THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP MEDIA DAY

March 7, 2000

David Duval

COMMISSIONER FINCHEM: As we get closer to THE PLAYERS Championship, members of the media have been asking me over the last few weeks, as they do every single year, where do you rank THE PLAYERS Championship, how important is it, should it be a major, all those questions. And I just want to take a minute and review in the context of who is in this room my answers typically to that question. And that is that the only job of the PGA TOUR, our volunteers, our charities board, our staff, the players -- to try to make THE PLAYERS Championship a little bit better each year, and everything else will take care of itself. But when you stand back and look at THE PLAYERS Championship and consider in each of the important categories that you would look at from the standpoint of any PGA TOUR level professional championship worldwide, THE PLAYERS Championship carries very well. And I just want to mention again in the context of the people here, six reasons why we should take pride in what THE PLAYERS Championship has become. The first and foremost is that THE PLAYERS Championship is unique in that it is the players' tournament itself. The players own it. Their staff manages it for them. They direct its success, and they support the concept of it being a very special championship. Secondly, and most important in golf, perhaps, is the quality of the players, the caliber of the field year-in and year-out that play. Over the last seven or eight years, THE PLAYERS Championship has been ranked at least No. 1 or No. 2, if you use the World Golf Rankings, but if you just look at depth of field, it is clearly the deepest, strongest field of the year. Again, this year that will be the case, where we have virtually every player eligible, and that means virtually every great player in the world will be here playing at THE PLAYERS Championship. The third important factor is the quality of the golf course. How does it challenge the players, how does it create excitement, and in both of those areas, you see the great work of Fred Klauk and his staff over the last several years in particular. The golf course has reached a point where it challenges every aspect of the players’ game, and it also creates extremely exciting situations for the fans and the viewers around the world. David's victory last year is a great testament of the kind of pressure the golf course can put on a player's game, but also the kind of excitement that can emanate from a player who plays very well under those conditions. And if you can just pick out one shot, David's shot at 17 last year coming home down the stretch pretty much says it all. Fourth is the quality of the volunteer organization that stands behind the championship, and the leadership of the Red Coats. We at this championship are second to none in terms of the quality of the involvement of the community in making the championship very, very successful. And I want to recognize our current chairman, Murray Beard. This year -- where is Murray, if you would stand up (applause), and also our first vice chairman Lynn Stoner is not with us, I gather, but we have three other of our vice chairmen, Jack Garnett, Kevin Robbins and Marc Smith, if you three would stand (applause). And the quality of the volunteer group that comes forward every year and creates the ability to generate the kind of dollars for charity we are now generating is an enormous testament to the commitment of the community. The fifth area that we look at is the commitment to charity, and this championship has generated over $10 million for charity. But now we're moving at a different rate, because the dollars contributed today from the 1999 PLAYERS championship will exceed $1 million in and of themselves, and we anticipate that that will continue to grow in the future. So the tradition that began in 1938 of leaving dollars behind in the communities where PGA TOUR events are played is well represented here at THE PLAYERS Championship. And then the sixth category that you can measure tournament versus tournament, and one that I think is overlooked a lot is just the quality of the champions that we have. If you look at the long list of players who have won this championship, it is a who's who of -- who has been the great players of the game in the last 25 years. Nicklaus, Price, Norman, Elkington, Love and now David Duval represent the very best, and that says a lot about a championship, because it means that not only are the best players playing in the championship, but the best players in the world are prioritizing that championship as something very special, something that they are gearing up for mentally, something that they come to town prepared to try and go all out to win, and that has been reflected in the nature of our championship over the last 25, 26 years. Now with all that said about THE PLAYERS Championship, I'll turn it over to David Duval and I'll make just two brief comments. One, I don't have to explain David's prowess on the golf course. He is firmly entrenched as one of the premiere players of the game. Over the last couple of years, he's been either No. 1 or No. 2 in the Official World Golf Ranking. He has won a phenomenal number of events, but beyond that, he has played consistently. And it seems like if you watch him closely, his dedication, application of energy and focus has continued to ascend during that period of time, as opposed to slacking off. But as important, or even more important than his prowess on the golf course is his commitment to the ideals of what makes this game special and unique, and that is perhaps best represented by his commitment to charity around the country, and here in northeast Florida where he has contributed enormous amounts of his own time, but also dollars, from The Presidents Cup to Ryder Cup and his own winnings to a variety of charities in the community to make this a better place for everybody. And beyond this particular area, in his second home in Idaho, he has become involved in public causes, as well. And it is because of players like David Duval that we can clearly and unequivocally say that our players, our athletes are unique in sports. They are head and shoulders above any other category of athlete. And David, we're just so pleased that you as a hometown favorite one last year and we're looking forward to having you defend this year as we start a new century. I'd like to ask David and Teresa Greene Hazel to come up, and Billy Walker, so they can present the check for $1,140,110 to THE PLAYERS Championship Charities. And I'd like to introduce the chairman of THE PLAYERS Championship Charities board, Billy Walker. Billy?

BILLY WALKER: Thank you, very much, Commissioner. And also on behalf of all these recipients that you see listed here the charity recipients, it's a pleasure to me to represent the board. And we have a number of the charities here today, and I know you're really here to see David and hear from him, I'll be very, very brief. I do want to thank the Commissioner and the PGA TOUR. Our thanks to David and all of the TOUR players. Our thanks to Teresa Greene Hazel, the Red Coats, and the 1,500 volunteers that make all of this possible. Our charity recipients as you know will receive $1,140,000-plus this year, and last year's tournament, that brings us to a total of almost $10 million that all of you people have produced for these worthy recipients. I'd just like to take one minute to talk about the fact that we hear an awful lot about the Jaguars and the economic impact that they have had on this area, and I don't want to say that it's anything less than what we hear about. But we hear far, far, far too little, particularly from the corporate community, about the positive economic impact that Deane Beman and his board and those who have followed him, with their decision back in the 70’s to move the PGA TOUR headquarters here, and to start this great series of tournaments that have been so incredibly successful here, added to everything that's going on, as Ana mentioned, south of us. There's no way in the world to imagine or measure the positive economic impact that all of that has had on our community. So I want to say thanks to each and every one of you who played such an important role in that. And I want to say it on behalf of the community and citizens, many of them whom could care less what a golf ball looks like, but their lives have been very, very, very positively impacted by this game, by you great people, including the media who have supported it, so our thanks to all of you. (Applause).

DAVID DUVAL: Thank you. I've been praised far too much today. I don't know what to say. I'm excited about the upcoming week. I'm home again, which has been -- I think I left the 26th or 27th of December, just got back Sunday night. So it's nice to be back on the East Coast. I had a good time on the West Coast, but the weather didn't cooperate very much and then I come back here and it's 80 degrees and sunny, Chamber of Commerce days. So it's nice to be back, and I'm excited about what's going to transpire the next few weeks. There's a lot of hard work to go into my preparations, but then it's going to be a very enjoyable ride to Augusta. (Applause).

DAVID DUVAL: Well, you know, I've been working very hard on this career on opening up doors in the acting community, so get through Augusta, win Augusta, retire and head to Hollywood. (Laughter.) I think I was just very, very lucky on those. And surprisingly, the feedback I've gotten, it seems that most people have enjoyed the Charles Schwab commercials. Whereas, personally I thought the AT&T things were the funniest. I really enjoyed the one where Paul Reiser came up and was -- and I came up and said, "I am David Duval" and he was, "ooh," I thought that was great. (Laughter.) So there have been very few people who have took them seriously. We have had a couple like, "man, he really seems arrogant in those things." They didn't quite catch the fact that it was tongue-in-cheek. They have been very well received and I'm excited about it. They take a full day to film, you get up about daybreak and you finish at dark. A lot of it is down time. And then like with AT&T with Paul Reiser, they shot a bunch of takes way out wide, and then when they found something they like, they then brought it in tight. And then when they got that down, they had to shoot it over his shoulder so you could see my face and over my shoulder so you could see his face; so it feels very repetitive, I guess. You keep saying the same things over and over again, but they turned out well.

DAVID DUVAL: Simply to try to improve myself that that was a place where I could get better. I felt like that the last three or four years I've been in good -- very good shape, but I felt like I could improve, and I felt that that might be a bit of a piece that could help me get to where I was looking to go, so I focused on that. I think the way that things have gone this year, it shows it's been very helpful, I don't think I would have had the results that I've had considering if I had not worked so hard in the off-season.

DAVID DUVAL: No, nothing specific. Simply overall health and general strength and flexibility.

DAVID DUVAL: I believe that L.A. I started to putt well and started to roll the ball well, and then the Andersen Consulting Match Play Championship, I started making putts finally, and then last week I feel like I putted well again. I don't know why I putted poorly, but that's what I kept saying at the end of the year was that I was playing very well, but I wasn't making putts like I did last year, or the last couple of years even. And the big thing was I wasn't seeing the lines at all. And the last few weeks, I've really start seeing it, and then got down to Doral and I really saw the lines well. Didn't make the putts every day, but made a lot of putts on a few days, a couple of days, which is exciting for me after what had happened on the West Coast. And I think also, my ball didn't bounce the right way off the West Coast the last month or so (laughter.) It sounds crazy, you know, but we played the first couple weeks in Hawaii and then the Phoenix Open, and the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic, the greens were perfect. But then we got onto greens that were very wet and very bumpy from the traffic, and it was hard to tell putting. Balls didn't roll very well. They were bouncing a lot. And mine simply failed to bounce in the hole. I think it was hard to figure out if it was because of me or the greens, and it fed on itself and I got more and more frustrated but now I used three different putters the last three events, actually. I've got a couple of them a like a lot. The one that I've used for a few years I've retired, actually because, you know, it's a long story, but it's in retirement now. So I actually used a new putter last week that I really felt good with, and the week before at the Andersen Consulting Match Play Championship I used another one. So it's nice to have a couple of choices, actually. It kind of might sound funny, but I was very reluctant and scared, if you will, to change, even when I felt like I might need a change. I just didn't have anything I was really comfortable with. So it's nice to have some options now; so I think that's part of what freed me up.

DAVID DUVAL: You know, a little bit, but I didn't a whole lot because I went straight up to Atlanta and ended up winning there and it was on to Augusta. You know, I think when the week starts, it will sink in a little bit more the fact that I'm here. I didn't realize that a lot of people were going to be here. It was obviously a wonderful week. And, you know, what Tim was saying about THE PLAYERS Championship itself and when everyone questions where it stands in the game and such, I think if you look at the things that the past champions have said, all of them, you know, the majority of them, they are all saying that it might be the most important event that they play all year. You can't just deem it a major overnight, but I think it's certainly the biggest tournament in the world each year.

DAVID DUVAL: I don't have that, but Tiger certainly might. You know, it's kind of a shame that it's not thought of that way, because THE PLAYERS clearly has the best field every year. There's 144 that start here that are simply the best 144 players in the world, which no other field can boast of. You have a golf course that people didn't particularly care for a whole lot when it first started, but the TPC at Sawgrass has really matured into a course that I don't think you ever hear anybody complain about. It's prepped each year by Fred and his staff, and you go out there now and it's ready. Some of it, you look at the course and the challenges that it presents, and no, it's not thought of as one of the four majors, but clearly it's -- I think everybody says THE PLAYERS Championship is the biggest tournament of the year.

DAVID DUVAL: No, I think it will be thought of in the same vein of those, as opposed to the World Golf Championships, because it is. I mean, it's -- you know, I don't know things change. I guess the Western Open way back when was thought of as a major, so things mix-and-match. You know, it's just, you look at the turnout, credentials that are requested, you look at the coverage on television, you look at the purse, the field, the course. It has all the ingredients, except for the historian thing. So I guess at some point, I'm sure it will happen.

DAVID DUVAL: I think if you look at the stats, what's wrong with me, why aren't you playing well -- well, everyone thinks I was playing poorly this year starting out, which I didn't think was the case. I simply wasn't making putts. That's how I felt, and I guess somebody looked at the stats -- everything else was good, I just wasn't making the putts. And also, in the off-season when I usually spend a ton of time hitting a lot of wedges, this past year, I didn't have that opportunity because I ended last year playing poorly, and I needed to work on my long game; so that took up 95 percent of my time. So I didn't get the time to practice my short game, and that has hurt me this year, clearly has hurt me. So that's a lot of what I'll be doing the next few weeks.

DAVID DUVAL: Well, I think the first one is try to improve. I think what comes with that is winning a lot of golf tournaments, and simply put, to win majors. That's the goal. That's, you know, what I've been focusing on this stretch from THE PLAYERS Championship through Atlanta for the last six months, and I'll rest up and get ready to focus through the U.S. Open. And same thing through the British, and just try and catch a real good rhythm that way.

DAVID DUVAL: I'm not -- you know, it's funny, y'all -- it always comes up. I haven't mentioned it. Y'all have mentioned it, not me. All the writers have written, five percent, seven percent. I have never mentioned it because I don't know what it is. But I see it in print saying how much I weigh and what my body fat is; so I could tell you neither one of those. I'm concerned with my fitness. What I've done differently is the intensity is a lot greater. You know, a few years ago, I don't know, I guess four or five now, I put in a lot of work just to drop some pounds, several of them, actually. But now I focus as much on the strength and -- as I do on cardiovascular fitness and the intensity and duration of it is greater. So I think that's an important part of what's going on. I haven't for the last -- man, I don't know, year or so been training with anybody. I've been doing it alone. Some outside, some at the gym. The last few weeks I've been working with somebody on the road just as much to mix up the routines. So does that answer all your questions? Everything? Yeah, I don't do as much lower body stuff on the road because you mix in running with the golf, all the walking of golf, and then if you train your legs a lot, you really can kind of overload. I felt like I had a little bit on the West Coast; so I stopped training those the last couple weeks on the road, but now that I'm home, I am.

DAVID DUVAL: Oh, yeah, they get to ask; they don't get to write about it. No, I understand that. I just kind it funny that -- I see it in print because I never stated it. I don't know -- I have an idea what I weigh, but I don't know what my body fat percentage is. I don't keep track of it.

DAVID DUVAL: No, not bothersome. I don't know why you'd want to talk about me right now or anybody, I think it's quite clear that nobody has performed nearly like Tiger has in the last six, eight months. I know I haven't. I know I've played very well, but I don't think anybody has played consistently like he has, and I don't deserve to be talked about as him right now in the same breath, I don't think.

COMMISSIONER FINCHEM: Well, we've been looking at May for ten years, but we always get to that point and keep it in March. We'll look at the options again. There are some advantages to being May, there's some negatives. May, you know, has some advantages from a flow standpoint with the schedule. On the other hand, we've gotten to the point where we're real comfortable getting the golf course ready here. And then you just go right on through television issues and basketball, and there's just a whole range of issues. We review them every three years and we'll go through that exercise again. I wouldn't want to speculate as to where we might wind up.

COMMISSIONER FINCHEM: Have we announced prize money? (Laughter.) We all recognize the prize money here is very strong. We don't like to make a big deal about it because we fear that the focus would be taken away from the important things which would be the quality of the field, the golf course, the other things, the history of the championship. But the purse this year will be $6 million with first place $1,008,000.

COMMISSIONER FINCHEM: It turns out that we had the decision yesterday and we have a board meeting next Wednesday. So we will review the decision, have the lawyers talk to the board about it. There's also, you know another case on the same subject that went the other way in Indiana that's on appeal to the 7th circuit, the USGA case, and we're keeping an eye on that. So I wouldn't want to speculate, but I think the main thing right now is as we've said before, this is all with lawyers and Casey should be allowed to go ahead and play, and our hats are off to him to what he's achieved. If the board determines not to appeal, and we just let walking in the game ride with the 7th circuit case, but we don't want to give up the fundamental aspect of walking in the game. But on the other hand, a Supreme Court appeal takes a number of years. It would be four or five years before a decision, cost us a lot of money, and we might want to avoid all that. We'll take a look at it next week and probably say something about it.

DAVID DUVAL: I don't know all of what they said. I haven't read the papers or anything. Well, that's not the issue, I don't believe, is it? I mean, see, you're putting a face on the issue, which I think is a tough thing because we'd all would agree if you put a face on it, but if you remove the personal aspect of it -- I didn't know that they had a decision go the other way with the USGA. So I'm not a lawyer, I don't know all the merits of the case. But I guess we'll just keep on and see what happens. No, we had intended to, but weather made it very difficult to get into the airport and something else came up; so that didn't transpire.

COMMISSIONER FINCHEM: I don't think there's an exact formula, but we think it's important generally because charity has become a secondary mission for us, or a secondary part of our mission, that as prize money goes up which it is and will continue to, that charity dollars also go up because charity -- charitable giving is a major part of what we now represent publicly and what the sport is all about. And it's important that charity dollars keep pace, maybe not exactly, but continue to grow nicely. So this year, on all three TOURS, I think we'll exceed $10 million to charity. So that trend has continued and we want to make sure it continues in the future.