USGA's Davis Defends Fox Sports Deal Announcement Timing

USGA Executive Director Mike Davis was on Sirius XM's Fairways of Life with Matt Adams Tuesday to talk about a variety of subjects before Adams asked about the new Fox Sports television deal.

Davis had to open by mopping up the mess made by USGA President Glen Nager in the initial press release that essentially made the current broadcast partners sound like amateurs who were not capable of progressing any further.

Very exciting news, first and foremost, let me start out by saying, that they have been fabulous partners. We have been with ESPN for 33 years, and NBC Golf Channel for 20 years. And both of those organizations truly took our championships to a new level. They are just first class organizations and wonderful people to work with and you know, personally, there's a lot of friendships between the organizations and that's going to be tough. But we are very excited about Fox Sports. And for us, we just feel from a qualitative and quantitative standpoint this was a deal that was just too good to refuse. We're going to get a lot more promotion and hours for amateur championships which we really think is important for the game.

NBC proposed 70 more hours of the three championships an audience higher than a .1 might watch, but the USGA would rather get the Senior Women's Amateur or the Four-Ball on television?

Sorry to interrupt...

We'll get promotion of our Open championship.There's some exciting things from a digital media standpoint. But I think Matt, for the game of golf, to have it covered now by all of the major networks, that's good for the game. That's not necessarily a USGA thing, that's the game of golf. But listen, we ultimately we are making a good bit more money from this and we are a non-profit, and our money has to go back into the game of golf. And that's a little bit different maybe from a week-to-week tour event that has these wonderful charities and they give to a children's hospital or cancer.

Our monies must go back into the game. So I think that's exciting because we will have more funds that ultimately let's us do a better job governing, do a better job running our championships and, important for everyone, sustaining the game. Things like pace of play, junior golf, turfgrass research, working more closely with the state and regional golf associations, focusing on water, all these things that are important for all golfers, not just the professional game.

We're excited about Fox, they're excited. I know we have some challenges putting this all together over the next couple of years but they're exciting challenges. Ultimately I think it's going to be good for the USGA and good for the game.

Adams asked if there was fallout "from the timing of the announcement" on the eve of the PGA Championship.

Matt, good question. Because, listen, I know there's been a lot said and written about this. I can tell you the timing was anything but intentional. And we were unfortunately really backed into a corner. The way our agreements work with both ESPN and NBC is that there was an exclusive negotiating period. Which in this case it was written ten years ago, and was from June 1 to August 1, and we didn't feel like we quite got there with the offers on the table so we went to the open market and ultimately Fox came in, ESPN and NBC were still part of the process, we looked at the three bids and our Board of Directors decided we were going to Fox. We notified the winner and the two that didn't get it and Matt, you know, it's one of those things where these three organizations are publicly traded companies and our legal council advised and outside legal council advised we couldn't sit on that information for five or six days because dozens of people knew about it.

Imagine what the markets might have done had the news got out? Stock prices would have not moved a cent. $100 million a year to News Corp is Roger Ailes 'salary and the companywide paper clip budget. Go on...

So we contacted the PGA of America ahead of time and said listen, this is anything but we want to do is announce on the eve of your championship, but we must do that. Looking back on it, if there is anything we could have done, we would have done Matt. The last thing we wanted to do was affect the PGA. And after all, that's an organization, the PGA of America, that really in so many ways is the backbone of the game. They do so many great things on a local and national basis. That's an organization we worked with for decades and we will work with [for] decades. And you know, yes, there was this public disagreement on anchoring. That we really kind of agreed to disagree, but the relationship we have is great.

When I think great relationships, I think USGA-PGA.

So It's unfortunate that some out there were kind of cynical about that we purposely did that. That's anything but the truth. And certainly not based on any facts. It's unfortunate. Hopefully it didn't affect the PGA Championship. So, that's a little background that maybe will shed a little light on what happened.

Call me cynical, but I'm skeptical about the pre-emptive call Davis is suggesting was made. PGA of America President Ted Bishop addressed the shock and tackiness of the announcement in a recent interview, and certainly does not sound like someone who had any idea this was coming. And when I contacted PGA of America officials on Wednesday night of the PGA, hours after the deal was announced, these did not seem like people who knew this was coming. A statement was most certainly not prepared in advance but they did call a very nice audible.

It was also the second time in five years the USGA made news during a PGA.

**The PGA of America warning courtesy call was a matter of minutes before the announcement, definitely not hours or days, a source confirms.