Mike Whan On The Rise Of The LPGA
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 - Obviously one of the biggest stability strengths
00:05 of the USGA when you look at its current organization,
00:08 Deloitte, Cisco, Lexus, Rolex, ProMedia, ProMedica,
00:13 Amex, Sentry, I'm sure I missed some of the premier ones,
00:16 you can recite them in your sleep.
00:17 I assume your ability to relate to that part of the process
00:22 is a very important part of your current work.
00:26 - Yeah, one of the things I really appreciate
00:29 and was drawn to the USGA over is,
00:32 unlike a lot of entities in sports
00:34 and even a lot of entities in golf,
00:35 the USGA believes in a small select audience
00:39 that is even more closely aligned with us than just,
00:42 you know, at the LPGA,
00:44 we might've had four different banks involved
00:46 or three different credit cards
00:47 or six different car companies,
00:49 only one at the USGA.
00:51 So, you know, American Express is our credit card partner,
00:55 there won't be another one.
00:56 And we're all in with them as an example.
01:00 And I've really enjoyed that because I think as a result,
01:02 it allows us to be much more integrated with their business
01:05 and not think about their business
01:07 as something next week from Thursday to Sunday,
01:09 but think about their business 52 weeks a year.
01:11 ProMedica is one, you mentioned that's brand new
01:13 that I did bring when I came.
01:16 And ProMedica is the first ever corporate partner
01:19 tied to a USGA championship name in 127 years.
01:22 We've never had a championship
01:24 with a corporate partner name tied to it.
01:26 So in this case, we created the US Women's Open
01:30 presented by ProMedica.
01:32 And with that presenting partner,
01:33 we took the purse on the US Women's Open
01:35 from five and a half million last year
01:37 to 10 million this year on its way to 12
01:39 over the next couple of years.
01:41 Because of that partnership,
01:43 you're gonna see the US Open going to places
01:44 like Pebble Beach, Oakmont, Marion,
01:46 Oakland Hills, Pinehurst, the rest.
01:48 You're gonna see the women of the game,
01:50 the best women on the planet,
01:52 play on the stages that you've normally associated
01:54 with the US Men's Open.
01:56 So yeah, I'm really excited about it.
01:58 It was a big step for us.
01:59 It was a historical break a little bit,
02:02 but all designed to do one thing,
02:04 which is raise the platform for women in this game.
02:08 (upbeat music)
02:11 [MUSIC]