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ZURICH CLASSIC OF NEW ORLEANS

April 27, 2011

AVONDALE, LOUISIANA

TOM LONG: Welcome, everybody. Thank you for coming over. I'd like to welcome ZURICH Financial Services CEO, Martin Senn, to make the announcement.
MARTIN SENN: Thank you very much, and good afternoon. We at ZURICH are very proud to be able to support programs Blessings in a Backpack. This actually started for ZURICH at the Farmers Insurance Open early on this year where many of our executives and guests were helping to pack backpacks for children in need and at the time stipulated by the Tour Players Wives Association.
And Kate Rose and Justin Rose sort of brought it forward, and we're very pleased that together we can support this program throughout the next three years.
It's something that is very important for ZURICH. It's a way for us to give back to the communities we serve, and I should always stress as much as we like the golf tournament here in New Orleans and also in San Diego for Farmers, it is for us not just a golf event and a golf tournament, it's a way to give back to the communities we do serve. There couldn't be any better additional program to all the other programs we're supporting than Blessings in a Backpack together with Kate and Justin Rose. We feel very, very good about it.
TOM LONG: We'll turn it over to Kate and Justin Rose and let them explain why they're doing this and making this tremendously generous gesture.
JUSTIN ROSE: First, on my behalf, thank you very much Martin. Thank you very much ZURICH. You guys have been great partners of mine now for some time, and it's just been a pleasure to get to know you and all your executives.
You've got great people and great hearted people that we have fun with. For you to really get behind something that is very close to our hearts is very kind of and you we very much appreciate that.
Stan Curtis there on our right, he's an infectious character. He's a chap who, the PGA TOUR wives got to know Stan through these initiatives a number of years ago. And our involvement has grown overtime, but it's something that me and Kate feel very, very strongly about.
As new parents, we now have a little 2-year-old, we see the importance of nutrition on a day-to-of day basis. Even if Leo skips one meal or if he eats the wrong thing or too much chocolate or whatever it might be, the nutrition impacts his mood, his ability to do so many different things.
So we realize what an important charity Stan is setting up. It's something I definitely wanted to be a part of. And I know Kate being a fantastic mother was very much behind the idea too.
TOM LONG: Let's hear from Stan then. Stan Curtis is the founder of Blessings in a Backpack, Stan?
STAN CURTIS: I'm not quite sure what to say, ladies and gentlemen. What do you say when somebody tells you that they're going to help feed children? What do you say when they're going to provide food like this which is so important to a child when they leave school on Friday and it's the last meal they get till they get to school on Monday? What do you say when, as Justin said earlier, we're not only going to talk the talk, we're going to walk the walk?
You say nothing but thank you, thank you, thank you, hundreds and hundreds of times for the children who are actually going to be carrying the backpacks. Kate, you have one in your lap there, I think. Kate likes that backpack.
You say thank you hundreds and hundreds of times, but also to Martin and to ZURICH. Somebody once said that if the true definition of leadership is to improve the performance of the whole group rather than to celebrate the accomplishments of one individual, then leadership must be practiced where leadership is most at risk.
The children that ZURICH and Kate and Justin are going to feed in New Orleans at the Medard H. Nelson-UNO Charter School, at the Arise Academy, at Saint Michael Special School, these children probably don't know about golf right now. They probably don't know that they're poor. They probably don't know that they live in poverty. But they're going to know really soon that somebody cares about them.
To me, that's about the purest form of leadership that you can practice when you're helping somebody that doesn't know they're being helped.
These children are going to depend upon ZURICH, they're going to depend upon Kate and Justin. I will say that walking the walk and talking the talk, but more importantly I thank them for their compassionate leadership and for them actually taking their success and turning it into significance.
Because, like Martin said, we're on the west coast as a partner with them as well. And there are 500 children in a school out there the day after tomorrow will get a backpack because ZURICH and because Farmers cares. So thank you to all of you guys.
TOM LONG: Questions?

Q. How many children are involved with this in New Orleans?
STAN CURTIS: Nearly 800.
KATE ROSE: And I think Justin's had so far this year about 121 birdies, so that's 121 children extra this year so far we'll be feeding and an additional 121 that ZURICH will be matching. Hopefully, lots more birdies, too (smiling).
MARTIN SENN: If I may add to that, from now whenever I watch any golf event and I see Justin playing, I'm only going to pray for him to play many birdies. Because each time he plays a birdie, donating with that $80 which is going to feed one child for one year, this is a very, very powerful message. It couldn't be any stronger as an incentive for Justin or, in fact, for anybody else to contribute to this great program.
I only was made aware not too long ago actually listening to Curtis about this message of $80 you need to feed one child throughout one year.
I think there is a tremendous, tremendous motivation to follow this example which is led by Kate and by Justin. I hope many, many do pick that up.
STAN CURTIS: I believe in the power of prayer. So when Martin's praying, I'm going to be praying with him (laughing). So, thank you.
JUSTIN ROSE: I'm starting to feel under pressure now. Every six-footer I have for birdie I realize it's important for my scorecard, but it's even more important in the greater, wider world out there.
But kidding aside, it's a fun way for me to feel good about making more birdies. No doubt about it.

Q. How sharp is your game heading into this week?
JUSTIN ROSE: Yeah, the game feels sharp. It really does. I've been on a nice consistent run of form from that perspective. I've had two weeks off, so I feel fresh as well.
I'm ready for a long summer. I have a heavily packed schedule of golf coming up. So heading into this week, everything has been right where I need it.
Sometimes coming off two weeks you have to be patient with yourself to see where your game stands up the first couple of days. But I fully expect to carry on the decent form that I have going and make lots of birdies.
TOM LONG: Thank you so much. Thank you, Martin Senn, thank you, Justin and Kate Rose, and thank you, Stan, for this great gesture and this great program.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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