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BMW CHAMPIONSHIP

September 16, 2015

Lake Forest, Illinois

THE MODERATOR: Good afternoon, everybody. Thank you so much for joining us. I'm going to introduce our panel. They're each going to speak, and as soon as Dustin is finished speaking we're going to open up the floor to questions. We have a very exciting announcement today, and I'd like to introduce Trudy Hardy, who is vice president of marketing with BMW North America; we have Lisa Baird, who is chief marketing officer of the USOC; Andy Levinson, executive director at USA Golf, and we're very excited to have Dustin Johnson here, PGA TOUR player. With that I will turn things over to Trudy to kick things off.

TRUDY HARDY: Great. Well, thank you, guys, very much for coming, and on behalf of everybody at BMW of North America, we are so proud and privileged and honored to be here today to talk to you about our partnership for the Rio Games and the introduction of golf as part of the 2016 Games, and for BMW to be a proud supporter of not only Team USA but USA Golf in the Rio Games. BMW has been a proud partner of Team USA since 2010, and we've been very privileged to be able to align with national governing bodies that really make sense for BMW, whether it's track and field and swimming for the Summer Games and bobsled and skeleton and speed skating for the Winter Games. We are so excited to have golf come back since 1904 and for BMW to have that honor to be that sponsor.

I want to thank Lisa and Andy for all that they've done. I look forward to a fantastic partnership together, and I want to thank Dustin for being with us here today.

We certainly want to wish all of our athletes great success next year. With that, I'm going to hand things over to Lisa Baird, who is the chief marketing officer for the USOC.

LISA BAIRD: Thanks, Trudy, and again, we're excited to see this relationship unfold between one of our national governing bodies, USAG, and BMW, proud sponsor of mobility solutions.

I can't believe it's less than a year to the Rio Olympic Games and a little about a year to the Rio Paralympic Games. Things in Rio are going really well. We've done a lot of test events. We're really excited about how it's going. We have a lot in play for the next year with team trials, and we can't do that without partners like BMW.

We all know that the U.S. Olympic committee is a very unique entity in that we're privately funded. We receive no government funding, unlike many other countries in the Olympic world. It's all done through the generosity of sponsors like BMW, and without them and the incredible technology that they bring to the USOC as a contribution, we couldn't do what we do, which is to help our athletes achieve excellence on the field of play. So thank you to Trudy, and I guess we'll turn it to Andy to talk about this exciting new relationship.

ANDY LEVINSON: Thanks, Lisa, and thanks very much, Trudy, for BMW's support, and thanks, Dustin, for being here. USA Golf is going to be new to the Olympic Games, and we're very, very fortunate to have partners like BMW who have experience in the Olympic Games, who understand golf, and are going to be very good advisors as we enter into this new era for our sport. I know that our four men and four women hopefully that will be going down to Rio next year will be well taken care of by the support that we have from BMW and from the U.S. Olympic Committee, and that's very important. We want our athletes to feel as comfortable as they can in an environment that is going to be different for them, but at the same time is going to feel a lot like something that they're accustomed to for a major athletic competition.

We really appreciate the support from both BMW and the USOC, and I'll hand it over to Dustin to just talk about the Olympics and what he's looking forward to in that regard.

DUSTIN JOHNSON: Well, first and foremost, I would be really excited to make the team. I would love to represent my country, and then probably the thing that I'm looking forward to most is walking in the opening ceremonies representing USA. I think that would be probably the most special thing about the Olympics. It would be a very awesome experience.

Q. Trudy, your partnership or sponsorship, what does that mean? What do you give them?
TRUDY HARDY: Since 2010 we are a sponsor of Team USA, so we have overall sponsorship rights, so rights to the rings, if you will, and what we do with each one of the national governing bodies is enter into a relationship to help further and better that national governing body.

I think some of our past examples speak for themselves in terms of what we've helped do for bobsled and skeleton and USA track and field. The relationship -- it always varies. It depends on kind of what the needs of USA Golf are, and we're always proud not only to be the marketing partner behind it but to also -- we don't take anything lightly, as you can see from our investment here in Conway Farms, so it's not just a marketing partnership, but we do what we can to help better our athletes in any way possible, so whether that's making them comfortable at the Games or seeing what we can do to transfer any BMW technology to the sport.

ANDY LEVINSON: I would add that one of the things that we're concerned with in Rio, given that it's a very large city and can be chaotic even in non-Olympic times, is the safety and security of our athletes and moving from one place to another, and BMW is going to be helping us with that.

Q. With cars?
ANDY LEVINSON: Yes.

LISA BAIRD: Fast cars.

Q. I just wanted to ask Dustin, have you been looking at any of the standings, where you stand on the Olympic points, and going forward, how often will you be cognizant of that?
DUSTIN JOHNSON: Yeah, I look at it, but we've still got, I think -- what's the exact date? I'm not sure.

ANDY LEVINSON: July 11th.

DUSTIN JOHNSON: July 11th is the day. So really it's going to come down to like the week before. I mean, I can look at it all I want to now, but whether I finish -- have a good week the week before or not could determine whether or not I make the team or not.

But yeah, I do look at it. Right now I would be just out. I think Rickie went in last week. He jumped me, knocked me out. But it's going to be like that every week; someone wins and they jump in front of you. But hopefully come July 11th I would really like to be on that team.

Q. Have you spoken to other athletes that have participated in the opening ceremonies?
DUSTIN JOHNSON: No, I haven't asked anybody, but I'll definitely be going down.

Q. If you didn't know how to play golf, what would be your Olympic sport?
DUSTIN JOHNSON: I don't know. I'd find one of them, though.

LISA BAIRD: Beach volleyball maybe?

DUSTIN JOHNSON: I like volleyball, but...

Q. If you make the team and you're going to play and you talked about opening ceremonies, what else would you look forward to doing?
DUSTIN JOHNSON: You know, meeting some of the other athletes. I've got a lot of respect for a lot of different sports, and all the athletes that play them, especially at the highest level. Just meeting some of them and just seeing what the Olympics is all about. I've never been to one, so I'd be excited just to be there even as a spectator.

Q. Do you watch much when they're on?
DUSTIN JOHNSON: Yeah, I'll watch a little bit, just all depends. Sometimes they're in other countries, they're on at weird times, so it's hard to follow all the stuff, but I do try to watch it a little bit.

Q. Was there an Olympic athlete growing up that you watched?
DUSTIN JOHNSON: I don't know. I can't recall. I'm sure there is. I can't remember what I did yesterday, so...

Q. It was mentioned last night at the dinner what a great partner BMW has been to golf, and not just here in the States, I think we're talking really globally, European Tour and such. Can you just talk about that, your relationship with golf and why it's been such an important thing for you guys as a brand?
TRUDY HARDY: I mean, we have been a proud sponsor of professional and amateur golf for over 30 years now, so it's certainly strategically aligns with the brand. It also -- we certainly know the audience that it attracts, and it's a really smart investment for us. And in terms of sports, I think it strategically aligns with a lot of our core pillar of BMW efficiency. We've a very dynamic brand, and we have a great deal of respect for the power and performance but yet class and style that some of these great athletes exemplify every single day. So it makes sense for us, and they have been tremendous people and partners to work with, just a real class act, and it really strategically aligns with a premium brand like BMW.

Q. Dustin, how much have you heard about the Olympic venue's golf course? Apparently Gil Hanse said you guys might find it comparable to Pinehurst No. 2. Any thoughts about that style and what you might face if you're on the team?
DUSTIN JOHNSON: Well, I like Pinehurst No. 2, so if it's anything like that, I'm sure I'll enjoy it. But I don't know, I haven't seen it, obviously. I haven't seen any pictures of it. Gil does a pretty good job with all his stuff, so I'm excited to see it. Hopefully I get a chance to go play in the Olympics on it.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you very much for coming.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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