TYCO/ADT CHAMPIONSHIP

November 15, 2001

Ty Votaw

COMMISSIONER TY VOTAW: Thank you, Leslie. I appreciate everybody coming in at an early hour on Thursday. I wanted to start off by, before we talk about some of the exciting things that are happening with the LPGA for 2002 and beyond, I wanted to do a little recap of how successful 2001 has been. I think you have to start any of those discussions with the performance of Annika Sorenstam this year. She's had an absolutely phenomenal year which may go down as probably one of the best - if not the best season - in LPGA history. As we all know, eight victories so far, the opportunity this week to make it nine victories, which would be the first time since 1978 and Nancy Lopez's rookie year that that has happened. She has the chance to become the first player to break $2 million in season's earnings. Her 59 in Phoenix, her four victories in a row, setting almost every financial and scoring record the LPGA has, clinching her fourth Rolex Player of the Year, and her fourth season money title, her fourth year trophy, all been sewn up with the performance this week. Obviously, Annika's year has been stellar and one that, as I said, will go down in LPGA history as one of the best, if not the best. (Inaudible) in which you had two other players who had remarkably phenomenal years as well: Se Ri Pak and Karrie Webb. I think that the emergence of those three players in one year's time, when in each of the past four or five years only one of them has dominated, I think really reflects the emergence of them as a true victory in bringing the competitive nature of the LPGA to the highest level in a couple generations. Se Ri Pak, obviously her five victories this year, winning the women's British Open; and Karrie Webb, winning two Majors and becoming the youngest LPGA player to win a career Grand Slam, and to become the fastest to achieve this feat for either a man or a woman shows that Karrie Webb, while perhaps having a lesser year than her previous two years on Tour, is certainly still at the top of her game. I think it can best be summed up, at one point this year after Pak won the women's British Open, it could be said that Annika had the most victories, Karrie had the most Majors, and Se Ri Pak had the most money. Karrie's certainly overtaken the money as well, but... So those performances coupled with the fact that we've had some remarkably consistent performances of players throughout the entire year that have perhaps not won: Maria Hjorth, for example, Laura Davies, Dottie Pepper, and also in a year where Dorothy Delasin has (inaudible) with Rookie of the Year with two victories, and an American veteran in Rosie Jones winning twice this year, as well as having four Rolex first-time winners in a row at the tail end of our summer and September schedule, I think really do reflect the competitive balance on the LPGA Tour is as deep as it's ever been. We're here in Palm Beach this week for the Tyco/ADT Championship. We're thrilled to be here at Trump International. We have to thank certainly Tyco/ADT, as the title sponsor of this event, and their support in bringing the event here. Thanks also has to go to Donald Trump for his hospitality, opening up his humble home to our players this week. And the entire staff at Trump International, first starting with Bruce Friske (phonetic spelling). His desire to host this event and working very hard with our staff, working very hard with IMG to make this event a success. It would not be the success it is without the efforts of Bruce and his staff. We thank them. Jim Bosio (phonetic spelling), the golf course designer, of this wonderful layout that is much different than any other Florida course that any of you have played. And obviously to the Palm Beach County Coalition headed by Commissioner Cal Roberts (phonetic spelling). Everybody has worked very hard to bring this event to where it is today, and we're very much looking forward to having a great next four days in the tournament. The LPGA has also had quite a bit of success this year off the golf course - a number of business successes that we've had for the first time in LPGA history. We've had three of our players, Lorie Kane, Janice Moodie, and Cristie Kerr, featured on the cereal box of Multigrain Cheerios. This is a first for Multigrain Cheerios. Before this year, they had never had a female athlete featured on its boxes. The fact that we had three LPGA players featured this year is something that we're very proud of and we know that Multigrain Cheerios is very pleased with. We launched a new ad campaign this year, "Positively Amazing," which is an attempt on our part to, in addition to our own ads, place our own institutional messages that convey a message of trying to get our fans a little bit more familiar with our players as individuals, as people. For those of you who have not seen the ads, they're set to the tune of "Thank Heaven for Little Girls" with images of our own players as young girls at the start of the commercial, and then working into the "Positively Amazing" things that they do as professional golfers. It sends the message that any young girl watching could say, If these normal and obviously adorable young girls can grow up to be some of the greatest players in the world, then perhaps that can be a message of aspiration for those young girls as well. We launched that in July. It's rolling throughout this year during LPGA tournament telecasts as well as other telecasts on the Golf Channel, CNBC, ESPN, ESPN International. We've received rave reviews for that campaign, and we're very pleased with the "Positively Amazing" messaging that we've developed. Viewership and traffic increases on our LPGA telecasts on ESPN, ESPN II and LPGA.com have been significant this year. The LPGA State Farm series on ESPN, ESPN II have generated 28 percent rating increases in viewership, in household viewership, from this year over last year; 42 percent, when you look at the weekend telecast, Saturday and Sunday. LPGA.com, which we are proud to consider and I think any number of other people consider the premiere women's professional golf website, has also (inaudible) significant growth numbers in traffic this year. For example, we had a 24 percent increase in August alone over August of 2000. Obviously, that website's traffic is a large part of the fan-friendly interaction that we have. Certainly the gallery section and the enhanced realtime scoring that we have are among the reasons our web traffic is up. Again, it gives our fans a much closer connection to the organization and to our players as a whole. I thought Karrie Webb's 2000 year would be difficult to top. But, as I said at the beginning, Annika and Karrie and Se Ri and the balance of the LPGA Tour membership have definitely overcome and out-did Karrie's performance in 2000. We're very much looking forward to our 2002 year to see what the off-season produces not only for Annika, but also for those who will challenge her to hold the top spot going forward. This brings me to the present and looking forward to 2002. We have a couple of organizational announcements that I'd like to make at this time before we get into the 2002 schedule. We're very pleased to be able to announce to you today that Patty Benson, long-time golf professional at the Palm Beach Golf Club, has just this week been elected the new National President of the LPGA Teaching and Core Professional Division. Patty and her husband Bobby and her father are in the audience today. We congratulate them, and we welcome Patty as the new National President of the T&C Division. Patty was elected for the term of 2002 and 2003 term as President, founded and operated the Bobby and Patty Golf Shop at the Palm Beach Country Club, and joined as a teaching club professional in 1979, three-time President of the Southeast Section. We've got a great leader in Patty Benson and we congratulate Patty. (Inaudible). There's no other election issues here in Florida for her election. We're also very pleased to announce a new senior position at the LPGA. For those of you who are in Palm Beach year-round, I know you're familiar with Executive Sports. We are announcing today that Chris Higgs (phonetic spelling), who is the President of Executive Sports, is joining the LPGA as Senior Vice President and Chief Operations Officer effective January 1st of this year. Chris, in joining us, will oversee all activities associated with our tournament business affairs including tournament business development, tournament sponsor relationships, player services and international affairs. Chris brings a wealth to the tournament and business experience with his time in his 15 years at Executive Sports. Most recently, Chris was President of Executive Sports, a global sports marketing event management company based here in Palm Beach. As President he was responsible for the day-to-day operations of the overall organization and direction of the entire company including special event management, tournament operations, tournament management, corporate representation. Chris will be joining Karen Durkin, Linda Galloway and Kathy Milburg (phonetic spellings) as Senior Vice Presidents of the organization. All will be reporting to me. Chris is here in the audience today. We appreciate, Chris, you being here and we welcome him to the LPGA family. With respect to the 2002 schedule, you, I believe, have the schedule in front of on your chairs. We are announcing today a 34-event schedule for 2002; 31 official events with two unofficial events on the calendar, along with the Solheim Cup - a total of 31 official events. We have three TBDs on that schedule: One the last week of April, as you will see; one the last week of September; and one the middle week of October. The details as to those events have not yet been finalized, and we'll hopefully be making an announcement regarding one or two or three of those over the next several weeks. The April TBD is in a southeastern United States location, the last week of September is a northwest area of the country, and the October date is the champions, the Tournament of Champions event that has traditionally been held in Alabama. We should have confirmation as to those TBDs, as I said, in the next several weeks. The official events on our Tour this year, the 31 events in 2002, will represent an average purse of just over -- or just under $1.12 million, the highest average purse in the LPGA's 52-year history. We're very pleased with the quality of our schedule. Our players will be competing for more money week in and week out than they have ever played for before. This should increase even more because we anticipate several other tournaments raising their purses; they just have not announced those purses as of today. Next year is a Solheim Cup year. We're very much looking forward to that being one of the year's highlights. I have no doubt that the caliber of play and the competition of the Solheim Cup will surpass that of 2000, which was the greatest display of women's professional golf that I've seen. I think Interlachen Country Club will be a wonderful backdrop for that event. We're already well ahead of sponsorship and ticket sales at this point in our planning for 2002 than we were in 1997 when we were planning for the 1998 Solheim Cup. We're looking forward to a great event with the best players in Europe and the best players in the US competing with one another. The Solheim Cup for the US will be determined at the conclusion of the State Farm Classic at the end of the summer over Labor Day weekend. As you look over the schedule, and I'm happy to talk about this and answer questions, but the process of streamlining and refining and re-aligning our schedule and addressing each of these issues as to number of events, the geographic flow and quality of events, is an ongoing process that we think is going to take us the next three to five years to get in place to be consistent with our strategic plan that we have developed. The number of events on this year's schedule is due in part to the economy, (inaudible) and our strategic planning process. We are down in the number of events we are announcing today and, again, with a couple other TBDs, we think the number of events that we're down in will be less than the seven net that were reflected today. But, again, I think that the strength of the LPGA's Tour brand is reflected through several different factors with this quality schedule. Obviously, the purse increases that we've had, 13 of our tournaments have raised their purses. As I said, we'll have four or five, we think, other purse increases. Well over half of our existing events will be raising their purses this year. Twenty of our tournaments have been on the schedule for at least 10 years with 12 of our events on our schedule for more than 20 years. That, combined with the viewership increases that are reflected in the State Farm series and the traffic on LPGA.com, I believe that the 31-event schedule next year willful fill our brand promise of showcasing the very best of women's professional golfers on a consistent, week-in and week-out basis. Some other highlights regarding next year's schedule: Our newest, Kellogg-Keebler Classic in Stonebridge Country Club, outside of Chicago, $1.2 million purse. Last time we had a regular (inaudible) in Chicago was 1994. We're looking very much forward to getting back to the Chicago area with this event. As I said, the average purse next year will be $1.19 million, the highest ever, which is a ten percent increase over the average purse of last year. The largest purse increase, you should note, is going to come at the First Union Betsy King Classic, at $400,000. They went from $800,000 to 1.2 from last year to next year. The Wegmans Rochester LPGA upped its purse 200,000, taking it to 1.2. We'll feature 24 official money events with purses of at least $1 million, up from 19 in 2001, and 13 with purses of at least 1.2 in 2001. Again, reflecting the stability, we think, in support of our tournament sponsors. We can't have these types of increases without the support of our tournament sponsors, and the commitment they have given us to the growth of the LPGA Tour continues to be phenomenal. Without their support, reaching our previously announced goals, having all of our official money events to have at least a $1 million purse by the year 2003, would be impossible, and we're well on our way to getting that done. The fact that 75 percent of our tournaments have already met or exceeded that mark is very encouraging to our goals and to our future planning. Our focus on the coming years will be on quality not only in the competitive area, but also in the economic opportunity for our players, in the overall presentation of our Tour, whether that be the quality of the sponsors, the quality of the golf courses that we play, the quality of our television, or the quality of the fan experience on site. Our television schedule for 2002 will be released after the first of the year, and coverage is expected to be consistent with previous years. This past year, 2001, we had 35 of 41 events representing over 260 hours of television coverage, which is more than any other women's professional sport. We were broadcast in (inaudible) countries worldwide. Charity is always important, and we're no exception at the LPGA. For 2001, the LPGA had 22 tournaments that raised just over $7.5 million to charitable contributions (inaudible) grants of over $1 million each. Those events were McDonald's LPGA Championship Presented by AIG, Shop-Rite LPGA Classic, Chick-fil-A Charity Championship hosted by Nancy Lopez, and the Safeway Classic. Since we started keeping track 20 years ago of our charitable contributions, our tournaments in the LPGA have raised over $125 million for local and national charities. That's something of which we're very proud. That's a recap of 2001. We're very much looking forward to a quality schedule in 2002. I would hope to be able to cogently and intelligently answer whatever questions you folks may have at this time.

COMMISSIONER TY VOTAW: Well, the decision to take the month of January off, as I said, was part strategic, part the realities that we face at each of the individual tournaments. Our event in Orlando is somewhat of a one-off when JC Penney, because of the economic conditions they were facing at the end of 1999 - I'm sorry, 2000 - came to us and said that they couldn't continue with the contract. So, therefore, they did that event, lived up to their contractual obligations to us, but after the 2001 event would not be able to continue. So I kind of view Orlando as a one-off. Office Depot with Doral was a situation in which Office Depot took, for a number of reasons specific to them and to their relationship that they had developed with City of Hope, took their investment in the LPGA and moved it from Doral to our event in Los Angeles that is owned by City of Hope. There's been a long-time corporate and charitable relationship between Office Depot and the City of Hope charity, and it made more sense for Office Depot to take advantage of that event's location in Los Angeles both from a strategic perspective, their business, and because of the charitable relationship they had with City of Hope. Then with respect to Naples, the high season of golf in Florida makes it difficult at times to find an appropriate golf course that's consistent with championship golf tournaments. That was a situation we faced in Naples. We have every hope the event will come back in 2003 when they have the ability to finalize a deal with a golf course. They were not able to finalize a deal with a golf course and they were not comfortable perhaps with the prospect of being the only Florida event in our schedule in 2002. Because of that, they asked that we agree to defer their event until 2003. With respect to whether or not we will go back to any kind of January Florida swing, we're going to look at that as an ongoing process of our schedule. And we will make that decision based on whether we find a quality sponsor, quality golf experience, and a community that is able to support an LPGA event on a long-term basis. Until those three things take place, we're prepared not to have a Florida swing if that is consistent with our approach to quality. Having said that, I don't think that having a Florida swing in January is the be-all end-all. I think there are a number of dates in the spring, the fall, that people have events in Florida. We're sitting here in Florida today with the Tyco/ADT Championship and we'll be back next year with this event in Florida. So, again, when we come back to Florida will be based on a number of quantitative decisions that we have to make and evaluations we make on that. But we hope to have that kind of experience in Florida again. It's just a question of we have to find that right market and the right time and the right place.

COMMISSIONER TY VOTAW: In 2003, yes. Yes.

COMMISSIONER TY VOTAW: Well, I'm not foreclosing anything. But, again, what we have to focus is: Is there a quality golf facility? Is there a quality sponsor? Is there a community that we think can have an LPGA event on a long-term basis?

COMMISSIONER TY VOTAW: They have withdrawn their telesponsor and are looking for a new telesponsor, the organizers of that event, the Naples event.

COMMISSIONER TY VOTAW: Well, again, there are a number of different circumstances that could transpire. One is we could find another quality event based on the criteria I'm talking about in Florida. We can pair them up in late January, early February. But if they are a stand-alone Florida situation, we would be looking to perhaps move them to the start of our southeastern swing in the spring.

COMMISSIONER TY VOTAW: They were. They were, and no luck so far. But not for 200 obviously.

COMMISSIONER TY VOTAW: Yes.

COMMISSIONER TY VOTAW: It is not, not for 2002. It's a region, not a state. I'm not comfortable with states. I'm comfortable with regions.

COMMISSIONER TY VOTAW: Yes, if the circumstances are right. I think certainly that's a quality golf course, the site of last year's Tour Championship, Dottie Pepper (inaudible). We have a number of issues there relative to the infrastructure at LPGA International. But that situation for us in that context, when a hotel can come on-line as part of LPGA International's overall residential and real estate development, that can be the best time for us to have the infrastructure there. We have a wonderful clubhouse open in January that was not in place last year. We now have two wonderful championship golf courses at LPGA International. We're still in the market for the hotel development, which, given the economy, is not necessarily the easiest thing to do. When that happens, we would be very happy to bring an LPGA event back to our headquarters city.

COMMISSIONER TY VOTAW: It was for official events I think just at or around $41 million. So when, and, and if the TBDs come on board for those three events, we should be playing for approximately the same amount of money with 33 or 34 official events next year that we played for 38 events this past year.

COMMISSIONER TY VOTAW: I don't know if I can gauge percentages, but obviously we wouldn't have put them on as TBDs, we would have just left them blank, if we didn't have some optimism that one or three - one, two or three would happen.

COMMISSIONER TY VOTAW: You have to look at where the other golf organizations have their events. And certainly the PGA TOUR starts in Hawaii and comes back through California, then comes to the Florida swing in the spring. The Senior Tour starts their Florida swing in February. We traditionally started ours in January because it hasn't competed in that situation. I think certainly having an off-season, a longer off-season, is something that was strategic on our part. We wanted to be able to give our players a little bit more time off from the end of one year to the beginning of another. And that, again, is a focus on a quality-driven analysis as opposed to a quantitative one. Obviously, there are only so many places you can play in January and February in the United States. So that dictates where we are. But we're starting our year in Hawaii next year. And, again, once the process is going forward as to where we start, when we start will all be determined based on our evaluations of just what's the best quality situation for the Tour.

COMMISSIONER TY VOTAW: Yeah, that situation is one which I would be -- I can directly point to the September 11th situation. The tourism business in Hawaii has been hit disproportionately harder than perhaps other places. One of the participants in that potential event was going to be the tourism authority in Hawaii. Given the situation there and given the travel, we've traditionally had Japanese sponsors for that event. Travel to and from Hawaii from Japan has had a marked decline since September 11th. That was a situation, while we were very hopeful to have two events in Hawaii, we're only going to have one, and the September 11 impact is certainly a major cause for that.

COMMISSIONER TY VOTAW: Well, what the magic number is will depend on when we start and what the geographic flow is for the rest of the year. But I do think -- I think the "less is more" approach that we've taken from the strategic direction is the right one for us to take. I think the number is , if it's not 34, it's probably not more than 36 either.

COMMISSIONER TY VOTAW: I think it's the right one to take from a strategic direction. The economy, I mentioned this at dinner the other night - or last night - the economy is difficult right now. But you also have to take a broader view in the long-term. You have to eat short-term, but you have to live long-term. One of the things in a recession, and if we are in a recession, I'm no expert if we are, but if we are in a recession, two industries or a couple of industries that do well in a recession where others don't, that's the food and drug industries. If you look at our title sponsorships, we have five grocery store chains, we have three fastfood companies, we have two food companies in Kellogg -Keebler, Kraft Nabisco in titled sponsored events, Welch's/Circle K in Tucson. And we have Longs Drugs in Sacramento. So the fact that we are sponsored by food companies which traditionally do better in times of recession than perhaps other industries, does provide me some level of comfort as to the short-term, having to eat short-term situation that we're faced with. If we were in a situation where some of those kinds of sponsors were expressing concern about their future, then I perhaps might be a little less optimistic than I am. But I'm very optimistic about the support of those companies. I think it positions us very well for where we are once we come through this economy. .

COMMISSIONER TY VOTAW: Well, I don't know if it was -- I think it was a strategy in a direction that the marketplace was dictating. I think that there was a willingness on the part of the marketplace to say, "Hey, I think the appetite for LPGA events at a certain prize level was what it was," a schedule of over 40 official events. As we developed those schedules, what we determined was the top players on our Tour - by top you can have any number of different evaluations as to just what is a top player - but certainly top players weren't playing as great a percentage of our overall schedule as the sponsors would have liked. So now with a "less is more" approach, we believe that our Tour players will be able to play a greater percentage of our overall schedule, which will fulfill what we think our brand promise is, which is to showcase the best of women's professional golf on a week-in, week-out basis.

COMMISSIONER TY VOTAW: Well, it's a fine line. I mean, I think that you have to have confidence in your ability to perform. If the opportunities that are there are good opportunities and you perform well, your success is going to be that much greater. And so you look at a player like a Laura Diaz, three years ago in her rookie year she was 66 on the money list. The next year she was 33rd. Today she's a Top 10 player. Her progression and opportunity have grown because her success on the Tour has grown. When I talk to players who are a part of the general membership of the rank and file, I say to them, "When your performance on our Tour improves," which we are a performance-based Tour, "Your opportunities are going to be that much greater with average prize money going up by ten percent," and the number of million dollar minimum events going up as well, that's just going to be a by-product of continual improvement.

COMMISSIONER TY VOTAW: I think we are a performance-based Tour. I think all of our players know that and realize that. While they would like to have perhaps more opportunities rather than fewer, we also have to deal with that in the context of fulfilling what our brand promise is, which is, again, to showcase the very best of women's professional golf week-in and week-out.

COMMISSIONER TY VOTAW: Well, we talked about that when the announcement was made that the Ryder Cup was going to even-numbered years. We're obviously going to stage the 2002 Solheim Cup the week before next year's Ryder Cup. After we see how that plays itself out in terms of media coverage, in terms of television coverage, and fan interest, we will make a determination after that as to whether we stay in even-numbered of years or perhaps find a way to rotate it into an odd-numbered year situation. We'll look at that after the 2002.

COMMISSIONER TY VOTAW: (Inaudible). I'm not sure we're going to get them to change back. What we have to do is evaluate what that means to us and we'll do that for the 2000 Solheim Cup. But the Solheim Cup in 2004 has been scheduled for Sweden. And 2004 is the 100th anniversary of golf in Sweden. That's something we're looking at as well. We have to also look at what our television windows are. We were able to accommodate NBC televising both the Solheim Cup and Ryder Cup in 2002. Whether that can happen in 2004 is something we're going to look at as well. But moving it off of 2004 is somewhat problematic because of the 100-year anniversary. So I think our inclination is to obviously, again, wait till 2002 and see how it looks, deal with what 2004 looks like in Sweden, then make an evaluation as to what we do going forward.

COMMISSIONER TY VOTAW: No. Thanksgiving next year is a week later. I think it's November 27th or 28th next year. A glitch in the calendar of some sort. This will be the same corresponding week on the calendar, the week before Thanksgiving. It just seems to be numbered a little later.

COMMISSIONER TY VOTAW: Same as last year. I think we have fewer events obviously overall, but I think the percentage of events that we have televised is going to be roughly the same. Our hours may be a little bit down, but we're also focusing on the quality side of our telecast, working with our TV partners: ESPN, ESPN II and the Golf Channel especially, because they televise most of our events, on making sure that our telecasts are, again, fulfilling what we hope to be our brand promise.

COMMISSIONER TY VOTAW: Nothing to do with golf courses; has no impact whatsoever on that. As far as sponsors, I think it has actually improved our ability to get multinational and global sponsors to be associated with the LPGA Tour. The whole issue of the success that players from Sweden or Korea or Australia have had this year and in the past three or four years, I think it's had a net positive effect on the LPGA Tour in a number of different contexts, whether it be multinational companies wanting to become associated with the LPGA, whether it be our television distribution nationally. When someone from Korea or Australia or Sweden wins an LPGA event, I don't say to myself and I don't think fans or sponsors or the media should say, "Gee, a Swede or an Australian or a Korean has won an LPGA event." You should said say, "An LPGA member has won an LPGA event." That's a function of the best players in the world wanting to come to play on the LPGA Tour. That has to be a positive for us in every aspect of our business.

COMMISSIONER TY VOTAW: The Doug Ferguson Memorial...Yeah.

COMMISSIONER TY VOTAW: I think it's probably north of that, but it's significantly north of that given television and the (inaudible) paying of a $1 million purse minimum. But our contracts traditionally run in the area of three to four years in terms of what is standard. Some are three, some are four. We have a couple that are five. One is ten. So that evolves based on each individual discussion. But we're looking for minimum, four-year contracts going forward with our new strategic plan.

COMMISSIONER TY VOTAW: No, as you know, Kraft purchased Nabisco Company and Nabisco brands. I think that's a reflection of the parent company, Kraft, wanting to latch on to what is a very successful event in terms of name recognition and in brand identity for their ownership of Nabisco. Nothing more, nothing less than that.

COMMISSIONER TY VOTAW: Kraft Nabisco Championship, yes.

COMMISSIONER TY VOTAW: We evaluate that on a regular basis. How regular varies based on what the prospects of the list are. We have had a number of discussions with the committee in Augusta about the right situation to bring the titleholders back. When that situation arises, I would be very enthusiastic about bringing the titleholders back to our schedule, but I don't want to bring it back until that right situation arrives. And we evaluate that based on discussions with existing tournament and/or new tournaments on a regular basis. So there's no news as to whether we're going to bring it back in the foreseeable future. That's because we have not, I think, found the right situation for it.

COMMISSIONER TY VOTAW: They have to find a title sponsor in order for the event to come back.

COMMISSIONER TY VOTAW: We will look at any community that we think has the appropriate sponsor underpaying and community environment to make a long-term situation for us.

COMMISSIONER TY VOTAW: Boy, if it's not the best, it's not third best either. Certainly Nancy's in 1978 with five in a row and nine victories would probably be the most analogous in terms of modern-day history. I know that there have been more victories in a year than nine. But certainly with her 59, with her four wins in a row, with her Major championship, with her (inaudible) scoring average being what it is, I'd be hard-pressed to think of more than one other better year other than that.

COMMISSIONER TY VOTAW: Well, I think it's reflected in the ratings in ESPN, ESPN II. Her 59 in Phoenix was part of the State Farm series on ESPN and ESPN II, as was her fourth victory in a row in Los Angeles. So that was obviously enough -- certainly Karrie and Annika's appearance at the Battle of Big Horn was another huge boost for us in having eight and a half million viewers see two of the best players in LPGA history compete against Tiger Woods and David Duval. Yeah, probably give a nod to the Shell match that Annika and Karrie had in Las Vegas that was shown on ESPN, where they both shot -- one shot a 65, Annika shot a 65. And the Executive Producer of Shell said it was probably the greatest match in (inaudible) history. I saw that there was a report today (inaudible), to get rid of the drama of watching it in December. But obviously LPGA winning that event is going to be a big boost for us as well with Annika, Karrie and Dottie Pepper beating the seniors in the PGA TOUR. So all of those things, that along with the LPGA.com traffic and the media attention that you folks are kind enough to provide us, I think has been a huge boost for us this year.

COMMISSIONER TY VOTAW: Taking nothing away from Nancy Lopez and her 78 or any other player who had great years, if you take the competitive balance that's here on the LPGA Tour this year, what she's done with nine victories is pretty remarkable - or eight victories, I'm sorry (laughter). Going for nine. Going for nine.

COMMISSIONER TY VOTAW: Well, I live here. I pay taxes here. It's a great state. No, I think we don't have events in other parts of the country as well. But I think that when we have a event in Florida like we have here, this is a great example: Quality golf course, quality sponsor, quality host. No small amount of publicity. Because of those three things coming together, that's the kind of situation that when we come back to Florida we want to have happen. That's, again, part of the overall strategic direction of having quality-driven decisions being made as opposed to just having events for the sake of having events. That's not good for our brand, and I'm not sure it's good for you folks covering or good for our fans. Again, that's not necessarily fulfilling the brand promise of showcasing the best of our Tour.

COMMISSIONER TY VOTAW: I think everybody understands that in this economy and in this sports context in which you've got baseball talking about contracting and you've got other discussions going on, I think you'll see other sports organizations over time in this economy reducing elements of their portfolio. I think the economy is the reality we're faced with, but I also think it's the right thing to do of focusing on the quality of our product. We have seen in a number of different discussions that when you lessen the supply, you increase demand in certain areas of our schedule and in certain areas of the country. We see that continuing with that. I can understand your Devil's Advocate - and another word would be "cynical" position - but I'd rather focus on the glass being half full rather than being half empty. I think it's not a question of whether our glass is half full or half empty, it's how big our glass is. I think right now the quality side of things is going to be our strategic direction going forward.

COMMISSIONER TY VOTAW: Again, if you have greater demand, you have better choices that you can make. And we feel that's going to be the direction we're facing in the next three to five years as part of our overall decision-making process for our schedule.