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THE AMERICAN EXPRESSJanuary 17, 2020Paul CaseyLa Quinta, California Q. Talk about, so you -- PAUL CASEY: So you know my deal. My deal is I do a hundred dollars for every birdie, 200 for every eagle. Q. Right through the year. PAUL CASEY: Right through the year. European Tour, PGA TOUR, USA, Australasia. It doesn't matter where I play -- not at my own club, but anytime I play for professional golf I tee it up. So I pitched the idea this morning -- I pitched it to Steve Squeri last night, obviously CEO of AmEx, because we're going to play together tomorrow. I said, Do you want to match my donation, match my pledge? And he said, Yeah, brilliant. Johnny said to me, he goes, You should do the same with Jimmy. We know Jimmy Dunne for years and he's such a good guy. So we pitched the idea to him this morning, and he goes, Yeah, I'm in. But I'm going to do, I got to do better than that. So he goes, PC, I would like to do a thousand dollars for every birdie you make. Q. Wow. PAUL CASEY: And he goes, And then I'm going to do $10,000 for every birdie I make. Q. Just for today? PAUL CASEY: For today's round. Q. Okay. PAUL CASEY: He's not going to match my yearly contribution. And so I, it actually put the pressure on me, so right from the get-go I'm trying to make birdies starting on my first hole of the day and it was a slow day. Q. How many did you make? PAUL CASEY: I made five, but the beautiful thing about this story is that Jimmy's a good player. He hit some great shots but this is a difficult golf course, and I could see him, he was trying so hard. He had a great birdie opportunity -- Q. The Nicklaus tournament? PAUL CASEY: Yeah, on the our back nine, the -- what is it, the third hole on the back nine, the par-3, he hit a great shot in there and he's trying, trying his hardest to make that one and he missed it. And then on the next hole, he's trying to make birdie because he's got like a 6-footer and he missed that one and he's like, Argh. And we come down to the 6th hole of this golf course, so our 15th hole of the day, and he's down on the right-hand side, missed the fairway, and he holes it. Q. No way. PAUL CASEY: And he was aiming, but it wasn't a fluke because he's aiming at the flag with a, he's 165 yards away. Q. So maybe a 7-iron? PAUL CASEY: 7-iron, let's just say. We'll big him up. A 7-iron, and holes it. And he comes running up the hill, the biggest smile on his face, he comes running up the hill and he goes, We never discussed eagles. And I say, Well, that is completely at your discretion. Because I'm already blown away by his generosity anyway. And he goes 25, PC. And not only that, he, he pressured, I say pressured, he peer pressured Bayo, as we call him, Adebayo, on the first tee. Before, he goes, You want to match what I do today? So Bayo is like, Yeah, I'm in, I'm in. So as Jimmy announced that he was going to do 25 for the eagle, Bayo is like, Oh, great. And it gets better because, we get up on the next hole, the 7th hole of the Nicklaus Course, he almost flies it in for an eagle, the ball runs to the back of the green and then he holes it for a birdie, which is another 10. Q. On top of that. PAUL CASEY: On top of that. So we conclude. And as we walk off the 18th green, they're both in for 35 for their portion of it, they're in for 5 more each on my portion of it, so 40 each. And Jimmy goes, We can't -- 40's no good. He looks at Bayo and he looks, he extends his hands and he goes, 50 each? To Bayo. To UNICEF. And he goes, Sure. So... Q. Wow. What a day. What a day. PAUL CASEY: Best day. Q. And it could get better tomorrow. PAUL CASEY: Could get better tomorrow. So obviously it's the greatest. That's -- Q. Has that ever happened to you anywhere else at any other tournament? PAUL CASEY: Yeah. Q. Similar situation? PAUL CASEY: Similar situation. Q. You don't have to say who. PAUL CASEY: I'm going to check his name. Herb Black. Scrap metal dealer from Canada. Same, similar thing. Yeah, 25 K for just literally like me making a putt once. Q. Is that something -- PAUL CASEY: That's what's cool about this golf event to me is it's not -- somebody's going to win at the end of the week, but it's the impact that it has on people's lives, not just the fans, but... Q. But you're instigating a lot of that because of your relationships with them when you play here. PAUL CASEY: Yes, and it's golf is the platform that allow it's to happen. It's the coolest. Q. Is that something that you typically do in regular pro-am, not pro-am events like the American Express but regular -- PAUL CASEY: No, we know Jimmy so well. Q. So it's like these multi-course events that people that you play with regularly or know pretty well that you feel comfortable doing that and they're on board with it? PAUL CASEY: We've got such a great relationship -- Jimmy Dunne is one of the great human beings on planet earth anyway. And he just, he's able to transcend class and boundaries and all this thing, because he's -- obviously we hang around with him in the golfing world, but he doesn't care if you're a player or you're a caddie or you're the superintendent or you're whatever you are, he loves everybody and that's -- do you agree with that Johnny? JOHN MCLAREN: Yeah, he's a gentleman all the way through a. He treats people well and yeah. Q. And everybody benefits from it. Especially UNICEF. That's awesome. PAUL CASEY: It's amazing. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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