ADT CHAMPIONSHIP

November 20, 2003

Ty Votaw

TY VOTAW: Welcome. I want to start off by thanking our title sponsor this week ADT and Mike Snyder, their CEO, and his staff for their support of the LPGA and certainly their commitment to the ADT Championship and we're off to a great start this week and we're looking forward to a great tournament. We are also as we announce the Media Day here, very excited about the fact that ADT has renewed its commitment to this event for another three years. We're very appreciative of that. Obviously we are very appreciative of Donald Trump and everything he's done for the players.

For those of you who of sat through previous State of the LPGA Press Conferences you no doubt by now used to me saying that each time we gather for one of these press conferences the year in which I am talking about is one of the best ever. I am not going to disappoint you this week and today when I say that 2003 has been one of, if not, the most successful seasons on the LPGA Tour in our history.

I'd like nothing more than to stand up here and exstall on the exciting previous twelve months that we have enjoyed. I am going to touch upon over the course of the next couple of minutes a number of things, our fan and business successes for 2003. I will share with you our 2004 tournament schedule; our ongoing work with our Tour members in the area of professional development, and announce plans for what we consider to be a landmark event for women's professional golf in 2004.

Any of you have dubbed in your commentaries and in reporting on the LPGA 2003 as the year of the woman. Certainly the events of the past year I think are consistent with that label. You cannot have any conversation about 2003 without starting off with the contributions and accomplishments and awareness that has been generated as a result of Annika Sorenstam and what she has done this year.

In January, as many of you know, she intrigued us all by thinking about playing a PGA TOUR event. In May she inspired us by how she in fact conducted herself that week and competed on a PGA TOUR event. In June and in August she impressed us with how she completed a career grand clam by winning the McDonald's LPGA Championship and the Weetabix British Open. She led her team to victory in the Solheim Cup from Europe and certainly, in October, perhaps the highlight of her career, was inducted into the LPGA Tour and World Golf Halls of Fame.

All of those accomplishments has generated an enormous amount of attention, an enormous amount of awareness for the LPGA and women's golf and the overall organization has benefited greatly by that, but while the year certainly has been focused in many respects on Annika, it is not the Annika Tour by any stretch. I think if you look at the accomplishments of other players on this Tour, it's a testament to the breath and depth of talent that we have had. You have had certainly an emerging star such as Patricia Meunier-Lebouc, winning the Kraft Nabisco Championship as our first major championship. You have had LPGA veterans, such as Juli Inkster, and Rosie Jones, and Beth Daniels this year becoming the oldest player to win an LPGA event in our history - 46 years of able and I know she's anxious to break her record in that regard.

So when you have players of that caliber and of that veteran status winning on the LPGA Tour, it only makes the fact that the spectrum of talent on the LPGA is so large when you consider the fact that we have had breakout years with players like Candie Kung and Hee-Won winning multiple times on the LPGA Tour, exciting storylines, such as Hilary Lunke winning the U.S. women's Open, over an Angela Stanford and a Kelly Robbins in a fifth day playoff at the U.S. women's Open. You have any number of other storylines such as Se Ri Pak continually pushing Annika for the No. 1 player in the world, and on, and on, and on. Another great storyline is taking place; not necessarily from an LPGA Tour member but from an LPGA member, in Suzy Whaley, in how her storyline of playing of the PGA TOUR's Greater Hartford Open was one in which that captured the imagination and brought an enormous amount of attention not only to the LPGA itself but the teaching club professional membership of which she's a part. All of those things contributed to a wonderful competitive year on the LPGA Tour. And what that competitive -- those competitive results have created for us is an -- is continued and tremendous strides in our business goals for the organization.

A couple of things I want to point out to you today that reflect our fan growth and the increased attention that the LPGA has generated, has created greater fan growth, is the fact that attendance in 2003 is up 8% in total, an average 15 percent week-to-week. Our network viewership up 13 percent over 2002. Our cable viewership is up 1 percent if you take into consideration without war impacting coverage earlier in the year, we're up about 1 percent in cable. One of the things that's a very interesting trend as far as we're concerned and I think golf generally is concerned, is that our ratings are up 27 percent on cable and 33 percent on broadcast network in the 25 to 54 age group which is an increasingly attractive age demographic for our advertisers and reflects perhaps the -- a youth movement in the audience of fans of golf generally and certainly the LPGA.

One of the most exciting trends in our fan growth is on LPGA.COM where we have experienced 50% increases in page views and 60 percent increases in unique visitors on a month-to-month basis over 2002. In July alone, we had 10 million page views and 500,000 unique visitors, the highest single month in our history. All of these things reflect a growing fan base. One of the things that's very important to us as well is while our fans are our core customer, another core customer of ours are our sponsors. The LPGA scored very high marks in sponsors in a most recent SBJ 2003 report card. Survey responses which we were compared with the '99 SBJ report card showcased significant increases in several No. 1 rankings for the LPGA in the area of sponsor relations over the past three years.

Things to consider: The LPGA was ranked No. 1 over sports properties such as NASCAR, the PGA TOUR, the NFL, Major League Baseball, the NBA, on and on, 16 overall sports properties of which the LPGA was included, we were ranked No. 1 in delivering exclusivity and protecting sponsor investments. We were ranked No. 1 in understanding the sponsorship objectives of our sponsors. We were ranked No. 1 in being client centered and service oriented and in making our programs easy to coordinate between the (inaudible) the LPGA and our franchises or our teams which in this case would be our tournaments. We tied with NASCAR in being the No. 1 client centered property and we also showed an increase of 17 percentage points since 1999 in that category. We were one of only six properties to have become more client centered and service oriented since 1999.

What is important about this as far as I am concerned, this is not how the media perceives us. This is not how we perceive ourselves. This is how our customers, people who we do business day in and day out feel the LPGA is doing servicing their needs and certainly a large part of that is the association with our players; certainly our staff is doing a wonderful job in making sure our sponsors' objectives are being met, but this is the industry saying how they feel about us; not necessarily how the media perceives what we are doing or how we perceives ourselves. It's undeniable, it is irrefutable, it is objective based, it's something we are very proud of.

Another area that we have made sure that we have made a lot of effort in over the past couple of years when we launched our new strategic plan, is the area of professional and member development. It's one of the four key business areas the association has and one that's going to be an increasingly important part of our ongoing efforts. Professional development is the main area of our business that focuses on giving the members of the LPGA more benefits helping them achieve their career goals; not only before they come out on the LPGA Tour and during their LPGA career, but also in transitioning away from the LPGA. We are also doing the same emphasis in our Teaching Club Professional membership as well to ensure they have the best environment possible to succeed in the sports entertainment industry from the moment they enter the LPGA; until they decide to leave the ranks of professional golf.

Our professional development initiatives include three specific segments designed to meet all the needs of all of our members. A pipeline to meet the developmental needs of new incoming members with our work with the AJGA, our Futures Tour, our Official Developmental Tour, the National College Golf Coaches, all of which are used to make sure that the players who want to aspire to the LPGA know what is expected of them when they come on to the LPGA in the area of the five points of celebrity and also their obligation to the overall organization.

In addition to the pipeline which addresses future stars, we are also talking to our active membership to meet the developmental needs of our current active memberships through workshops, to educate them on our expectations, to rules training, through media training, and seminars that many of you have reported on over the past couple of years.

Finally, the transition to meet the needs of the members leaving the ranks of the LPGA and professional golf, through either transitioning to something like the Women's Senior Golf Tour, which is our official Senior Golf Tour, to career planning programs, in order to transition them away from a competitive environment to also going into a career planning identification for our members.

With respect to culture diversity, we are exploring a number of initiatives within our professional development business core to help strengthen and better understand members of varying background and cultures. One of the areas we're going to be focused on over the coming months and years is revamping our rookie training which again is consistent with our pipeline approach of professional development. We are also looking at ways in which we can enhance our membership for our staff member capabilities with respect to addressing and helping the assimilation of diverse cultural background and our Tour, while we are understanding those diverse cultural background of our members.

Beginning in 2004 we'll have a non-voting member of the LPGA Board of Directors - be from an Asian -- Grace Park has agreed to do that which we're very excited about that and her leadership with respect to helping us understand the Asian/American and Asian communities that are a part of our LPGA Tour. We are also, as I said, going to be helping our headquarter's staff in training so that our staff members can be more understanding and sensitive to and responsive to the various languages and cultures and needs of our international membership.

Clearly the LPGA membership has evolved and will continue to do so over time. The composition of our Tour membership is an example of how varied and how diverse we are as a member organization. Currently there are 95 Tour members representing 24 different countries and 24 different cultures on the LPGA Tour. Additionally, the LPGA itself will continue to have global appeal not only for the diverse membership, from all parts the world, but also with tournaments in so many different corners of the globe - to television distribution, and fans across the globe, and a thriving international licensing business bringing the LPGA brand to a worldwide audience. Cultural diversity of the LPGA whether it be from our stars from Asia, United States, Australia, Mexico, Canada, Sweden and any number of others in those 24 countries that I have mentioned, is something our organization will continue to celebrate. The global appeal areas of the organization provide and the organization provide us with a wonderful opportunity to broaden the LPGA's appeal to a global body.

We have been able to and will continue to identify ways to provide all LPGA members with a greater understanding of the following: What it means to be a member of the LPGA, the responsibility not only to the association, but the fellow members, the areas of rules, etiquette, cultural diversity, et cetera. What it takes to be successful as an LPGA member and in the sports entertainment arena, not only competitively, but also with respect to sponsors and media obligations. That goes back again to the five points of celebrity which again, if you've been to my other press conferences, you know that I mention that periodically.

We're exploring several tactical concepts that we can put into our action over the course of the next three years and to give you an idea of the type of thing I am talking about - and I mentioned briefly - we'll be taking a hard look and revamping a rookie orientation so that it does a better job of addressing the change in composition base of our incoming Tour members, but also provide a better understanding of what those member obligations are if they go forward.

In 2004 and as a part of this overall discussion about cultural diversity, the LPGA will be convening what we consider to be an historic event in women's golf, that is, the World Congress of Women's Golf. We'll be staging the first of this during the Cybase Classic tournament week in New York, May of 2004. The World Congress of Women's Golf was created by the LPGA and will be led by the LPGA as an opportunity to unify and strengthen women's professional golf around the world, of providing shared leadership, knowledge, friendship and an inclusive and encouraging environment.

Women's professional golf organizations from around the world as well as supporters of women's professional golf will be invited to attend and participate in meetings in a number of panel discussions that will take place during the tournament week of Cybase. Thus far we have received commitments from the LET, the USGA, the R&A, Ladies Golf Union, the World Canadian Golf Association, the JLPGA, the KLPGA the Futures Tour, the AJGA, Women's Senior Golf Tour, Swedish Golf Federation, Spanish Royal Federation of Golf, Australia LPGA, the Israel Golf Federation, South African LPGA, Tournament Sponsors Association of the United States, and Japan. We'll have a press release that you will all have at the conclusion of this press conference which talks about this in greater detail, but we're eager and we are energized for this event that will include topics such as development for golfers around the world, building a pipeline for future professional golfers, sponsorships, television, women's Golf World Rankings, golf in the Olympics, et cetera. We will have more details forth coming in the months ahead but we wanted to make sure that as part of this discussion we share this exciting news with you and how much we're looking forward to having the World of Women's Golf convene in New York with us in May of 2004.

Lastly, and then we'll open it up for questions, I want to talk about our 2004 tournament schedule. In light of the things that we talked about so far and in light of the fact that we have had a wonderful year competitively, we have had a situation where our field strength has averaged close to 7 -- just over 7 of the Top-10, close to 15 of the Top-20, and 23 of the top-30 on an average basis week-in and week-out making the competitive environment which I talked to you about, very compelling for fans to watch, very compelling for you to cover. That alone with the fan growth that we have achieved we're very happy with all the momentum created throughout the season to be able to announce our 2004 schedule which reflects our stability and growth that should reflect the momentum we have talked about. We'll provide you with a hard copy of the overall schedule so I won't go over it line by line, but highlights I'd like to give you today include our 2004 schedule include a 33-event schedule, which will be 24 full field events up 1 from 2003. And 8 limited field events and one unofficial money event. We will return to Nashville Tennessee which we had a presence in for 15 years and took a year off in 2003. We're very excited about coming back to Nashville, with the Franklin American Mortgage Championship benefiting the Vanderbilt Children's Hospital and hosted by Vince Gill and Amy Grant. That event was a very popular one on our schedule and will continue to be as we come back to Nashville and will be the only professional golf event in that market in 2004.

The Michelob Ultra Open in Kingsmill will offer a $2.2 million purse in 2004, which is a $600,000 increase over its purse in 2003; making it the most significant purse increase of an LPGA organized event in the LPGA's history and the second highest purse only to the U.S. women's Open on our 2004 schedule.

Some other highlights relative to purse increases, the Cybase Classic, Presented by Lincoln Mercury, in New York which will host the Women's World Congress of Golf will offer a $1.25 million purse, a $300,000 purse increase from 2003. The Office Depot World Championships hosted by Amy Alcott, will offer a $1.75 million purse an increase of 250,000 and if you will recall this event raised its purse $500,000 the year before that, so over the past two years this event has raised its purse over $750,000 reflecting Office Depot's commitment to women's golf and suggesting the value of women's golf around the world.

In addition the Safeway Classic, Presented by Pepsi, in Portland, that event has been on our schedule for over 30 years. Safeway has expanded its involvement with the LPGA, having taking over full sponsorship of a second LPGA event in Phoenix, The Safeway International, Presented by CocaCola. It will increase its purse by $200,000. Each Safeway sponsored LPGA event will feature a $1.2 million purse.

In Toledo, we welcome the addition of Owens Corning, the LPGA title sponsor family with the Jamie Farr Owens Corning Classic Presented by Kroger, featuring a $1.1 million purse up $100,000 from 2003.

Finally the Wegman's Rochester LPGA increased its purse 100,000, 1.3 million and the Samsung World Championship, a limited field, increased its purse by 25.4 -- again with 24 full field events in 2004 up 23 in 2003. There is a tba that's on the schedule that will -- that is the first weekend of October. We are currently in discussion with a perspective tournament for that week. We have not been able to finalize prior to today's announcement if that event comes on and we are cautiously optimistic that it will, the total purses in 2004 will increase by over $4 million, which again is a significant increase over 2003 and reflective of the momentum that we have been able to achieve.

So in the course of the past 15 or 20 minutes we have certainly highlighted our fan and business successes; talked about our 2004 schedule; talked about the cultural diversity of the LPGA, and the initiatives that we're going to be going forward with respect to that issue. Certainly we talked about the Women's World Congress of Golf. That's the State of the LPGA, it is healthy, vibrant. I continue to be bullish on the overall organization, and if there are any other subjects that I can talk to you about, I'd be happy to answer any questions.

Q. (Inaudible)?

TY VOTAW: We'll look at it. I think it's something we take a fair amount of time to look at every year. I think that one of the things we'll have to examine is 2004 -- 2003 an anomaly in relation to this, because frankly, with the same number of full-field events that we had last year, same number of tournaments that we had in 2002, this wasn't a problem in 2002. Whether or not the fact that we have the same number of tournaments - and this has become an issue in some peoples' minds - is something we'll look at, but it not something that I think is -- I am not sure we'll look at it very long, but we'll look at it. Clearly I know you are referring to the fact that Annika is currently leading the women's stroke average but will not get into the current number of -- the current required number of rounds, but she's played certainly five less events this year in 2003 on our schedule than she did in 2002 with the same number of events, she actually played one more 54-hole event in 2002 than 2003. We'll look at it and see but it's not a question of the number of our events on our schedule. I think it more a question of the number of event that the player plays and I am not sure that if we -- if the market would ever come back to a degree that would allow us to have 40 events on our schedule, one, we would have to look and see if that is the strategic direction we want to go in but even if it did I am not sure that will mean that players are going to play more events; which again goes back to our brand promise of delivering the very best in women's professional Golf on a week-in and week-out basis. Certainly, having a significant number of rounds played to motivate players, to play in as many events as possible if they want to achieve this award, is consistent with delivering that brand promise on a week-in and week-out basis. But we'll look at it.

Q. Was the world Congress an LPGA idea and is the thinking there that it's a good time to capitalize on all the positive publicity --

TY VOTAW: It was an LPGA idea that we've talked about, a way in which we could bring all of the interest and all of supporters of golf, in women's professional golf, that are out there, and it's not just the organizations that I mentioned. We're looking at the company -- we're looking to involve companies that are global sponsors, global supporters of women's golf; not necessarily LPGA sponsors, but sponsors of women's golf around the globe to come together, to unify them in some way to talk about similar issues, to talk about share leadership, and it is a reflection on the fact that women's golf perhaps more than any other side of the game of golf is so global and so international and so culturally diversed.

Q. Is there a thought about having world rankings like the PGA TOUR does and also affect the competition where people get into events based on world rankings?

TY VOTAW: There are a number of informal ad hoc women's rankings that are -- that I know there's one in Europe, there's a publication Golf Week here in this country does one, but I don't think it has necessary -- any of the existing ones have the support of the entire universe of women's professional golf organizations. I think that's one of the topics that will be discussed during the Women's World Congress of Golf. I also think that the creation, if that's going to be created, that's the first step. Then we have to determine whether it will be used to determine eligibility for certain events, but it's also something that I think over time we're going to have be forward thinking about as an industry and talk about a way in which we would select if golf were ever to be added to the Olympics, a way in which membership or achievement to get into the Olympics is determined.

Q. Could you see an international federation of Tours merging --

TY VOTAW: That sounds very similar to what the PGA TOUR does and I don't want to be accused of doing the exact thing, but I also think that the strength of -- from an economic basis and from a purse level basis, other women's professional golf Tours around the world isn't as strong as perhaps some of the men's international golf Tours and so how the thing is configured going forward is something we will also talk about. But I am not sure it's going to be quite as formalized as the International Federation of PGA Tours, but it may very well be as effective, if not more effective, by way -- by the way we structure it.

Q. Full-field events in Florida, where are you guys at?

TY VOTAW: 2004 schedule doesn't have any full-field events in Florida. It's something that we want to -- we continually look at and see what markets in Florida can sustain it. Our criteria is to make sure we go to markets that have long-term potential for success; that have golf a audience and have an infrastructure and a time of year that's conducive to success and we'll continue to look at that, but we're not going to simply add an event to our schedule to add it. To make a prediction as to when we may have a full-field event in Florida, I think would not be prudent simply because it's conjecture of the highest order, but it's something we continue to look at.

Q. Related to that, you guys again taking January and February off, just want to know (inaudible) Is it something long-term? What are the pros of cons of that? Is that something that is --

TY VOTAW: Part of it is market driven. Part of it is strategic in terms of what we think what's best for the overall flow of the schedule. I think every sport has an off-season; every sport has a regular season; every sport has a Playoff. I think our schedule as it exists right now in 2004 is a very solid and good schedule. I think the off-season that we've had, plus perhaps some built-in breaks at various points throughout the 2004 year, and what we have had in 2003, contribute to the fact that we had 7 of 10 and 15 of 20 and 23 of 30 of our top players playing week-in and week-out on average on the LPGA Tour which is, again, makes the sponsors happy; makes the fans happy, and arguably makes the media happy with covering our sport.

An increased schedule may not necessarily produce those types of numbers. When you have - I said this in a number of different contexts - whenever you have the greater percentage of our top players playing in a greater percentage of our overall schedule, will provide more compelling competition that's more interesting to watch and to follow and to report on than if you perhaps don't deliver the very best in women's professional golf on a week-in and week-out basis. From our perspective, we don't see a situation where we would add a couple of events in January; take six weeks off and then come starting in March. I think if we add any events, it will be the latter part of February, if we can find a market that or markets that are conducive to that and perhaps shorten that off-season by a little bit. But certainly in January you compete with the NFL Playoffs which is a very difficult thing from a media and television viewership ratings perspective to compete with. And it shortens what I think is an otherwise conducive off-season for our sponsors in the middle of the year.

Q. You talked about how great things are going. There's also seem to be a real theme of cultural issues that you want to address. Are you at all worried that you might be running into a -- kind of a disconnect especially with American fans given the number -- all the issues of the Asian players and things like that?

TY VOTAW: Well, I don't think so. I think that from -- as I have said in other contexts and to some extent here, I think our cultural diversity is an advantage for us. I think our cultural diversity is something that we should celebrate in terms of making us distinguishable from other sports property. And the disconnect with American fans, I don't think anybody really cares -- the disconnect that you refer to, I don't think anybody really cares that Annika Sorenstam isn't a United States citizen. They just want to see excellent golf. And they certainly see that as embodied by her and the other international players who are at the top of the LPGA money list. I mean, having said that, there's no country that's better represented in the top 50 on our Tour than from the United States. Certainly if you go down the list of Natalie Gulbis, Beth Bauer and Dorothy Delasin and Christina Kim and on and on in terms of American -- young American talent that's coming out on the LPGA Tour -- our rookie class next year in 2004, 29 rookies, 12 are American. I think the pipeline is getting filled more and more with great players. I think one of the things that we have to continue to do is open our arms to the best players in the world to come play on the LPGA Tour and what that happens, our marketing advantages and our cultural advantages in marketing on a worldwide basis will all enhance.

Q. Do you have any concerns that, you know, you have got 14 year old girls playing on one end, you have got your best player playing in men's tournaments, that your Tour itself may actually get a little bit marginalized because of all these little shows that are going on that don't actually involve --

TY VOTAW: Interesting question. I take it the opposite way. I think their participation on the LPGA Tour has provided a platform for their stardom to make men's events want them to come play their tournaments. I think that so long as -- it's another way of saying it is a trend, to see women playing in men's events -- so long as there are men's events who feel that women golfers will add value to them in terms of marketability, promotability, media coverage, et cetera, I think it will probably continue. There's a performance based side of it as well and Annika addressed this in her press conference yesterday about wanting to compete to win and whether or not that's something that will kind of override this phenomenon of women playing in men's event only time will tell. But I think that it doesn't marginalize the LPGA. In fact, we're helping some other men's events with the star power of our players by having them play in those events. We're happy to help them.

Q. With the rank of the Asian players, any talk about doing something to include them in an international team competition, you know, such as the Solheim Cup or that type of thing?

TY VOTAW: We have had discussions about that. One of the things that we will have in 2005 to address that to some degree, is the World Cup of Golf that will be held in South Africa in February of 2005. Certainly that involves a two-player team or two-player teams from different countries, so from an Asian country such as Korea, there will only be two players there. It won't be a 10- or 12-player situation like you have with the Solheim Cup. But that is one event that we have added to the schedule that does bring a pride of country and origin into the competitive mix of an event. We are ery excited about that event to be added back to our schedule. We had a women's World Cup of Golf a couple of years ago and we're going to have this event in 2005. One of the things that we're very mindful of relative to a Solheim Cup like event is to make sure that we don't do anything to diminish the brand value of the Solheim Cup. And we have a number of logistical issues to work our way through if we were to ever add an event such as the one you have suggested and that is schedules, that is criteria, what countries go with what team, what the makeup of most teams would be relative to how an esprit de core there would be -- if that's the right phrase -- with those teams versus what you have experienced certainly with the American Team, the Solheim Cup and the European team in the Solheim Cup, all of those things have to be, I think, looked at and make -- will be factors in whether or not we add an event such as that. But the marketplace is right for something like that, and if an appropriate event comes along and the right format comes along that we can be a part of, or help create, we would be interested in doing that.

Q. TV, number of events, number of hours?

TY VOTAW: Similar to 2003, where we had all but a couple of our domestic events on television with over 260 hours of television coverage. We'll have about the same mix of broadcast network versus ESPN, ESPN2 and Golf Channel, and we're looking forward to increasing our viewership numbers like we have in television over the past two years. And with 260 hours we again have more hours of coverage than any other women's professional sport. And we consider ourselves the leader in that and we think our sponsors are a large part of why they are -- why we're able to say that because they are increasingly seeing value in the product, to advertise their wares on our telecasts. So we feel very good about our schedule for 2004 from a TV schedule, but we'll announce specifics about that as we customarily do in January and February as we heed into the 2004 season.

Q. (Inaudible)?

TY VOTAW: We thought about it. We have looked at it. Certainly the cost associated with testing on site is certainly one factor that we look at. I am not convinced that it's an issue for us just yet. There is a difference in terms of yardages played on our Tour versus yardages played on the PGA TOUR; just as there are differences between the Champions Tour and the PGA TOUR. I am not sure there's going to be testing on the Champions Tour next year. Something we will look at, something we will monitor, but I am not sure it's -- we're certainly not going to have anything in place on a tournament by tournament basis next year. Whether we see the need for that in future years we'll just continue to monitor that.

CONNIE WILSON: Any further questions?

TY VOTAW: Thank you very much.

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