PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

August 14, 2002

Jack Connelly

JACK CONNELLY: Good morning, everyone, and it's my pleasure to welcome you to the 84th PGA Championship, our association's most noted annual event. The mission of the PGA of America, since its founding in 1916, has been to promote the enjoyment and involvement in the game of golf. One of the several ways golf continues to promote interest in the game is through scholarship programs which recognize deserving young people who are connected with golf. Since 1994, the PGA of America has been involved with the Evans Scholarship Program made possible by one of the all-time great rounds of professional golf, the record-tying 59 by Chip Beck at the 1991 Las Vegas Invitational. As you've heard, John Hanna of the Evans Scholarship Program is with us today and I'd like to ask him to come forward for a few words. John?

JOHN HANNA: I know you'd rather see Chip Beck up here, and I think he's been here for each of these presentations except one or two, which you may remember that after that 59 and being on the Ryder Cup team, a great golfer ten years ago, his game went south, and he never gave up on it. But now, he has made the cut the last four weeks, and the only thing that kept him away from here today was the fact that he's eligible to play in the tournament this week and he thinks he'd better keep going while he's hot. So the fact that he didn't leave half of that million dollars at the Hilton Hotel as a bonus for the 59, he turned that over to the PGA and the PGA of America, has helped to finance, along with Chip, so that we do have each year, a Chip Beck PGA of America honorary scholar. And I tell you, this young lady started out with hundreds of others, there were about 330 nationwide who got the scholarship, and then the PGA of America and Chip Beck decided she was the most deserving, the smartest -- she's just the most of everything. I can't believe her record as a leader, as a caddie for four years, and she's a real leader, a real student, a real athlete, everything. And so, along with this honor which the PGA of America does in having her here, we give her this flag to signify that she is the Kelly Lundquist, national scholar for this year. (Applause).

JACK CONNELLY: Congratulations again, Kelly. Well deserved. For more than 85 years, the PGA of America has set the standard for growing the game of golf, expanding its role as the industry's authority on instruction and providing playing opportunities for anyone with an interest. But with the tireless dedication of more than 27,000 men and women professionals, our members continue to introduce the game to thousands of new and diverse participants. One of the ways we do this is through the PGA Growth of the Game Grant Program. The grant is given to programs that are founded or administered by PGA of America professionals. Initiated in November of last year, the first 33 grants were awarded and reached nearly 55,000 individuals through a variety of innovative programs. We are happy to announce that we just recently awarded a second wave of 50 grants totaling nearly $700,000. Combined with the grants awarded in January, this year's total donation from the PGA Growth of the Game Grant Program is nearly $1.2 million for a combined 83 grant recipients. This is just one example of the many programs that the PGA professionals are involved in from grass-roots initiatives to nationwide programs to help grow this great game of golf. Right here at Hazeltine, the PGA Foundation is conducting the PGA Community Relations Program. This program began in 2000 as a way the PGA can give back to local communities it visits with our major tournaments. This year the program brings together the 40-non-profit organizations that focus on youth programs and provide them with tickets and hospitality that will give them the opportunity to entertain their major supporters, develop corporate relationships and network with potential future supporters. The PGA will provide a total of 4,400 tickets to youth-related programs for the practice rounds and 420 hospitality credentials to support those 42 organizations throughout the entire week of the championship. This past Sunday, as part of the Community Relations Program, the Minnesota PGA Section and the PGA hosted a PGA Community Relations Junior Golf Program where some 350 youth participated and some 50 PGA golf professionals provided instruction. We are thrilled to be here in Minnesota and it is important to embrace all communities we visit and make them an active part of the PGA Championship. As we continue to help grow participation in the dream, we are proud to be partnering with the National Golf Course Owners Association to continue "Link up 2 Golf." This year, we have expanded the program to seven cities. "Link up 2 Golf" is a pilot program which was designed to grow the game of golf through an affordable instruction and introduction to the game and playing opportunities. We look forward to discussing the results of this program later this year at the Golf 20/20 Conference. Speaking of giving back to the game, tonight we present our highest honor, the PGA Distinguished Service Award to PGA TOUR Commissioner Tim Finchem at the Historic State Theatre downtown. It is sure to be a special evening. Finally, in 1992, we established the scholarship program to promote the game of golf and journalism as a career. The PGA Journalism Scholarship Program, administered by the Golf Writers Association of America, provides $4,000 scholarships to six college juniors and renews it their senior year. We are happy to have these students with us this week, and we would like you to meet them now.

MARINO PARASCENZO: Mr. President, Mr. CEO, I want to thank you. It if it keeps getting better, I'm going back to school, myself. A quick word. We are so happy with the PGA of America. Our scholarship program is very simple. We get corporate people who want to spend some dough and we spend it for them in a very good way. The PGA Scholarship is one of our flagship scholarship promotions around the country. We have our representatives, our members, do the research. I'd like to recognize them: For Gabrielle, I don't have a representative in your area, so I work with Diane Roberts. Jamie Gumbrecht, Jack Barry, former President of the Golf Writers, former writer with the Detroit News, was our representative there. Ed Sherman, Chicago Tribune, got us Andrew Soukup. Art Spander of the Oakland Tribune, for San Jose State University; Dray Miller, Joe Juliano, who is not with us, for Christopher Powell of Temple. Melanie Hauser, our secretary treasurer of the GWAA who handles so many of these, got Sarah Kleiner at the University of Texas. It is an interview process, they don't even get meal money, gas money; they don't get nothing. It is strictly voluntary work, and you can see why it is well worthwhile. The good news is you've got your scholarships. The bad news is I've just talked to your schools and you've all flunked. (Laughter.) Thank you.

JIM AWTREY: That you, Marino. Glad to hear you're happy with the PGA. It's my pleasure to talk about the 84th PGA Championship. Particularly when we talk about championship, what the philosophy is in hosting it, what we try to do with the golf course, and what this championship is all about. First of all, we look at our philosophy, we've made it quite clear that we are testing the best players in the world. We look at this championship this year, the strongest field of all time with 98 out of 100. We started out coming into the week with 100, and we have to have a great golf course to test the players. We've made a point of going to some great traditional sites, interspersing some new sites, and we looked at Hazeltine National Golf Club; certainly, we think it's going to be a challenge for these players. We think it's long, but fair. And when you say "long" in today's time, I think you have to preface that. When I look at long and I see a player hitting a 5- or 6-iron 215 to 225 yards, I think length of golf course takes on a new meaning. Certainly today, a long par 4 might be a 7-iron, 6-iron; certainly would not be a 5-iron. But this championship, we've made a few changes, but very few. It's tested the players before. We've made a change starting at No. 3, with the par 5. We've lengthened the hole about 40 yards, making the hole play 635. I thought it was interesting that Tiger said, "You know, we may not be able to reach that unless the wind is behind us." I think that pretty well sums up what "long" is in today's time. Certainly, that's not just a long hole, but it's a challenging hole with good bunkering, tight greens, small green. Hole No. 7, we've also lengthened that hole. It's a par 5, 25 yards. I think the players certainly will be reaching that hole, wind permitting, but it does have a risk/reward with the water to the left, and the fact that it's a dogleg to the right. Also, you look at hole No. 11, another par 5. We moved the tee back to the right, lengthened the hole 30 yards to put the bunkering in play so that the player now trying to cut across the dogleg will have to carry the ball what we used to consider impossible distance. Hole No. 12, we have lengthened 30 yards, encouraging players to hit a driver on a challenging par 4. The hole is 460 yards long. Talking to the players this week, and last night at the Champions Dinner, they will be hitting anything from an 8-iron to a 6-iron. I think certainly that's reflective of the challenge we have today in setting up these golf courses. The 15th hole is actually not longer. It's a par 5. The tee was moved further to the right. It sets up the driving hole so that the out-of-bounds is not in play like it used to be. Certainly, adding bunkers to put in a decision process in the mind of the players to avoid bunkers and whether they want to try to reach the green. I think that's the challenge today we have with the great players. They are just hitting the irons a long way. We tightened up the fairways, we grow long grass consistent with other major championships. But in the end, there's one distinctive statement that we will make, and that is while we are trying to test the players, we will set the golf course up fairly; and if we are going to err, err on the side of the player. Now, that does not mean that we are trying to give the score of par a good score. I think it's very difficult in today's time to set an objective of par, particularly when you're playing a par-72 golf course as we are here. But I happen to think that playing a par-72 golf course, there's not a single thing wrong with it. If you worry about scoring, and I think we tend to talk a lot about red numbers, and I'd encourage you to do one thing: Just write your stories and pretend that No. 7 and No. 15 are par 4s. The red numbers will not be as low, and the players are reaching some of those greens. Really, I think that's the perspective that I would say we have on the game today. If you want scoring to be around par, you have to play par-70, you have to put extreme risk in some of those par 5s, and you have to get holes on par 3s that are playing 230 or 240 in order to put a long iron into their hand. I think the great thing about this golf course is the greens are small, it's a traditional golf course in the sense that if you're hitting a 5-, 6-, 7-iron or even an 8-iron, you're going to have to hit the shot very well because there is a risk around the green, or you miss the green. If we continue with the weather we've had, the greens are firm, the speed will be up. The short game will play a premium when you do miss the green. I've had a lot of comments about how do we characterize the PGA Championship. Very simply, I think it's the professional championship of the world. Because it's an all-professional field, including 25 club professionals. We've talked about that throughout our years with the PGA Championship. Certainly when it's the strongest field of all time and includes 25 club professionals, they are tested to get here with their PGA Club Professional Championship. They are good players and they are regents, and we believe they will be good representatives of the PGA Championship. Again, they are the backbone of our association. They play a key role in the game of golf, teaching the game, managing the game, and certainly we feel that they play a role worthy of having those representatives here. If you look at the PGA Championship, we also have a broad television audience, great partners in CBS and Turner, 27 hours of coverage. A few years ago when we went to 27 hours of coverage, many of you reported and discussed that perhaps that was too much coverage. But what we have found is now that you see more and more people going to more hours of coverage, golfers are coming, they are watching, they are tuning in at various times throughout the day, and it has not impacted the ratings of tournaments, but exposed championship golf to more people. Certainly, you have an opportunity to see action on Saturday morning that you might not otherwise. Turner Sports, we have just created a ten-year interactive alliance designed to take the best of what our club professionals do in teaching, club fitting and managing that green-grass aspect of golf and interacting it with Turner Sports to create an alliance to expose opportunities to work directly with the public and create both business and ways to promote the game of golf. Certainly, we've had some great finishes the last three years. You look at the PGA Championship, we've had great, great theatre coming down the stretch, and I believe we will have the same thing here at Hazeltine National Golf Club. You take 98 players from around the world, put them on a fair golf course, golf course is in good condition and I think we'll have a tremendous event coming down the stretch. So we appreciate you being here, encourage you to enjoy the week. Julius, turn it back to you.