Paige On International Rumblings, Vol. 2

Woody Paige speculates on why Wednesday's press conference between the PGA Tour and Jack Vickers was cancelled, though he comes to no conclusions and the whole thing sounds strange.

I have no inside information or sources but I believe the PGA Tour could be offering The International a World Golf Championship event in the future, tournament dates more conducive to Colorado or, most likely, assistance in gaining a title sponsor, maybe an automobile company, maybe Buick - the car Tiger Woods drives. (Woods won the Buick Invitational and the Buick Open last year.)

Are there tournament dates conducive to Colorado? June's too early, July has too many international events, August has too many thunderstorms and the Broncos--God's gift to sport--start in September.  

Paige On International Rumblings

The Denver Post's Woody Paige says that Jack Vickers isn't happy with his new date and other demands of the PGA Tour, but offers no actual specifics, nor any quotes from those associated with the event.

In fact, as he works his way through this apparent tragedy, Paige buries this note late in the column.

The PGA Tour did propose that one of the late-season "playoff" tournaments this year be held at Castle Pines, but the timing (the first weekend of football season in Colorado and potentially cooler weather), the cost ($7 million) and the prospect of miserable ratings and few corporate partners turned him off.

Whoa Nellie. He got offered one of the playoff events, with likely a great field, and passed?

Sorry, if that's true, and it's definitely an if when read some of the other stuff in Paige's column, there won't be much sympathy here for The International's plight.

Mercedes Ratings Put Medicus, LaLanne Infomercials To Shame

Unfortunately, according to a reader who gets Street and Smith's Sports Business Daily report, Golf Channel's four-round live coverage of the Mercedes Benz Championship averaged 370,728 households, down 44% from the event's four round average on ESPN last year.

The final round averaged a 505,129 households, down 49% from ESPN's 997,310 households in 2006.

Ty Votaw, The PGA Tour's Executive Vice President of Whatever Bob Combs Used To Be In Charge Of, issued this statement...

"Conclusions after only one event--and the first event--in this relationship are not terribly productive. We're pleased with what we achieved in that first event because they were consistent with our projections. 

So even if the numbers were lousy, our VP of Number Crunching got it right, so it's all good! 

We're on track with respect to where the Golf Channel is in distribution.

And that means? 

Production quality, energy levels of the commentators and the way they could personalize the players to a much greater degree were huge positives...

 Yeah those energy levels will pay the bills...

...if you compare what we've been able to achieve in this first week with the numbers in comparison to previous Golf Channel programming numbers, we're doing precisely what the Golf Channel has paid us to do: cause people to find the PGA Tour on the Golf Channel."

They are paying us to up their numbers.

Of course, the Tour's sponsors are also paying handsomely for certain numbers.

"Synthesize new technologies and trends into impacts, opportunities, threats and ultimately, strategy."

Sounds like a job description at the Department of Homeland Security, right? Close! The PGA Tour, actually.

Reader Tom found some interesting positions opening up in Ponte Vedra, and I tell you, I'm polishing my resume as you read this. With my FedEx Cup messaging skills I just may have to say goodbye to the writing and course design world. Don't believe me?  Wouldn't you say I'd be a strong candidate for this one that lets you spend time with Ty Votaw or Bob Combs or some other VP:

POSITION OVERVIEW: Reporting to the Director of PR and Media Relations, this position is primarily responsible for development and implementation of the FedExCup messaging at each tournament site.

PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES:

· Advise/counsel players regarding media opportunities.

I do that!

· Assist in development and implementation of weekly TOUR/FedExCup messaging.

Check.

· Pursue and develop story lines about our athletes and the FedExCup.

· Assist New York PR agency in telling story of our athletes and the FedExCup.

· Create “player personality” database.

Check, check, check.

· Compile advance story ideas for assigned tournaments.

Is that like propaganda for lazy writers and TV producers? That I'm not so good at.

· Focus on publicity efforts for upcoming events.

· Serve as PGA TOUR/FedExCup spokesmen in press conferences or radio/television interviews.

My calling!

· Serve as liaison between players and media and between PGA TOUR HQ staff and players.

· Provide media with background information and story ideas on players, FedExCup, officials, tournament, etc.

· Maximize publicity efforts for TOUR Marketing Partners.

· Handle special circumstances and requests from players, media, sponsors, or TOUR staff.

· Attend host broadcaster production meeting every week.

Would I get to bond with Bobby Clampett?

QUALIFICATIONS:

Education/Certification: Bachelors degree required, preferably in Communications, Journalism, Business Management or Marketing.

I knew that Communications degree from Pepperdine was good for something.

Experience: Must have a minimum of 3-5 years experience in Media Relations, Event Management, or Public Relations preferably in a professional golf environment.

Skill set requirements:

    * Strong Oral and Written Communication    

    * Relationship Building

My specialty!

    * Collaboration and Teamwork    

    * Creativity and Innovation

    * Judgement    

    * Negotiating

    * Networking

    * Political Savvy

Done deal!

Wait, there is also this one...

POSITION OVERVIEW: Serves as main point of contact at TOUR for a sub-set of TOUR’s Official Marketing Partner relationships – many of which with Fortune 500 corporations. Plays a leadership role in the management of a portfolio of relationships.

I've always wanted my own portfolio of sub-set relationships.

PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES:
§ Has responsibility for management of a portfolio of relationships valued at $30 – $50M

§ Has responsibility for monitoring contractual elements to ensure they are fully executed by TOUR and Partner

§ Has responsibility for maximizing revenue to TOUR via media, tournament, network, player spending from assigned Marketing Partners and grow even beyond the contractual requirements

Because after all, this is a non-profit organization.

§ Responsible for renewing the Partner (or finding a suitable replacement)

§ Develops strong and positive relationships with portfolio of Marketing Partners with objective of attaining high sponsor satisfaction

§ Responsible for having a deep understanding of Partners’ businesses and industries

Key word: deep.

§ Works closely with client on development of PR, promotion, advertising and relationship-building plans to ensure Partner fully leverages its relationship with PGA TOUR

I think it's well established that I'm all about leveraging brands.

§ Works with assigned Partners to implement TOUR-themed advertising and promotion which is prominent and delivers strong brand-building value to TOUR

§ Responsible for strategically identifying TOUR initiatives that fit the Partners’ objectives and selling concepts in to Partners

§ Monitors portfolio of Partner relationships and ensures that TOUR touches all levels of management at Partner (from day-to-day to CEO) and guides interaction between TOUR and Partner senior management

§ Responds to various Partner requests quickly and thoroughly and provides excellent service

Would you get the CMO another gin and tonic please?

You know, maybe not. But wait, I think this next one screams me!

POSITION OVERVIEW: The Manager will work very closely with the New Media Director to spot marketplace trends, evaluate new business opportunities, manage existing syndication partnerships and help close new deals and renewals.

PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES:

    * Renew and manage existing New Media partnerships.
    * Negotiate and close New Media deals in the U.S. and international markets.
    * Support analysis and create deliverables for larger partnership opportunities (e.g. RFP’s, presentations, models, draft of terms etc)

Hmmm...deliverables? Is creating a deliverable, like, you know, like, FedExing the Commissioner's broken wedge to Cleveland for overnight repair?

    * Research and evaluate new partnership opportunities -- investigate new ideas and prospects for validity, merits and potential.
    * Gather market research across the new media landscape, both U.S. and international – synthesize new technologies and trends into impacts, opportunities, threats and ultimately, strategy.

Ohhhhh!!! That's a winner. Synthesize new technologies and trends into impacts, opportunities, threats and ultimately, strategy. I think you get the job if you know what that means. Especially the threats part.

    * Develop and update monthly New Media newsletter summarizing trends and events that affect The Tour.

Ooops. That's TOUR, not The Tour. Sloppy branding I tell you!

    * Provide and assist with day-to-day communication with our strategic partner, Turner Sports Interactive. Help build network of contacts at TSI.

QUALIFICATIONS:

Education/Certification: BA/BS or equivalent required/MBA is a plus

Oh is it ever a plus.

Golf Channel Ownership ?

Regarding the question I asked about the PGA Tour owning part of The Golf Channel, reader Rick shared this:

According to the Comcast annual report for 2005 (filed last spring), Comcast owned 99.9% of The Golf Channel.  It didn't say, as far as I could see, who owned the rest, but if Arnie was a co-founder, he probably owns the last sliver.

That may have changed since then, as of last spring, it didn't look like the tour owned any of the Golf Channel, and definitely could not have owned more than 0.01%.

PGA Tour: Partial Golf Channel Owner?

Thanks to reader Noonan for noticing Len Shapiro's Washington Post piece on Nick Faldo, which included this curious mention...

Sadly, ABC and its corporate cousin ESPN, are now essentially out of the golf business, save for their contract to keep the British Open (with Faldo in the booth, by the way). Instead of having many of its regular season events covered Thursday and Friday on the so-called sports leader, ESPN (or previous partner USA Network), the suits at PGA Tour headquarters in their 2006 round of TV negotiations decided they'd rather have all early round tournament coverage on The Golf Channel, which the tour partially owns.

I know there have been other mentions of the PGA Tour owning The Golf Channel GOLF CHANNEL, but has this ever been confirmed by the Tour, or one of the policy board members? Wait, why would the policy board know anything. Silly me!

"There was a lot of post 5-o'clock conversation"

In John Hawkins's excellent Golf World story on the FedEx Cup's evolution, there was this head scratcher:

If the old season had become outdated, this was an idea whose time had come, although you probably could have said that a decade ago. "We've talked about it since the second year I was here," says vice president Ken Lovell, who joined the PGA Tour in January 2000. "There was a lot of post-5-o'clock conversation regarding that actual theme. If you could do anything to produce the most exciting golf product, what would it be?"

I can't keep up with this business lingo, so I'm going to take a stab here and guess that "post 5-o'clock conversation" translates to "us hardworking, overpaid PGA Tour Vice Presidents rolling up their sleeves, working late, trying to stay later than the boss and brainstorming so we don't have to go home to the wife."

Or does it mean something else?

Of course one wonders why this conversation has to take place after 5, as opposed to during business hours.
 

Lift, Clean and...Entertain?

Since taking in a portion of Sunday's Target World Challenge at Sherwood, something's been bugging me about the playing conditions. Naturally it took until Wednesday for me to figure it out.

Now, I'm all for playing the ball down whenever necessary, especially in major championships.

But a Saturday rain combined with the newly sodded fairways (not draining worth a lick) led to poor conditions and balls covered with mud. Third round leader Geoff Ogilvy and eventual winner Tiger Woods hit their share of squirrely shots, with Ogilvy twice having mud wreak havoc that ultimately cost him a shot at defending his third round lead.

The decision not to play lift, clean and place sums up pretty much everything that I find disappointing about the current PGA Tour leadership: their consistent inablity to understand what makes golf entertaining to watch. As I understand it, this was tournament director Mark Russell's call, and it was not his best.

The Target World Challenge is an exhibition intended to entertain the fans, enrich the players and benefit a worthy cause. This is not the time to worry about the integrity of the game. The primary goal is to create some excitement, and in this case allowing the players to play shots with a clean ball would have been a lot more fun than what ultimately unfolded Sunday.

I appreciate the Tour's stated desire to uphold the traditions of the game, but this was not the time to do it.

If they want to get serious about integrity and protecting the traditions of the game, they should worry more about the impact of distance increases. I know, now I'm really delusional.

The Red Pens Of Ponte Vedra...

...sounds like a children's story? Actually, it is in a sense.

Now read this clip from Doug Ferguson's AP game story from the Target World Challenge.

Woods was surprised to hear that Daly didn't earn a single paycheck over $100,000 this year, although he can understand given the distractions he had off the golf course.

On the eve of the Buick Invitational, Daly got word that his wife, Sherrie, was on her way to prison to serve a five-month sentence. She was indicted a week after giving birth to their first child, and eventually pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiracy to structure a transaction to evade reporting requirements involving an alleged drug and gambling ring.

Then came the nagging injuries, first to his back, then to ligaments in his left hand, ultimately a broken pinky on his left hand when he was trying to make compensations for his grip.

"Just the injuries killed me this year," Daly said. "That stretch in June or July with my back when I had that sciatic nerve for six or seven weeks, I tried to play and couldn't play. That cost me six, seven, eight tournaments. Later in the year, my pinkie broke. Just been a year with a lot of injuries. It was just one thing after another."

Then came what Sherrie Daly's lawyer described as a "race to the courthouse." She filed on Oct. 17, he filed the next day.

"We're trying to work it out," Daly said. "I think we will."

He thought about seeking a minor medical exemption to help win back his card, but only would have received two tournaments to get that done and opted to take his chances asking for sponsor's exemptions.

Now the PGATour.com version...

 Woods was surprised to hear that Daly didn't earn a single paycheck over $100,000 this year, although he can understand given the personal distractions he had off the golf course.

Then came the nagging injuries, first to his back, then to ligaments in his left hand, ultimately a broken pinky on his left hand when he was trying to make compensations for his grip.

 "Just the injuries killed me this year," Daly said. "That stretch in June or July with my back when I had that sciatic nerve for six or seven weeks, I tried to play and couldn't play. That cost me six, seven, eight tournaments. Later in the year, my pinkie broke. Just been a year with a lot of injuries. It was just one thing after another."

He thought about seeking a minor medical exemption to help win back his card, but only would have received two tournaments to get that done and opted to take his chances asking for sponsor's exemptions.

Well, you know how the Internet is. Space constraints.

"We do that through not only visual monumentation..."

Here's the PGA Tour's David Pillsbury, talking about the revamped TPC Sawgrass The Player's Stadium Course THE PLAYERS Stadium Course during the PGA Tour's Communications Summit:

The feedback has been extremely positive.  The rough is very punitive.  It will grow another inch and a half or two by the time we get to THE PLAYERS.

The idea is that the ball, unless it's hit perfectly, rolls into the rough.  That's the way this golf course was designed, to play firm and fast.  And that's the way it will play in May, and we are very excited to have our players out there, the best players in the world, with what we think is one of the greatest golf challenges in the world as a result in large part to these renovations and the masterpiece that Pete Dye created 25 years ago.   

We obviously also focused on the clubhouse, along with a number of other areas that touch various constituents of THE PLAYERS.  The clubhouse is critical to our proud partners.  By the way, without their support, none of this would be possible, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, UBS and JeldWenn are the three partners that have really driven this process for us financially.  But they also wanted a world class venue for their clients during the tournament.  So we wanted to create a clubhouse that matched the iconic stature of this golf course.  What we've created is something that has some majestic qualities.  It adds a new dimension, a presence at Sawgrass that we simply didn't have before.

Just to give you some scale, 77,000 square feet.  Just the tile for the roof weighs 680,000 pounds, two Boeing 747s.  It is a massive building.  It's also going to be a lovely building.

I've never heard massive, 77,000 square feet and 680,000 pounds likened to lovely!

It's going to be a building that will be a place where stories are told on the walls.  Stories will be told by our teams, and that carries onto the golf course, with the improvements we've made to the experience itself.

Our mission is to bring to life the PGA TOUR experience across all of our TPCs starting here with the mother ship.  We do that through not only visual monumentation but with caddies, caddies that tell you about great moments at THE PLAYERS Championship.

Monumentation. Take that Commissioner! 

"The FedEx Cup, specifically how a player wins it, how a player not only survives but thrives on it."

Now it's Ric Clarson's turn to wow us with multiple platform references. From the PGA Tour Communciations Summit: 

RIC CLARSON:  We wanted to spend a little bit of time telling you about the FedEx Cup, specifically how a player wins it, how a player not only survives but thrives on it.

Now, there are several of you in the audience I'm sure who have seen this presentation before, and the only thing I'm going to tell you is you probably didn't know all the words to Margaritaville the first time you heard it, and we would like you to know how the FedEx Cup is going to work because that is our new platform.

What a metaphor! Uh the difference between Margaritaville and the FedEx Cup? One conjures up images of the good life, the other induces naps.

I do think it's important to hear about this as a platform, and each of the stakeholders that are in the audience this morning, when we go through this, think about it as it pertains to your constituency and how that connects.

I read this article in the Wall Street Journal about how profits launch from platforms. 

Oh yeah this is fun:

It said, "A couple years ago, in the days before YouTube™, a short video website spread like wildfire on the internet.  It showed the fourth richest man on the planet, Steve Ballmer, the CEO of Microsoft, doing a crazy jig on stage at a conference screaming 'developers, developers, developers.'  Truer words have never spoken  or repeated.  Without developers, Microsoft would not possess its desktop monopoly or billions of dollars in profits."

It goes on to say, "Those developers are the little platoons of software programmers and product inventors who turn operating systems like Microsoft Windows, internet browsers, game devices and much else, into something more than themselves, into platforms upon which a whole economic ecosystem rests."

So all of us in this room, we're actually part of an ecosystem, and we have developed a new schedule, a new season, something called the FedEx Cup competition, and if we all execute against it, this will be a platform for all of you in the room, players included, that is going to take us into a new era in golf.

This is YOUR platform. YOUR ecosystem. Embrace it. Sell it. Hump the living daylights out of it whether you think its worth it or not.

When you think about some of the progress that other sports have made and how they've done it, you realize quickly that the PGA TOUR and golf as an industry could not, cannot and will not hold still.  We must be able to compete with a new product.

But if the game is healthy... 

So a new schedule, a PGA TOUR season, 44 weeks, a new season, FedEx Cup season that gives us new meaning.  This will be a generational change.  This is not going to be turn on the switch and everybody gets it from the start.

But it's a new performance measurement.  We've had Player of the Year in the past, we've had Leading Money Winner in the past.  But this is a defined, onthefield performance measurement over a 37week period of time and a sevenweek Fall Series right behind it.

This gives us a onceinalifetime opportunity, and all of us in this room are involved.  This is why we are referring to the FedEx Cup as a new era in golf.  I hope today's communications summit is indicative of the determination we have to go into a new era.

Okay that's enough of that.

Media, I was talking to Craig Dolch last night and I know personally I'm thrilled to have a true season to market against.  It's easier, it's logical, there are better points during the year to garner attention for the sport, and just like those of you in the media who cover other sports with a defined season, we think this is a huge enhancement for you to cover the PGA TOUR and our new season in the FedEx Cup points race.  More quality story lines.

Oh yeah. Uh huh. Right!

We're delighted that you're here because this is an important day for you to absorb this information.

I gave a presentation to Golf 20/20 because the stakeholders who run golf clubs are important stakeholders.  They're influencers.  So we've reached out to just about everybody we could think of.

This has also given us the platform to sync our media internally.  We're getting a lot better at our messaging and how we do it through all the different media channels through a collective effort.

A platform to sync our media internally. Now that's a keeper!

Our communications phases, we started a tease campaign in July, we've just moved into a prelaunch and merges right into the launch campaign that will take us through the first three to six weeks of the season.  Then we get into the season itself, the playoffs and the Fall Series.

The tease to the pre-launch to the launch. Such seamless MBAspeak marketing.

Time to dim the lights and watch some PSAs...

We're just trying to get the FedEx Cup name out there and that tag line "A New Era in Golf."  Well, did it work?  When Golf World wrote an article after THE TOUR Championship entitled "The End of an Era," we were so pleased with that because we do plan on definitely going into this new era.

And I'm sure it just warms the heart of Golf World's headline writer that he helped brand the FedEx Cup.

This is going to take us into what we call our player desire spots.  We've used some historical footage, again, to appeal to the core and connect this past history to what will be new history. 

And...

Nothing is more believable than hearing it from the player himself, so we have a collection of player desire spots that we've done, and now we've started a little bit of seriousness and historical perspective.  Now we're going to use a little bit more humor to tell the passion of players.  (Video shown.)  

Player desire. Is that an oxy...eh forget it.

Oh This Communications Summit Is Warming Up Now

Wow, just powered through 20 more pages and the fun has begun! A trusted writer told me to keep plugging away because I would read PonteVedraSpeak like I've never read before! Oh was he right.

But that'll come tomorrow. It's a slow news week. Got to milk this treasure trove while I can.

So, does anyone know what Phil Mickelson's agent is talking about here? 

STEVE LOY:  I think we discount the fact that these players as golf demands don't have structure already.  I can guarantee you that as agencies we're always trying to create better processing. 

 Is that like, photographs?

I think the Tour right now in the organization and the added resources you're providing are tremendous values.  Having this summit is a tremendous value.  But I think the better idea is that we find alternatives for conduct and for value that we can help promote and upgrade our Tour publicly.

Jagsheemash!

Frankly, I've got to tell you, TV does a better job than print in the fact that they utilize things that are going on in these players' lives, and it comes mostly from our Tour as a resource and their charities and their goodwill and their services, and I think if we start telling some of those lifestyle stories without having to demand their time to do it based on resources we have available to us, not just our stars but all of our Tour as we have the opportunity to tell it in a vignette during the time that player is on a high for that week, then we create better Tour, better products, and we don't have this drastic demand for how do we get more facetoface time with the people that are driving the Tour.

That's right, TV has fog filters and schmaltzy background music that print will never have.

I know that Mr. Finchem is always focused on trying to build more stars. 

 Mr. Finchem?

We all are.  If we all contribute to finding alternative plans to help drive that, we're going to have more access to the top players because they don't fill the tremendous demand that they are now.  I'm not taking their side on this; I'm just saying structure is good, but alternative plans are just as important in the balancing act.

Duly noted.

And Yet Even More From The Communications Summit

Well I'm through page 11 of the 50 page PGA Tour Communications Summit and I now realize that in my last posting that I missed this absolutely priceless line from Barb Kaufman:

Finding number one, and this came from the media contingency.  The majority of the media felt that the Tour media outreach efforts are sufficient, which is like, okay, but in need of improvement.  The blocking and tackling is good, just getting in there and trenching, but quite frankly needed more creativity and a little more sizzle on the steak moving forward.

Remember, I simply copy and paste this stuff. I only wish I could make something like that up.

The event was then turned over to Tim Urstom, who moderated a Q&A.

Let me begin by just introducing the panel to you.  First of all, we've got Lance Barrow from CBS Sports (tepid applause), come on up; we've got James Cramer from the PGA TOUR (even more tepid applause); Doug Ferguson from the Associated Press (outright hissing); Brian Hewitt from The Golf Channel (violently loud booing); Clarke Jones from IMG (even louder booing); John Kaczkowski from the BMW Championship (cries for the Western Open's return); Sid Wilson from the PGA TOUR (standing ovation).  Come on up, guys.

Just wanted to make sure I hadn't lost you yet.

This exchange was interesting and had to earn Doug some dirty looks from the assembled suits:

DOUG FERGUSON:  I don't know if this answers your fruit question, but I think where you need to head is something that Fred Couples said a couple years ago.  I could repeat it but we'd be here all day and you probably wouldn't understand it anyway.  He was on the range at Sherwood about two years ago, and he was talking about whether the Giants were going to get to the playoffs, whether the Vikings are going to make a trade, whether the Mariners were going to make a trade, something with hockey, back to the Giants, back to the Vikings.  Then he hit a few more balls, looked up, and he said, "Do you think guys in our locker rooms are talking about us the way we're talking about them?  Probably not."  And I think that's where golf needs to get.  I don't think we're there.

People in this room may think it's a big deal, but when you look at the mainstream, I think it's still a good sport.  Debate is healthy.

Sometimes I think others might see it as controversy, as negative.  It's not always negative.  Debate sometimes is very healthy.  Sometimes things get taken too personally.  The bottom line is you want conversation, you want to be part of the conversation, and that I think is where you need to head.

I don't think that was the purpose of this summit, Doug.

No, this was a gathering to learn how we can promote the product better. Debate? Please. That's interesting. Interesting is dangerous. It causes people to think and could disrupt their consumption patterns. Get with it!

And Yet More From The Communications Summit

After Finchem and Votaw put the assembled to sleep, their market research speaker took the podium. This is Barb Kaufman of Kaufman and Associates talking about her findings on the media-fan-player relationship.

Second point, on the fan component, fans need more technicolor, and a lot of the media I spoke with were not only representing golf but also cover other sports, and felt fairly strongly that fans really love the technicolor presentation of athletes. 

And you think they only talk like this in Hollywood?  What does that mean, need more technicolor?

Speaking of that, isn't Technicolor a registered trademark?  

They want to know more than their performance.  They want a little more depth, a little more context.  If they get that, it'll expand and create greater loyalty and longevity and loyalty to your sport.  NASCAR and the NFL were cited as benchmarks in that regard.

We're benchmarking!

A top line of the agent feedback, and I'm sure this is really going to shock you because it was the flipside of the coin, the agent and manager perceptions are that overall traditional golf media has become lazy and stale.  The sameole, sameole content has bred some degree of ambivalence by the players, and they just don't want to engage any longer because they don't feel the content is very innovative and creative.

Well, we could do more New York Post type stuff. That would be innovative and creative for golf! Bet the agents would love that.

The golf print media is becoming a dinosaur according to agents, and I want to specify that this means not the written word, but to Tim's point, print media in the traditional sense.  A lot of the younger players are very in tune to new media and would much rather give their time to those media outlets.  One particular agent said players would rather have 30 seconds on SportsCenter than a 900 word article written about them.

Wouldn't we all.

Players are becoming significantly more guarded with the media in the past by virtue of being burned.  Now, having said that, the majority of agents said it's a small percentage of the media who, quote, burn, shall we say, and that violators should bear the brunt of the burning and not all media because not all media are guilty of this travesty.

Travesty?

Many of the print media believe overall Tour coverage will decline and is declining if the playing field is not level between the electronic, print and quite frankly other emerging media.  They felt fairly strongly that preference and rights deals provide access to some media outlets and not others, which makes it more difficult to do my job.

From the agents' perspective, younger players are viewed as presenting great opportunities for unique and colorful content because they get it.  They've grown up in this entertainment world of sport and they know exactly what it takes to compete and keep their star rising.

They know branding!

It was at this point I had to take another break. Small doses, baby!

More From The Communications Summit

I used to think that if I was told I had six months to live that I would spend it watching The Big Break or Dr. Phil or listening to Celine Dion albums, but now I'm inclined to think that the PGA Tour Communications Summit will do the trick.

I could only get through 5 more pages. But Tim Finchem and Ty Votaw's statements were eye opening, if you can navigate the hurdles. I was tempted to plug this into the Ali G tranzlata, but why ruin such authentic frontier gibberish?

Finchem:

And then the second thing was, and this was we thought the most crucial thing, and it kind of overlaps the focus on tournaments, was to improve our ability working with our partners to utilize the media overall to communicate everything about the sport, the competition, who the players are, what the sport does and the rest, to engage the fans more effectively through the media. 

Ali Geoff tranzlata: Why spend all of that money on ad campaigns when you can get writers to spread the propaganda? Oh sorry...

If we're successful in moving the needle in this area, there are benefits for everybody in this room.  There are clearly benefits for our membership and for our tournaments and for our ability to grow the strength of this platform and continue to move the needle in terms of the benefits for players, the benefits for charities and our tournaments and the impact on the game of golf.

Is this really a good time to be using the needle metaphor? Just a thought.

The bottom line is, at the end of the day, we're moving needles here.

Here's Votaw talking about similar summits in other sports:

One interesting finding that we discovered in looking at those other summits was the extent to which they did not include the members of the media in the actual implementation and conduct of their communications summits.  They tended to include everybody but the media in gathering their communications stakeholders in order to improve their media outreach activities.

Yes, that's because those others sports didn't view the media as a group of stenographers who might just be dumb enough to write what you tell them.

Now, in the planning for this day, the phrase "sunlight is the best disinfectant" has come up many times in making sure if we do this and we do this right, we have to include all the stakeholders, including the media, get all the issues out on the table and get them out in the open and talk about them, and that's what we're going to do today.

Sunlight is the best disinfectant? That's one of those great metaphors that makes you stop and think, what the hell is he talking about? He is good!

To our partners in the golf equipment industry, we hope you take away the message that we want to work with you and identify and take advantage of quality media opportunities for players endorsing your products both within the golf industry as well as mass media markets.

Because moving your product is paramount to us.

Just look at how well that league driven product focus has worked for the NBA recently.