Speaker 1: This October the PGA Tour It's coming to Black Desert
Speaker 1: Resort in southern Utah. I come share the excitement of
Speaker 1: this lifestyle PGA Tour event with friends and college in a.
Speaker 2: Vibrant social setting.
Speaker 1: Teach your experience to the next level by securing your
Speaker 1: VIP club packs, offering up close action to each player,
Speaker 1: premium lunch for effects, next greats into unbeatable views of the
Speaker 1: sixteenth greet in the seventeenth Hole at the Pristine Black
Speaker 1: Desert Resort. Weserve your VIP experience today at Black Desert
Speaker 1: Events dot com. Black Desertevents dot com.
Speaker 2: History in Iowa State. This week, it's a historic week.
Speaker 2: We get pro hockey. The NHL makes its official debut
Speaker 2: tomorrow with the Chicago Blackhawks in town and coming up
Speaker 2: on Thursday, the PGA Tour returns to the state of
Speaker 2: Utah for the first time in sixty years. Patrick Manny,
Speaker 2: managing partner, Black Desert Championship right around the corner back
Speaker 2: on the show, Patrick, Happy Monday. How we doing.
Speaker 3: Doing great? Vince?
Speaker 2: How are you well? I'm well so simple. First question,
Speaker 2: are you guys ready? As I told you a few
Speaker 2: months back, I had the very very fortunate opportunity to
Speaker 2: play the track and check out the resort. And as
Speaker 2: I walked into the makeshift club house you guys had
Speaker 2: in the trailer, there's a sign that said don't worry,
Speaker 2: We'll be ready or something like that. So now that
Speaker 2: it's here, are we ready to roll? Patrick?
Speaker 3: We are rolling. We had the Monday pro am today
Speaker 3: and I talked to I don't know thirty forty of
Speaker 3: the players that have been out on the course, and
Speaker 3: I think the most common words out of their mouth
Speaker 3: is I had no idea, meaning the resort is just
Speaker 3: unbelievably nice. The course is an unbelievable shape. I even
Speaker 3: sent some photos, aerial photos off to the PGA tour
Speaker 3: and they said they didn't believe they were real.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I can believe that even if. Yes, someone
Speaker 2: who's lived in the state for twenty five years, I've
Speaker 2: never quite anything like it. So now we know the field.
Speaker 2: The field has been released. We were waiting for quite
Speaker 2: some time to try to figure out who we were
Speaker 2: going to see down in Saint George for the Black
Speaker 2: Desert Championship. I wonder if you could take us behind
Speaker 2: the scenes on the work you guys did to try
Speaker 2: to track golfers to to come down to Saint George.
Speaker 2: And your reaction now that the field is finalized.
Speaker 3: Well, I mean, I we didn't do a whole lot
Speaker 3: other than we you know, we had Mike Weir and
Speaker 3: Zach Blair and Patrick Fishburne and some other guys that
Speaker 3: were out really telling everybody, hey, this is this is
Speaker 3: a no joke. This is like a world class golf course.
Speaker 3: And but we didn't do a whole lot more. The
Speaker 3: fook we wanted to accomplish in this first year is
Speaker 3: going to get a great field, which we have, but
Speaker 3: then really just show the world how beautiful this area is,
Speaker 3: how fantastic the course is, what a game change of
Speaker 3: a resort, Black Desert resort is. And then like I'm going.
Speaker 3: Tim West is like the play or whisperer, and he
Speaker 3: was out there today and he just said, Patrick, this
Speaker 3: is this is the nicest place I've seen. Like it
Speaker 3: is the best. He's like, these guys are talking in
Speaker 3: you know, I was talking to him yet last night
Speaker 3: and player dining and he's like they're all whispering, Like
Speaker 3: we had no idea this was gonna So that's all
Speaker 3: we want to accomplish is how these guys have a
Speaker 3: great time, treat him, treat him really well, and then
Speaker 3: in year two they're like pack in a great field.
Speaker 3: This year we're gonna have We're gonna have a great time.
Speaker 3: We have a great field. We're just gonna build upon it.
Speaker 2: I wonder I know a lot of people up here,
Speaker 2: and every time I would talk about it on the show,
Speaker 2: get a lot of messages like, is there any chance
Speaker 2: Tony's gonna play? Can well Tony fen out play? He's
Speaker 2: not in the field, Patrick, can you shed some light
Speaker 2: on any potential conversations that took place? Where was there
Speaker 2: a chance that we were gonna see Tony this week?
Speaker 2: Down there?
Speaker 3: There was a chance he was trying to work some things.
Speaker 3: But really, I gotta I gotta take my hat off
Speaker 3: to him. In the end, he had promised Drese, his son,
Speaker 3: who's going to be playing in his first national tournament
Speaker 3: the same week as our tournament, and he's capping he's
Speaker 3: a captain, and so he's just like Patrick, I can
Speaker 3: move all the other things, but I just can't tell
Speaker 3: my son, never mind, I'm not going to captain your
Speaker 3: first national tournament.
Speaker 2: Well that's entirely understandable, and as you know, that's completely
Speaker 2: on brand for who Tony is, right, absolutely, yeah, all right,
Speaker 2: so a really cool story. And you know, a couple
Speaker 2: of our local TV stations went down to interview Jaydn Blake,
Speaker 2: and I can't imagine Patrick, what it must be like
Speaker 2: for a Saint George boy to start his five hundredth
Speaker 2: PGA Tour tournament in his own backyard. I mean, he
Speaker 2: was crying when he received the news he was getting
Speaker 2: the sponsor exemption. Talk about this dynamic, pretty cool story
Speaker 2: down South.
Speaker 3: Yeah, this is the type of stuff you can't even
Speaker 3: make it up. Like you said, he grew up as
Speaker 3: a little boy here playing in the Hearts because he
Speaker 3: couldn't afford the golf course, and his mom drove him
Speaker 3: around to tournaments eventually, and they slept in their car
Speaker 3: and got cleaned up in gas stations. And you know,
Speaker 3: as you know, he became an incredible golfer and four
Speaker 3: hundred and ninety nine tour starts is just an amazing accomplishment.
Speaker 3: But he tried for ten years at Monday qualifiers, he
Speaker 3: tried every he wrote letters asking for exemptions, and he
Speaker 3: just couldn't get his five hundred and he had given up,
Speaker 3: and us bringing the Black Desert Championship to Southern Utah
Speaker 3: right in his backyard, literally only a couple of miles
Speaker 3: from where he grew up. That was just too good
Speaker 3: of a story to pass up. So I surprised him
Speaker 3: with a sponsor's exemption for him to get his five hundred,
Speaker 3: and he's gonna he's gonna start that just here in
Speaker 3: a couple of days.
Speaker 2: On Hold one, Patrick, I have the forecast pulled up
Speaker 2: for this week, and just so you know a little
Speaker 2: breaking news, it's gonna be warm. It is going to
Speaker 2: be very hot down there. Yeah, I wonder what the usual? Sure? Sure,
Speaker 2: And you know, like ultimately we're gonna blink and there's
Speaker 2: gonna be snow up here and it's not gonna be
Speaker 2: as warm down there. That's the deal. But are there
Speaker 2: any unique challenges that the heat brings for you guys
Speaker 2: this week as you're putting on this tournament?
Speaker 3: Uh? No, not really. I mean, we're unfortunately having to
Speaker 3: overwater a little bit early on, so the greens have
Speaker 3: gotten they slowed up a little bit, but we're gonna
Speaker 3: turn the water off and firm them up. And it
Speaker 3: was just a little bit more, a little bit more work,
Speaker 3: but no big deal.
Speaker 2: So enlighten me on because we've been talking about this
Speaker 2: a little bit. Do you have a five year commitment
Speaker 2: from the tour?
Speaker 3: What?
Speaker 2: Obviously it's great to have it this year, but it's
Speaker 2: not going anywhere for a while. Is that correct?
Speaker 3: That's correct? Yeah, we we intend. When I say we
Speaker 3: ll stand, the PJ Tour intend to do this like
Speaker 3: for decades. However, we have to have a contract term.
Speaker 3: The contract term to begin with is four years. They
Speaker 3: were willing to go seven to start with. It's kind
Speaker 3: of a long story. We didn't want they didn't want
Speaker 3: to change title sponsors during a contract term, and we
Speaker 3: didn't want to commit to being the title sponsor for
Speaker 3: seven years. So we said, okay, let's do a four
Speaker 3: year contract and revisit because you know, it's expensive to
Speaker 3: throw these things on and walking away from title sponsors
Speaker 3: means we're putting in a whole bunch of millions to
Speaker 3: put to pull this off every year.
Speaker 2: So what have you learned throughout this process? You know?
Speaker 2: So moving forward over the next three years, I'm not
Speaker 2: going to say you can do it better, because I
Speaker 2: don't know how you're going to do it. We're going
Speaker 2: to find out this week. But you know, the first
Speaker 2: time you do anything, it's hard. First time I sat
Speaker 2: in front of a microphone, I'm sure I was horrible
Speaker 2: at this. Some people probably tell you I'm still bad
Speaker 2: at it. But the first time you do something, it's
Speaker 2: not easy. This is your first experience. What are some
Speaker 2: of the lessons you guys have learned?
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: I got to say we are really fortunate. We have
Speaker 3: an amazing tournament director, John Coolbal, We have an amazing
Speaker 3: set of consultants that run every year for the last
Speaker 3: in twelve years, the Farmer's Insurance Open at Tory Pines.
Speaker 3: Their whole team is here, and we have a lot
Speaker 3: of supportive people who have been doing this for years
Speaker 3: and years at the highest level. And so I feel
Speaker 3: like we're pretty dialed in year one. I think the
Speaker 3: PJ Tour said this is looking like a year three
Speaker 3: tournament in year one, so good job. And so I
Speaker 3: think everything's pretty smooth. But we're gonna find out. There
Speaker 3: might be a few hiccups. And I can probably answer
Speaker 3: that question better post mortem than I can before the
Speaker 3: tournament gets going.
Speaker 2: For sure, I don't suppose you'd be so bold this
Speaker 2: could give me your pick to win the thing, will you?
Speaker 3: I don't mind doing that. I'll roll out Patrick Fishburn.
Speaker 2: Ah, Patrick Fishburn, very nice, very nice. So Hey, I
Speaker 2: appreciate the time. Anything else you want our listeners to know,
Speaker 2: Patrick before I set you loose.
Speaker 3: Oh one more story, I think a juxtaposition to Jaydon
Speaker 3: Blake getting his five hundredth We have Key Hey Akina
Speaker 3: that's in the field as a sponsor exemption. And I
Speaker 3: love this story. He's eighteen years old at Lone Peak
Speaker 3: High School. He's a number seventh ranked junior in the world.
Speaker 4: And I was sitting with he and his dad Alan
Speaker 4: over lunch and I said, I said, Key, how many
Speaker 4: PGA tournaments have you been to? And his dad pipe
Speaker 4: Ben and said he has been begging me to take
Speaker 4: him to a PGA tournament since he was five years old.
Speaker 4: And I told him every single year, Ka, the first
Speaker 4: time you go to a PGA tournament, you'll be playing
Speaker 4: in it.
Speaker 2: Oh wow, this kid is.
Speaker 3: Eighteen years old, never even been to a PGA tournament.
Speaker 2: Oh that rules. That rules well obviously for me, as
Speaker 2: somebody who's really learned to love this game. I'm thrilled
Speaker 2: for you guys and appreciate the efforts to bring PGA
Speaker 2: Tour golf back to the state. Wish I could be
Speaker 2: down there. My day job calls. Maybe one day I'll
Speaker 2: have more control over my time, but I appreciate your time. Patrick,
Speaker 2: good luck this week.
Speaker 3: Okay, thank you so much.
Speaker 2: All right, Patrick, Manny and the managing partner. As the
Speaker 2: Black Desert Championship descends upon Saint George, the Black Desert
Speaker 2: Resort starts on Thursday, rolls through Sunday. It marks the
Speaker 2: return of the PGA Tour to Utah for the first
Speaker 2: time in more than sixty years. Tickets are available at
Speaker 2: Black Desert Events dot com. You can also follow them
Speaker 2: on Instagram at Black Desert Championship is where you find them.