U.S. WOMEN'S OPEN

May 29, 2024

Mike Whan

Beth Major

Shannon Rouillard

Lancaster Country Club

Press Conference

BETH MAJOR: Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the 79th U.S. Women's Open championship being played this week at Lancaster Country Club. Very much appreciate you all being here and look forward to a great week.

My name is Beth Major. I'm the managing director of communications and content at the USGA. It's my pleasure to welcome USGA CEO Mike Whan and senior director of championships for the USGA, Shannon Rouillard.

MIKE WHAN: Thank you, Beth. On behalf of all of us at the USGA, welcome to the longest running women's professional golf championships, No. 79. This began in 1946. There was 39 entrants, all from one country, and the winner, Patty Berg, received war bonds. I would say we've come a little ways.

If you think about there were 39 entrants in 1946; this year with the 1900 entrants we had entrants from 39 countries, so we had entrants from 46 states and they aged from ages 10 to 60. To say this championship has come a long way would certainly be an understatement.

We won't be playing for war bonds this year, much to the unhappiness of some of the players probably, but we will be playing for $12 million, the largest purse in the women's game; a $2.4 million winner's check and $10,000 to anybody who misses the cut.

As I've said I think every year that I've been here, we really view making it into this championship making the cut. If 2000 were trying to get into 156 slots, they've made it as far as we're concerned.

When I was at media day here about a month ago, I used the number nine a lot. For those of you who weren't here, it revolved around more than this, but Murray told me I had to be shorter than usual, which all of you know is a challenge for me.

Nine years ago we were here at Lancaster Country Club. This is the 91st time the USGA has teed it up in the state of Pennsylvania, more than any other state in the country. And this is the 999th USGA championship since we began running championships in 1895.

So in a couple weeks when we show up in Pinehurst, that will be 1000. You'll probably get sick of seeing the 1000 hats, but they'll be there.

And then when we leave Pinehurst and head to the U.S. Senior Open at Newport, we'll be returning to the site of number one. So it all started in 1895 at Newport and 1001 will be back at Newport.

I've been asked a few times by more the local media than I guess the national media that cover the women's game, what makes the U.S. Women's Open so special, and it's probably a series of things.

Obviously legacy, being the longest running professional event. It's about legacy. It's about history. As J.B. has brainwashed and trained all of us; it's about cathedrals of the game. We certainly consider Lancaster a cathedral of the game; we've proven that by being back twice in the last decade.

This week I can tell you, as a former LPGA commissioner, this week more than any other week on Tour is all about the championship. No parties, no pro-ams, despite my best efforts to get people to come to some. This is really about the championship this week, and it really just doesn't happen other weeks on Tour.

Chip will tell you a little bit later, but we hope this to be about a complete test of their game, both mental and physical. It is truly an open championship. I know a lot of things use the term "open" in their championship, but we really protect the openness of this championship. We don't hold spots for sponsor invites or exemptions.

When we think about those kind of things, we actually think would we eliminate a spot to somebody from 2000 people trying to play their way in.

It's the largest purse, as I mentioned, and it really has unmatched TV coverage in the women's game. 65 hours of live TV options available to the consumer this week. Another 16-plus hours of Live From. We are on Peacock, USGA streaming, USA Network, NBC.

We'll finish Sunday at 7:00 p.m. on NBC. Only four minutes of commercial interruptions during the telecast of the U.S. Open and no interruptions during the Rolex hour every day.

A special thing happening this year is Mike Tirico's Golden Hour where Mike Tirico will be joined by an Olympic athlete where they're talking about the championship and the upcoming Olympics this summer.

So if you think about it, if you're a fan and you want to follow us, you can follow us from 12:00 until 8:00 both Thursday and Friday, 1:00 to 6:00 on Saturday, and 2:00 to 7:00 on Sunday.

If you're a women's golf fan, I think you can recognize how significant that is relative to a regular week.

Last thing I'd say that makes this event special, and I can tell you this as somebody who's sat on both sides of the lectern as it relates to this championship, is the USGA's incredible commitment to the future of the game.

The USGA, as most of you may know, is the largest single contributor to LPGA USGA Girls Golf; over $8 million in the last 20 years committed to that endeavor.

Really excited to say that when I became the commissioner of the LPGA in the 2009, 15 percent of junior golf was girls, so the future of the game was just as male as the adult part of the game, and today that number is 36 percent, so more than a third of the game is female.

More than a million women have been brought into the game through Girls Golf, and we expect to reach another million between now and 2030.

One stat that's interesting to me is in the last 10 years, there's been over a thousand -- over a thousand more high school girls golf programs added. There's almost as many high school girls golf programs as high school girls soccer programs.

I can just tell you from somebody who joined the women's side of the game 15 years ago, I never believed we'd be able to make a comment like that.

So whether we're talking the U.S. junior girls, U.S. Women's Am, Senior Am, Women's Four-Ball, U.S. Women's Open, U.S. Women's Senior Open, U.S. Mid-Am or the Adaptive, we're fully committed to the game.

We invest almost $1 million a year in women's golf, both showcase events and grow-the-game events.

I was driving here yesterday from the Four-Ball at Philly Cricket -- which is an amazing place, by the way, and thank you for having me, Philly -- and on the way here I did an interview that Murray set up, and the person who was interviewing me said when is golf going to have its Caitlin Clark moment.

And some of you know me well enough to know that I sort of this cringe worthy moment, but luckily it was on the ohone so they couldn't tell, and I said, well, we've already had our Caitlin Clark result.

They said, no, no, no, when are you going to have 12 million people watch a women's golf event? I said, I'll be honest with you, I hope 12 million people watch the U.S. Women's Open or watch any golf event this year.

But what basketball is hoping is that that incredible moment, this moment in time, translates into an explosion of women playing the game, youth playing the game, and that explosion turns into more participation. Participation turns into viewership and people investing in the game, and I certainly hope and believe that will happen.

Golf has already had the explosion, and I think sometimes because we spend a lot of time in rooms like this arguing about conflicts maybe in men's professional golf, we don't stop and talk for a second about what's happened in terms of our own Caitlin Clark outcome.

And that is in the last five years more than 12 million people have joined this sport. More than double what's happened when we talked about the Tiger Woods effect 20 plus years ago. So an incredible last five years.

Women have represented more than 60 percent of that growth. If you take women out of that growth, we simply aren't talking about the same kind of explosion.

What's really mindboggling to me is today when 100 new players play golf for the first time, 42 of them are women. Again, 15 years ago that would have been -- you just wouldn't have believed you were going to be able to say that.

And the average woman who plays this game is five years younger than the average man. Any woman in here who plays the game can relate to that because you've looked around a golf course and that's true.

So we've sort of already had our Caitlin Clark outcome. That doesn't mean we're not still hungering for the world making up and watching this sport at a next level. But in terms of what that could lead to, sometimes I think we forget to celebrate that what it could lead to it's already led to in this part of the game.

Again, as somebody who's spent a lot of his life on the women's side of this game, it bums me out that we missed that. Thanks for putting up with me talking about it.

Before I turn it over to Chip, I just want to say to Brian McGee from our staff, our championship director, thank you for making this championship so special before we even put the first tee in the ground.

We walked the course together at 5:30. I joined them for course setup, which means they gave me a putter and asked me not to talk for three hours, which is very difficult. So I watched them so course setup.

But seeing the buildout and the fan excitement already at 6:00 on a Wednesday morning says a lot. So to Jerry Hostetter and the whole group here at Lancaster Country Club and to Brian McGee from our place, thanks already for what is going to be a special week.

And thanks on behalf of 156 women who have earned a spot and another few million that will be watching for setting up this incredible showcase event.

I'm pretty sure none of you walked over this morning to hear from me. You came to hear from Shannon, and so I'll turn it over to Shannon, AKA Chip, because maybe the best short game of any course setup person I've ever seen.

Chip, I'll turn it over to you to talk about the golf course.

SHANNON ROUILLARD: Thanks, Mike. The USGA was founded to govern the rules of golf and to conduct championships. We take great pride in where we conduct our championships. We only go to America's greatest venues because players have told us it's important to them where they win their U.S. Open.

We're tremendously proud of our openness. While players can earn an exemption through their strong performance, they can also play their way into USGA championships through qualifying.

In fact, I've played in seven USGA championships, including the 1999 U.S. Women's Open, and qualified every single time.

It just goes to show, it doesn't matter the clothes on your back, the clubs in your bag, or the color of your skin. If you can get your ball in the hole, you do have an opportunity to live the dream and play in a USGA championship.

We also pride ourselves on presenting a tough but fair test of golf. Let's face it, it's in our DNA. We've always been known for that tough but fair test. We want to make sure every player uses every club in their bag. And while birdies will be made this week, par is a very good score.

We also take pride in the fact that we really want to stick to the intent of the architecture. We study these golf courses, and particularly this one, there's so much rich architecture and strategy in this course. It'll be fun to see how these players take it on.

Who do we conduct these championships for? We conduct them for the players. So we have a deep-seeded player focus. We cultivate these relationships with players starting at their junior championships, all the way up to our Opens, our Mid-Ams and our Seniors. We listen to their perspectives, and we explain our decisions. We don't seek to be everybody's best friend, but we want to earn their respect.

Past champions are clearly a priority. Once you've won a USGA championship, you are part of the family. The on-site experience is imperative. You talk to any player this week, I'm sure they would tell you they're having a wonderful experience; at least that's what I've heard so far.

Turning to the golf course, Lancaster Country Club is truly a hidden gem. I was fortunate to be a part of the 2015 championship and fell in love with the course with my first encounter. It is truly a big course on a fairly small footprint.

Over the course of the last three years, the USGA has developed a very strong partnership with Lancaster Country Club, and I want to take a moment to really acknowledge their commitment to the event.

The membership has been playing off of mats since last October, and the course has been closed to the membership since May 13th. That is unprecedented. I think right there just goes to show how important this championship is to this club.

Now to the golf course. Josh Saunders and his team have done a fantastic job in preparing this golf course for the biggest stage in women's golf. The course is in fantastic condition, and we're extremely pleased with where we are in preparation for tomorrow's first round.

Our intent is to bring the architecture to life through our setup plan, and as Mike said, it will be a complete test of golf. We will test shot making, course management, and the players' mental and physical resolve.

Hopefully you've had a chance to be out on course and to recognize and see how strong all four of the par-3s are out there, and there's a good mix of par-4s, short, middle and long par-4s.

The shot values out here are extremely high. It's a second-shot golf course. There's 13 blind or semi-blind approach shots. You just don't see that very often.

Tee shots and placement in the fairways are going to be critically important, and from what I have studied, a fade is really the best shot choice on a number of these tees, given the cant of the fairways.

In many cases off the tee, Flynn really demands the player to flirt with trouble, and what I mean by that is an inside bunker complex or penalty area to have the best angle into the green. The player is also going to have options to choose their strategy for playing the hole, and while the aerial game will be required, the ground game will be a really good option.

It's obvious, there's so many elevation changes out there, and it's a dominant feature of the architecture, and with those elevation changes come uneven lies. That will demand the execution of a variety of golf shots.

Flynn, what he was known for, was an incredible router of golf courses. There's no two consecutive holes that face the same direction, so if we get any sort of breeze like we have the last couple of days, the wind is going to play a factor, and they're going to have to adapt their games to an ever-changing wind.

Then there's the putting greens. They have incredible character, strategy and movement, and players are really going to need to study them to perform well.

As I've continued to think about this golf course, the beginning stretch of holes are clearly scorable, and once players get to holes 8 through 12, we're getting into the meat of the golf course.

Other key holes include hole 14, 15 and 18. We can't wait to see who rises to the occasion and becomes our newest Women's Open champion on Sunday. Thank you.

BETH MAJOR: Thanks, Shannon, thanks, Mike. Questions, please.

Q. Shannon, can you tell us where you want to be on Thursday as far as the length of the rough, the speed of the greens, that kind of stuff?

SHANNON ROUILLARD: Yeah. We've certainly experienced quite a bit of wind the last couple of days, and the players are getting a little more of a tame wind, but they've seen it coming from different directions given the different fronts that we've had.

But with that said, again, I'm going to toot Josh's horn here. He's just done an incredible job. We're there in terms of our green speeds. We're targeting around 11 and a half, and our firmness, as well.

We are constantly managing the water that gets put on the golf course. We've been pretty much unscathed when it comes to measurable rain that we've had over the last couple of days. We've been really able to manage the water that we put down.

So we'll see where we end up, but we feel like we're in a really good place.

Q. Mike, you mentioned Caitlin Clark, and as we've seen it's not been as easy for her in the WNBA as much as the NCAA. Meanwhile Nelly Korda is lighting it up at the highest level. For you and Shannon, what's the anticipation of having her playing at this level going into the crown jewel of women's golf?

MIKE WHAN: It's an incredible time for the women's game. I think anybody who has known Nelly over the years knew it was in there. I don't know if any of us thought it was this kind of run, but her ability to have multiple-win seasons was never in question.

One thing I know from being around the LPGA as long as I was is there's 70, 80 players probably working harder now than ever before, so that's what makes these runs hard because there's a lot of talent.

It's deeper out there than ever before. I just hope we have a good battle. For me, what's good for the game is let's see a good battle.

As Chip said, this one is going to test them mentally as much as it is physically. If you can't get excited about what's going on in the women's game, it's simply because you're not watching it.

Q. Mike, has anyone ever given you a nickname?

MIKE WHAN: Yeah.

Q. Let's hear it.

MIKE WHAN: I'd be happy to chat with you separately.

Q. On the purse, what was the reasoning behind going to a 20 percent payoff to first, and will this apply to all four of your professional championships?

MIKE WHAN: Yeah, good question. We'll go to a 20 percent payout for winner, and we will do that across all of our professional championships. So the same will be true in Pine Hurst and Newport and Women's U.S. Senior, as well.

We saw that in some elevated events on the PGA TOUR and kind of looked at that ourselves from a standpoint of how that looked, and we liked it.

When you start talking about the kind of money we're talking about in 12 million and more, it has very little effect kind of all the way down the line, but even makes the win even more significant. So, yeah, you'll see the same as we talk about other championships.

Q. I wonder if you could comment, it may be just a coincidence or a onetime deal, but no one in their 40s or above is in the field this week. Is that a trend of making it tougher the older you get? Is it just a one off? Lastly, how soon before we see a single-digit age in a U.S. Women's Open?

MIKE WHAN: I didn't realize that until you just said it about nobody 40. Having spent 12 years on the LPGA that surprises me that it's the first time, but I don't think it'll be the last time. The game is young, and we've seen that happening.

Getting here is a grind, and whoever makes it in makes it in.

Single-digit I think is -- it's amazing to say it's likely. Right? If you track history, it's not completely impossible. We had a 10 year old sign up I think in the last seven seconds of qualifying. The last person who signed up with seven seconds to go in qualifying was 10 years old.

But we'll see. Those are exciting stories on either side. But to me what's exciting about it is just the range. Players from all over the world, all over the States, amateurs and professional all trying to battle into golf's biggest event.

I think that's what makes it unique.

Q. Mike, I liked what you said about the Caitlin Clark moment being the boom in participation. If one were to argue the negative side of that - sorry - we would say that the fact that this big participation boom isn't necessarily translating to higher ratings in either the men's or women's game is actually a little bit worrisome. It's like having 12 million people come into your store and nobody buys anything. Does that worry you that there hasn't been the leap from one to the other?

MIKE WHAN: I've had this argument publicly for a while, so I am sure somebody has tweeted about it. Apologize if you've already heard it.

I've said this many time. If hockey was up 54 percent in the last 10 years, networks would be killing themselves to get themselves more into hockey, because the belief is if a lot more people are playing hockey, a lot more people 10 years from now are watching hockey. I'd buy that and so would you as a stock.

I've said this many times, don't walk to me about what viewership is this week, last week, this month, this season. If golf were a stock and there's 12 million more people playing it in just five years, there's virtually -- I mean, you'd have to be a pretty he pessimistic person to believe there is not more interest in this game, and that isn't going to translate into more viewers, more purchases, more golf travel.

It's just something really strange would have to happen for that not to translate. Like I said, if there was 50 million more people playing Pop Warner football we would all be talking about what's the next big ratings boom coming in football.

It's just I find that golf has a hard time accepting good news. I only say that because I've struggled with it, too.

In 2020 when participation went through the roof everybody said, yeah, but we'll come back to normal. And then when '21 was bigger than '20, everyone goes, yeah, but hybrid work will end. Then when '22 was bigger than '21 and now '23 bigger than '22 and everyone just keeps trying to come up with the reason why the cliff will come to an end and we will all drop back.

At some point I think as an industry we're going to have to allow ourselves to actually enjoy what's happening and celebrate the fact that what we've been waiting for it 100 years is actually happening and that the game is growing because of juniors, women, and people of color.

That's an amazing fact that's happening in our game, and virtually any other sport would kill to be able to sit at a table like this and say it. And if they had it, they'd be screaming about it every week. But we tend to have a hard time pointing it out to ourselves.

Q. What would be an explanation for the delay? When you say the participation is capped in 2020, but the ratings don't go up until 2030.

MIKE WHAN: Just time. I've got a whole neighborhood of friends that play pickleball, but none of them watch it TV. Yet. I believe they probably will then pickleball is more available.

But yeah, we've got a lot of people joining this game for the first time at rates we've never really seen before in the history of the sport. They're coming from all different demographics than we've seen before, too.

I think to believe that long-term that's not going to translate into more interested eyeballs or more interested purchases is really trying to find a really dark cloud on a sunny day.

BETH MAJOR: Just to add to that for a moment, I think having been at the USGA, LPGA, around the game for a long time, we really used to look at the success of the engagement of a championship through a singular lens: who watched it on television.

The way that everyone consumes sporting events, and everything is so much different at this point. I have a nephew who's 20 years old who doesn't watch television, but he watches golf tournaments live on his streaming channels.

So it really has changed a lot and we try to look at the entirety of that. Broadcast is obviously very important, but the overall engagement is we think really exciting and on a very positive trend.

Q. In terms of course setup, we just saw a couple weeks ago at the PGA what happens when the course setup is out of control because of wet conditions. With this week, it looks like we may get some rain this afternoon, we got a little bit of rain yesterday, but after that it seems like things are going to be dry. How many more options does that create for you, especially when obviously on the PGA TOUR we talk about them being the most accurate ball strikers; arguably the LPGA are more accurate ball strikers. How do you challenge them when you do have complete control of how firm the course plays?

SHANNON ROUILLARD: Yeah, really good question. Obviously we are known for wanting firm and fast conditions at all of our championships, and the Women's Open is no exception. But when you do have control of the water, we have to manage that against the conditions.

It's becoming less humid this week. We're sitting here in incredibly beautiful dry weather. We have agronomy meetings every day with Josh Saunders and his team to manage that because we are collecting data. We're collecting firmness data, moisture data, as well as green speed data, and looking at that multiple times a day.

Our eye is constantly on the ball to ensure that we are providing that proper test.

Q. Shannon, you had mentioned you were part of the event in 2015. They did some changes, just removed some trees, really more friendly for people watching it. How does it change for the players? Have you talked to any of them that were in the field nine years ago, or as you view it, how is the test of golf any different this time around from 2015?

SHANNON ROUILLARD: Well, certainly you mentioned the tree removal. That was a very big thing. That cluster there between 11, 14, 15, you used to -- standing on the tee on the first tee not be able to see through to 11, 13, 16, et cetera. So when you think about any sort of breeze, and again, as I talked about the different directions that every hole faces, the players are going to need to adapt probably a little bit more than they did in 2015.

Also a change the club added a bunch of native areas. So there's a lot more texture and visual out there for players. Hopefully they hit it so straight, I don't anticipate too many shots in the fescue areas, but it certainly lends to the esthetics and the beauty of golf course?

Q. Mike, Shannon alluded to the strong partnership with Lancaster Country Club obviously with the attendance, with the community support. Where does this fall into with our USGA possibilities with this particular course and with this community?

MIKE WHAN: Yeah, I mean, obviously we've proven with our own attendance how we feel about this place. If you're asking whether or not the USGA is interested in a long-term relationship with Lancaster, we are. We are having those conversations now with the club.

Obviously these kind of choices are interruptions for members and the city, so we want to make sure that whatever kind of stream of events we bring here is reasonable for them, too.

Nothing to announce yet, but if you were betting on future USGA events here, that would probably be a safe bet.

Q. Shannon, last year at Pebble for the first time, back at Lancaster this year, and then down the road, Merion, Shinnecock, just among other iconic courses. Just the importance of aligning this tournament with the men play and how many more eyeballs, interest that can generate.

SHANNON ROUILLARD: We've really prioritized going back to one of the first points that I mentioned: America's greatest venues. You've seen us identify what we call anchor sites. It's really important for us to continue to go to golf clubs that the men are playing. The women want to play those golf courses. They earn that opportunity. They deserve that opportunity to play those golf courses.

And ones like this. We can't say enough great things about Lancaster Country Club, and the more and more time we spend here, the more and more we like it.

As you've mentioned, there's an incredible lineup of Women's Open courses in the future, and things are very bright for the U.S. Women's Open and the players that are going to continue to play in this championship.

MIKE WHAN: A couple worth adding to your list of bucket list: '29 back-to-back in Pinehurst with the men, '36 back-to-back with the men in Shinnecock.

Q. Do you have a plan, a setup plan, hole locations, everything else laid out for the week? And if you do, is there anything that could change that?

SHANNON ROUILLARD: Yeah. We're managing against conditions. Again, the weather is such a major factor in our day-to-day setup plan. I talked about our agronomy meeting that we have on a daily basis when we're collecting green speed data, we're collecting moisture and firmness data, but all of that is dependent on the weather and the wind.

So far this week we've seen quite a variety of wind directions to this point. It looks like the forecast is going to move more into the traditional prevailing northwest wind, but right now it looks like there's going to be a slight variance in that somewhere in that Thursday to Sunday range, too.

The way I like to talk about it is we let Mother Nature and the weather kind of dictate and certainly have a seat at the table in terms of how we present that golf course.

We're managing against the weather, the conditions, and trying to ensure that we are providing the proper test of golf on a day-to-day basis.

Q. Do you have a definition of condition of rough that you consider for the U.S. Women's Open?

SHANNON ROUILLARD: Yeah, I think you described it really well. We don't want hack-out rough. We don't want to see a player pulling for the wedge because they have no ability or any chance to get the ball near the green.

We want to see them be able to advance the ball towards the green, but recognizing that they're not going to be able to put the spin on it they would if they were to hit the ball in the fairway.

Q. With the news of Lexi retiring this week, first, your initial reactions to that since you were there at the LPGA when she was taking it by storm, but we're seeing more and more female players retiring early. Is there a discussion at the USGA about changing the age requirement for the U.S. Senior Women's Open to give them that opportunity a little bit earlier?

MIKE WHAN: On the Lexi front, I'm excited if she's excited. If this is something that's going to make her happy, that's great. She has definitely given her time. I think anybody in this room who works at the LPGA or did would tell you that if we were going to write a book about how to handle yourself off the golf course, not even talking about the competition and accomplishments on, but in terms of how to handle sponsors, how to handle fans, how to handle availability, she was a role model.

If this is the next exciting thing for her, I'm the last guy who can tell you about moving on to the next thing because you feel like you need a new challenge. And if this is right for her, Ben I'm excited for her.

I think a lot of regular fans don't comprehend -- and I wasn't here yesterday when Lexi was talking -- don't comprehend what it's like to lose ages 12 to 19 to a professional endeavor. Most of us had those experiences.

What feels like 29 to us probably feels like 39 to her in terms of missing some of those things that you always wanted to be a part of. Maybe this is a glass half full, I'm excited if she feels like financially she can and wants to.

There was probably a time when people wanted to step away at 29 and couldn't. Like I said, if that makes her happier and excited, then I think that's great. On the age things, I would tell you that as recently as last year and pretty regularly we review kind of our age requirements to figure out what's the right age per se, but on the Lexi front, I hope we'll celebrate that choice.

I have three kids, and I always say to my kids, the most courageous choice you'll make in your lives will be the choices you make that everybody else thinks are wrong from your thoughts, but you know it's the right choice for you.

And I'm sure Lexi got a lot of counter points of view, but if she believes that's the right choice for her, I'm proud of her. Just another in a lot of courageous choices she's made in her career.

Q. Shannon, you talked about hearing players' perspectives when you're setting up or after you've set up a golf course. I'm curious as to what you've heard and if you've ever heard anything that's made you make any changes or reconsider something.

SHANNON ROUILLARD: Are you talking specifically for this week?

Q. I'm just talking about U.S. Opens in general.

SHANNON ROUILLARD: Yeah. You know, Scott Langley and Liz Fradkin lead our player relations team. I'm in constant communication with them because they're the ones that are hanging out with the players and the caddies much more regularly than I'm able to given my role.

It really is a team effort in obtaining and receiving that feedback, thinking about those perspectives, and then determining whether or not we're going to act on it or not.

Just because we listen doesn't mean we're always going to act on something. But we're going to listen, we're going to respect that feedback, and really think about it critically as we make decisions moving forward.