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KPMG WOMEN'S PGA CHAMPIONSHIPJune 19, 2019Michele TafoyaKaren StupplesKay CockerillJerry FoltzChaska, Minnesota Q. Michele, have you ever been to a golf event? MICHELE TAFOYA: Oh, yeah. We go to the Ryder Cup almost without fail, and been to the Open Championship out in Scotland. Yeah, yeah, love it. Q. Big fan? MICHELE TAFOYA: Big fan. You know, I played a lot before I had children, and then there wasn't a lot of time, and so I do more carting them around than I do playing, driving a cart for myself around. Still love the game. I look forward to the day when I can play again. Q. Kay, I have a question. So I spoke to Jan Stephenson last week, and she said one of the things holding back women's sports in general is that women don't follow and watch women's sports religiously, and anecdotally I can speak to this because my teammates in college don't really follow sports. So I'm wondering if you have an explanation. We now have at least three generations of Title IX women, so we should have more women than ever whose lives are invested in sports that should conceivably still be interested. What is causing the disconnect do you think? KAY COCKERILL: Well, that is an interesting question. I think obviously we all were born and raised to follow men's sports because that's what was on TV. That was really the only thing, especially for maybe women's golf and women's tennis and the Olympics, seeing other women compete in sports. And I think I don't know, for myself, I don't tend to watch that much sports. I watch our local teams. I'm not as avid a sports enthusiast, and a lot of my girlfriends are the same. They like sports, but they don't actually take the time to sit down and watch it. If they do, they do more taping it and watching it later. It's probably because everybody is so busy. They're either mothers or they're working, and it's just hard to carve out that time. If you have some time, you go and play sports yourself or you get out and do something yourself. But I think a lot of it is just it's changing the habits and the mindset that the only option is men. Instead there's women's softball, NCAAs, there's all the different Pac 12 and SEC are showing a lot more all the conferences are showing a lot of sports, and it's just knowing those options are out there and saying, I'm going to tune in and watch women's sports. But I agree; I think there's something maybe subliminally maybe we're not seeing enough advertisements for it and enough reminders that it's on, and now with how many hundreds of stations, where is it, so we need to have it up front and center of this is happening at this time so that we can be reminded and it can become part of our routine, maybe in the evening, having a certain time frame that you know you're going to tune in and see some great basketball or see some great tennis or see some gymnastics, if it's college. I think starting almost at the college level where there's such a great variety of sports is going to get everybody hooked into them learning about players because you know as soon as you learn about players, you learn their stories and you become interested in that person, that then makes you learn about the entire sport, and then you start tuning in more. I guess it's just a matter of getting the stories out there, right? Q. You played college here; do any of your friends that you played college with follow golf? KAREN STUPPLES: They do. Most of the people I played college golf with, and even played amateur golf with, all now follow golf on TV and really enjoy watching whatever golf is on TV. It doesn't matter they're golf fans and they just enjoy it. I do see, though, from a personal perspective when I'm at home, obviously I'm a golf fan, it's constantly on in the background of my house, but more often than not it's so hard for me just to sit down because I've got so much else to do. I've got a busy, busy son, I'm watching him play baseball, taking part in his practices, living life with him so he can grow up and play sports, as well. Life evolves and life changes and takes you in different directions, and sometimes just to sit down and having the time is difficult. But I do enjoy a good tournament, and I try and make him watch it as much as I can, too, but he doesn't Q. You do? KAREN STUPPLES: Yeah, but he's off watching, doing his Fortnite game. Q. This is what we're battling. We're battling screens. MICHELE TAFOYA: And as you mentioned, a multitude of platforms. So I think in general, stars will attract viewers, and Molly Solomon from Golf Channel and I were just talking about winners, repeat winners that you want to tend to watch again, will they do it again, and I think it applies to almost every sport, men's or women's, and I know right now World Cup soccer is getting a ton of attention, and this team is going to be they're going to be superstars by the time it's over, but that's once every four years and then what do we do from there. Q. That's the thing, they've struggled with their professional league in the non World Cup years, so there is great interest, wonderful TV ratings, but no one is supporting the women's professional league in the off years. I don't want to say no one, but not enough. MICHELE TAFOYA: The market is massive, and it really is about what people want to do. If you have six options in front of you, which one is the best at that moment, in that moment, and that's where you're going to gravitate to. There may be some missed opportunities there because you may be missing a great show, but they'll hear about it later. Q. It was interesting, even last week at the U.S. Open I had some friends, avid sports friends, men, and they were coming not with their wives but with buddies, and I was saying, why aren't you bringing your wife. But it was sort of what you're talking about. Oh, they're busy. It's like a buddy venture. MICHELE TAFOYA: And it can be. I go with my husband all the time to golf. But it's because I love it. I think as you just pointed out, women tend to juggle a lot of things, and whether it's self imposed or whatever, whether it's kids, I'm serrious, laundry, daily life, it's just juggling. KAREN STUPPLES: I do think that the biggest thing that could ever happen in terms of getting women to participate is to do it as a family group. It's to have golf clubs welcome families so that you have obviously a father figure that goes out and plays golf, wife comes along, kids come along, but to make it family friendly, make it so that everybody can get involved and you can all stand on the practice ground, hit balls together, go out and play together, it's not frowned upon if the kids run through the bunkers or start building sandcastles while people are putting. It just has to be much more family orientated. Then if the mother is involved, then she's more likely going to take the kids out to play golf, too, and it just grows everything, and I think that's a huge part in making this story a success. JERRY FOLTZ: Some men like to watch women's sports, too. I just saw just two days ago, the women's national ticket sales for the soccer actually exceeds the men's, which is quite amazing, 59.2 million to 60 million ticket sales for in person attendance. Q. The women are more successful. JERRY FOLTZ: It could be, yeah. I'm speaking for myself, I love watching it. I watch women's tennis more than men's. I'd watch every single out of the Women's College World Series if it was on, and I really didn't get interested in men's for years. I watched Ewa Laurance, the billiards announcer. And I watched Jeanette Lee, the Black Widow. I watched them forever. But it isn't on anymore. I don't know what it is about it, and I did it long before I became a fan and some would say, oh, an apologist for the LPGA. I don't know what it is but it's compelling about the way they compete. Q. What do your male friends when they come over and see you watching women's golf? JERRY FOLTZ: You know, it's like I said recently about an issue they have within the LPGA, and I tell them every time, you get a chance, you'll absolutely love it, but no, I drive some of them crazy with all the women's sports, and I think the only men's sports I watch is NASCAR. KAY COCKERILL: It's like with anything. You can take someone who doesn't know anything about ballet, and you bring them to the ballet and they're going to be interested because once you realize the time and effort and training and how athletic it is and how much effort goes into it, and then if you happen to learn a story about X dancer, you're going to become a lot more interested, and it's the same with anything. Once you learn the details of the sport and the rules that are if there's a sport you're unclear about, like rugby or something, it becomes more interesting, and then you get more involved in it. You have a reason that catches you and pulls you in. MICHELE TAFOYA: There's only so much time in the day. I would love to wake up, go to the ballet, play a round of golf, watch my kids' baseball game and then take my daughter to soccer practice. That would be the day of my life. But what I'm saying is we have so little time and it goes to quickly, so Q. I'm seeing your traffic here. MICHELE TAFOYA: Yeah, it hasn't been great lately. We have two seasons, winter and construction. Q. Talking about moving the needle and needing multiple winners and people you can latch on to, Brooke has won twice. Does she move it? JERRY FOLTZ: You know, that's a question that I think people who have the research could tell you more about than I can. I know our ratings at ShopRite were through the roof the week after a lot of attention was brought to Asian players on the LPGA Tour, and the fans and the crowd at Seaview who were playing alongside Lexi, trying to beat Lexi not alongside her, trying to beat Lexi. The crowds were rooting for her more than I've ever seen them root for an Asian player before that wasn't a superstar out there. I think it was a tipping point that happened with all of the controversy the previous week, a tipping point, so to speak, and I look forward to more people viewing it with a curiosity as to wanting to know whether so many international players, wanting to appreciate what they do. My head is not stuck in the dirt if Lexi Thompson was in contention every week, our North American ratings would be crazy. Same with Michelle Wie or even Brooke Henderson. But we can't control that. All we can control is how we portray the product that we have in front of us, and we're all very serious about doing that in the right way, which is not because they're women, not because they're Asian or European or American, it's because they're fantastic players. KAREN STUPPLES: I think there are needle movers in every country that the LPGA has. You talked about Brooke Henderson. She moves the needle in Canada. You talk about a Georgia Hall or a Charley Hull, they move the needle in the UK, Lexi Thompson will move the needle here, I think. And then you have Sung Hyun Park, she definitely moves the needle in Korea. Ariya Jutanugarn, she moves the needle in Thailand. The LPGA is made up of a number of different countries. It's a completely global tour, and they have a player that moves the needle in each individual country, and it's very difficult to put one face on the LPGA Tour as a successful needle mover across all platforms. It's a difficult spot to find that person. I think you had Michelle Wie could have been that ultimate needle mover had she progressed and had win after win after win. Then when you think about men's golf, Tiger Woods, there hasn't been a Tiger Woods in the women's game really. Annika Sorenstam was very dominant, but she didn't quite have that same charisma that Tiger seemed to exude on the golf course. Lorena Ochoa, she had some charisma but didn't quite have that same there hasn't been one person that ticked every single box in women's golf like you had with men. But in every different country, there is one person that ticks all the boxes for those individual countries. We have yet to find a universal figure. KAY COCKERILL: It's like everybody kind of pines for Karrie and Annika and Lorena, and what they were doing in their eras but they probably weren't as appreciated while they were doing it, it's more afterwards that you realized how great they were. And given their excellence, they still weren't American, they weren't a U.S. player that was dominating. Q. And Annika didn't move the needle until after she played against the men, to be honest. JERRY FOLTZ: The last needle mover really in the U.S. was Nancy Lopez. She checked all the boxes. She was the last real needle mover that set herself apart from everybody else. On the PGA Tour, you could make an argument for Phil being second if you want to, but other than that, everyone else is tied for third in terms of moving the needle. Q. What are all those boxes, Jerry, that need ticked off? JERRY FOLTZ: American for the American audience because back then it wasn't as international of a Tour. I'm talking domestic audience, at that time. I'm hoping that that changes, and I hope it's changing now. But I think American with a compelling back story, like Tiger, didn't grow up a person of privilege, an ethnic background, as well, like Tiger, and an engaging smile to the fans. KAY COCKERILL: Charismatic beyond belief, right, and she was one of those very special people that could compete and win and dominate and set records and break records and still talk to everyone, smile, look them in the eye and make you feel special. I mean, she had that rare connection with people of any walk of life. And so people remembered her. She affected so many people in such a positive way, and that kind of personality comes along every once in a while, that can be that excellent at what they do and have that ability to connect. KAREN STUPPLES: There is a player that does excite me that does have the potential. Whether she produces the wins on the golf course, I don't know if that'll happen yet, but it's Maria Fassi. I think that she has that smile, she has that charisma, she has the personality that people just warm towards her. She's bubbly, she bounces around the golf course. She is competitive yet compassionate. She has she drives the ball a country mile. She has the technical skill to get the job done. It's very early days, and this is a lot of pressure to put on the shoulders of her, but she has the characteristics that are required to be that. MICHELE TAFOYA: It's funny because I was talking to Suzy Whaley of the PGA, and she said the same name. She played with her in the pro am yesterday and talked about her golf and club head speed and it's 119, off the charts, she can hit it a country mile, but she's bubbly, vivacious, and could be that person, so it's really interesting to hear you say that, as well. I think that person is out there, and if it's not her, I just think there's a generation of really good players that are coming along right now, and they've brought up watching Tiger, and they know that they can be Tiger. KAREN STUPPLES: Fassi has a little film star quality to her, too. It's definitely star power that she exudes. MICHELE TAFOYA: I love how she says "film star," and I've always said movie star. It's so cute, though. I like that. I'm going to say film star from now on. It sounds so much more elevated, doesn't it? Q. We all remember Michelle Wie at 13 being vivacious and gregarious and all of those things. What are the lessons that we need to take and not repeat with whoever is the next it person, like what happened to Michelle? KAREN STUPPLES: Well, I think the difference with Fassi is she's gone through a full four years of college. She's graduated. She's learned to live on her own two feet. She can rent a car on her own. She doesn't need anybody else to do that for her. She's lived a lot of life already, and she's very experienced. And I think living life and being experienced gives you a really good grounding for when you actually play professional golf and deal with real world issues and real world stuff that you don't have to fight that when you become professional. She's already through that stage. KAY COCKERILL: Not doing too much too fast, pacing yourself so that you're looking forward to these next big goals that you're attaining and not playing on the biggest stage when you're 12 or 13 years old, and also when you have injuries, to give yourself plenty of time, more time than you think you need to get fully over those injuries so they don't start creating other injuries and swing issues that you're trying to compensate for said injuries. I betcha if you asked Michelle and she looked back, she would have taken a lot more time off to nurse her initial injuries that she had when she was in the early teenage years? Q. Do you think Maria Fassi's star power is the fact that she's such an obvious athlete? She could be on whatever that American Ninja Warrior she looks like it. KAREN STUPPLES: I mean, no doubt about it, but you look at the image that she portrays around the golf course and on the golf course, too, like she's got the aviator sunglasses on, she looks the part. She looks like a film star. In my opinion she pulled Jennifer Kupcho along at the Augusta National Women's Amateur, and it was Maria's personality that really drove the whole narrative around the two as a friendship and that whole deal that happened there. I think that she has the ability to pull people together and to unite them in a way to support not only her but to support the game of golf as a bigger picture, and I think that's what everybody is really looking for is a needle mover. JERRY FOLTZ: Can I be the lone feminist voice here? I hate the fact that we're talking about her like that. Right now she's a rookie on the Tour. She's trying to make her way in professional golf. Jack Nicklaus was a huge needle mover, not because he had movie star looks or really cool clothes. He was the needle mover because he was the greatest golfer alive and could beat anybody. That's how I wish our next hero, our next needle mover was judged. Q. I want to go back to the men versus the women watching sports, things like that. There's been a few attempts over the years of kind of putting the two together. Obviously PGA of America taking over this. We had a JC Penney classic in the past. You've got the Sixes over on the European Tour. Do you think it would help or hurt the women's game to be together? MICHELE TAFOYA: Can I answer first? Here's my experience with that. Before UConn Husky women's basketball was really UConn husky basketball, I was covering a men's game there, and I got there early, and the women were playing before the men in this attempt to get more people to come see these brilliant women, led by Rebecca Lobo. After halftime there weren't a lot of people there for the first half. People started showing up for the men's game after halftime of the women's game, and the place started filling up, and they started watching these gals, and the place went crazy. They couldn't believe what they were seeing. They didn't know. They were sort of like, wow, I didn't know. And by the end of the game when these women were winning and dominating, the place was a madhouse. To me, that helps. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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