EDS BYRON NELSON CHAMPIONSHIP

May 12, 2006

Michael Burgess

Bob Crotty

Michael Jordan

THE MODERATOR: We are joined by Congressman Michael Burgess, who introduced the resolution in the House for the Congressional Gold Medal for Byron; Bob Crotty is president of the Salesmanship Club; and Michael Jordan is chairman and CEO of EDS.

CONGRESSMAN MICHAEL BURGESS: We all know Byron Nelson by so many different titles, great golfer, legendary golfer, philanthropist, husband. Now we're going to know Byron by another title, National Treasure.

Byron Nelson was nominated for the Congressional Gold Medal last month. This is an honor that's reserved for people who have really been of outstanding achievement throughout their lives, and this tournament is testament, of course, to the achievement of Byron Nelson and what he has achieved in his life.

I actually was introduced to Byron Nelson as a very, very young child. I'm not a golfer myself. My mother and my father were. We lived in Denton, I grew up in Denton and Roanoke was right across the street basically, and my mother would tell me about the wonderful man that was Byron Nelson.

Of course at that point he had already won the 11 tournaments in a row in 1945 and his golfing career was almost concluded, but then coupling with EDS and making a tournament where the proceeds were designated for charity back in 1968 really set Byron apart.

It's that marriage of philanthropy and athleticism that Byron has brought to the game that really distinguishes Byron Nelson the man. When I gave a speech in Congress earlier this week about Byron, I read a passage from his book. I read it because I wanted my colleagues on the Hill to hear this. Byron wrote this in his book: "Perhaps more than any other sport, golf remains a game of etiquette and sportsmanship. Golfers are expected to abide by a traditional set of rules, and sometimes that means either accepting a strange ruling that works against you or calling a penalty on yourself, even when no one else has witnessed the indiscretion. That's why golf is truly a game of gentlemen."

Now, just a little bit about the Congressional Gold Medal itself. Since the American Revolution, Congress has commissioned Gold Medals as its highest expression of national appreciation for distinguished achievements and contributions.

George Washington was the first Gold Medal recipient; Dr. Martin Luther King and Coretta Scott King were the most recent. In between there have been notables such as Walt Disney and Thomas Edison. Joe Louis won the Gold Medal; Jesse Owens won the Gold Medal; Roberto Clemente won the Gold Medal. So if this is successful, Byron Nelson will join a fairly small company of athletes who have been awarded the Congressional Gold Medal.

It has to pass in both the House and the Senate. I introduced the bill March 8th. I had to get 290 co sponsors. That's no small task in a House of Representatives that is basically in session only three days every week, but within four weeks' time, we had accumulated those more than 290 signatures, 300 signatures, and still more are trickling in day by day.

On Tuesday I introduced the bill on the floor of the House. It passed without a single negative vote.

Now it's onto the Senate. The Senate you have to get 67 votes. The Senate historically is a little slower to do some things, so if any of you know a senator, I'd appreciate you giving them the encouragement. But we need to get 67 senators to sponsor the bill in the Senate. Senator Frist was down at the Salesmanship Club earlier this year and has told us that he will work to get it to the floor once we get the co sponsors. It's done in the House, it's on its way in the Senate, and again, Byron, I can't think of anyone who's more deserving than you are. He's a national treasure.

Now, it's my great privilege to introduce Mr. Bob Crotty, who is president of the Salesmanship Club of Dallas.

BOB CROTTY: Thanks, Congressman. You all know the sort of golf record that Byron has established, and what I'd like to do is to talk for a second about the difference that Byron has made by being involved in the Salesmanship Club and being actively involved in this tournament.

He does so much more than just lend his name to this tournament; he's an active member of the Club; he comes to lunch periodically; he has read with our kids in our laboratory school called the J. Eric Johnson Community School; he has been a consultant to the design of this course; he has just played an active role in all different aspects of our tournament, from helping us do things like start the first nursery for the pros' kids on the PGA TOUR. So it is just indicative of the sort of way that Byron approaches life; if he's going to be involved in something, he's going to be actively involved.

The thing that really makes the most difference to the club members about this great award that Byron has been nominated for is the humanitarian side of Byron Nelson. By lending his name to this tournament, by actively working at this tournament, by all the things he does for the children and families that we serve, he's helped this organization raise over $88 million for charity.

With this tournament we are optimistic that we will be approaching $95 million, and after next year we will have raised over $100 million to help children and families in the metroplex area.

We've estimated that over 40,000 children and families have been served by our programs since we've been holding the Byron Nelson tournament, and that is just a record of service to his community and to kids and families needing a helping hand that really is unmatched.

Because of it, we, of course, think that Byron is most deserving of the Congressional Gold Medal. He has made a huge difference in the lives of a lot of people that he'll never see or never know, but it's been an impact that's been dramatic to help kids who are at risk.

We do that through at least three different programs. We have an outpatient family therapy practice that serves over 3,000 children and families in the metroplex area annually; we have a laboratory school that's developing best practices for educating inner city, urban, mostly Hispanic children in the particular neighborhood that we serve. We have 262 students at our school, and we've been able to, because of our research associated with that school, share those practices with other urban school districts, both in Dallas and around the country. So that's been an exciting way to share some of the things that Byron through this tournament makes possible.

You guys all know the proceeds of this tournament go to support the Salesmanship Club's various programs, and before I hand the microphone over to Mike Jordan, I want to say a word about our newest program. It's called the Family Work Center. It's going to have three different programs there that will serve kids really from birth to 15 or 16 years of age. We're going to have an early childhood assessment program that's going to bring together in one location a number of assessment tools that are available, scattered around the city, but in no one place can you find all these assessment services. So that's going to be a new cutting edge service to the kids of the metroplex.

We are also going to have an assessment and testing component that's going to focus on kids six to ten years of age, and then something that's been a hallmark of the Salesmanship Club is the efforts to serve emotionally disturbed and at risk children that are in the 11 to 15 , 16 year age range, and we are going to focus on after school and after work sort of treatment programs to help those kids, once again, become functional in their families, in their school environments or in their work environments and help put them on the road to being productive members of society.

So the humanitarian side of what Byron Nelson has done through this tournament and through his own personal efforts in being part of the Salesmanship Club has made a dramatic impact on the citizens of Dallas, on the kids and families that we serve, and we can't think of anyone more deserving of the Congressional Gold Medal than our great friend Byron Nelson.

I'd like to turn it over to the CEO of EDS to add some comments to that.

MICHAEL JORDAN: Thanks a lot, Bob. It's a pleasure for me to be here and participate in this event. Congratulations to Congressman Burgess on the great and resounding victory in the House. I know we're all working to pull out all the stops to get support from the Senate. We're calling on some of our employees around the U.S., of which we have a few thousand, to write their congressman not their congressman anymore, their senators are the ones we need.

I can't tell you how pleased we are at EDS to be a part of this effort, not only this campaign but also the entire Byron Nelson Championship. The work of the Salesmanship Club in Dallas is unparalleled in any region of the country that I've seen. Both the dedication and the focus and the consistency of what they've accomplished is terrific.

For EDS and our people, this is something we really love. Byron adds a certain touch; he's truly the godfather and the inspiration for our people to come out and work this tournament. Out of the 1,000 plus volunteers here, 300 are EDS employees, and we had to turn away 150 because there just wasn't any more room for them, so they're all encouraged to sign up early next year, so we'll probably have 300 turned away next year.

But they come from Canada, from Brazil, from Switzerland, from the UK, Australia, all on their own time, all on their own money. It's a tribute to this organization, what the Salesmanship Club does and the leadership and inspiration that Byron Nelson represents in our community. We're very pleased to support this and to be part of it and look forward to many years to come. Thank you.

CONGRESSMAN MICHAEL BURGESS: I think that concludes what everyone has prepared to say. I will just make, again, the point, when I introduced this legislation on March 8th, it was my goal to have 290 co sponsors by the time that Byron Nelson tournament started this weekend, but in fact, I got those 290 co sponsors in three or four weeks' time, and then we were able to petition House leadership to bring the bill to the floor this past week, so we actually had the bill passed in the House before the tournament, and that was really a tribute to Byron himself because the sponsorship or the co sponsorship sold itself. I would go up to folks and say I'm trying to do a Gold Medal for Byron Nelson, and they'd stop me and say, let me tell you about the time I caddied for him. Believe it or not, about a quarter of the members of the House of Representatives at one time or another, caddied for Byron Nelson. You've got to believe them, right (laughter)? You've been very patient, and I think we're available to answer questions if there are any.

Q. Can you give us a sense on how the Senate co sponsors work? Do those just trickle in? Do you have any sense on how many you have so far?

CONGRESSMAN MICHAEL BURGESS: Senator Cornyn has carried the bill on the Senate side. If you turned on the television this past week, you would have seen they have a lot of things in front of them. It is being worked, and we've got some great help from the PGA TOUR and EDS helping us call the offices, I'm calling the offices. We've had a strategy meeting; I wasn't there but my staff had a strategy meeting up in Washington this morning trying to figure out who we know on the staff of every senator to get the message to the senators themselves.

It will, I expect, just like on the House side, once the message is delivered, the acceptance is pretty quick to follow.

Q. How many nominations annually are there for the Congressional Gold Medal?

BYRON NELSON: There actually has been a legislation introduced on the House side, I don't think it's been accepted on the Senate side yet, to limit it to two each year or each Congressional session, which, as you know, is two years' time. We did a Congressional Gold Medal earlier this year honoring the Tuskegee Airmen, so Byron Nelson will be the second for this Congressional year. Likely that will be the last one that we see this Congressional session.

But Mike Castle from Delaware actually introduced a bill about a year ago that said let's only do two a year to keep this special. After I get this one done, I'll be in favor of that (laughter).

Q. How long do you expect this to take, and what would be your goal? What would you be excited in terms of a certain amount of time?

CONGRESSMAN MICHAEL BURGESS: Well, on paper, Congress adjourns at the end of the fiscal year, which is September 30th. Since this is the second year of the 109th Congress, at the end of this calendar year, December 31st, this Congress will cease, and any bill has not passed will go where all the bills go that don't pass and would have to be introduced with all the other things that go with it, the co sponsorships, et cetera. Obviously I want to see this occur before September 30th. We will likely be in session later than September 30th this year. My goal would be to have it wrapped up during the summer.

Again, the Senate is not as big as the House and you don't need as many senators, but things do move much more slowly over there. That's not a criticism (laughter).

End of FastScripts.