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ZURICH CLASSIC OF NEW ORLEANSApril 24, 2013Ben CraneJay MonahanJustin RoseMartin SennSteve WorthyNEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA DOUG MILNE: I'm Doug Milne with the PGA TOUR Communications Department. Thank you all for being here for this special announcement today. Joining us, we have Martin Senn, CEO of the Zurich Insurance Group. Jay Monahan, chief marketing officer of the PGA TOUR. Steve Worthy, president of the Fore!Kids Foundation, as well as PGA TOUR members, Ben Crane and Justin Rose. Again, we appreciate you all being here, and with that, I'll turn it over to Martin Senn for the special announcement. MARTIN SENN: Thank you very much and good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Friends of New Orleans, friends of Zurich, friends of golf, this is a great pleasure for me to welcome you together with my colleagues here on stage. I'm very pleased and honored to announce that Zurich Insurance Group has decided to extend our engagement with the Zurich Classic for the next five years through 2019. It is for us a great privilege. It's a great honor to have another time commitment to this great tournament. It's also a commitment to the people of New Orleans and to the great city of New Orleans. I must tell you at the time when we started this back right after Katrina or around Katrina, the idea was to bring the swing back, the swing of golf, the swing of Jazz, the Jazz Festival all is happening at the same time, and also the swing of business. I think at the time it had been a bit more stressed than it is now. The last years have been immensely important for Zurich. I think for New Orleans, for the TOUR, for the PGA, for the Fore!Kids Foundation, and if anything, we have benefited from is to continually strengthening the ties, the ties with the Fore!Kids Foundation, the ties with the PGA TOUR, the PGA players and with that, as well, the opportunity for us to be engaged in more and more charities. This tournament supports all together over 40 charities. Has done tremendous work in bringing people back into their homes, helping schools, and I'm always very impressed how the Fore!Kids Foundation is doing so much for education to give education, to give health care, and as well hope, which is most important maybe, for hundred thousands of kids in Louisiana. We're very privileged and proud to be part of that. Together we've raised more than $9 million to support children in need in the New Orleans area. As I mentioned, together we have rebuilt homes for people which have been destroyed by Katrina, and we have also learned as an organization some very valuable lessons about community, about hope, about as an insurer, about preventing and how to recover from natural disasters. This happens every year, every day nearly. Somewhere in the world we're exposed to natural disasters. And we have learned a lot of lessons here in New Orleans. We are very happy to bring these lessons into other parts of the world. For example, after super storm Sandy had hit New York, there are a lot of lessons which have been learned here in New Orleans that we're transporting now to the New York area and helping people in the same way as the charities have been helping here in New Orleans. So we bring that forward. With that, we have gained so much in those relationships from this great city. And it's an honor for me on the basis of that to represent all of my 60,000 colleagues around the world, and to express today our tremendous satisfaction to be able to continue this engagement through 2019. So the Zurich Classic will be here for quite a while. With that, thank you for your attention. DOUG MILNE: Martin, thank you for those words. Now I'll turn it over to Jay Monahan, chief marketing officer with the PGA TOUR. JAY MONAHAN: Thank you, Doug, thank you, Martin. On behalf of the PGA TOUR, I want to first start by conveying our excitement at Zurich's five‑year title sponsorship extension. Of note, this commitment will bring Zurich Classic to 15 years since its inception. This essentially marks a 15‑year commitment. So I'm going to ask you to give another round of applause for this outstanding commitment from Zurich. There's been a lot of discussion about the origin of this partnership, and there's been, I think, a lot of question as to whether it was good fortune or it was fate that led Zurich to step forward as title sponsorship of the Zurich Classic of New Orleans just months before hurricane Katrina struck. However, as we enter our ninth Zurich Classic, one thing is entirely evident, and that is Zurich's commitment to this tournament, the Fore!Kids Foundation, and all of its charitable beneficiaries and to this great city. Every city should be so fortunate to have a partner like Zurich. This sponsorship is a reflection on what makes Zurich so great. It's also a testament to the leadership of Martin Senn. For no one, and you've all gotten to know him extremely well over the past several years, demonstrates a greater passion or becomes more personally involved in the investments of his company than Martin Senn. As you walked over here, you probably saw the Golf Digest December issue titled "Game Changers." Essentially, it identified those golfers that give back. It specifically talked about Martin Senn and Zurich, and it talked about their support of the St. Michael's Special School. And I point out Jane Silva and the Louisiana orange tree that stand in her memory, the St. Bernard Parish Home Building Project that they've worked dutifully with Ben and Heather Crane on. I also add the great work they do with Justin and Kate Rose with blessing in a backpack here in New Orleans. So as you think about Zurich, just recognize that they have truly embraced their role with the tournament, and what they've done that's truly exceptional is that they've done it in a very personal way. They've become one with this city, and for that, we're very proud. Before I close, I just wanted to take a moment and say a few thank yous. I also want to thank Mike Foley, Randy Clouser, and Dick Kearns with Zurich. I also want to thank Darrah Schaeffer and Steve Worthy, chairman and President of the Fore!Kids Foundation. I want to thank Justin and Ben for being here and for being with Zurich 365 days of the year. Also thank our friends from CAA. So as we go forward, I'll look back for a second, and say when I was here last year I was he here helping to celebrate Zurich's 100th anniversary. This year I come and celebrate their five‑year extension. I can't wait for next year. But I do want to say to Martin and the great people of Zurich, a heartfelt thank you, and most importantly I want to say that you have our complete commitment to the continued growth of the Zurich Classic and to the continued growth of your business and your brand. So thank you very much, Martin, and thank you Zurich. DOUG MILNE: At this time we'll turn it over to Steve Worthy, chairman and president of the Fore!Kids Foundation. STEVE WORTHY: We're very happy to be able to make this announcement today. It's a wonderful thing for us. Our relationship with Zurich is more than just a sponsorship, it's a true collaboration. We've worked together on so many things. The 200 members of the Fore!Kids Foundation work tirelessly to make an impact on the lives of children within this region. And we're so proud to be able to work with Zurich who is so committed to our city and so committed to so many of the causes that they support locally like St. Michael's Special School, like the St. Bernard project. They're a wonderful partner, and we couldn't be happier to have them. We look forward to being able to continue all of the great work we've done together. It's nice to know where our future is headed. Our city, we all feel strongly about our city, and feel like this partnership is going to lead us to great things. So we thank you all for being here, and with that, I'll turn it over to Justin Rose. JUSTIN ROSE: On behalf of the players I'd like to thank Zurich once again for your commitment to the PGA TOUR, to us as players. The size of this commitment is certainly not lost on us. I know it's a huge investment. The players are incredibly grateful and thankful as I know the communities are. Obviously, they begin to rely on that support, and for you to be able to step up and tell them ahead of time for the next five years what they have coming I'm sure is a huge relief. So thank you very much. On behalf of the players, I really feel this is a well‑respected tournament. I think this tournament is going places. I think it's incredibly well‑run. It's one of the most well‑supported tournaments that I see. A lot of sponsors try to put on functions and events for players that don't get that well‑attended. I think you guys really know how to do it, and I think the players respond. So thank you very much. DOUG MILNE: A couple of comments from Ben Crane. BEN CRANE: I couldn't to be more excited about what's going on here at Zurich with regards to the community. And it's just amazing to see the impact that Zurich has as it goes to the employment rate even here in New Orleans and the state. Five years ago we were in a much different place, and I know Zurich plays a huge role in that. So I couldn't be more excited about five more years of playing this great golf course with an unbelievable sponsor in Zurich and just being affiliated with them. On behalf of the players, as Justin said, this is something that we look forward to. Really, Zurich is about giving back, and Martin and the Zurich team are complete game‑changers in the game of golf. So thank you. I'm just very happy to be a small part of it. DOUG MILNE: Thank all of you up here at this time. Thank you guys for everything. Martin, thank you for everything, and thank you all for being here. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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