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VOLVO MASTERS ANDALUCIA


October 31, 2004


George O'Grady

Ken Schofield


SOTOGRANDE, SPAIN

GORDON SIMPSON: Well, good morning everyone. It's good to see so many people here on a Sunday morning. As Ken says, almost a full house. Nearly standing room only. We are here for the last time in Ken's tenure as Executive Director. And beside Ken, obviously we have George O'Grady who is the Executive Director Designate.

I think it's a fairly relevant time to start with Ken, since it's his last Volvo Masters in charge, and Ken maybe you'd like to kick off the proceedings.

KEN SCHOFIELD: Thank you, Gordon. Good morning everyone. It should be a happy day for myself, for George and for everyone here, and it certainly is. Thirty years has been a long time and a great privilege, but as we've said earlier, it's time to move on and I'm absolutely convinced through the process I had with George and our other close colleagues kind of at the end of the Volvo PGA Championship last year and through to the Open, if there was a hard time for me, that was it in recognizing that nothing is forever, and that includes my time in this job.

I've enjoyed every moment of it. I've known many of you here today for nearly all of those 30 years, and obviously George and I have worked together for all of that time. So for me, I just want to say it has been a privilege. We're fortunate in a way 16 years on from when Jimmy first allowed us to come, when Mel was inspired to let George and I, very nicely as is Mel's way, but marvelously firmly, that if we were going to play the Volvo Masters, the grand finale of the Volvo Tour as it then was in southern Spain then, he had very much made his mind up if it was coming to Sotogrande it was going to be played on the new Sotogrande, Valderrama, as we know it, and not the other marvelous original members club here that was known to George and I through what was really a forerunner of what became the Hennessy Cup. It was a match between Great Britain and Ireland, which I think you may have administered, George.

GEORGE O'GRADY: Tony.

KEN SCHOFIELD: Tony Gray, our other third man, if you like, and obviously the merits of the lower course here would be well known, too. It was then and still it today a marvelous golf course, but Valderrama was and is special. Has been I think for 12 of the Volvo Masters that we've enjoyed.

And in a way it's a real privilege for me to finish at the Volvo Masters. Volvo has been the Tour's one, and today only, overall sponsor. They have enabled our tour to grow to levels that we probably -- we certainly couldn't have forecast all of those years ago, and I think they leave us well placed both here with the extension of the agreement and with the doubling up, if you like, of the Volvo China Open into a co-sanctioned event. That I think is again for the future.

I think obviously that the combination between European Tour and the other tours has been important in the last ten years of my time, and it's going to be one of the vital aspects that George will take forward. I think we all know that to meet the might of the United States in golf, it takes all of Europe and it takes all of our partners to offer that year-round schedule of competition that is going to continue to produce very, very competitive international golfers. I think that's probably where we are today.

So I would like to just offer my thanks for the support along the way. You've put up with a lot of our idiosyncrasies, asking all around the world, how St. Johnstone have got on again. I think they should take over from St. Johnstone-nil, and now it's Alex Ferguson-nil which is not good either, Gordon.

That's one other recognition we should make today, and I don't know if David is with us, David Davies. Patricia?

I think it would be very remiss if the European Tour and the outgoing executive director and the incoming one left this room without paying tribute to Dai, as we know him, a long and outstanding contribution to golf having been a member of the Golf Writers Association for nearer to 40 years than 30, 1966 we understand he joined in the golf writing fraternity. And for over 21 years or more, he has engaged us, enthused us and enriched the written word of golf mainly through The Guardian newspaper.

Patricia, if you would take an expression of appreciation to David. Hopefully before December 31 we will all have a chance to share perhaps a glass of red wine, I guess for David, possibly white for me, so maybe we might need some rose to meet in the middle. But this journey has also been a wonderful journey, and all of us on the Tour respect that and greatly appreciate his writing. I think we should say that to him.

GORDON SIMPSON: I should say it's also great to see Mel Pyatt and Don Jaime Ortiz Patino with us here today. George, maybe you'd like to say a few words with us as well.

GEORGE O'GRADY: I think first words are sympathy to Maria Acacia who has to translate all this in due course. But I think the first thing I would like to say is to pay my own personal tribute to Ken who is going I think in two months and one day.

GORDON SIMPSON: Approximately.

GEORGE O'GRADY: Funny thing is, when he does go, I will be listening, because Ken is going to be a consultant to the Executive Director of the European Tour. Because there is one aspect, particular aspect of his tenure that we want, which is the vision for the way the golf game goes, the vision around the world, how we amalgamate junior golf with senior golf, how we develop Challenge Tours and how we see the game progressing. I think we are moving into a stage where the European Tour is demanding a very business focus to our progression. It is becoming apparent that it will do more so in the next few months and years; that in the sponsorship market we are truly a global game. Very rarely do we see companies doing one tournament now on the scale that we have to have to compete with America. We are seeing companies that will be doing a success of tournaments both in Asia, Europe, possibly in America as well, and it's all part of a global strategy.

The first company really to embrace that marketing attitude was Volvo. When they entered the agreement with us 17 -- well, 18 years ago, the agreement 17 years in actual running, they took a position across the world that golf would mirror their values and the brand that they have. It's at that stage most companies sponsoring in Europe did one tournament. If you look at our schedule now, you will see people who have really used golf with all of the values it stands for as part of their marketing platform. I think that move to cement golf as an operating business is something our board of directors of the European Tour and our leading players are wanting.

While we embark on that tactic, we will not lose sight of the vision of golf as the gentleman's and sportsman's game that it is. I think that way forward that Ken has laid down in his tenure, and why for a spell we have been, some would say a reasonable operating team. We will keep the spirit of golf correctly, but it will be driven in a hard, business manner. And that's really the message I'd like to convey.

GORDON SIMPSON: Thank you, George. We will open up to questions now, and I can say to the Spanish journalists please feel free to ask your questions as well and Maria Acacia will translate.

Q. I'll fire one in here first. We were speaking to Colin yesterday, and we made a comment to him based on the new schedule next year when there are probably four events in China and he welcomed the development very much and he said he would not be surprised if that number grew in the next few years. Do you see that happening?

GEORGE O'GRADY: We finished a meeting since early this morning with the Chinese Golf Association on our way forward in China. We all know the size of the country. They have positioned golf in a very positive manner. The Chinese Golf Association are trying to develop the game with the Junior players, with their own China Tour, with mainly amateur players and lady professionals and they feel it embodies the values that will travel through the country to change the image from a rich man's sport to a sport that all Chinese people can attain to play. So, yes, I think there will be growth in China; substantial.

Q. For the start of next year, one of two of the professionals keep saying that the tour has started here there and everywhere and they would soon like to see three tournaments in Australia. I presume that's what you would have wanted and are working towards and at the moment.

GEORGE O'GRADY: I think it's rather we all understand geography. You can't always do just what you'd like. I think we're splitting the two tournaments in South Africa, for example, which is not ideal. We would ideally have another event in South Africa at week before the South African Airways Open. This might happen and it's under negotiation.

It is again I think the Dunhill Championship at Leopard Creek is done for different reasons, and we all know the man who is behind that championship. He is also behind the Dunhill Links Championship, and he wants it in that way and it's part of what I say, the global game. And certain really big companies, really big individuals who are determined to stage tournaments with the European Tour that can stand comparison anywhere in the world.

Q. Are you going to have the same number of tournaments in Spain next year, and is the World Match-Play going to clash with the Mallorca Classic again?

GEORGE O'GRADY: Well, in fact, the schedule was released on Thursday, and I have a copy of it here which lists all of the tournaments we've got. The only one it doesn't actually state in the dates, October 13 to 16 we have to be confirmed. That is aimed at the Madrid Open, the Mallorca Classic is going to be played in the week October 22-23. So it's happening in its own week, which will be the week before the Volvo Masters, which it's confirmed with very substantial prize money for the next three years.

Q. The PGA Championship looks a little bit naked and a little bit strange really without the word "Volvo" before it. Could you update in terms of negotiations to replace Volvo and when an announcement might be made?

GEORGE O'GRADY: I think it might look naked at the moment but it won't look naked for long. It would be inappropriate to announce it this week. As soon as the final details are tied up, certainly before Christmas and possibly before the end of this month, we'll announce something very substantial.

Q. And similarly with an umbrella sponsor which we heard mention of a couple of weeks ago?

GEORGE O'GRADY: I think that might have been jumping the gun just a bit. Negotiations are still taking place on that. We don't see that as an absolute priority to have an umbrella sponsor at the time. It would be very comfortable if it were the European Tour Order of Merit, but if the correct terms can be found that shares the belief of what we want to do to value the season and value the last tournament of the year. But then we'll go with it. But if it's not exactly as we want it, we won't take it.

Q. And what is the downside of an umbrella sponsor?

GEORGE O'GRADY: The fact is that it's got to be the right umbrella sponsor that gets on with in and fits in with all of the other huge companies we have sponsoring the Tour. If you look at the global sponsors we have, from banks, car companies and increasingly thankfully airlines, we want a specific kind of sponsor.

Q. In the same vein, today is the last of 17 Volvo Orders of Merit. Will that be developed?

GEORGE O'GRADY: That's very much part of the overall corporate sponsor. The Order of Merit, if you like, it's the players Bible for a European Tour on a weekly basis. It affects what they get into and what they don't. The World Rankings are on one side of the measurement, but the European Tour Order of Merit, it's the players' Bible and a marketing tool for every week for a company to get it's name visible. And it really works if it is coming to the season-ending event, and for the last few years, there has not been a bonus program with the Volvo Order of Merit, it's just run.

Although the Volvo Masters has changed in the last few years to reflect the Order of Merit, it's just numbers 1 to 16 who play. In the early growth years of this tournament, it was very specifically organized by the two of us that our Category One players remained exempt till their exemptions run out and the last five Volvo Masters Champions were also exempt. When you enter the Top 1 to 60, that meant last year, Bernhard Langer, for example didn't qualify; wanted to play, but didn't qualify. Every other tournament on the Tour would want to have a Bernhard Langer in the field. He's certainly probably one of, if not at that time the golfer, the professional golfer who the boss and the owner of Volvo then listened to more than any other, and we couldn't get him into the field. He didn't qualify, and that's the way players want it.

But this is a constant negotiation with companies like Volvo to give them their maximum value in return. And we will, it's what I come back to, we balance the sport with commercial reality and try to get it right if we do.

Q. What do you think of the Ballesteros on the grounds affair in the last month, and will Seve be punished one year or something like that?

GEORGE O'GRADY: Well, I think the statement we've made so far is we are aware of this alleged incident. Our tournament director, our head of tournament operations, is investigating all of the facts that are surrounding it.

I think at this stage we are not prepared to say what may or may not happen. We just find the situation very sad, if what is alleged to have happened is correct. We are very disappointed. Seve is a arguably our greatest champion, our current most charismatic champion, and whatever the situation, it would be our hope it's handled very sympathetically. But at the same time, it's our duty to protect the normal standards of behavior.

We do not know all of the facts yet and we will shortly. And then I can't say what will not happen.

Q. Why should it be a matter for the European Tour when it didn't happen at a European Tour event? Surely that's a private matter between the two individuals; that it happened at an amateur event?

GEORGE O'GRADY: When we investigate and find all of the facts, we'll look at it. I think unfortunately or fortunately, the very code of professional golf is the tournament playing member of the European Tour must conduct himself at all times in a manner becoming a professional golfer. I'll leave it to you when we get the facts if that happened.

Q. What happens with the Seve Trophy?

GEORGE O'GRADY: Firstly we are not jumping the gun on any punishment here. This is not something we are prepared to comment on today. The Seve Trophy is a contract to play a tournament and contracts are usually honored. We always honor our contracts.

Q. If it's not an impertinent question, and if it is I'm sure you'll tell me, the deal that you are, as I understand it in the process of arranging, are we talking here of a matter of days a year, or is it sort of four days a week? Is it quite small, or is it quite large?

KEN SCHOFIELD: Well, it's certainly not impertinent, John, not at all and it's not inappropriate. In due course, the Tour has published its open accounts and will do so. From time to time, a number of you have asked my future intentions other than this consultantsy. The Tour has certainly in my opinion been very fair with me. The commercial success in many ways of the Tour in the last, probably in the last ten to 12 years has been good. I think our staff, to be fair, and that has started with executive director and management team led by George, I've got no doubt that will continue. They are challenging roles, all of them. I've been very, very fairly treated in my 30 years. So I don't -- I'm not in a position where on January 1 I've got to chase certain things.

People have speculated I might go into other sports and I might go more to cricket and more to football, but I'm sure I'll be going as a spectator. I'll be very happy to do. But my love affair and fashion for golf is not diminished. George was asked by the board what he wanted of me, and I think he can tell you, he said he wanted Ken's mind. And if he wants Ken's mind once in awhile or a lot, then I'll be there. He's been there for me for all of my time, and my job is to be there when he might want me.

It's George's committee room, George's board room, without a doubt. That's exactly what I want. It's what I have wanted, and it's why I made my opening remarks if you like today. I've got complete confidence in George obviously and the team expect me to have that. I'll go where he wants me to go and I'll be there as and when he needs me. You know, for that, I'm going to be reasonably rewarded.

Q. Do you think it's possible to say even approximately a couple of days a week?

GEORGE O'GRADY: I think his contract says two days a week. Up to a maximum of two days a week, not every two days. But we see roles around the major championships, a relationship with the governing bodies. Certainly the knowledge he has to be on tap with certain television partners. If we put it into a figure, it would be up to a maximum of two days a week.

KEN SCHOFIELD: See, George knows the contract and has read it and I haven't. I've never read contracts. And it goes back all of the years, I don't know if Mel -- he has been popping in and out, I don't know if Mel is with us, but George is right. We signed the Volvo tour contract in Monaco in May 1986, is that correct? '87, we started the our talks with them in '86 and it's stayed in our drawers, in George's drawer in his office and I think my drawer in my office throughout. I'm not sure it's ever been opened. Gillian put a seal on it and it's been unbroken. That's been I think a strength, not a weakness of our tour. I've actually not looked at my contract. If George and Marina Bray have agreed it's good enough for the company, that's certainly good enough for me.

Q. Despite the continued growth of the Tour and presumably the growth in prize money, there's still a considerable drift of leading European players to the U.S. Tour a significant part of the year, how do you arrest that development? And the other question I'd like to ask is with the increase of prize money, a company comes forward offering the biggest prize in golf, and asks for a dozen or so players that they would like to have?

GEORGE O'GRADY: First you're talking about our players going to America. You have to at different times of the year, you have to continue to work, make the schedule as good as you can. The question that Lewine asked earlier, we are well aware of it. Ideally you have sections of the European Tour which are very, very attractive to your elite group of players to play. I think there's aspects of this European now which are so good, it's very hard for players to turn their back on it.

I've spoken personally since being asked to take this job to virtually all of our top players on how they would like to see the European Tour develop; what they will be prepared to do to support it, if we can arrange it in a certain way. And we have to face the fact that if the Ryder Cup didn't bring it home, nothing would; that the leading European Tour players are very, very strong contenders wherever they play in the world.

We'll probably have to work harder at letting everyone in the world know just how good all of our players are. So that whatever either makes the Ryder Cup Team or is on the verge of making the Ryder Cup Team is capable of being a strong driving force to any one of our leading sponsors.

If certain players at certain times in their career think that they are better served by going to America, they must be free to make that choice. We are not going to apologize for the European Tour when we fill in the knots on the schedule, which you've got the dates on Thursday, I think it will make very attractive reading for anyone planning a global schedule. We are in a world where people will not necessarily just play one tour once they are good enough to be certainly within the Top-50 in the World Rankings, and probably within the Top-100 in the World Rankings.

The dialogue we've had with the players, dialogue on Wednesday night at the players' meeting here which was attended by a great number of our -- a bigger number than we've had before, all committed to how can we make the European Tour better; how can we bring pride in the European Tour; and how can we foster a team spirit that came out of this Ryder Cup which has traveled to our sponsors, and has had enormous positive impact from people who want to ally their commercial brand with a team sport sharing the Ryder Cup.

We are poised to bring something very unusual. We've amalgamated so many different countries, so many different cultures and we've made it into one big team. That's a very positive force for anybody prepared to invest their sponsorship dollars, and we are going to drive that message forward.

Q. The other part was the World Match Play and the money that was on offer.

GEORGE O'GRADY: The World Match Play, there's many different reasons for that: Different times, 36 holes a day, four days a week. It will target individual players, all of the certain ones I think you're referring to had different driving forces at the time.

I think the message that Ernie Els has so eloquently portrayed, as he's seen it, I think will eventually persuade other players to take life on a global stage. No simple answer to that one.

Q. It's a balancing act though, isn't it? Because I've heard journeyman pros say they don't think The Match Play should be on the Order of Merit and the World Golf Championships shouldn't be, and some of them probably wouldn't have the majors.

GEORGE O'GRADY: You're right. But if I'm answering that question -- and I've certainly given the credit for the vision to before; it goes to the man on my left.

I think the reason for bringing the World Match Play into the World Rankings is well thought through. It has a qualification procedure that anybody can get into. You can agree or disagree with that particular qualification, but there is a qualification there and there are no invitations. I think you're going to find that usually there is a reason for why we do one in a sporting sense and secondly in a commercial sense. It's how I started this little speech today. We are going to keep sporting dream correct, but marry it with business.

We took one tournament to China this year in Shanghai, which on the face of it would not be good scheduling to go to Shanghai for one week, to take a lot of players all the way out there to play for I suppose -- I can say it in this room right now because Mel has gone out, for BMW. It would become readily apparent why that has happened.

I think with HSBC we have a bank committed to talking the values of golf. If you watch their advertisements, it's all about the team, understanding cultures across the world. I think they have decided golf is a very powerful vehicle for them.

I think they are in for the long haul, just like Volvo was 17 years ago. They are going to -- it will become apparent that we are going to back up HSBC in their global endeavors.

KEN SCHOFIELD: George, if you'd permit me, I'd like to maybe just come back on that because the debate about what should be in and what should be out was conducted throughout the whole of 1998 in many players' meetings.

I guess it's many of the same guys, I don't know, you've spoke with them, but there was a similar debate in the winter of 1981 when the European Tour had its first opportunity to decide whether it wanted to run its business on the basis of a geographic boundary called Europe or address its membership of 25, 28 different countries; and it was called the Tunisian Open. We put it to the guys, some of them are very apprehensive about going outside Europe. It was a time sadly when South Africa was still facing alienation in the world. You can either play the Safari Tour or the Sunshine Tour, not both. People were putting stamps in passports and it was causing all sorts of potential issues.

But in the end to extend our season for 60,000 pounds as it then was to make it an official event was actually the forerunner of the European Tour where it is today. Because out of the Tunisian Open came Morocco, and with that, a willingness to travel came Dubai, which has been added with Qatar. And the type of companies that George are hearing to, now the HSBC, then it's still Johnnie Walkers, huge European companies that trade globally saw that we were prepared to travel as a tour. And ten years on since, the same guys that didn't want The Match Play and the World events perhaps in the Order of Merit could not understand why we would do to the The Vines Golf Club in western Australia in February. Many came up to me and said, "Ken, it's nice but why are we here? It's a great golf course but we're long way from home."

And a new generation of player, unless he's playing on the PGA TOUR and on the winter tour, expects in the first three months of the year to play in South Africa or to play in Australia and now probably is.

Well, I think George has just said it, that's why there's a competitive Ryder Cup Team; that all of the guys themselves are saying that those at the top of the European game want to be the next one to close out a major.

So, you know, you could take all of these things out and I think you'd have far less and be back to starting in Madrid the week after of Masters and finishing with The Match Play as an eight-man event with one guy in it, or in one year, not one European in it, that's why it is what it is. That's why we have meetings and the guys can come and make their points, and that's the answers we've been getting. I'm sure they will get similar answers from George and on the team. You take these things out and you devalue it and we're not going to do that.

The fact that this year The Match Play was the first to have a status within the European Tour was important. There was I think an error that was made both internally and externally that I don't know if we've managed to correct. But it was suggested, it was sully suggested at the players' dinner, and it was in the media it was the first time The Match Play had World Ranking points. The World Match Play did have World Ranking points up to a certain point when the Federation of Tours then had an involvement with the rankings. The then system, or lack of it, of qualifying players meant it was removed and; now marvelously it's more players and there's at least a dual qualification through the majors and through the European Tour where any guy that pegs up and plays well can get to Wentworth if he wants to play.

And perhaps, I think there was 44 first place World Ranking points that Ernie would have got this year in his final with Lee that neither he nor Thomas got a single point the year before is a marvelous way forward. And perhaps a number of those players, the majority of them with U.S. after their name who did not come will eventually consider coming for World Ranking points. They are certainly not going to come for a million pounds or two million pounds; it's an irrelevance for them. But it will not be an irrelevance if there are World Rankings.

Q. How much of a concern is the situation with Ernie and the U.S. PGA TOUR and the pressure that they are applying to get him to play more there than in Europe?

GEORGE O'GRADY: Well, we are obviously concerned but the very fact that Ernie Els has said that he's concerned should be concerning them. In that sense it seems a very -- it seems like quite an extraordinary pressure to put on a player of his level who plays usually 17 or 18 tournaments in the United States anyway.

I think a lot of people debate whether we have the right minimum number, 11 tournaments. Well, they play an average 16 with us on the global stage, but he's been a tremendous supporter of our PGA Championship because he likes Wentworth, and he is always prepared to listen if we need him to play somewhere. But he's a very hard man to tell to do something. But you do ask him, usually politely, and sometimes he says yes.

KEN SCHOFIELD: And the worry I think, the worry is actually not specifically Ernie. Ernie in every sense of the world is a very big fella and will know his own mind.

But the worry is if they are going to lean on Ernie, we know they have already done so with Retief, what about Adam Scott, Trevor Immelman and the other generation of young guys that normally come from the Southern hemisphere and very often make their start initially with the European Tour? And as they are going to have increasing success, it's that factor that I think you know we have a vehicle for addressing it through The Federation of Tours, and I think by Seville, the Americans will be arriving for the World Cup in three weeks' time and it will be on the agenda. Because as George says, it seems an extraordinary approach when the guy is playing well in excess of his minimum.

Q. Have you seen this coming?

GEORGE O'GRADY: We debated it initially at THE PLAYERS Championship at Sawgrass. We have seen it coming. Retief Goosen has been suffering under the same stricture, and I think if one goes really way back in time to the two best continental players of the Severiano Ballesteros and Bernhard Langer, the man who fought Deane Beman in those days when Seve's home circuit was said to be Spain; so he was allowed two tournaments. And Bernhard Langer was Germany; so he was allowed one. And that was a fairly rigid encounter between -- and that's even before Tim Finchem's time, and we got that excepted; that Europe was their home tour. I think we are not very keen on somebody telling us that the European Tour is only the European Tour that you can play in Europe, as opposed to the co-sanctioned events, as well. I think that is the other point at issue. And no, we are not happy on it no.

Q. Could you clarify for us why Retief had the opportunity to change his home tour to Europe rather than South Africa, and yet Ernie has never done that, if that is the case?

GEORGE O'GRADY: I think Ernie just doesn't believe in everybody having to write down things on a bit of paper. He says you want me to play by your rules, I'll play 15 and then I'll go do whatever I like elsewhere in the world. I think the first person who took this on was Greg Norman many years ago on the basis he excepted the minimum rules that he had to do and then he was free to move. I cannot say why Ernie has or has not done things. I think he's just Ernie Els and he understands where we live and don't anybody start pushing me around.

Q. You could be a beneficiary of this, couldn't you? You could say stuff America.

GEORGE O'GRADY: You all know we've always done as much as we possibly can to make Ernie Els feel welcome at all times. If he feels particularly welcome at one particular golf club where he won a tournament, so be it.

KEN SCHOFIELD: You've been trying to put words in my mouth for 30 years and now you're continuing with George. That is outrageous. George?

GORDON SIMPSON: Before Maria gets writer's cramp, let's wind up the formal portion of the proceedings.

Q. Do you have one memory over your 30 years, one thing that stands out, a highlight, one thing you remembered when you were sipping your white wine?

KEN SCHOFIELD: Probably Bernhard's putt at Kiawah.

Q. And an early memory of what life was like when you joined; how many staff did you have?

KEN SCHOFIELD: Six.

Q. And what it is now?

KEN SCHOFIELD: 106 or 116.

GEORGE O'GRADY: That's one fact about him that has never been actually said in his ability to run an organization, and just occasionally we have had firm words against each other. But he's built people in a company, there are other people in the company so that the people who work on the Tour are almost universally people, in fact, any single one down to the junior typist, if she were forced to be standing next to them in a bar on an aircraft catching a bus, he'd regard as a pleasure.

So the team he's got around him he's built is one of his greatest strengths. Even more important than all of the golfing achievements.

GORDON SIMPSON: I think that's an appropriate note on which to close the formal part as I say. Thank you very much for your attendance today.

End of FastScripts.
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