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TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP

September 18, 2018

Atlanta, Georgia

LAURA NEAL: Good morning. Welcome to our media and special guests here at the TOUR Championship at East Lake Golf Club. This week promises to be another exciting finish to the 12th edition of the FedExCup Playoffs. My name is Laura Neal. I'm with the PGA TOUR communications department, and it's my pleasure to welcome you and thank you for your coverage and support throughout the season. Today's press conference is always a reminder of how fast the year goes as well as the coverage you provide to us to cover the TOUR and the tournament for our many fans.

With that in mind, we have some special news to share with you today about the future of the FedExCup Playoffs, the FedExCup, and the PGA TOUR as a whole. I'd like to turn things over to PGA TOUR Commissioner Jay Monahan, as well as Chief Tournament and Competitions Officer, Andy Pazder. Jay?

JAY MONAHAN: Thank you, Laura, and good morning to everyone. We are excited for our FedExCup Playoff finale here at the TOUR Championship at East Lake, and I want to just first start off by thanking a few very special people and companies that contribute to this great event.

But I want to first start off by thanking our hosts, Tom and Ann Cousins. Incredible people, incredible work that they've done here at East Lake and in this community. Very proud of them. And of course our TOUR Championship proud partners, Southern Company and Coca-Cola. Simply put, we would not be here without them. And of course FedEx, who has sponsored the FedExCup Playoffs the last 12 years and has been a partner to the PGA TOUR for over 30 years.

I also want to recognize our executive director of the TOUR Championship, Alison Fillmore. I think Alison is in the back. But we talk about Tom and Ann Cousins and you talk about the incredible work that's been done here at East Lake, this is Alison's first full year as executive director, and she and her family have moved to Third Avenue up the street and her two girls, six and nine years old, are going to Drew Charter School. So it's a pretty special moment to think that one of our own is now a part of this big surrounding community.

As Laura had said, this year has flown by. It seems like every single year flies by. But it's really incredible to see what happened since we were here just last year in 2017, closing out the '16-'17 season, and it's an really an incredibly compelling season on the golf course. We also had a historical year off the golf course that has positioned the PGA TOUR for future growth.

In April we had the launch of Live Under Par, which really is intended to capture the energy and spirit of today's TOUR, which brings fans closer to our players and our players closer to our fans than ever before. In May, you had the Supreme Court clearing the way for legalized sports betting, which will make a huge impact on fan engagement for golf, perhaps more so than any other sport.

And then in June we had the transformative international media partnership with Discovery, which provides an unprecedented opportunity for the PGA TOUR to reach a global audience, continue to grow our brand, to continue to grow our stars, and to continue to grow the game of golf as a whole.

And then in July, we had the unveiling of what we think is a significantly revamped 2018-'19 PGA TOUR schedule.

Now, building on the last item is where we want to spend the majority of our time with you today. I think you all know that we are, like every great business, always looking to the future, to ensure our fan base is growing and is diversifying. And thanks to the incredible athletes that we call PGA TOUR members, we have an enormous opportunity to evolve in ways that will benefit the fans like never before.

Certainly, introducing the FedExCup itself was a calculated risk we took in 2007, led by my predecessor, Tim Finchem, instituting a season-long competition and a crescendo at the TOUR Championship with the PGA TOUR's best 30 players competing for unprecedented prize money. The long-term success of the FedExCup was critical to every single constituent of our business, from media partners, tournaments, sponsors, players and fans, and I strongly believe that we've delivered in the last 12 years.

But thanks to the 10-year extension of our partnership with FedEx, we had the opportunity to examine and refine the FedExCup to produce the most compelling season going forward. You've already seen some of the changes for next year and beyond, starting with a season with a better flow from start to finish and a season that concludes with three FedExCup Playoffs, finishing the week prior to Labor Day Weekend, affording us the opportunity to compete to own the sporting calendar in August.

We have felt and we feel strongly that these schedule changes will allow our fans to better follow and engage in the PGA TOUR and will be beneficial, again, to our sponsors, tournaments, media partners, players, and fans.

Furthermore, these changes allow for more volatility and drama and the option for the TOUR to put forth additional enhancements to make the season incredibly compelling, again, from start to finish.

With that said, we'd like to make three additional announcements today. Number one, and most importantly, a simplified strokes-based scoring system at the TOUR Championship that crowns a singular champion. Win the TOUR Championship and you are the FedExCup Cup champion. It's that simple. And we have no doubt it will create a compelling, dramatic conclusion for the TOUR's ultimate prize.

Two, a $10 million Wyndham Rewards-sponsored bonus, where players will be rewarded for their outstanding play during the regular season prior to the start of the FedExCup Playoffs. I want to take a moment to thank Wyndham Chairman Steve Holmes, who's down here in the front row, the great team at Wyndham Hotels and Resorts and Wyndham Destinations as well as Bobby Long and the Piedmont Triad Foundation for their support of this new initiative.

And finally, including the regular season bonus program, next year you'll see a doubling of the FedExCup total bonus money available to players from $35 million to $70 million.

We're thrilled with these changes put forth today. In fact, it's been a long time coming, and we've really looked forward to this day. But you take these changes and you combine them with the new and improved schedule, and we think this is a significant step forward for the PGA TOUR.

As you can imagine, when you have a seismic shift like this, it's complicated, and a complicated process follows. If I had to put a start date on it, I would say that this whole effort really began in early 2015, and there's been untold work between now and then, everybody in our ecosystem, all of our partners, working together to make this day today. So the goal that we identified took us three-plus years to achieve, but, again, when you come back to what is important and what is the point of emphasis, when you think about fans, when you think about players, when you think about tournaments, when you think about sponsors, when you think about media partners, we think this is great for everybody in our business and is happening at the perfect time.

I've given you a high-level overview. I know you have many questions, and to tell you a little bit more about exactly how this is going to work, I want to invite Andy to comment. Before Andy does comment, I want to commend Andy and his entire team for the great work that they undertook over the three years that I referenced. Andy?

ANDY PAZDER: Thank you, Jay. We're in the 12th year of the FedExCup, and every year at the conclusion of the FedExCup, we evaluate how are we doing. We ask ourselves five questions, five objectives that we track from year to year. Is the current system producing a deserving champion? Do we create drama throughout the FedExCup Playoffs, and especially here at the TOUR Championship? Do we have a schedule that anyone would consider to be ideal? Is it easy for our fans to understand? And at the end of the Playoffs, does it allow us to have singular focus on the FedExCup?

With respect to the first two objectives, I think we can all agree that we have, over time, crowned a deserving champion. Everyone is familiar with the list of winners of the FedExCup. We're very proud of our 11 past champions and will crown a 12th deserving champion this week.

From a drama standpoint, we can all think of great moments here at East Lake, whether it was Bill Haas winning a playoff in dramatic fashion or Rory McIlroy going up the 16th hole with an eagle 2. Very, very dramatic moments.

From a scheduling standpoint, as Jay alluded to a moment ago, we now believe, as we head into next season, we have positioned ourselves to, as Jay said, compete and to own the month of August from a sports standpoint, and we're really, really excited.

With respect to items 4 and 5, however, as we self-evaluate and be critical of ourselves and what we've presented in the past, and based on some extensive fan research, we realize there is absolutely room for improvement.

And that brings us to, as Jay said, today's significant announcement of a new strokes-based scoring system. Before I get into that, though, just a reminder that for the first two playoff events, the Northern Trust and the BMW Championship, the points system will remain as-is, so those first two playoff points will offer four times the number of points, the same system we've had in place for a number of years.

The field sizes for the Playoffs, we will begin with 125 players at the Northern Trust. We'll cut to 70 at the BMW Championship before bringing our top 30 players here to East Lake.

Instead of a points reset at East Lake, we will be implementing a strokes-based system. We will base it upon the standings through the conclusion of the BMW Championship, and all 30 players will be assigned a FedExCup starting stroke value. So the leader of the FedExCup coming into East Lake will be assigned a starting score of 10-under par. The player in second place, 8-under, on down through 7-under, 6-under, 5-under, through fifth position. After that, in increments of five players, one less stroke under par. Players 26 through 30 will begin at even par.

So you ask yourself, why those stroke values? Our objective was to assign strokes values that as closely as possible approximate the win probabilities that our current system provides, and that was something that was very, very important to us. Again, we feel like we do crown deserving champions. We do have a system that creates drama, and we want to continue with that.

We have reprocessed the results of the TOUR Championship dating back to 2009 under this new scoring system, and only once in the past several years would the strokes-based system have produced a different winner. That was 2011. Bill Haas won the FedExCup, prevailing in that playoff. That year Luke Donald would have prevailed. Luke was the fourth seed to begin the week. Bill Haas was the 25th seed, and the starting stroke differential would have carried Luke to the FedExCup.

We worked with MIT to check all of our iterations, all of our simulations to make sure that, again, the starting stroke values were appropriate, again, replicated as closely as possible to what we've had the last several years, and are happy to say that our math checked out, if you will.

So how will this look to fans on-site, television viewers, players, those in the media center, et cetera? So what you'll see here is a sample graphic. If you're turning on the telecast on Thursday before the final groups tee off, you'll see top seed Bryson DeChambeau starting at 10-under, and so forth. So a little unusual certainly. But once play begins, we now have a single leaderboard. This is the FedExCup leaderboard. Okay?

As play moves on through Thursday and through the week, we're just looking at a scoreboard. So every viewer, every spectator, and every player on the golf course will know precisely where they stand at any moment in the competition as it relates to winning the FedExCup.

I should also point out that this strokes-based system also introduces greater consequence over the course of four rounds here at East Lake. So a greater opportunity for players to move both up in the FedExCup standings but also to move down in the FedExCup standings if they were to have an off week. That's an important point here.

This also has the effect of placing a much greater weight and greater premium on your performance in the regular season. Going from four events to three events in and of itself means you need to be better positioned coming into the Playoffs. Adding in a strokes-based system at East Lake even enhances that further.

Second, I'd like to talk a little bit about the Wyndham Rewards Top 10. This is a new program, as Jay alluded to, that will reward players for outstanding regular-season performance. One of the comments that we've heard from players over the history of the FedExCup is that I can have a fantastic regular season, and it certainly positions me well going into the Playoffs, but I feel like I should be recognized for that great performance, and with Wyndham Rewards' great support, we will have a $10-million bonus pool that will be distributed to the top 10 players on the FedExCup regular season standings at the conclusion of the Wyndham Championship. The leader of the FedExCup points list will receive a bonus of $2 million. The second place finisher will receive a bonus of $1.5 million, on down to 10th place finisher receiving $500,000.

And lastly, Jay referenced it already, we are pleased to share that the bonus, including total bonus pool, including the Wyndham Rewards Top 10 will double from 35 to $70 million. The winner of the FedExCup today receives $10 million. Next year that will increase to $15 million.

With that, I will turn it back over to Laura.

LAURA NEAL: Jay, do you have any comments before we open it up for questions.

JAY MONAHAN: Yeah, I'll just add, and I mentioned this a few times earlier, but we try and take a fan-first approach to everything we do in our business. Every facet of our business, that's where we start, and we really challenge ourselves. We have listened very closely to our fans for a number of years, and so to our fans, past, present, and future, we thank them for getting us to this point.

And I'll note one group in particular. We've got a fan council of 5,000 people that have opted in and that we've been working closely with that were an important sounding board for us as we went through this entire process. And also, we are an organization -- we are a membership organization, and our players serve as part of our governance. We have 16 players that serve on our Player Advisory Council, and we have four player-directors, and we have been working with them for the last couple years on these changes. They've been to a lot of PAC meetings, they've had a lot of individual discussions with myself and the team, and they were invaluable in providing the feedback, again, that led us to this point in time, a point in time that we're obviously so excited about.

And then also you look at your tournaments, and it's so hard to win on the PGA TOUR. I mean, you see it week in and week out, the number of people that go to bed on Saturday night -- the number of players, PGA TOUR players that go to sleep on Saturday night with a chance to win on Sunday, and everything that unfolds every single Sunday. And we think that these changes that we're talking about today on the back end of the season only add to the significance of every single tournament in our FedExCup schedule.

But as I mentioned earlier, we are a membership organization, and one of our charters is to maximize playing and financial opportunities for our members. And so as a result of these changes, you'll see comprehensive player earnings jump to over $500 million in 2019, a jump of 12 percent, something that we're proud of. Again, they've got to go out and they've got to earn it. The No. 1 player in the FedExCup next year will earn roughly $27, $27Â½ million. You take the top 10 players who will average a little north of $12 million in comprehensive earnings, and top 50 at $5Â½ million. Lots on the line; every single shot in the FedExCup season every week.

And I think these changes, again, going back to the fan, are done for the fan and for our constituents, but they're also done because of the remarkable athletes that we have coming forward on the PGA TOUR every single week, 49 of the top 50 in the world and 51 of the top 100 in the world who are international players. We're doing this to bring our game to the world, and we're really excited about it.

LAURA NEAL: At this time we'll open it up for questions.

Q. You mentioned -- I'd be curious as you're going through this process, what was the No. 1 priority for you? Was it more simplicity or was it more singular attention on FedEx? What did you keep going back to?
ANDY PAZDER: Well, I think the answer to that is twofold. We wanted to deliver -- address a concern that we've had for a number of years now, which is allowing our fans to engage at a much higher, much deeper level, and that has to start with them being able to follow the competition more closely than they have previously.

We're all accustomed to following a leaderboard week in, week out in our sport. It's as simple as it can get. Yet at the same time, we wanted to retain much of what we've built over the previous 11 or 12 years, which is a system that identifies a player who's had a great year. He's our season-long champion. So we wanted it to be something that our players embraced and fully supported. Jay referenced how involved our players and the membership has been throughout the process, and to have the overwhelming support for this new system that we have received from the players has been just fantastic.

And I take that to mean that they've embraced the FedExCup over the last dozen years. And knowing that it's being positioned for continued growth long into the future has our players excited, and I think that will translate to what we see on the field of play at East Lake year in and year out.

Q. Certainly you're going to simplify the system going to the par-based type thing, but in the new system you could have a player, No. 30 this week, beat Bryson DeChambeau by nine shots and not hold the trophy at the end of the week. Does any of that feel a tad strange?
ANDY PAZDER: Not at all. Again, I go back to the starting strokes being earned over the course of 48 prior tournaments, and every player that will be in the field at East Lake next year will have had that same opportunity to come in to the TOUR Championship starting at 10-under.

Again, just like in 2011, Bill Haas, he was the 25th seed. He faced really, really long odds, and first and foremost, he needed to prevail, and he did that, but he also needed several other things to happen, and they did. It was not a one-in-a-million shot, but it was a long shot, and that still remains in place starting next year. So anyone that starts at even par, obviously they face an uphill climb, just as they do today. We're completely comfortable with that.

Q. I know it will count as an official victory, but has there been any decision in terms of World Ranking points, and if not, is there an ongoing discussion with the board?
ANDY PAZDER: You pointed out one thing I failed to mention in my remarks. The winner of the TOUR Championship will be credited with an official victory, which is an important element that our players focused on early in our discussions. And then from a World Ranking standpoint, we're in conversations with the World Ranking governing board on the best manner in which to allocate World Ranking points to the TOUR Championship, and that will happen. We have not reached a conclusion. That will take us several weeks, if not months, and we'll have more information when that's decided.

Q. There's been a lot of talk over the years about maybe changing the format here to make it more dramatic like you've talked about. How many iterations do you think you went through in this process?
JAY MONAHAN: I would say that we looked at every single format that you all have suggested over the last 12 years, and we added some to it. Going back to my comments, we looked at -- I really do think we looked at every conceivable option that we had that led us to this point, and going back to two years of meetings, we didn't start out where we ended up. And that was the beauty of our governance system and getting our players' heads into what we were trying to accomplish, getting their feedback, and building the strongest, most credible outcome for the TOUR Championship when we come here next year.

Q. Perhaps a trivial question here, but will there still be two trophies at the end of this thing? Because the Calamity Jane was one thing and the FedExCup was another. What happens at the end?
JAY MONAHAN: There will be one trophy handed out on Sunday, and that will be the FedExCup Trophy. But the Calamity Jane, to your point, is a rich part of this club, this market and this tournament, so we'll work with Mr. Cousins and the team, and we're going to find the right way to perpetuate the Calamity Jane. But to answer your question, on Sunday afternoon on that green, there will be one trophy given out.

Q. Of all those ideas that you said you kicked around here for the last couple years, how much traction did the idea of ending the TOUR Championship and then having a one-day or a two-day shootout for the FedExCup, did that really get anywhere, or would you discuss why that maybe didn't make it?
JAY MONAHAN: I'll start, and Andy, you can feel free to jump in. I would say that internally, we had a lot of discussion about a format like that, coming down to 18 holes or coming down to 36 holes, whether you were four or six players, and we brought that forward. But I think there was initially greater enthusiasm for that concept from us because, at that point in time, we had not yet identified the format that we ended up with. And so we didn't get a whole lot of traction on those concepts just because players felt like -- you look at the FedExCup and the fact that I'm battling from the Safeway Open to the Wyndham Championship, I make my way into the Playoffs, and it's going to come down to an 18-hole shootout?

The proper way to do this is ultimately where we ended up, which is let's make it opaque, everybody understands where they are coming in. And let's have all 30 players, whether you're fighting for first or you're fighting for strong position given the added consequence, know exactly where they stand, and that's where it all came out. I hope that answers your question; it was more internally driven than it was with our players.

Q. You mentioned our ideas that we suggested over the last 12 years. Which was the dumbest?
JAY MONAHAN: You know, truth be told, I think one of the beauties about our game is the diversity of opinion. We get the benefit of opinions that you all express about the TOUR and our product and how we can improve. We get that same opinion every single day we're out here at our tournaments from our players. We get it internally. So there's really no dumb ideas. We had plenty of them ourselves.

So ultimately it's this exercise of how do you get to a place where you've taken an already great product, a great product we're going to see this week, and how do you enhance it even further, and this was just a natural part of the evolution.

Q. What is the prize money for the playoff events next year? Has that been determined? For the BMW and Northern Trust?
ANDY PAZDER: We have not made that announcement yet.

Q. Will there be prize money for this event?
ANDY PAZDER: There will not be a separate prize fund for the TOUR Championship.

Q. What role does Southern and Coca-Cola Company play next year?
JAY MONAHAN: So we are very fortunate, as I said at the outset, to have long-standing Atlanta institutions and two of the great companies on the planet that have supported this championship. So they are going to continue enthusiastically in the role that they've been in as proud partners, and the week will look the same. We're going to continue the great tradition we have with the Payne Stewart Award, which will be tonight.

And I think to your question, the fact that we're making a change like this -- and those two brands were associated with the TOUR Championship and the TOUR Championship trophy for a number of years -- and we're moving to a singular champion for the FedExCup, they looked at this through the prism of what is going to call the greatest amount of attention to our home community, to East Lake Golf Club, and is going to create the most amount of enthusiasm. I don't want to put words in their mouth, but when we had the conversation, they immediately supported this idea and this concept, and in fact, are committed to us for a long time to come.

Q. You talked about the World Ranking. Do you have any new innovation to the system?
ANDY PAZDER: Well, beyond what we've shared, implementing a strokes-based system we felt was a significant enough innovation that we'd leave it at that. It's certainly a unique format. We did have great debate in our Player Advisory Council meetings about official victory versus not an official victory. And at the end of the day, our membership, specifically the PAC, became quite comfortable with embracing this as a new tournament format.

So it's not unlike many years ago when the modified Stableford scoring system started. It was different, and it's become very well accepted. Match play competition is a different format. I may shoot a lower score than Jay, but Jay may prevail in a head-to-head match play, and this is a unique format, and we're very excited about it. We know our fans are going to love it based on some early feedback we're hearing, and our players are embracing it, so we're quite excited about it.

Q. The system of the World Ranking overall, are you going to keep the old system of the World Ranking, or you have a new World Ranking system?
ANDY PAZDER: I'm sorry, I misunderstood your question. So that's not a decision that rests solely with the PGA TOUR. The World Ranking is governed by a board that has representatives from the professional tours and major championship organizations, and just like we evaluate our FedExCup system annually, the World Ranking board evaluates the ranking system annually. So that process is always ongoing. So we have nothing to announce today, but we are constantly evaluating how that system performs.

JAY MONAHAN: I would just add that we focus our efforts on the FedExCup and the ranking within an entire season, and so that will continue to be a priority and a focus for us.

But to your question on innovation, if you look at the change that we're announcing here in Atlanta with the scoring format, the addition of the Wyndham Top 10, Wyndham Rewards Top 10, and then preceding that, you look at this, the PGA TOUR which has typically ended the time frame we're going to end this week now moving up to end the weekend prior to Labor Day Weekend, and then having a better cadence to our schedule. So going to a traditional West Coast swing, to Mexico, going to reinstate our Florida swing, we've added a Midwest swing, the cadence in the travel movement, every -- innovation everybody looks at differently, but in our business we consider that one of our innovations.

Then a year ago you couldn't take a picture, couldn't take a video of our players when you came to the competition. I think that's done wonders and has led to significant growth of the stardom of our players and the connection to our fans. And you look at all the ways we distribute our content with NBC, CBS, Golf Channel, the new addition of the Discovery partnership, we are looking at every part of our business to try and, again, with a fan-first approach, continue to evolve in a way that is going to be beneficial to the fans.

Our work is nowhere near done, I think you'll just see that continue.

Q. A quick question: I know you guys have announced this previously, but moving this event back to August next year, how is that good for this event and for the community and the people that come out to watch? Why is it better for you guys and for the fans to have this in August as opposed to where it is and where it's been for the past few years?
JAY MONAHAN: Well, I think when we say -- and Andy, feel free to jump in -- when we say compete to own the month of August, again, I come back to the tremendous momentum the PGA TOUR has and the momentum and interest in our athletes. And we recognize that when you extend past Labor Day, you're competing in the southeast and all over the country against college football and the NFL, and you're also competing against other sports internationally. So for us to put forward the best product for the fans of Atlanta, who have long supported the tournament, and for our fans all over the world, we felt like ending prior to Labor Day Weekend -- again, fandom here for college football and the NFL, we experience it all through the year. We're experiencing it this week, it's extraordinarily high. We're bringing forward a product, this will be the game in town, and we know the way we're supported by Coca-Cola Company, Southern Company, everybody that's involved with this group, we're just going to continue to grow.

So the benefit ultimately is this community. Hopefully it's more money that's raised for the East Lake Foundation, more money that's invested back into Drew Charter School, more that we can do to support this community. We tend to talk a lot about, just because of today and the announcement, what -- the consequence is in terms of comprehensive player earnings. But that coincide with what we think will be increased across the board in our charitable contributions every single week.

So you've also gone from four to three. There's fewer events, there's greater consequence, and we just think it's the perfect time to do it and particularly to do it here in Atlanta.

Q. Do you think with the Wyndham Rewards program, if you had a race like you had this year with DJ and Justin which I think were probably separated by 100 or so points going down the stretch, that a difference of $500,000 and two shots is enough to make them want to play? Does that make sense?
JAY MONAHAN: Yeah, it makes perfect sense, and I guess it doesn't really matter what I think, but -- I did ask them what they think, and one of those two said that he absolutely -- it's not just the money. He said, I would have played because I would have, one, been the regular season champion, and two, obviously winning the ultimate prize, the Wyndham Reward and being No. 1 in the Wyndham Reward Top 10 is significant.

When you think about it, we talk about ending prior to the start of Labor Day Weekend. What we're not talking about is now you've got weeks following several weeks off, so you've got high-intensity, high-impact competitions over the whole season. But when you think about coming out of the Open into a WGC, into the Wyndham Championship, closing out the regular season, in the past we've really focused on players 100 to 150 and what that week means. Now you front-end that with players who are -- whatever the number is, 15, 20, 25 -- that have an opportunity to put themselves in a stronger position, and again, you've got one fewer tournament to be able to make up any lost ground given the change going from four to three.

As you would imagine, the person that would benefit by overcoming the No. 1 person would probably be more inclined. I haven't asked the No. 1 player: If the No. 2 player committed, would you have? But I will do that when I see him, and I'm sure you will as well. (Laughter.)

Q. Did any of the players express any reservation about the idea that they could shoot the lowest score over 72 holes and not be a winner this week, this tournament week?
ANDY PAZDER: So we first presented this to the Player Advisory Council on May 1st at the Wells Fargo Championship, and I had the privilege of being the one that presented it. And to be honest, we went into that meeting not knowing if we were going to get blank stares or looks at us like we had two heads because it's a very different format, and it takes some creative thinking to get comfortable with that.

I said, guys, just give me 15 or 20 minutes, let me walk you through it in its entirety. You're going to want to start firing questions right away, but just be patient and digest it all and then we'll open it up for questions.

At the conclusion of my remarks, we opened it up, and I guess in some respects, we were maybe a little bit surprised at the universal acceptance of this format. I think what got them most comfortable is the fact that they know at the beginning of the year, they know what they're playing for. And if I have the best regular season and I have strong playoff performance, under this new system, I'm actually going to be in a better position than the current system.

So this week, as you know, any of the top 5 seeds can win if they win the TOUR Championship. This new system actually is even more rewarding for the players that have excelled at the highest level throughout the year. So very quickly they set aside any concerns they might have about, well, gee, I shot the lowest 72 holes but I didn't win the FedExCup. That's not been an issue whatsoever.

Q. Just curious, why do you think with the advent of legalized sports gambling that it'll have a greater impact on golf than, say, a lot of other sports?
JAY MONAHAN: You said instead of a lot of other sports?

Q. Well, you mentioned previously that you thought perhaps more than other sports --
JAY MONAHAN: Well, I think if you look at the nature of our game -- we tend to not talk about it, but I look back to when I was 10, 12 years old and playing a quarter Nassau against my brothers and my father, and betting and gambling in and around the game is a reality, and it's been part of the energy and the vibrancy that people experience every single time they go out and they play.

And when you -- when the Supreme Court paved the way for legalized sports betting in the U.S., you have to look at how do people bet today, and what is the experience for the fan and for those that are interested. And because it hasn't been legalized in the U.S. and other markets outside the U.S., in those markets, you have a fairly standard two- or three-way bet where you may have a top player from a certain country, but there really are not a whole lot of options. And we have invested in our ShotLink data system going back to 2003, we continue to invest in our ShotLink data.

And if you think about the fact that you've got 60 players on the golf course at any given time, you think the richness of the competitive context, and then you think of the richness of the data, when we use that data in an appropriate way with operators, there's an opportunity to do more and pull people closer into the sport. And it's not just -- it's not just standard betting, there's some things that you can do outside of that that we're starting to really think about.

But keep in mind, you have -- in other stick-and-ball sports, there's one ball that's in play. You see it, know it, everybody sees it. In our sport, when you've got 60 players out here, it's hard to track it all. We have the data to do so, we have the stars to do so, and I think as we go forward, we think about what it is we want to do. And I want to stress we haven't made any decisions, we're just starting to get into it, we see that as the opportunity.

Q. With all the increased incentives, the Wyndham Rewards, the four Playoffs to three events positioning here, is one possible byproduct possibly that players are going to play a little more? Do you get any sense of that?
ANDY PAZDER: I think what will be fascinating to follow is the change in player schedules and habits and so forth. And we've seen gradual evolution in the FedExCup era, when we moved to the wraparound schedule, that created some changes in playing habits.

Our job, to be candid, is to make it as hard as possible for our players to choose a schedule. And my favorite thing in the world is when a player says, oh, my gosh, when am I ever going to take a week off; I don't want to miss that tournament, it's one of my favorites, or this one or that one. So, yeah, we absolutely hope that we'll see an uptick in average starts by all of our players, not just by the top players but all of them, and if that happens, that's a sign of success, and it'll be a win for our fans most importantly and a win for our sponsors and our television partners and the game in general.

LAURA NEAL: Thank you for your questions and thank you, Jay and Andy, for your time.

JAY MONAHAN: I want to commend Laura. This is the completion of her first full FedExCup season in the role that she's played, and I know she, like we all, value very deeply our relationship with the media. You guys are partners, and it's been a long and exciting year, but we truly thank you for the time, the effort, the sacrifice, all that you do to celebrate our stars, celebration our tournaments, and help us grow this TOUR and grow this game, and hopefully we've done our job as your partner, as well. So thank you.

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