	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

DP WORLD TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP, DUBAI

November 19, 2017

Keith Pelley

Dubai, United Arab Emirates

SCOTT CROCKETT: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for your attendance here with us today on the final day of the DP World Tour Championship, and, of course, indeed the final day of the 2017 European Tour season.

Traditionally at this time of the year, obviously we've had announcements to make, such as the schedule in the past, and obviously the Rolex Series last year.

We don't have any specific announcements to make this year but we thought it was a good idea that Keith Pelley, our Chief Executive, came to reflect on 2017, and also to look ahead to the exciting year ahead of us in 2018.

So it's my great pleasure to hand the floor over to the Chief Executive of The European Tour, Keith Pelley.

KEITH PELLEY: Thank you. First, I just wanted to make mention to our Chairman of the Board that is with us today, I'm not sure that -- I think this is his third week in a row on the road, but if you have not already met David Williams, our Chair; and our Chief Operating Officer is also with us, Keith Waters. I think many of the other staff you are familiar with.

Well, listen, I will try to be as brief as I possibly can because I know there's some exciting golf happening out there. But Scott did want me to come and just touch on some of the success stories we've had in 2017, some of the opportunities that we have going forward, and a chance for you to ask any question that you so desire.

I think it has been a good year. It has been a good year. But we still have a lot of progress to make. Obviously we launched the Rolex Series, which was something that we were incredibly proud of and there was a lot of anticipation leading into it. The yearly results has been that it has been remarkably successful.

In terms of the strength of field, there's been a 12 per cent increase in the strength of field across the events, if you compare the 2017 events to the 2016 events. Seven of the eight events were the strongest events that particular week in the world of golf in terms of strength of field.

The social engagement, which is something that we're incredibly proud of, saw an increase of some 87 per cent year over year, and as far as media value goes, which is obviously critical to our commercial and our stakeholders, the Rolex Series Events saw some 35 per cent increase in media value. So when you look at the metrics that measure, the Rolex Series has been a gargantuan success, I would say.

In addition, when you look at -- and Scott and I have chatted about this, is how you value success or how you evaluate whether you have reached all your objectives or your goals. The way that we look at it as a members' organisation is we kind of break it down into three buckets. One is price funds for our members; two, our playing opportunities for all our members; and three is what are we doing to help raise the profile of golf globally.

Based on the fact that we are in 30 countries; we have 46 tournaments next year in 30 different countries. The growth and the exposure of the game globally is something that's very important to us, and hence, the reason why we believe that innovation and the transformation of the global game is critical at all levels. That's kind of the way we look at our success and evaluate and determine our strategies and tactics and initiatives going forward.

When you look at the purse, I think undeniably the creation of the Rolex Series has significantly enhanced that, and the 100th-ranked player in 2016, which was Pelle Edberg, won 275,000 Euros; and the 100th-ranked player in 2017, Lasse Jensen, made 389,000 Euros. So that's a significant increase from a prize purse perspective.

Earlier today we announce that had Rocco Forte will be continuing on our schedule next year. And that with the creation of a new event in Oman and a new event in the Philippines, we look at 2018 significantly being up in terms of playing opportunities for our members.

And then the final piece, which is the way that I believe that our business and the way that I believe that strategy of how we are developing this tour going forward, there is only one word; and I think it was 1996 when Bill Gates mentioned that "content is king." And here we are 21 years later, and I don't think it's ever been more important.

We really believe at The European Tour that we are a content company and we are a content entertainment company where our players are performers and golf is the platform. You don't have to look any further than our content that we have created with our All-Access team over the last year and how we've even raised that significantly in 2017, and we're looking to do so again in 2018.

The content, for example, of the eight -- and these are just the eight marquee videos that we produced, most of them at Rolex Series Events. One was in Abu Dhabi, and I don't believe we had one at the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open this year, they generated a reach of almost 80 million people. The Aaron's best day ever video at the BMW alone reached over 30 million people.

So at the end of the day, what we believe in terms of to grow our tour, to provide value for our stakeholders and our sponsors, and to grow the game, we believe that creating innovative, creative, entertaining content to showcase our players in a completely different light is undeniably the way forward.

It's the same way that we did this week with the Hero Challenge and how creative our team was shooting it into the water and changing the format. We're always looking to improve the format, and undeniably, I think that this was the most successful Hero Challenge that we've had to date.

That's why 2017, we brought innovation like GolfSixes to the table. We built up Beat the Pro, which was successful in a number of tournaments last year, and in 2018 we are going to grow on that as far as innovation and as far as content being entertaining with a couple of new formats. And that is the format in Belgium, as well as the Shot Clock Masters.

So the next step for us from a content perspective took a major leap this week when we hired the senior vice president of broadcasting at PGA TOUR Entertainment in, a gentleman by the name of Stu Nicol. Stu is 19 years at the PGA TOUR, and prior to him being at the PGA TOUR, he was ten years at ESPN where he ran ESPN sports center, obviously one of the key news and information and programs in the US.

Stu is going to come over and work and build out our All-Access team. He is going to work with Keith and Ben in continuing to develop innovative programming but one of the areas we are going to focus on is bespoke programming with our broadcasters in specific markets. The example we are using right now is prior to the Nordea Masters, should we have a Sweden versus Denmark matchup on the Tuesday night; should there be an event for SKY that focuses just on the Under 28 English shootout when you've got Fleetwood at 26, Hatton 26, Fitzpatrick, Jordan Smith, Eddie Pepperell; even Sam Horsfield, who I believe is 20 who just won Q-School by eight strokes.

So it's that type of innovative programming that Stu is going to come in, working with Keith Waters and his team, working with Rufus Hack, our Chief Content Officer, who is going to take a more active role going forward.

But when it all comes back down to it, the thing that I keep chatting about and how we will, I believe, grow our tour going forward is understanding that content is king. Just like Bill Gates said back in 1991, and moving forward, that will be our focal point is to continue to look at ourselves completely differently than anybody looks at us before, and focussing on content.

And really, that's all I wanted to say. Other than in 2018, the content that we will create around The Ryder Cup, and I will leave it at that, will be, I believe, some of the most innovative content that this incredible match and incredible sporting event will have ever seen. We have had a number of conversations here this week. The planning is well underway. I know that France is going to embrace it.

I believe even if I just mention some of those young players that we have, and with the likes of Paul Casey joining us and another potential candidate in the No. 5 ranked player in the world, Jon Rahm, I believe that our team is going to be very strong. Now we have to look at the entire event as making incredibly entertaining, and focussing on content to widen our audience and to increase the engagement of The Ryder Cup going forward.

So that is the focus. I'm excited about it. Excited about the Opening Ceremony and what we're going to do there, and more details will come in the coming months. But overall, I'm excited with the opportunities that lie ahead, and I think that we had a very good 2017.

But there is still a lot of work to be done. With that, I just wanted to thank you all for your support, for being here. Obviously you know that I feel strongly on how important media is, regardless of whether you're writing positively or challenging us on some of the issues, as long as you're writing and building our story. So thank you in advance and thank you for coming today.

Q. Two years ago, you said at this event that your goal was to make The European Tour a viable alternative to the PGA TOUR. What kind of mark out of ten would you give yourself so far?
KEITH PELLEY: I think the Rolex Series was a monumental step in making that a viable alternative.

I think the what reality is, there is 150 72-hole golf tournaments around the world when you look at all the different tours. So the choices that the players have are enormous. And what we have, I think done with the creation of the Rolex Series, is provide a wonderful option for the top players. And they have embraced it.

And when you look at the actual player field -- when you even take a look at, for example, the weeks of HNA Open de France, the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open and the Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open: Those three weeks, if a Top-20 player played golf, played professional golf, they played on our tour. And that's something we're incredibly proud of.

It's important for the Rolex Series to have great events on great golf courses, and make it extremely easy for the players to navigate around that particular city. And then everything else is about creating an entertainment platform; what we are doing to expose their personalities. So overall, I believe that they have more choice than they have ever had before. But I definitely believe we are on the right track with the Rolex Series.

And in the conversation, and I must have had 20, 25 conversations with our top players this week extensively talking about the 2019 and the 2020 schedule, which obviously brings us some wonderful opportunities.

So they are always at the forefront of everything that we do. So I'm not sure I would give myself a mark, per se. But I would say that definitely the Rolex Series has provided us the opportunity that we didn't have before.

Q. That's the top end, but at the bottom end, there's some grumblings from Q-School guys who maybe didn't get the starts they wanted, and I know it's a balancing act, but how do you balance the top guys with bringing fresh talent going forward?
KEITH PELLEY: It's a good question. So we created the Access List last year and the Access List was created because we were worried that with the actual emergence of the Rolex Series and the discrepancy of the prize purses, that it would be disadvantageous for someone to come into our Q-School or Challenge Tour. They would be disadvantaged against a regular Tour member, and we were worried that they would not have a fair shake at it, as far as qualifying. That's why we created the Access List.

As that panned out, that wasn't the case. The Challenge Tour players had many opportunities. They played in the Rolex Series, and the top Q-School players also played in as many as five Rolex Series Events. So there was multiple opportunities.

So we digested this, looked at it, studied it. Had hours and hours of conversations with members of our Tournament Committee, and then we unanimously agreed to take the Access List away, put it back to 110, and -- but what is still very critical to us, is that if you're playing well, you need a pathway to be able to get into the Rolex Series Event.

So next year, there are two reclassifications of Q-School depending how you are playing. So if you are playing well, you can get access into the Rolex Series Event. Remember, Italy next year goes into a different year, so it will be a full-field event, so there will be more opportunities there. And we also gave a couple of minor modifications to Q-School players.

But undeniably, I believe that the guy that I just mentioned, Sam Horsfield, will get many opportunities to be able to keep his card going forward.

At the end, The Challenge Tour is undeniably a full-Tour card, and the Q-School is an opportunity to play in the show. And if you play well, then you're going to move forward, right. And that is something that we have debated and talked about for some time, but right now, we're incredibly comfortable with our regulations.

What we are going to do, though, is based on some of the changes and based on the way that our prize purses are growing, we are going to constantly look at it, and with changes in 2019 and 2020, we've already started some dialogue to make sure that we have the right regulations in place.

Q. A couple of questions, really. Like he said about the lower-ranked players, what about the tournaments that are not part of the Rolex Series? I know you've done a great job with the Rolex Series, but there are tournaments which are, say, 1.5 million dollar tournaments or smaller than that. They have absolutely no chance of getting some of the better players, it seems like now, because any of the better players would play the final six events or the Rolex Series Events. So that's one. What are you going to do for the smaller events? And No. 2, I just wanted to know your thought on something that somebody like Rory touched upon about as a one-world tour, where you and the PGA TOUR have events together. Is that just a thought which is in the mind of administrators like you? Can you just talk about that?
KEITH PELLEY: Sure. So I'll tackle the first one first. Outside of a couple of tournaments and the 1.5 million dollar tournaments, if you study the world rating points year-on-year, they have actually gone up and one of the reasons for that is because our player relations department is very robust and we're bringing in new members into our tour all the time.

The one thing, and if you look at it, it is an interesting graph, is that our players on the world stage, the ratings right now are lower than they were in the middle of the year, and that affects your world rating points, as well. I think that the smaller tournaments are still absolutely critical for us, and working with the local promoters is imperative for us.

But one of our regulations, which stipulates that you have to play in your own home country, certainly sets that up so that you know that ThorbjÃ¸rn Olesen is going to play in Denmark, and that is one of the reasons why we've had strong fields in all of those other events.

So I think the Rolex Series has elevated the entire Tour, the awareness of the Tour, and I believe that the other events that are smaller are also looking at more creative ways of generating different revenue, as well as creating reasons for the top players to come. So I don't face that same challenge that you have.

In terms of a world tour, there's been a lot of conversation about a world tour. You know, my feeling is I've been in the role two years here. Jay Monahan has been in the role one year. I don't know if it is a high priority for him. It hasn't been a high priority for me at this point.

Does it make sense to look at it at some point down the road? Perhaps. If, in fact, it is something that all our players want us to investigate, we would have a fiduciary responsibility to look at it. Would we have conversations with all the other tours? Absolutely. Sure. If it is the best way to grow the game of golf globally and it works for us as a members' organisation.

Right now it is not our No. 1 priority. I'm two years into my tenure here. We've just launched the Rolex Series, which I believe is a game changer for us. We have a lot of different things on the agenda now. We're heading into a Ryder Cup year.

So the concept of a world tour, I understand, but I understand right now, it is just a concept. Could it come to fruition down the road? Perhaps. But that would be speculation.

Q. The players are obviously very attracted by the money in the Rolex Series and they speak very highly of that. But from your point of view, do you think the very best players have supported the series as well as they might?
KEITH PELLEY: The way that I would answer that, is simply the way that I answered it before. But the one caveat I would say is that it takes awhile -- not it takes awhile to develop, but remember, we launched the 2017 schedule well in advance before the players had already determined a lot of their schedules going forward.

This is not something that you look at the schedule and you go, oh, well, now they have got a new schedule; we're going to change it. They make their schedule, you know, months and months in advance.

Having said that, I do believe that there has been wonderful support for the Rolex Series. When you look at the fields and the strength of fields compared to those particular events on previous years, it's overwhelming. Then you take away some of the injuries that we've had, and the world rating points would be even higher.

What you have to -- again, what I would say is that the choices that the top players have, is overwhelming. And to expect that our very top players play in all seven Rolex Series Events, when they are trying to play both tours, is unrealistic. And that's the way that we are looking at it.

What we are looking at is for them to play as much as they possibly can in those top events, supporting our other events as much as possible. But I would answer the question: I believe our top players have supported it. We gave them a schedule that was late. But they do have multiple choices.

And I do come back to that three weeks of France and Ireland and Scotland, and that was something that was really telling; that any of the Top-20 players that were playing in the world, they have a choice. They are not going to play 40 events a year. They are going to play 20, 22 events, 25 events, max, and any of those Top-20 where they decided to play, they played here, and that is a very, very positive step going forward.

Q. What would, in your view, be a realistic number for the players to play in?
KEITH PELLEY: Based on eight?

Q. Yeah.
KEITH PELLEY: I don't know if I'm going to give a realistic number, based on the fact that, again, they are world-class players that are playing on multiple tours, on two tours.

You know, it depends. If they have won a tournament here this particular week on the PGA TOUR, they might not be inclined to play it the next year. I'm not sure I would give a number.

I would tell you that the importance of the Rolex Series has gained their attention, has gained the attention and what we have done digitally has gained the attention of some of the U.S. players. The conversations that we're having now regarding 2018 were not happening in 2017.

But when we talk to our top players, we talk about the Rolex Series, and they ask us about it. When I walked into the lounge in The Open Championship this year, two or three American high-profile players came over and said, "I'd love to really come over and think about playing a Rolex Series Event."

I said, "Hey, love to have you."

The end of the day, what we can do is put together the best tournament with the best prize purse and the best experience, and have the golf course ready, have our fans ready to be engaged and provide that option to our players. But they do have options right now, and that will always be there outside of the four majors and The Ryder Cup.

Q. Media is changing all the while, and the pace of change in the way people are consuming content is quite frightening. But you mentioned the fact that you've developed a lot of short-form content and that seems to be the way forward. More people are gravitating away from long form in favour of short form. Is your development of short-form content your way of hedging off the enemy of the past, so to speak? And also in relation to the way people are consuming sport, it's moving kind of towards Amazon Prime and away from kind of people sitting for long spells in front of the television; how do you see that playing out in the short- to medium-term?
KEITH PELLEY: Well, I think every business is trying to evolve right now. I think sports is no different than that, and I believe that the 72-hole tournament will always be at our core. It's what we do and it is something that's critical to our history and to our future.

But I do believe that there's a narrative around golf that there is; that we are all looking for something to engage and to grow our audience, and again, it's not just our sport. But we are pleased to be leading this, what I call, the transformation of the global game. And if you catapult ahead in five years, I do believe there will be another format that will be adopted that will be commonplace in the world stage. If we trigger some other tours to experiment with that, absolutely, we applaud it 100 per cent. And if they develop that format, then we'll follow alongside.

I do believe that this is a very special game with incredible skilled players in it, and it has the makings of just exposing personalities and athletes -- and I've worked with them all my life, that are really great, great individuals and great role models. But in order to do that to a wider audience, we have to look beyond the 72-hole traditional tournament.

Q. You were talking about the importance of innovation surroundings all your events, the Under 28 England shootout, Sweden versus Denmark. What about an England versus Scotland before The Scottish Open? I know there are a lot more English higher-ranked players than Scots, but that match in football forever has a huge appeal for spectators and television.
KEITH PELLEY: Well, I think those are the conversations that we're having now. Those are the conversations that we're having because our individual stakeholders and partners are looking for content that appeals to their audience.

So rivalry matchups, obviously, you see that, you see the tribal nature of what occurs at The Ryder Cup. Would you love to duplicate that in a non-team sport more often? Absolutely.

Q. I fully accept what you say about the prestige and the popularity of that three-week spell between France and Scotland. Is your biggest challenge to make sure that these three weeks, Turkey, South Africa and this week, are equally attractive and equally prestigious?
KEITH PELLEY: I think our aspiration is to have all Rolex Series Events very prestigious. I think we have made very strong, positive steps towards this year in terms of our commitment from a television perspective, from a digital side, across all platforms to make these events showcase events, which we do believe will elevate the entire Tour, and some of the conversations that we have this week at our promotors' forum definitely says that.

I think what you have to look at is these three events here at the end of the year, are equally as important as all our other Rolex Series Events. And again, I come right back to 2018 is a great schedule, great playing opportunities, great Rolex Series Events. But that could very well and will change in 2019 and 2020, based on what has transpired.

And again, we have already had the conversation internally and now we are going to have that -- we had that conversation this week with all the players, and now it is, again, adjusting it and coming up with that plan.

So those three events here at the end of the year might not be in this particular position. DP World, which is a sensational event, and you think about it, we have 58 of our 60 players in The Race to Dubai, and the only two players who aren't here are injured; players love coming here. The weather is nothing short of sensational. It's one of the easiest jobs I think is to be the weatherman in Dubai and just say, "31 and sunny every day." (Laughter)

The weather is terrific. The golf course is awesome. The accommodation is first rate. Everything about it. That at the end is what the Rolex Series is about, is having great players play at great golf tournaments with great golf facilities.

Q. You just mentioned about the players who were injured. One of them, Rory McIlroy, was seen on Thursday playing at the Emirates just down the road looking fit and everything. Was there a dialogue about him playing here, and was it disappointing that he didn't?
KEITH PELLEY: Rory and I had the dialogue -- we've had the dialogue about him needing the rest, about taking the rest of the season off.

Playing a match with your mates is completely different than playing in a competitive golf tournament. I've had this conversation over and over again with Keith Waters and members of our Tournament Committee. Playing in a golf tournament, getting up, practising, playing four days after you haven't played, you have to definitely be ready.

I'm totally comfortable with Rory's decision that he made some time ago. The most important thing to us, and I said the same thing to Henrik. Henrik looked like he was coming last week after he practised, and he was confirmed. It looked like he was booking his flight and the very next day, he was practising again, and he got a twinge in the back.

I said it to Henrik in Turkey, and I said to to Rory McIlroy: The most important thing for The European Tour and global golf is to have our superstars healthy and playing at the best they possibly can be. So take time to get healthy.

So I totally respect Rory's decision. But it is a fundamental difference between hitting balls and playing a fun round with your mates than playing in a competitive tournament.

Q. Just a quickie on the British Masters. What happens to that after next year? Do you go back on the rotation? Do you go back to the same courses after Justin's was? What's going on there?
KEITH PELLEY: The British Masters is a great success story. What we're talking about is the only reason that we haven't announced it this year, and you probably all know it's one of the greatest secrets, is because we've been talking to different partners about the possibility of elevating it to a Rolex Series Event.

We love the model. What Lee Westwood did this year was phenomenal. Prior to him, Luke Donald and Ian Poulter. We've had some dialogue with some players and their aspirations to be involved. All of them say yes right away. That's a model that works.

It was pretty incredible this year at Close House, and not only did we stand up and go, Hmmm, but our friends at SKY who have been sensational with it; and we'd like to make the British Masters significantly larger than it currently is.

Q. A couple of tournaments I wanted to ask you about. One, obviously, was the NBO Classic at Oman that comes on to the main Tour from being the season finale of The Challenge Tour. So can you just say a bit that and how that happened and what you feel about that? And secondly, The Indian Open, I know there's a lot going on over there, legal issues, but what are you guys trying to do with that tournament, especially with Hero being one of your major sponsors now?
KEITH PELLEY: We had conversations with The Indian Open this week with Pawan Munjal and the Indian Golf Union. We're very comfortable that The Indian Open has a good, bright future, and we anticipate it growing over time.

In terms of Oman, I think it's a great success story to be honest with you. If we could get more events on The Challenge Tour, similar to our players that mature to the main tour, it's a great model. We've talked about it. I know Oman is thrilled. We're thrilled to be going to Oman. It gives us a wonderful opportunity to come to the Middle East three times in our schedule where our players love to play, the golf courses are great and the weather is terrific.

So I'm looking forward to Oman, and I haven't been there yet and I will make my first trip this year.

Q. Is Nick Tarrat getting a raise for that?
KEITH PELLEY: Nick Tarrat, he's going to get a new sweater (laughter) or jumper, as you call them.

Q. Do you envisage the number of Rolex Series tournaments staying the same in the short term, medium term?
KEITH PELLEY: Excellent question. The original concept was for us to have ten Rolex Series Events. Next year you'll see there's eight.

Comfortable that that number will increase in 2019. But not without us looking at it forensically in terms of: Does it match the criteria we're developing with Rolex. We want to have a top-player field. It needs to be a top event on a championship golf course. Needs to be supported by fans. It is something that we're really building.

Ten would be the ultimate, but I'd rather have eight good events, eight great events, than ten events just for the sake of having ten events. Ten would be our goal, but I'm comfortable with eight solid events, as long as they are positioned throughout the year properly, and that's what we're looking at right now.

Q. Now we know that the PGA is moving to May in 2019. You alluded to sort of quite a big shift in what might happen on The European Tour in 2019 with South Africa and Turkey. Is there anything you can shed light on?
KEITH PELLEY: I think the thing that I can talk about is the fact that it's exciting for us to already be talking about 2020.

You know, we are looking at 2019, our first conversation, our first -- we have had two or three strategy sessions about 2019 and 2020. We have had a lot of dialogue with The PGA of America leading up to this decision and the PGA TOUR. So we knew it was coming.

You know, failing to plan is planning to fail, and I think the way that we have gotten out ahead of this has given us an opportunity to look at it not as a challenge but as just that, an opportunity. We've already had discussions with Rolex about it. We've had discussions with other stakeholders.

So I'm optimistic that the schedule in 2019 -- in fact, I'm more than optimistic about it. I think 2019 will be a very strong but a different-looking.

Schedule. 2020 will be very interesting when you put the Olympics and The Ryder Cup in the mix. And if you actually look at the schedule that I have in my back pocket, you will see that it is an incredible jigsaw puzzle. But we have incredible talented people and we are working with our Tournament Committee all the way, and it's a fun process.

Q. Do you already know where Italian Open will be played next year?
KEITH PELLEY: I'm look at Keith. How do you want me to answer that? Two weeks' time. We had conversations about it this week and that's why I was looking at Keith.

Q. Given the growth that is happening in women's sports at the moment, is there any desire for The European Tour to become involved with the Ladies European Tour?
KEITH PELLEY: Well, as you know, we tried to get involved, and I think David MacLaren -- I saw David MacLaren here earlier, who runs our Senior Tour and our European Tour Properties, actually presented to the LET board, along with Mike Whan from the LPGA, a couple of months ago, was it, about two months ago. We had a three-way partnership between the LPGA, ourselves and the R&A.

So the answer to your question is, it's very important, and we really want the LET to flourish. They have decided at this particular time to try to rebuild the LET on their own. But we have said to them, we are here whenever you need us. If you want us to get more involved, if you want us to become more financially involved, we are here.

What's very important for us is that ladies golf in Europe grows, and I believe that it's growing at the grass roots level, but it needs to grow at the professional level, to use those ladies as wonderful role models. So we are there. We have the one event in Morocco, and what I've said to Mark Lichtenhein, their chairman and interim CEO, just tell us when you're ready to have another conversation and we'll be ready.

Q. Going back to content in the future. What do you think technology is like via augmented reality and AI coming into your future plans?
KEITH PELLEY: I think it's very important. It's more than very important. It's critical. We have just hired a chief technology officer, I'm not sure if he's here today, Michael Cole, right there at the back. I would say that the Tour has never put technology at the forefront or as involved in every piece of conversation. I think technology now is involved in every conversation.

If you think about the way the world is going, people want to watch what they want when they want, how they want; the way that people are interacting with each other. If you do, which a lot of companies have for the last ten years, and if you do technology on the side of your desk, you'll never be a technology company. And technology now, Michael reports directly to me; his background is staggering. We are making technology a very important part of the growth of The European Tour.

Q. In terms of this tournament, can you tell us about the future? Can you remind us about the contract lengths and the future of this tournament in particular?
KEITH PELLEY: We're having discussions now, again, as we discuss 2019 and 2020 and beyond. This is a terrific golf tournament. This is, again, this is where our players want to play. How can you not? We are very fortunate for it could be called The Race to Dubai and to have somebody like DP World, who has been involved for many, many years as the title partner.

With all the other partners that we have here and the strong support that we have from Dubai, not only here, but you look at Dubai Duty Free as the host of The Irish Open; Dubai is absolutely a critical part of our current success and our future plans. We believe that this tournament here at Jumeirah Golf Estates will be here for many years to come.

Q. And obviously McIlroy and Stenson weren't here this week. Do you feel the tournament has suffered with their absence or not?
KEITH PELLEY: Well, I think if you look at, heading into today, the No. 6 player in the world was leading and the No. 5 player in the world was in second; we would love to have Rory here. We would love to have Henrik here. But we have a very strong field that we're very proud of.

SCOTT CROCKETT: I think that's a good way to end it. We can all go out and see how the final day unfolds. Thank you for your attention. Keith, as always, thank you for your time and enjoy the rest of the day.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297