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OUTBACK STEAKHOUSE PRO-AMFebruary 14, 2007Peter JacobsenLUTZ, FLORIDA PHIL STAMBAUGH: One of your favorite events, Pro-Am format the entire weekend, something that's tailor-made for you. Talk about the return from surgery and you're all ready to go. PETER JACOBSEN: Yeah, I had hip replacement surgery five months ago, and I'm feeling okay. I'm still having some lingering problems with my back. That's why I had the MRI this morning over at the Laser Spine Institute because I've got some issues with some spinal stenosis, so I'm still not out of the woods yet. I feel good, my hip is great. To talk specifically about this tournament, I think a tournament like the Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am is so important to the existence of the PGA TOUR. I played last week at the AT&T, formerly known as the "Crosby Clam Bake," and the connection that we have with the celebrities and amateur is so important and that's what makes this game so great, and that is really the foundation of what the PGA TOUR is all about. How often can you get five to six hours with one of the top CEOs of one of the major corporations that sponsor an event on the PGA TOUR, whether it's Herb Kohler from Whistling Straits and the Kohler Corporation, or it's Mike Glenn from FexEx, or it's Peter Ueberroth. We as professionals, we have a chance to spend six hours a day on the golf course with these people that are the movers and shakers in business, and we have a chance to spread the word about our profession, which is professional golf obviously, and to be able to entertain them. As I've always said, if you don't like playing in events like this or the AT&T or the Bob Hope, don't play, because I would rather have you home than there and complaining about it. I can assure you after the weather last week, there were a lot of players complaining about the weather. I played with Huey Lewis and we were standing on the 7th tee at Pebble on Saturday with the wind blowing 40 miles an hour and hitting 6-irons to that 108-yard par 3, looking at each other, we just started giggling. How wonderful is that, you're playing the most famous golf course in the world, you're playing in an event with a very close friend and the weather is crap. That's what it's all about. That's why we play. We play this crazy game because we want to test ourselves. I love to ask people, would you rather come to the last hole with a ten-shot lead or a one-shot lead and everybody always says I'll take a ten-shot lead. But if you ask the great players of the game, the Tom Watsons, Nicklauses and Tiger Woods', I'd like a one-shot lead to see what I'm made of; can I make par when I have to. It's easy with a 5-shot or 10-shot lead; you can make bogey or double, but when you make par -- anyway I'm getting off the subject. This event is so important, and we only have one of these out here on the Champions Tour. I would like to see more. PHIL STAMBAUGH: You were not there last week when Nick Price debuted, and this week we have Mark O'Meara. Maybe talk about the class of 2007. PETER JACOBSEN: I'm very excited having come out in 2004 knowing the players that were coming behind me from 2005 to 2008 and 2009. I was excited about these players. Specifically, Nick Price because he's one of great gentlemen of the game. O'Meara has been a close friend of mine since college golf, and he's closely followed behind by John Cook and then Jeff Sluman. So you've got some great names, some great characters, some quality gentlemen that are going to come out on this tour. And they are really going to enhance our Pro-Am experience, they are going to enhance our dinner experience, they are going to enhance the experience for everybody, not only the players in the Pro-Am, but the spectators and the sponsors, because of the quality people that they are. So great to have Nick Price out here. It's great to have Mark O'Meara out here. PHIL STAMBAUGH: Last year we had Mark James win from England and we've got players like Ballesteros, Langer, Wayne Grady, Faldo, also in that class. PETER JACOBSEN: Yeah, that would be the international contingent. You didn't ask me about that. The international contingent is equally exciting. I'm very close friends with Seve. We played a lot of practice rounds coming up when we were first on the PGA TOUR. And Faldo, I saw him last week as he was doing his duties with CBS and the GOLF CHANNEL. Faldo is a great pal of mine. In fact, Faldo and I used to request that we play together at AT&T years ago. I would play with Jack Lemmon, and he would play with Huey Lewis, and people would say, why do you want to play with Faldo, he's such a stiff. I go, no, you don't know him very well because he's engaging as you now see on television. He's got a very dry sense of humor. But the players coming --I'm happy to see the players from the international circuit come over like Mark James and Mark McNulty and Nick Price. They may have played the majority of their golf on the United States PGA TOUR, but it's very important for this tour, the Champions Tour, to have the international contingent whether it's from Japan, whether it's from Asia, whether it's from Europe, it doesn't really matter. We need to continue to strengthen this tour with international players. Q. You have a good perspective on this, since your company also runs golf tournaments, you just saw last week that The INTERNATIONAL is going away, but you're also talking about entertaining or dealing with and getting to know sponsors and people such as that. What do you see as the issue? Is it getting too expensive, for some people too expensive, to sponsor golf tournaments; do you find that when you're looking for them to put up that money? PETER JACOBSEN: The PGA TOUR, Champions Tour and Nationwide Tour, and I say, that I mean, it's big business now. And when you have sponsors out there that want to sponsor an event, they really have a choice of three circuits, the PGA TOUR, the Champions Tour, the Nationwide Tour, because they are basically choosing from column one, column two or column three. One is much more expensive an the other two. And when you get up to that stratosphere, you know, use the pyramid example, when you keep creeping up and you get up to that smaller cone, the top of the pyramid, that space is pretty narrow and there are not a lot of sponsors out there that can write the large checks, and it's difficult. And I applaud the PGA TOUR for their direction of going to the larger markets where targeting the PGA TOUR is targeting the larger markets and they are targeting obviously Fortune 500 companies. I think it's incumbent upon the players to continue to remember that it's entertainment. It's not about just someone paying millions of dollars to stand on the range and watch you whack 5-irons down the fairway. It's the entire experience. It's about having a chance to watch you play that day, maybe even play with you during that round, and then have dinner or go to a cocktail party with you that night. Because we all know, we all know that Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan can play basketball and Tom Brady and Peyton Manning can play football, but the most important thing to do is to be able to get to know them. A perfect example is Peyton Manning. Why does everybody love Peyton Manning? Because of those ads he does. All of those ads he does on NFL network for a myriad of different companies, he's funny and he connects with people. Why is Tiger so popular? Have you seen the ad where the guy runs -- it's a Nike ad I think, where -- no. It's a Buick ad, where the guy steals his golf bag and he chases and tackles him. That just shows he's a human being and he connects with people. If I had a magic wand and I could touch everybody on the head on the PGA TOUR and Nationwide Tour and Champions Tour, I would say: Make sure you take the time to whomever you are speaking to, look them in the eye and let them know you are connecting with them, whether it's a Pro-Am partner, at a cocktail party or in the press room, it doesn't matter. Because we're trying to spread the word of who we are and what we do in this venue, at this venue and in this great game of golf. Because there isn't a man out here from, the oldest player in this field to the youngest player on the PGA TOUR that will tell you the game of golf has not dramatically impacted their lives. Golf teaches morals and values to young men, middle-aged men and old men and women -- pardon me, people; and that's why it's great to get kids started in the game. That's why the First Tee is such a great program, and these are the values that we need to have. But it does get expensive to be able to do that. And I'm sorry that we're not going to have golf at The INTERNATIONAL any longer. Hopefully it will come back on the PGA TOUR in Denver, because it's a great town and one of those major markets that I was talking about earlier, but it is expensive. There's no question about it. But if you do it right, and I've always said that, yes, it's expensive, but if you take advantage of that opportunity as a sponsor to maximize your return on your investment, whatever your focus is, whether it's retail, whether it's exposure on television, whether it's client entertainment, whether it's customer involvement, whatever it may be, if you're a sponsor, you should take advantage of that. Some do and some don't. Q. You talk about the response of looking at golf as more than just a sport, as entertainment; Bill Murray is obviously someone that adheres to that policy, what's it like to play with him? Obviously he's someone that has a passion for the game and likes to spread it? PETER JACOBSEN: First part of your question, golf is not a game. Golf is a lifestyle, it's the car you drive, it's the clothes you wear, the watch you wear, the shoes you wear, the golf clubs you play; it's a lifestyle. You can walk into any room, you can have a person who loves NASCAR, who likes the NFL, who likes Major League Baseball and who likes golf, and you can pick them out right away, can't you, by the clothes they wear and the way they look and the way they act. You can do that. So it's a lifestyle, first of all. Second of all, Bill Murray. Bill Murray, he's fantastic. He's one of those rare individuals, I've known Bill -- in fact, I introduced Bill to Scott Simpson years ago when Bill played at the AT&T and he had a couple of pros that didn't like his antics. And I was playing with Jack Lemmon at the time and Bill said, "Why don't we play together?" I said: I can't do that to Jack. I've been playing with Mr. Lemmon for 15 years." Scott Simpson came up to me, and Scott's been a long-time friend of mine, but Scott's quiet. He's on the opposite end with Bill. Scott said, "I would love to play with Bill Murray." And so I introduced them and they have become best friends, so it's really satisfying. Because I want Bill Murray playing in our tournaments, as opposed to not playing in our tournaments. And as I said, I've known Bill and his family, he's got six or seven brothers and a couple of sisters, great Chicago family. Bill puts on a pretty good act. He's a good golfer. Don't let anybody kid you. He has a great swing. He grew up as a golfer. He's had his low as probably a 1 or 2 handicap. He probably plays to an 8 or 9 now but that's because he's more interested in running or jumping into a bunker rather than making a 5-footer for par with a shot. And that's my point about tournaments like this. We used to people like Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Glenn Campbell, Andy Williams, Sammy Davis Junior host these event on the PGA TOUR. Those days are gone. I wish we could get those days back. It's funny, about five years ago, I went to the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic board and I suggested that -- Mr. Hope had failing health and he subsequently passed away. I suggested that they sign or acquire a guest celebrity, a celebrity host, and Bill was going to do it. Bill had had conversations and was willing to do that. But they said back then, no, we're not going to do that. Well, I'm so glad to see that they do. They obviously changed their mind and now they have George Lopez. So what we need to do is continue to get those kind of people into our game, because we need to have those people in our game, as opposed to not being in our game. Anyway on the first hole -- oh, we haven't played yet. Q. You were talking about this format and obviously there's some guys that are vocal about it that do not like it. You said you would just assume they stay home; should they might as well, because they have already talked themselves out of being in competition? PETER JACOBSEN: There's two schools of thought here. You can come here and say, well, I've got to really concentrate. I really need to make some money and I really need to move up the Money List and I agree, I have no problem with that. But this probably wouldn't be the week to have that type of personality. The type of personality you have to have this week and thought process is: Look, I'm going to come that week, I have a chance to play with somebody, whether it's Bill Murray, Huey Lewis or somebody you might not know. You're going to have a good time, relax and enjoy yourself. It's a long season. We play a lot of tournaments in a lot of great towns. Relax and enjoy yourself. But the overriding importance of this event is that we have a chance to spread the mission, spread the word of what we do out here. This is an over-50 tour. We are an extension of the PGA TOUR. All of these guys won on the PGA TOUR. Some of these players were Players of the Year in years gone past: Fuzzy Zoeller, Lee Trevino, Tom Watson, Nick Price, Jay Haas, I could go on and on, Mark O'Meara. These players have a lot of experience and a lot of history and a lot of tradition. We want them to be able to come to this tour and be able to spread that word, and no better way to do it than an event like this. Q. I was going to ask your perspective on another subject which is caddying. I would think that you have seen it all especially since you started, but it's really changed. It's kind of gone from a different type of individual to what you expect now, maybe the expectations, the duties are more important. Just wonder if you can talk about that, if you remember become to when you first started and how those guys have had to kind of change maybe because of the money. PETER JACOBSEN: Well, I think it's changed -- it's a profession now. It's no longer something that you do to make a few bucks. It's a profession. I remember back when I was a rookie, and Mike Cowan, Fluff, he was caddying from bag-to-bag out there, and that's how you caddied. I just picked up caddies from bag-to-bag because it wasn't that much money, because compared to today, it was a lot of money compared to Sam Snead; it's all relative. But Mike Cowan same up and said, I don't know, you're a good player, maybe we can hook up. We were together for 20 years before he went to work for Tiger Woods. But it changed in probably about '85 or '86. It went to being just a bunch of drifters, former club pros, maybe teachers that could not teach or schoolteachers or anybody that loved golf and wanted to follow the Tour and they would pick up bags. Now they have families, they have college degrees, they love the game, they play the game themselves, maybe not at the level it takes to play out here, but they love the game. And I think of people like Scotty Gneiser, who caddies for David Toms, or Jim Mackay, Bones, who caddies for Mickelson; Steve Williams who caddies for Tiger; and Mike Cowan who caddies for Jim Furyk, Joe LaCava caddies for Fred (Couples.) These guys have families, they have got money in the bank now. They are great people, bright people. So it has changed. And the duties have changed because you need somebody that's going to be on time. Most important thing to me is to have your caddie there on time, when you need them, and that they stay all day so you can practice, do your media requirement, do your whatever it may be, and then be there at the end of the day. So the duties have changed a little bit, too. Q. (About importance of reliability of caddies and choosing one.) PETER JACOBSEN: I felt it was important from the first day. I was always looking for somebody that I could depend on. There's nothing worse than coming to a golf course and being hounded by caddies in the locker room, in the parking lot or on the driving range and everyone is like, hey you got somebody next week, hey, how about next week, three weeks, get your schedule out. I've got to worry about what I'm doing. I need to register and go play the tournament. So I wanted to get somebody that was full-time. You think about people like Angelo who caddied for Nicklaus, and Rabbit who caddied for Gary Player, there were a lot of players that had their guy. I wanted to get a guy. Bruce Edwards with Tom Watson. There have been a lot of players long before me that had a relationship with one caddie. Q. Another Bill Murray question. The way we see him as the public is that the way he always is? PETER JACOBSEN: That's him, that's him on. Bill is like that all the time. Bill is one of these unique individuals that is, what you see is what you get. He's very bright. He can talk on numerous subjects. He's also one of the funniest people as you know from his movies and Saturday night live and second city, his troop in Chicago, his years with them. He probably looks at things a little bit from a different angle. He looks for the funny angle in things. I think that's a very healthy attitude. But there is no pretension with him. What you see is what you get. He'll probably make you laugh, a lot. PHIL STAMBAUGH: Thank you. PETER JACOBSEN: Peace out. End of FastScripts |
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