the fans that come out to watch, it's just incredible how this whole community gets behind what we're doing here. Again, to Sea Island, we're standing here on a wonderfully manicured golf course, messing up Barry's tee here, but they've done an incredible job with getting this golf course in shape, with doing so many little things, all throughout last week and this week to get the golf course, the hotel, the lodge. We take over pretty much every facility, and Randy Myers' new gym and the performance center is all full of new stuff this week. Everybody in the whole company pitches in. I'd like to thank Scott Steilen and his whole team for everything they do. Sea Island could not be a better partner. It's pretty easy when you have a sponsor like McGladrey, a partner like the PGA TOUR, and then you have a resort like to bring the players to. You don't have too hard a sell, so it's an easy job for me. And then to Joe Adams and the McGladrey team, everything we've asked to do, from a wiffle ball tournament to a Monday pro‑am to a party at our house or anything, they jump right behind it, and then the Birdies Fore Love program where somebody is going to win a car, and thanks to the Nalley Automotive Group for helping us every year with our car. But we had a small idea to copy Zach Johnson's tournament, the John Deere, to do this Birdies Fore Love program, and McGladrey has jumped behind that with both feet in, really making it happen, it's just said over $400,000 will go to charity this year, just from them taking another step with us, and this next five years, we're so excited about it. We really appreciate your support, and I know you want to ask a lot of questions, but just thank you to everybody on behalf of Robin and I and the whole Davis Love Foundation. We're very excited to take this to 2020. SCOTT REID: Thanks, guys. We will open it up to questions at this time. Q. Davis, for you, talk a lot about the weather. I know you're moving the event next year. Is there any concern that late week in November that the weather won't be this perfect, and there's also been a lot of talk about maybe adding a second course next year. Can you address that? DAVIS LOVE III: Well, we've been blessed with the weather every year. I think this is the best time of year to be here. I've said that‑‑ I've lived here since I was 15 years old. October, November is a great time, and it can be just this nice that week, as if we can continue to be blessed, we'll get another week like this. Now, it could be a little cold front. A cold front could go through, mess us up for a couple days, but we had one last Tuesday that came through, rained half a day, and once that cleared out we've had beautiful weather for the next 10 days. That's obviously a possibility. It takes us farther from hurricane season, which is nice. It puts us towards the end of the schedule rather than in the middle. I think that might help us to be a little bit distanced away from the two Asia events. But again, this resort, these golf courses, this place, the way the tournament has been run the last five years, I think it sells itself, so I think you could have it really almost in any slot in the six or seven weeks, and we'd come out with basically the same field, so I'm not concerned about that. But you know, the members, and it seems like some of the golf staff, they want to see it play hard. They want to see the course play hard. They want to see us struggle a little bit, so maybe they'd like a couple of cold, windy days to see what we shoot. We like it nice and sunny and no wind. I think we've approved by the TOUR that we can play two golf courses. I think if we're playing in a date like late November it would really help us, because like we do in San Diego and some other places, you don't have to tee off at 7:00 in the morning. You don't have to fight daylight. We can increase our field. I think this would be a win‑win for the PGA TOUR and for our tournament. We need to get more spots for the young guys in the beginning of the year, so I think it would be great to play both and then showcase that we do have two great golf courses here on‑site. SCOTT REID: Again, thanks, everybody, for coming, and we look forward to a great week. Hopefully most of you will be here at least for a few more days, if not the rest of the week. Have a great week. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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