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BMW LADIES CHAMPIONSHIPOctober 22, 2019Mike WhanBryce SwansonSean PyunBusan, South Korea THE MODERATOR: It has to be quite exciting to be here at LPGA International Busan, the first LPGA-branded golf course outside of the United States. MIKE WHAN: Thank you. This is my fourth trip to Busan, and as Sean knows, the very first time I came here, I fell in love. I spent 25 years in California. It reminds me of San Diego. It's got a beach vibe. It's a big-city vibe. People are louder, just like I am. So I feel comfortable because I can be loud in Busan and I fit in. It's a good sports town. When you add all these things up, it's exciting. It's neat to see how much my staff and my players are reacting to driving up and seeing our logo when you drive in on such an incredible venue. It's going to be our honor, quite frankly, to show off this city for the 175 countries that televise us. I think everybody that I know from Korea has a Busan story. Everybody vacationed here. They came here as kids. My players talk about Busan in a really personal way. This is our chance to show the rest of the world Busan, because I think for a lot of Korean folks, Busan already has a special spot in their heart but for the rest of the world we are about to blow the lid off and show the world what an incredible city this is and to come and play golf. And if you're going to play golf, where else would you play than LPGA international. How was that, Amy? Good luck (to translator). THE MODERATOR: That was amazing, Amy. Sean, can you follow that up? What are your thoughts on this week? SEAN PYUN: Now, she is really good. She's really good. As a part of Mike's team, I was given an opportunity to lead this project on behalf of the LPGA, and we work with the City of Busan, obviously with BMW, as well, in what used to be a golf course here. It's been an incredible journey already. I think there were some tough times, too, trying to get to where we are today, but everybody involved in this project has been 100 percent supportive of what we're doing. So what you're seeing today is the outcome of a lot of hard working from the people around this area. So as somebody represents the LPGA in this region, I'm extremely proud and obviously thankful to BMW and the City of Busan and the golf course to really give us the platform to really showcase the very best of the LPGA. Secondly, as somebody growing up in Korea, in Seoul, as Mike had alluded to, I have my Busan story. I've been coming here since I was seven years old. We went every year to vacation in Busan, and Busan has changed a lot, but at the same time, you still see the same hospitality, same great food, smiles. Great places to visit, as Mike had mentioned. As a Korean person, I am extremely proud to showcase the City of Busan to a worldwide LPGA audience this week and for the next foreseeable future and I really look forward to getting the competition here pretty soon. THE MODERATOR: Mike, this has been something you've been looking forward to for a long time. Now that we're here, what can we expect as we head out to the LPGA BMW Championship? MIKE WHAN: I'll do this in pieces so you don't have to do the whole thing. Christina, it's what you'd expect. I have a phrase I use in the office a lot that says great results start with great partnerships. What you should expect this week is the result of some really powerful partnerships. Go ahead, Amy. I like to think at the LPGA we dream big but the benefit this week is that we have partners that dreamed bigger. President Han Sang-yun from BMW Korea thought bigger about this event than we do. Mayor Oh Keo-don here in Busan thought bigger about this event and this golf course than we did, and as a result, they created an event quite frankly that was bigger than our original vision the first time we met with them. We travel all over the world, but to wake up at the paradise on the beach, hop in your 7 Series and head off to LPGA International Busan, and then have maybe the best seafood in the world in my opinion here in Busan, this is a pretty special week for us. And that's from our side. If you live in Busan and the surrounding area, don't miss this one. This is the best female golfing athletes in the world. It might be easy to turn on your TV because we'll be on TV for 20 hours, but come see us. Come see how incredible these athletes are. Come cheer, be loud, just like I'm going to be. Make this your hometown event, because we want to consider Busan our home. We want to show off your home all around the world and hope you come out and join us to make the BMW Ladies Championship, quite frankly, one of the best events in women's golf, period. Q. I think you cannot deny that Korean players have been the backbone of the incredible success of the LPGA today, and you also get very high ratings, and Korea also takes the bulk of the bill for the TV broadcast, as well. If you look at the field right now, we have around 30 Korean players and I think this shows that Korean pro golfers really contributed to the LPGA. Given that, if you look at this competition, you do not have -- the KLPGA is not a co-sponsor, and you have local sponsors. So do you have future plans regarding this? Do you have plans where you can think of new partnerships to include more Korean players on the LPGA Tour? MIKE WHAN: Is the question about more players on the LPGA, or more partnership with the KLPGA in this event? Q. Both. To make my question more specific, do you have plans to put more Korean players in the field for this event, and also, would you consider having the KLPGA as a co-sponsor in the future. MIKE WHAN: A couple of things to the question. First is we consider the KLPGA a partner in this event. When you say 30 Korean players, there's 30 from the KLPGA, but more than half the players -- and from the LPGA, as well. I think talking about partnering up with the KLPGA, the benefits are that we get significant players from both tours; we have help with our TV partners helping; can we share some of the sanction fees -- we have. What we try to do is create a partnership in this event, and I think from the very beginning, I knew the KLPGA wanted 30 players and that was our goal, as well. I think you're exactly right. I would be the last person to deny the success of the Korean players, not only on the KLPGA but on the world stage. That's one of the reasons, quite frankly, that we come and we do, I always say, we have a lot of the greatest female athletes in the world and a lot of them have to play a long way from home. So traveling around the world is not only good for business; I think it's good for the athletes. Everyone deserves a hometown fan group and a hometown win. We've been lucky on the Tour that some of the greatest female golfers have won in their home country, whether that's Korea or China or México or Canada. We've seen incredible wins of local players. I'm excited about this. I think in my ten years of Commissioner, this is a big step forward with us with what BMW and Busan have brought together on our two tours and I think it's a good step forward. I think you're right, though. If you walk out with this pairing sheet tomorrow, you'll see more than Korean players, for sure, because between the two tours, you're going to see more than half the field, I assume, is Korean-based. We do want a global event. I know BMW likes a global event, too. We love the fact that while this event will be a huge Korean event and Korean staging, the rest of the world is still going to care because when so many countries tee up and compete against each other; I think it's a nice combination where we work together to showcase and benefit both of the tours, and at the same time, we'll let the rest of the world eavesdrop on what's going on here in Busan. If I'm being totally honest with you, I don't lose a lot of sleep at night worrying about who is going to win and from what country. I find that in my ten years, that sort of takes care of itself. The reality of it is our sponsors from virtually all over the world, their primary goal is that we deliver the best in the world from all over the world. They know if we do that, it will not only create a great event wherever we host the event but it will garner worldwide attention. It's funny, I can remember four or five years ago one of our other TV partners from another country because not enough players were winning and then the next year they went on a great run. I find it goes pretty cyclical and the business takes care of itself. The great news is, for me, great young female golfers are coming from all over the world. The under-16 of women's golf globally is like it's never been before. So you if think about this pipeline in women's golf, the pipeline is so steep. It used to be if you went back 20 years ago, that pipeline was steep in three or four countries. If you jump forward today, that pipeline is deep in 45 countries. I think the Olympics threw our sport into overdrive. When it became an Olympic sport, a podium sport, I found that countries all over the world started supporting young men and women at a level that we haven't seen before, and I don't think we'll see the impact of the Olympics for maybe another 20 or 30 years. I will say that women's golf is borderless. They come from all over the world, play all over the world and they become friends no matter where they grew up, and I think that's what makes the sport great. I feel like that formula allows me to sit on a pretty winning ticket long-term. Q. So if you look at the investment from the LPGA Tour, I think you have about 30 events per year and about half of them are held outside the U.S., So that begs the question, can this really essentially still be called the LPGA Tour; that's the first part of my question. And then the second part of my question is: If you look at the events, Korean corporations title sponsor a minimum maybe five to seven events, and they make a hefty investment into these events. But perhaps the LPGA overlooks what it can do in terms of fostering the next generation of Korean junior players. So perhaps my question falls along the line that in response to these significant investments, the LPGA is overlooking investment in the future of Korean women's golf. If you look at the Korean players, they really literally earn their way to the LPGA in terms of their skills and expenses, and so I guess my question is that perhaps we do not get as much in return from the LPGA, considering Korea's contribution in terms of events and players. If you look at the U.S. right now, there are not as many U.S.-born golf stars coming out of the LPGA, and that might be a signal that the market is not growing as much in the U.S., and in order for the LPGA to be truly global, it would be important for the U.S. market to grow. So what are you doing in the U.S. to really grow the game of golf there? MIKE WHAN: That's a lot in one question. The first part of your question, I think is about when you said the "A" in LPGA. We don't consider ourselves a "U.S." Tour. We consider ourselves a "World" tour based in the U.S. Like any global company, we have a home. We want our employees to be able to move together, live together, go to each other's weddings and all the stuff we do, but we consider ourselves a world tour based in the United States, not a United States tour that kind of occasionally leaves the U.S. I'm not sure if everybody agrees with that but that's the way we think of it. We think of it as a world-tour that we want to have a base and a home. We want to put on enough events so that people can pick a location, instead of having to fly 15 hours and back. So that's one. On the second part of that, you may be right. Maybe there's a bigger investment we could or should be making into the future of Korean golf. We think of ourselves as creating the best stage where the best females in the world would want to get to and compete against the other best from the world to figure out who is No. 1 in the Rolex World Rankings. We think the greatest influence we can have, not only in Korea, but all over the world, is to create that dream for young girls, no matter where we play, and we'll see it this weekend. We'll meet the six- to 12-year-olds that are already on the range dreaming of making it here some day because we create that global platform. We create that stage that their mom and dad are watching on TV while they are young. Is there more we can do? Probably, and it's a good question. But the most important thing we can do is make this dream a reality and create a stage that's for women's sports that's bigger than any one country, that's bigger than any one event, that's bigger than any one TV partner; it's truly global. When I look at the Olympics, I see one of the greatest sporting events in the world because it attracts the best players at the prime of their career to all come together and play a really cool hometown place that they let the rest of the world watch. We're going to do that Thursday and we try to do that every week; a stage so big that the rest of the world will travel to get there. It's going to be a great hometown event in Busan, but 170 countries will pay attention. The reality of it is we have been based in the U.S. since 1950, and in doing that, we have been pretty aggressive in trying to grow the future pipeline of golf in America, and I would tell you that girls under the age of 18 is the fastest-growing segment of golf in the U.S. First time we've been able to say that in 100 years, by the way. Women's golf under the age of 18 has never been a fast-growing segment. Now it's the fastest-growing segment. We used to introduce 4,000 girls a year to the game. This year we'll introduce just under 100,000 girls to the game, all driven by an LPGA/USGA joint partnership. To answer a few questions, we consider ourselves global with a U.S. base. Not a U.S. Tour, but a global tour based in the U.S. We are proud of the impact Korea has made, and I think people in Korea sometimes underestimate that Korean success on the LPGA has not just been good for Korean. It's been good for the world. Trust me when I tell you China sees Korean's success and Malaysia and Singapore; there's a lot of countries trying to emulate what Korea has built. It's great, and it's creating opportunities for young girls in countries that didn't even play golf ten or 15 years ago. Women didn't play golf in some of the countries we visit today. Don't underestimate the impact that the greatest sporting platform can have on young girls, not just in this country but all over the world because we see it virtually every week, and we travel to every country. Okay. Q. Two questions. First, it seems that the prize money for the PGA TOUR events and the LPGA Tour events is becoming larger and larger. Do you have any specific plans or ways that you are planning to implement to raise and increase the prize money for the LPGA events that? MIKE WHAN: Take that one first. If you would have told me back in 2010 when I took the job that we could raise purses 80 percent in the first ten years and have the same gap versus the men, I would have said, not possible. We've had a pretty enjoyable and exciting run in purses raised in women's golf. At the same time, the men have had the exact same thing. Not sure if we have closed the gap, even though we are playing for dramatically more money. When I started we were playing for just over 40 million and now we're playing for over 70 million, but the fact is, the men's has grown, as well. As a result of that, I don't want to be depressed by that. I think when golf and golf purses are growing for men and women, that's a good opportunity. I have not had to be too loud about closing the gap because society has taken that banner for me. So in other words, almost all of my sponsors, almost all of my tournaments, almost all of the people that help lift the LPGA are interested in lifting those purses and equalizing that difference, as well. The good news is I have a lot of friends in trying to achieve that goal. But the reality of it is we have grown significantly and the gap is about the same. I didn't think it would be about the kind of growth we've had. Just to finish on that thought, I think in 2010 we had one event over $3 million. In 2020, we'll have two events over $5 million, three events over $4 million, another couple over $3 million. There was a time when 3 million was the gold standard at the LPGA. Now, like I said, we'll have two at $5 million or more. It's a new time but we have a long way to go from a pure equality perspective. Q. One of your major events will overlap with the Augusta amateur event and there was some talk with rescheduling. What will happen next year? MIKE WHAN: In 2020 we're going to keep OUR dates as with Augusta. They overlap, but not -- I think that story has gotten probably louder than reality. First is theirs is only an amateur event. We only have a handful of amateurs at most in the ANA Inspiration, and we did last year, as well. Some chose to play Augusta. Some chose to play ANA. I'm not sure that's terrible. It would be great to be one of the best amateur golfers in the world and choose between the ANA and Augusta National. That's a pretty good day at the kitchen table deciding between those two. The benefit is Augusta finishes on Saturday at 3:00 PM East Coast time in America. We come on TV from 5:00 to 11:00 on both Saturday and Sunday. Augusta National plays Wednesday, Thursday, and then finishing on a Saturday. We're obviously Thursday to Sunday. As I said and we saw last year, it's a pretty incredible weekend in terms of how much women's golf dominates the golf media. I've never seen that before in my time at the LPGA where literally if you opened up any paper and watched any television program, the recap was almost all women's golf and I think done right, this can be a real great celebration over the course of that week and weekend together. I think Augusta proved this year that it can introduce the world to the next generation of LPGA players. Jennifer Kupcho and Maria Fossi were generally unknown outside of their colleges and when they finished Augusta National, the whole world knew who they are. I just saw Jennifer Kupcho in the lunchroom here at Busan, so it was a great opportunity for the great next generation of golfers to get on the world stage, and from there, they came to the LPGA. That would be great if that's the -- if that's the path and that's kind of the process that young girls can follow in the future. THE MODERATOR: Earlier, we were joined by Bryce Swanson the vice president of Rees Jones, Incorporated, the group that did the redesign here at LPGA International Busan. Sean, I'll start with you. If you could talk about the relationship with Rees Jones incorporated and the work that went on here. SEAN PYUN: I think we met Rees Jones at one of our tournaments in San Francisco at Lake Merced Country Club. Rees actually redesigned Lake Merced Golf Course, and most of our team knows that Lake Merced is one of the favorite courses of the LPGA players that we play every year. We were very interested in his philosophy and when this LPGA International project came up, we naturally had this conversation. He's been great in really capturing and highlighting the natural terrain of this golf course and bringing up the level of competition that can be staged here. Without further ado, I would actually rather have him talk about the philosophy himself and how he designed the golf course. BRYCE SWANSON: Thank you, Sean, and everyone here with the LPGA, the staff behind the whole entire project. This is a great honor. It's a great opportunity and Sean first brought it to Rees's attention. When Rees came back from Lake Merced, the event, he mentioned to me, he said, look, I think we have an opportunity for something really special. The LPGA is interested in funding a golf course over in Korea, that would be part of their -- something that they would be able to host an event and also be able to grow the game of golf over here and from that stand, it was truly an exciting opportunity. Once we actually got over here, we were able to do an assessment of the property as Sean mentioned, the natural setting of the golf course, wonderful, there's a tremendous amount of variety out there if you have got around the golf course, and with that, our work really boiled down from taking the golf course and bringing it up to today's level and then to give the actual course the possibility to shine for the best players in the game. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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