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Speaker 1: This is the Bloomberg Business of Sports show where we

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Speaker 1: explore the big money issues in the world of sports.

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Speaker 1: I'm Scarlett Film and Mike and today we are talking

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Speaker 1: about a blockbuster announcement in the world of golf. The

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Speaker 1: U s g A and not for profit health organization

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Speaker 1: pro Medica announcing a long term partnership that includes presenting

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Speaker 1: partner rights for the US Women's Open, which means more

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Speaker 1: eyeballs on the sport and bigger checks for the athletes involved.

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Speaker 1: So for more on this exciting announcement, where it pleased

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Speaker 1: to welcome the CEO of the US Golf Association, Mike.

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Speaker 1: Want to walk us through the implications, Mike, Welcome to

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Speaker 1: the show. And the implication really when I looked at

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Speaker 1: this news was that the US Women's Open becomes one

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Speaker 1: of the highest paying championships in all of women's sports.

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Speaker 1: The purse gets exponentially bigger, doesn't it. Yeah, thanks Carl,

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Speaker 1: Thanks Mike. It's um uh, it's it's all about elevation,

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Speaker 1: you know. This is we were talking here about three

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Speaker 1: p s a lot. You know, the purpose of our

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Speaker 1: champion ships, the places we play them, and the purses

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Speaker 1: that we pay out because those three things, you know,

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Speaker 1: change the dreams of little girls all over the world.

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Speaker 1: And it's a lot a little girl standing on a

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Speaker 1: putting green five o'clock tonight and we're saying this one's

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Speaker 1: for the U S Women's Open, and we want that

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Speaker 1: dream to get bigger and broader. So partner with ProMedica

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Speaker 1: gave us bigger purpose in terms of the impact we

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Speaker 1: can make in the markets we're in, not just but

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Speaker 1: the athletes, but for people potentially less fortunate that that

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Speaker 1: need help, and our championships can make a difference there.

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Speaker 1: We're going to some of the biggest names in the world,

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Speaker 1: which matters in these dreams. A couple beach Oakmont, mary

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Speaker 1: and Pinehurst, Riviera and uh and yeah purses. Last year

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Speaker 1: we played for five point five million dollars, which is

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Speaker 1: huge in women's golf. This year we'll play for ten

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Speaker 1: on our way to eleven and on our way to twelve.

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Speaker 1: So when you start talking about what twelve million feels

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Speaker 1: like in the in the space of golf, it's um,

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Speaker 1: it's you know, this, this is real and it makes

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Speaker 1: real differences. And as I said to a lot of

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Speaker 1: tour players that are friends with as much as this

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Speaker 1: means for you, and I know it means a lot

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Speaker 1: for you, for those you trying to make this championship.

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Speaker 1: It means a lot more for your daughters and your

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Speaker 1: daughter's daughters, because this is about creating a respect of

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Speaker 1: belief and a dream that that's that's only going to

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Speaker 1: get bigger because of this announcement. Mike, I'm curious, how

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Speaker 1: did you convince ProMedica to almost double a purse from

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Speaker 1: five point five million to ten million this year and

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Speaker 1: eleven and twelve million in the ensuing years. I got

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Speaker 1: the no ProMedica when I was the LPGA commissioner, which

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Speaker 1: is what I did before coming to the U s

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Speaker 1: g A. And when I last conversation I had with

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Speaker 1: ProMedica when I was at the LPGA, as they said, Mike,

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Speaker 1: we're a huge regional brand on the on the custus

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Speaker 1: of really going national, and so what I'd really like

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Speaker 1: is a national championship on a network TV that rotates

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Speaker 1: to big markets all over the US. At the time,

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Speaker 1: I tried to sell him on a championship we had

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Speaker 1: in Palm Springs, but but a state in Palm Springs,

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Speaker 1: and like, yeah, now if you find you know later,

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Speaker 1: if you find something. So then I came into the

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Speaker 1: U SJA and realized that this this opportunity to present

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Speaker 1: a By the way, in a hundred and seven years

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Speaker 1: of history at the U s J, we've never had

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Speaker 1: a corporate name connected to our championship. So this was

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Speaker 1: a big This was a big lift and you know,

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Speaker 1: an anxious moment. But we started talking about who would

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Speaker 1: be the right corporate partner. My mind quickly went to

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Speaker 1: ProMedica for three reasons. They're they're not for profit, mission based,

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Speaker 1: just like us, so they're about making the difference more

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Speaker 1: than they're about you know, how many things did we

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Speaker 1: sell this quarter? They they're they already understood the women's game,

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Speaker 1: they were big sponsors the Solheim Cup. They they had

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Speaker 1: sponsored an LPG about once before. And his voice went

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Speaker 1: off in my head, which is going national rotating network

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Speaker 1: TV and that's the U s Women's open So um,

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Speaker 1: they were the first and only company I've reached out

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Speaker 1: to him When I got here, U SJ was talking

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Speaker 1: to other corporate options, but they're the only They were

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Speaker 1: the first and last call I made on this topic,

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Speaker 1: and a couple of months later we got our deal done.

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Speaker 1: So the context And the backdrop here is that viewership

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Speaker 1: for the U S Women's Open has been rising on

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Speaker 1: NBC Sports and Call Channel. Last year it rose to

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Speaker 1: reach the highest audience in twent So that's really notable

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Speaker 1: from where you sit. What's responsible for driving that viewership, Well,

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Speaker 1: a couple of things. I mean, the women's golf has

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Speaker 1: been rising for twelve years and I can speak to

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Speaker 1: that pretty completly from my previous world. Um, it's just

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Speaker 1: you know, it's becoming more and more interesting. The other

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Speaker 1: thing that makes you know, we talk a lot in

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Speaker 1: the States about viewership, and we we do what a

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Speaker 1: lot of Americans do, myself included, we talked about NBC

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Speaker 1: or Golf Channel. What's really interesting about the U S

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Speaker 1: Women's Open is it will be televised in a hundred

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Speaker 1: and seventy countries because young girls small over the world

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Speaker 1: are starting to have this dream of I mean there's

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Speaker 1: countries that pay for our rights and air this. Twenty

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Speaker 1: five years ago women didn't play golf in that country.

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Speaker 1: So it's really an awakening for the game all around

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Speaker 1: the world. And you know, the competition at this at

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Speaker 1: this level is so is so deep. I mean, it

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Speaker 1: used to be went back twenty five years ago in

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Speaker 1: the LPGA, there was thirty forty women that could win

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Speaker 1: that week, and now anybody in the field could win.

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Speaker 1: The other thing, you know, Scarlet, that's really makes the

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Speaker 1: US Women's Open standout and certainly did last year, is

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Speaker 1: you start talking about playing these things on the real

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Speaker 1: cathedrals of the game. When we when we when you

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Speaker 1: hear that the women we're gonna play a US Women's

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Speaker 1: Open at at Olympics. You know, when people think about Olympics,

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Speaker 1: they think about all the great champions that have been

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Speaker 1: there and all the great championships on TV, but they

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Speaker 1: probably can't think of one that included women on that course.

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Speaker 1: So that's what I say, you know, us saying that

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Speaker 1: we're going to Oakmont and Marion and Pinehurst and Riviera

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Speaker 1: and Inverness. These are these are considered the best of

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Speaker 1: the best, incredible championships tied to them, incredible histories of

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Speaker 1: Do you remember when Hogan, Remember when Nicholas and now

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Speaker 1: it will be incredible to be able to say, do

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Speaker 1: remember when Karta? Do remember when Lexie Thompson did something

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Speaker 1: at the at the same at the same cathedrals of

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Speaker 1: the game. Yeah, I'm a big golfer and a big

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Speaker 1: golf fan, and and that that's what caught my attention

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Speaker 1: when I first read the story that these venues that

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Speaker 1: you're going to, I mean oak Mine, I think of

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Speaker 1: Johnny Miller. Um, you know, when I think of Pebble,

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Speaker 1: I think of you know, the Tiger of Phil Nikolson.

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Speaker 1: And you're right about that. How do how do we

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Speaker 1: accelerate the growth in the development of the American women

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Speaker 1: golfer right now? Well? Two things I think. I think One,

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Speaker 1: the pipeline of American golfers is pretty strong. Um, you

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Speaker 1: know it may I've said this many times as Americans,

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Speaker 1: we would like the top twenty five in the world

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Speaker 1: have twenty four of them from American most sports, you know,

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Speaker 1: if you talk to you know, the NBA, you know, uh, tennis, golf,

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Speaker 1: you know, from a business of the game and true

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Speaker 1: worldwide growth, it's really not the greatest formula. So when

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Speaker 1: you say you take the top twenty five and the

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Speaker 1: women's game, and you'd say, okay, six or seven of

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Speaker 1: them are from the US, five or six of them

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Speaker 1: are from Korea, five or six from Japan, seven or

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Speaker 1: eight room from Europe. That's actually a super strong game.

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Speaker 1: It's you know, it's what makes great sports great, as

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Speaker 1: opposed to just having players come from one country, play

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Speaker 1: in one country, have a championship that you call the

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Speaker 1: World Championship, and only have it one country. Is great

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Speaker 1: for Americans, but doesn't really create a global awareness, doesn't

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Speaker 1: create global sponsorship, global viewership. And that's really what's kind

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Speaker 1: of cool about the women's game right now, so half

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Speaker 1: of them. As an American, I say, gosh, I'd like

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Speaker 1: to see a lot more Americans at the top of

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Speaker 1: the leaderboard at a specific women's championship. As a golf fanatic,

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Speaker 1: I know this is really good for the game because

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Speaker 1: great female golfers are literally coming from all over the world. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: I mean many of the top ranked golfers are from

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Speaker 1: the Asia, as you mentioned, Korea, Japan, And of course

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Speaker 1: I'm all for global awareness. But if you are talking

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Speaker 1: to young women, to girls in the US, what's the

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Speaker 1: key to developing more local talent, more um domestic talent

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Speaker 1: here that will help market the game in the US. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: that's good questions, Carlett. I mean one of the things

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Speaker 1: that you know, I just got to the U s

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Speaker 1: J here in the last year and one of the

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Speaker 1: things I explained to the Board of Directors when I

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Speaker 1: got to the U s J is, as the former

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Speaker 1: commissioner the LPJ, virtually every player who's playing on that

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Speaker 1: tour came out of a country program from where she's from,

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Speaker 1: except the Americans. And when I mean by that is

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Speaker 1: what You're a twelve year old superstar talent and Spain

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Speaker 1: at some point you're gonna become a part of Team Spain,

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Speaker 1: and Team Spain is gonna teach you um stretching and

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Speaker 1: nutrition and coaching and how to hire and fire a

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Speaker 1: caddy and how to get into a Division one school.

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Speaker 1: They're really gonna gonna take you and help you down

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Speaker 1: a path, a no nonsense path how to make the

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Speaker 1: most out of your game. Every player from every country

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Speaker 1: has that doesn't exist in America. And you could say

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Speaker 1: one of the reasons it doesn't exist is there are

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Speaker 1: a lot of opportunities in America, a lot of tours

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Speaker 1: to play and coaches to see. But if you're not

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Speaker 1: from that, from that background, you can clearly get washed

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Speaker 1: away and that talent can end up in another sport.

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Speaker 1: So one of the things we're working on launching here

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Speaker 1: at the United States Golf Association is Team USA is

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Speaker 1: a development track for young girls and boys that helps

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Speaker 1: them do the same thing. I'm not sure that makes us.

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Speaker 1: That's not about competitive advantage, that's about removing some competitive

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Speaker 1: disadvantageming this today that we simply don't provide that in America.

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Speaker 1: And when I was ahead of a sport or league,

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Speaker 1: I couldn't really divert money into one country. But my

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Speaker 1: current title starts with the United States. So I feel

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Speaker 1: pretty comfortable that the United States Golf Association can fully

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Speaker 1: invest in this pipeline to make sure that young American

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Speaker 1: talent has the best potential possible to make it to

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Speaker 1: the top of the podium. So, so, do you think

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Speaker 1: it is the U s g as responsibility or is

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Speaker 1: it the LPGA's responsibility. Is that the American Junior Golf

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Speaker 1: Association's responsibility to start these pipelines that it seems like

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Speaker 1: nobody wanted to be the first one to jump in. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I um, I don't know. I mean to answer your question.

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Speaker 1: I know if there's somebody who feels like they have,

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Speaker 1: but I personally sitting here today, I feel like it's

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Speaker 1: by responsibility. I feel like it's our responsibility. I feel

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Speaker 1: like the United States Golf Association first and foremost ought

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Speaker 1: to be providing these incredible stages for people to play

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Speaker 1: the game at whatever states they're in, professional, amateur, older,

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Speaker 1: younger man, a man, woman, and we do that. One

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Speaker 1: of the responsibilities I think we need to take under

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Speaker 1: our wing is great young talent has clear pathway to

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Speaker 1: make it, and if you don't have the financial re

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Speaker 1: sources to make it, then we provide those financial resources

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Speaker 1: for to do that. I think that's um. I think

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Speaker 1: the good news for me is and what I know

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Speaker 1: about the game is if we did take responsibility for

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Speaker 1: that and started this, I have zero doubt that the

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Speaker 1: other entities you mentioned and many more would say how

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Speaker 1: can we help. I love that someone who's gonna take

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Speaker 1: responsibility for it, as opposed to saying that's actually someone

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Speaker 1: else's domain. That's not what we cover. Um, Mike, I

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Speaker 1: got to ask you in general about pay for female

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Speaker 1: athletes and for female golfers, because I look at tennis,

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Speaker 1: and women and men are awarded equal prize money in

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Speaker 1: the four Grand Slam events. There's going to be a

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Speaker 1: gender pay gap in some of the smaller tournaments. But

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Speaker 1: when you look at the big events, there is parody.

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Speaker 1: What does the sport of tennis do right that golf

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Speaker 1: can learn from? Yeah, you know, it's funny you say that, Scarlett.

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Speaker 1: I'm gonna it's funny. I spent a lot of time

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Speaker 1: with a lot of folks in the tennis world too,

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Speaker 1: just because our businesses were similar, similar, global, and and

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Speaker 1: all kinds of similar issues. And if you ask a

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Speaker 1: hundred tennis fans, do men and women get paid the same,

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Speaker 1: hundred of a hundred would say yes. The reality of

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Speaker 1: it is they get paid the same at four events,

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Speaker 1: but you know, but virtually not in any other event.

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Speaker 1: But that's okay. At least I got four, yes, and

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Speaker 1: the fans believe that too. The one real advantage, quite frankly,

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Speaker 1: that tennis has that is harder in golf is they

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Speaker 1: play on the in the on the same week, at

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Speaker 1: the same venue, under the same TV contract, with the

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Speaker 1: same number of consumers. And it's um it's more difficult

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Speaker 1: to do that with a hundred and fifty six competitors.

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Speaker 1: From a golf course perspective, you just can't. You can't

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Speaker 1: play it on the actual same week, same play, same

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Speaker 1: TV deal. So they can you can have a lot

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Speaker 1: more synergies and both in terms of costs and a

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Speaker 1: lot more synergies in terms of viewership, all being on

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Speaker 1: one aspect. But so so so that's the that's the

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Speaker 1: actual answer your question. The more conceptual part of your

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Speaker 1: question is, you know, how does golf get there? And

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Speaker 1: I always tell people don't stop asking, because I think

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Speaker 1: that's the you know, that's the path we're on. We're

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Speaker 1: I said this, uh, I said this a few weeks

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Speaker 1: ago when we were really talking about women's parody, which is,

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Speaker 1: to get to women's parody in golf, you can't make

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Speaker 1: small incremental steps. You've gotta make monster steps because once

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Speaker 1: you make one monster step, you can make the next one.

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Speaker 1: This announcement with ProMedica and the U S g A

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Speaker 1: is a monster step. Five million and ten million to

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Speaker 1: eleven to twelve. These are these are garganser on steps,

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Speaker 1: and that's how you get to this level. So we've

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Speaker 1: got to we've got to think about steps this size,

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Speaker 1: not how can we be four percent better than we

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Speaker 1: were the year before. Mike. When you when you think

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Speaker 1: about men's golf over the years, who's who's the face

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Speaker 1: of of of the Men's Tour, is it it was

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Speaker 1: Tiger Woods, Phil Nicholson, Brooks, kepka Um, Rory McElroy who

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Speaker 1: was the face of women's golf right now? Well, it's

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Speaker 1: funny even as you asked the question. You know, when

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Speaker 1: you talk about who's the face of men's golf today,

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Speaker 1: the good news is there's probably five or six or

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Speaker 1: seven quality answers. And and I've said this before. You know,

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Speaker 1: I have three boys, and if I asked my three

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Speaker 1: boys who's the face of the NFL, I definitely will

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Speaker 1: get three different answers, and you know they'll all be right,

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Speaker 1: you mean, Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady, you know, um. And

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Speaker 1: I think it actually makes the sport better because if

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Speaker 1: it's you know, if and if the NBA is only

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Speaker 1: Lebron and every thing else just isn't Lebron Um. That's

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Speaker 1: easy for the media, you know, it's easy in terms

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Speaker 1: of you know, articles you're gonna read, but it really

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Speaker 1: doesn't make the game strong. And one of the things

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Speaker 1: I've always been impressed with that the NFL is they

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Speaker 1: really create you know, they really create energy at all

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Speaker 1: different at all different regions and all different levels. What's

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Speaker 1: interesting about the game today is If you asked a

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Speaker 1: bunch of people in Europe, who's the face of women's golf,

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Speaker 1: they'll give you five top Europeans. If you ask the

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Speaker 1: same in Asia, they'll give you five top. If you

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Speaker 1: ask Americans, they'll say the quarter Sisters and Lexie Thompson

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Speaker 1: and Daniel Kang. True. I mean, definitely faces of golf.

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Speaker 1: But it's a little bit regional. And the same is

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Speaker 1: true if you were talking about Premier League soccer. Around

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Speaker 1: the world, people have the different core group that they follow,

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Speaker 1: so I think it actually makes the game stronger. I've

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Speaker 1: said this many times. I get it one Serena Williams

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Speaker 1: and golf um would be easy for everybody. Just talk

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Speaker 1: about that one person and the media would follow that

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Speaker 1: one person, and when she doesn't play in a golf event,

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Speaker 1: we probably would think of it as a lesser event.

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Speaker 1: I'm not sure that makes the game stronger. It just

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Speaker 1: makes it easier for the people that don't really follow it. Right.

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Speaker 1: I have a question for you about broadening golf's appealed

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Speaker 1: to the younger generations. We know that it's popular with

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Speaker 1: boomers with Gen X, but it's questionable whether millennials and

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Speaker 1: Gen Z has signed on. But the pandemic may have

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Speaker 1: helped things because last year everyone was looking for some

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Speaker 1: kind of physical activity that they could do outside that

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Speaker 1: was socially distance and golf kind of fits the bill perfectly.

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Speaker 1: Give us your observations on how the sport of golf

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Speaker 1: has uh increased its appeal during the pandemic and whether

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Speaker 1: that's sustainable once we get past COVID. Yeah. I mean

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Speaker 1: so in as you could probably imagine, when you were

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Speaker 1: trying to get outdoors have social spacing and you weren't

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Speaker 1: sure what was or wasn't safe, golf went crazy, you know,

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Speaker 1: up twenty plus percent in terms of play in twenty

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Speaker 1: verses nineteen. When we got one, everyone said, well, buckle up,

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Speaker 1: we'll going back to where it was, you know, in

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Speaker 1: eighteen or nineteen. And the reality of it is, we're

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Speaker 1: actually gonna be up in twenty one versus twenty, So

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Speaker 1: we're actually are gonna see actually more rounds played in

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Speaker 1: tw only one then we saw in twenty. Even though

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Speaker 1: people have returned to some sort of hybrid I know

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Speaker 1: that not everyone's back to five days in the office. Um,

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Speaker 1: but even with that, you know, we've seen the growth

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Speaker 1: that happened in golf, the return of of of of

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Speaker 1: a lot of demographics that returned in twenty not only

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Speaker 1: stayed but actually played more golf in twenty one so far.

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Speaker 1: Then then we then we saw in twenty two. So

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Speaker 1: that's exciting. The the bigger piece scarlet that's really exciting

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Speaker 1: about this game is um if I was being honest

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Speaker 1: with you for about a hundred years, if you would say,

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Speaker 1: what's the future of the game look like, I would

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Speaker 1: always laughing. You don't don't have that. You don't have

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Speaker 1: to discuss the future of the game. Go look at

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Speaker 1: junior golf. That's the future game. What's it look like?

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Speaker 1: For about a hundred years, it looked exactly like adult golf.

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Speaker 1: It was primarily white, it was primarily men, it was

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Speaker 1: primarily high income. So you could talk about the future

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Speaker 1: of the game changing, but come on, the future of

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Speaker 1: the game is already playing that just haven't grown up yet. Today.

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Speaker 1: If you look at the future of the game, it's

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Speaker 1: amazingly female. You know, it's uh four, you don't close

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Speaker 1: to female, it's close to you know, not white. And

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Speaker 1: and I think there's two things going on there. One,

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Speaker 1: there's been an incredible you know, initiatives between the industry

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Speaker 1: to generate an even greater junior audience, and junior by

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Speaker 1: the way, junior golf has grown faster than any other

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Speaker 1: kind of golf in the in the US. The other

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Speaker 1: thing is the is the inventive top golf drive shack,

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Speaker 1: high end, you know, miniature golf. It's creating an audience

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Speaker 1: that quite frankly, we didn't have before. It's younger, it's

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Speaker 1: way more diverse, it's female, it's it's non white, um,

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Speaker 1: it's high income. I mean that. I think people get

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Speaker 1: it wrong when they think it's an audience that couldn't

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Speaker 1: transfer over to the game. And about of that whole

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Speaker 1: kind of top golf off course world has transferred into

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Speaker 1: green grass golf. So when you think about who's coming

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Speaker 1: into the game, that always tell I always tell people

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Speaker 1: the future of the game is pretty easy to figure out.

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Speaker 1: Just tell me who's coming into the funnel. And junior

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Speaker 1: golf is certainly looks different than it's looked in a

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Speaker 1: hundred years. And because of what's happening with this off

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Speaker 1: course phenomenon, that whole influence coming into the game looks,

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Speaker 1: feels and acts different. So it's making the demographics of

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Speaker 1: golf look more like America, not more like past golf. Interesting. Mike,

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Speaker 1: really appreciate your joining us to give us your perspective

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Speaker 1: on the game, and of course the new sponsorship deal

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Speaker 1: that you've signed with pro Medica, the nonprofit health organization.

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Speaker 1: Really appreciate it, Mike Jon CEO of U s g A.

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Speaker 1: This is a Bloomberg Business of Sports podcast. I'm Scarlet

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Speaker 1: Fu along with Mike bar and Mike Lynch. Catch us

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Speaker 1: here each and every Monday, Wednesday and Thursday where we

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Speaker 1: explore the world of money and sports, and look out

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Speaker 1: for our Thursday pod because we're gonna be joined by

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Speaker 1: the two time Super Bowl winning m v P one

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Speaker 1: and only, Eli Manning, and be sure to catch us

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Speaker 1: on Twitter. You can find me at Scarlett Fu and

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Speaker 1: you can find me at Lynch e w CVB. You're

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Speaker 1: listening to Bloomberg Business of Sports on Bloomberg Radio around

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Speaker 1: the world.