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HONDA LPGA THAILAND

February 24, 2019

Mike Whan

Chonburi, Thailand

THE MODERATOR: Okay, thank you Mike Whan for being here today. You can ask questions of Mike Whan now.

Q. Welcome back to Thailand.
MIKE WHAN: Thank you.

Q. (Regarding Ariya sweeping the end-of-year awards.)
MIKE WHAN: Say that again. Oh, the sweep of the awards? Yeah. It's funny, last year we had more winners. I think we had 26 winners in 32 events. That's a lot of diversity on tour, right? That is a lot of different players. In a year like that you would think all the awards would be divided up many. Despite all the different winners, Ariya swept it.

Pretty impressive, because I would say last year would've been one the hardest year to win multiple awards on tour. To see her win so many awards tells you a lot about where her game is.

Q. So this event so many coming into 13 years, and this time we have a cal who is LPGA World ranking No. 1 coming into this event. Is Thailand growing strong in terms of competition?
MIKE WHAN: Yeah, I don't have to tell you guys this, but when we started coming to Thailand we didn't talk about female mail professional golfers. We certainly didn't talk them into the LPGA. I think we got 11 or 12 Thai players on tour today.

I think two years ago I remember Thailand was the second biggest country represented in our Q-school, right behind America. Clearly the pipeline of success from Thailand is pretty impressive. It's one of our better success stories. We talk about Thailand all the around the world as a place we started going. I think when we first started coming -- I know when I first started coming here the fan were about 70% men; now when you go out there the fans are more like 60% women. A lot of little girls, all dressed up in golfing outfits.

There is no doubt that events like this are having an impact. And clearly Moriya and Ariya, Pornanong, hard to be a young girl here and not have one of them as one of your heroes.

Q. Last time interview you was two or three years ago. We talk about the affect of social media and the players. This year we saw on the television the broadcasting you have a player with speaker and...
MIKE WHAN: Yeah.

Q. ...they talk to the fans during the games. What is the main purpose?
MIKE WHAN: I think it's simple. The more you get to know our players the more likely you're going to be a big fan. When we started putting Twitter handles on the back of caddie bibs at some the tournament, and some of the other leagues were confused. Why don't you put @LPGA. Why don't you try to get the fans to follow you?

I said, because we're really not that interesting; the players really are. I would much rather have you follow Lexi and Ariya than follow me. If you follow them and you like them, you'll watch them on our tour.

I think the ability for our fans today to get to know our players, you know, both what they're doing on the golf course, how they train, practice, what they eat, those things are available through social media.

About six or seven years ago somebody forced me to join Twitter. As a 45 years old at the time it was really over my head. I'm addicted now just like everybody else. I also get to wake up every day to hundreds of fans call me an idiot.

Once you get past that, it's nice to be connected both to the fans, the media, and to my players through social media.

Q. You did an interview last moth. How satisfied are you about LPGA being forefront of creating women opportunities in all field using sport? Are you satisfied at the level of the LPGA right now?
MIKE WHAN: Satisfied and me are usually not words that go together. I am really not satisfied usually when we're doing well. I think the bottom line is no matter where we travel in the world, topics like women's empowerment, diversity, inclusion, equal pay, leadership, those discussions are happening everywhere in the world.

What's really good for us is there is no better living, breathing example of diversity, women's empowerment, and leadership than right out here. You have players from all over the world in every shape and size and every background. Some are loud, some are quiet, some are tall, some are short, but they run their own businesses and hire their own team.

They're moms, they's kids, they're businesswomen, they're philanthropists. This is what corporate American is trying to unleash and really tap into. Because of that, there has been more companies joining the LPGA in the last three or four years than any period of the same time in the our seven-year history.

The trend and the message that's going out around the world is a perfect fit for us. As a result of that, the growth on the LPGA is like we've never experienced it in our entire history. ^ END FIVE MINUTES.

Q. What about in terms of growing sponsorship for LPGA? Is it at the level you're satisfied with the growth?
MIKE WHAN: Well, I'm satisfied with our growth curves. I am certainly not satisfied with where we are. If you go back five or six years, we were playing for, I don't know, half as much money. We were playing for half as many tournaments. Probably 70% less money. We definitely had couple of hundred percent less TV.

When I started we had a little under 200 hours of total television hours telecast around the world; now we have about 500 hours in total telecast hours.

I used to say back in the 2010 if you wanted to be a fan of the LPGA we made that pretty hard. We weren't on regularly. Couldn't count on us. We didn't have a lot of TV.

Now if you want to be a fan of the LPGA we make that pretty simple. We play 34 times for $70 million, 500 hours of TV all around the world. We've already talked about the social media impact. So I think we've made it pretty interesting.

At the end of the day, I always tell players on tour, You're playing for your career, for the chance to make good money and have an impact; what you're really doing is creating inspiration for the next generation.

The tour right now is in a pretty good place as it relates to creating inspiration and role models for young girls.

But happy with where we are? No. I think there is a lot of up side, and still challenging to think we play for one fourth or one fifth of what a guy on the PGA TOUR would play for.

Those are good goals to keep in the front of our minds.

Q. Are there any extra campaign to boost the popularity of women's golf in Asia this year?
MIKE WHAN: Well, you know, what I think I could tell you is over the next couple years you'll see us have some new stops in Asia. I think the most important thing we can do for golf in Asia is play in multiple locations and provide live TV in your primetime hours.

I get it. When we're playing in Chicago and Florida and California, it might be good for us who live in America, but it's the middle of the night here. Making a commitment to come play in Asia both early in the season and the end of the year is all about craving growth opportunities.

As a famous a lot of famous female leaders said, I had to see it to be it. I think for these young girls in Asia, we want to me sure they can see it, see this kind of success so you can dream it.

So I think I can comfortably tell you that our number of stops in Asia isn't done.

Q. (Regarding favorite players.)
MIKE WHAN: There is only one way to end your term as commissioner, and that is to answer questions about favorite players.

Good news for me is when I joined the LPGA I was a fan of these players. As I got to be on the LPGA, I got know them and became friends with them. It's funny, ten years later I'm sort of back to being a fan.

I see how hard they work and I know how hard this game is. I know how deep it is. You go back 20, 25 years ago and we might have had 120 players in the field, but probably 30, 35 could win any week. Any player on any tournament on the LPGA could win any week. It's just that deep. That's what 26 winners in 32 tournaments proves.

So I think to be out here and at the of top of the game, to qualify to play in something like the Honda LPGA Thailand, you really are the best female golfers on the planet. Just to get into this event is so hard.

Yesterday I got here at 4:00, got to the hotel at 4:00. I went down to workout in the fitness center, and there were 20 players working out at 5:00 at night. I know they had just spent six hours in this humidity. What are they doing? Do they really need to?

But that's what it takes for them to stay at the top of the game. So the glamour part isn't as glamourous in the basement fitness center, but that's what makes me a fan, because I see had it takes to be good out here.

Q. What makes this tournament different from others?
MIKE WHAN: First, I think without a doubt this is the prettiest and most well-manicured golf course we play all year. I really do think this is as good as any golf course in terms of the pristine -- you know, whether you're hitting balls on the driving range, putting on the greens, conditions are really, really good.

I remember I was in Korea this week before I flew here. I was in a meeting on Thursday and there was a TV on behind me in the office and we were on. I remember seeing that on TV and I thought, My God. That golf course looks as good as anything we play.

When you take a golf course that good and you add 60, 70 of the best players in the world, you get an incredible tournament. I've been coming here now for ten years, and it's kind of interesting to me to see that this tournament has gotten better every year in ten years.

I think in the beginning was it a better tournament than I had expected. I didn't know what to expect when I first got here. The attention to detail -- now they know us, we know them, and quite frankly it's kind of home for us. Players know where they're going to go do their laundry tonight; we know where we're going to eat. It's a comfortable environment.

First time you go to any country you're not from or is a long way from home, you have anxiety and what's going to work out. There is no anxiety on tour about Pattaya. They know where they're going, staying, and it's just a really comfortable place.

My wife said to me last night, Is it hard to find food there that you want? I said, The problem isn't being hard to find food; it's stop finding food. Everything on the menu I like.

So, no, it's a really nice experience and I think each year it's gotten a little better.

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