Defending champ Sullivan meets media at Reynolds Plantation
BOB DENNEY: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, I'm Bob Denney, Senior Association Writer for the PGA of America. And welcome to our Second Annual Media Day for the PGA Professional National Championship.
We're delighted to be back in Georgia for the first time since 1979 for this championship. And we have a lot of things to introduce to you today and give you some special notes as we go there in our practice and our procedures before we get to play this great golf course and there's a reason why that title is apt, I think, Great Waters, it speaks to how great this is and the wonderful hospitality that we have received, great memories from last year's PGA Cup, and it goes on and on. So any time you visit Reynolds Plantation you leave with great memories.
It is my pleasure to introduce our guests at the head table today. First of all, from Lost Tracks Golf Club in Bend, Oregon, the President of the PGA of America, Mr. Brian Whitcomb. (Applause.)
BOB DENNEY: From Troutville, Virginia, please welcome defending National Champion Chip Sullivan. (Applause.)
BOB DENNEY: And just an hour 45 minutes away in Gainesville, Georgia. I'm missing my person right there, sorry for a moment. Mr. Bob Mauragas, the Vice President of Golf Operations of Reynolds Plantation. (Applause.)
BOB DENNEY: Someone who did travel an hour and 45 minutes away, the President of the Georgia PGA Section, Mr. Jim Arendt. (Applause.)
BOB DENNEY: I would like to also recognize some special guests in our audience, from our Vice President of the PGA of America, Mr. Jim Remy. (Applause.)
BOB DENNEY: Also joining us from the Georgia PGA Section, Executive Director Michael Paull. (Applause.)
BOB DENNEY: From our host site, Reynolds Plantation, please welcome the President of Linger Longer Communities, Rob Mitchell. (Applause.)
BOB DENNEY: And the President of Reynolds Plantation and Reynolds Landing, Mr. Rabun Neal. (Applause.)
BOB DENNEY: Also joining us in our support staff for this great location Mark Lammi, Director of Golf. (Applause.)
BOB DENNEY: And I don't see him in the room but I think he's still here, PGA Head Professional from the Great Waters Course, Nate Middleton. (Applause.)
BOB DENNEY: And from Reynolds Landing, PGA Professional, Scott Justman. (Applause.)
BOB DENNEY: Great Waters and Reynolds Landing will be hosting our championship as you'll hear in June. So now I turn things over back to Bob Mauragas.
BOB MAURAGAS: Thank you, Bob I appreciate it very much. First of all, let me thank you all for being here today. It's a wonderful opportunity for Linger Longer Communities to host this wonderful event.
The PPNC is a championship that we as professionals look very much to hosting each and every year. Linger Longer Communities is especially thrilled to be hosting this championship after it not appearing in Georgia since 1978. So we're thrilled and excited that both Reynolds Landing and Great Waters could be the venue for this great site.
I'd also like to personally welcome Chip and his wife here. Chip is a fine champion, somebody I've known for many years, was a participant in the PGA Cup matches this past September, and brought the trophy back home to the United States. So Chip it's great to have you here. Really thrilled and excited.
Wanted to also take the opportunity on behalf of all of the PGA members here at Reynolds Plantation, to tell you that we're extremely excited about preparing for this event. Our members have rallied behind the event both from a volunteer standpoint and also from every opportunity to make the operations just right for the upcoming June event.
We think that Great Waters, in conjunction with Reynolds Landing, will prove to be the venue that everyone is looking forward to. And for us to be the host is truly an honor. So I would like to thank our entire membership of Linger Longer Communities, both at Reynolds Landing and Great Waters, for allowing this event to go on and we're excited and thrilled about it.
BOB DENNEY: Thank you, Bob. And let's turn things over now to the President of the Georgia PGA, Mr. Jim Arendt.
JIM ARENDT: Thank you. On behalf of the Georgia Section of the PGA, I would like to welcome everybody to Georgia. And I would like to say that we're honored to host the 2008 PPNC this year. The folks here at Reynolds Plantation really know how to put on a good show and I am very confident that this year will not be any let down at all.
We take our golf pretty serious here, and Chip, with no offense, there's going to be 12 guys that really want to do their job at keeping this trophy right here in the State of Georgia. So there are 40 other Sections and it's game on for those guys.
Recently in an interview from the Masters, a celebrated golfer expressed his passion from an amateur's point of view and as fellow professionals from all across the country come to Georgia to compete I find it appropriate to express some feelings myself. PGA Professionals tend to the game every day. Why do we do it? Why do we really do it? Because we love golf.
When we're not playing golf, we're working so that others can. Thank you to all the sponsors and the Reynolds Plantation for hosting the 2008 PPNC, welcome to Georgia again and good luck.
BOB DENNEY: Thank you, Jim and we're very happy to have you and your fellow PGA Professionals assisting us in this year's championship. It's now my pleasure to call upon the man who holds the highest office in our association, he's the 35th President of the PGA of America, Mr. Brian Whitcomb.
BRIAN WHITCOMB: Thank you, Bob, very much, and good afternoon to each and every one of you. And I just want to extend a very warm welcome for all of that you took the time to be with us today, to not only talk about our upcoming professional national championship in June, but to talk about the game of golf. And certainly we're highlighting our champion, Chip Sullivan, who is a fantastic, not only champion, but he's a fantastic champion of life. And I think here as we learn more about Chip you'll understand what PGA Professional is all about. That not only play the game at the very highest of standards but can live life at that equally very, very high standard. And we couldn't be any more proud of our champion and we'll get to him in just a few minute.
But I just wanted to thank you all for taking the time to be interested in this game of golf, to come out to Reynolds Plantation and see what this beautiful community is all about and the feeling and the flavor of the hospitality that not only thrives in the State of Georgia but thrives very, very eloquently right here at Reynolds Plantation at these two great facilities that, golf facilities that we'll be using this week. So the warmest of welcome to each of you.
And I do have one special welcome I would like to do. Like to take one moment and welcome in particular Robin English from the TaylorMade Adidas Golf. Robin, we're so glad that you're here and your company, the way you support the game and our professionals, it doesn't go unnoticed and I know you've got a large part of participation with regards to Reynolds Plantation and your efforts, your professionalism of your company fit very, very well with the professionalism of Reynolds Plantation. Glad to have you on board.
Listen, all of us are know why we are here today to talk about the PGA Professional National Championship that's coming up in June. And we're excited about that. The State of Georgia is the 13th time, the 13th state to be able to host this championship.
We have hosted, last year, for example, we were in Sunriver, Oregon which is my home state and it was a wonderful championship where we had 312 of the best playing PGA Professionals that qualified to be able to compete at Sunriver last year. And of course only one person stood standing at the end of that 72-hole test and he's on my immediate left here, a true champion indeed. And like I say we'll talk about that in just a few minutes.
Chip also took part in our PGA Cup matches last September right here at the Oconee Course at Reynolds Plantation and I tell you, a lot of you were here to cover that, to those events and it was wonderful competition and it was competition in the purest of fashion. It was the Great Britain and Ireland team that played against our United States team of club professionals and with true competition, extremely high caliber competition, but it was held in the favor that we all come to know that this game of golf should provide for. And that's a game of gentlemen playing at a high level and the purest of competition, but with the utmost respect for our fellow professionals.
And that's what you'll see in June. You're going to see 312 of the best players vying for spots in the PGA Championship where 20 spots will be provided to play in the PGA Championship. That they'll be playing for the coveted title of being a national champion that Chip and others get to celebrate.
There's over 3,700 PGA professionals like myself and Jim and Bob and others in the room who will be competing to try to qualify just to play in the event. And that's a testimony to a lot of what the PGA Professional is about. And, you know, often times we sometimes get confused between the PGA club professional and the PGA TOUR player and what we all do. And I don't know, the PGA Professional, the club professional, what we do, and as evidenced by the great champion in Chip Sullivan, that we can play the game, and we teach the game, and we promote the game better than anybody else in the world.
And we're proud of that. We believe that we're involved right now with the greatest game of them all. You're here today interested in the greatest game of them all. And through your pens and through your lenses you'll capture the very essence of that.
So we're grateful that you'll capture not only the true spirit of competition, but that you'll capture of the essence of the game with your pens and your lenses and I really appreciate that. It means so much to us and it means so much for the future of the game.
So as I recently said a moment ago that the top 20 finalists here at the PGA Professional National Championship in June will be qualified to go to our PGA Championship which will be held at Oakland Hills, just outside of Detroit this year.
And of course it is the strongest field in professional golf. It's the strongest field in golf, the PGA Championship. And of course it's the season's final Major, so there's a lot of interest there. And as the Majors start going, we had one right down the road here about a hundred miles that just concluded last night.
And golf tournaments are great, and they're special. But Major Championships are just that little bit of difference between weekly tournaments that you might see on the PGA TOUR, just like the PGA Professional National Championship is different than the Tournaments that club professionals like Chip and myself play in on a week in and week out basis sometimes. So when you come here, you're going to see the very best of all of us.
Let's get to some numbers now, if you get got your pens out and ready to write a few things. This championship will be represented by at least, currently we have 43 states that are represented in our national championship, to date, with still some qualifying still to go on, so there could be more.
There's 12 spots open for the PGA Professionals from Georgia, so you'll be seeing some of your own competing against Chip and others for that championship. We have as many as 20 past national champions in the field, so it's a very, very strong field indeed.
The Golf Channel will be covering this event as they have the last few years and they will have over 10 hours of coverage, on both golf courses and showing those skills and not only that but telling stories.
You know those stories, the stories that you get to talk about when you're at your office or your place of business and that us professionals talk about when we're out there conducting our business affairs throughout our lives.
So they will be exposing stories about our professionals and what they're all about and sometimes get behind the scenes quite a bit to lend some insight into what today's professionals are doing when they're not competing at this level.
So it's a great opportunity. The Golf Channel I believe reaches I believe over 100 million households. So it's very widely viewed. But it doesn't -- the Golf Channel's great and we're appreciative of that, but we're equally appreciative of either all the local communities that may be here representing or I should say voicing their concern or their issues and their topics of what they were able to witness here at our championship as well as on the national agenda from the media.
So the media plays, you all, play a significant role in golf. And I don't want to leave this opportunity without the opportunity to thank you for all of that. You stimulate interest in this game. And then of course it's our job as club professionals to change that interest into participation.
And so for all of us, the 28,000 men and women professionals with the PGA of America, we thank you for what you do, as would every single TOUR player that would thank each and every one of you for taking the time to write about them and their obvious skills.
So before I introduce formally our champion, I would like you to direct your attention to the screen over there, we have got a video we would like you to observe. (Video played.)
BRIAN WHITCOMB: That's pretty special and that does a pretty good job of capturing that round of golf that made him a champion. He's a native of Albany, New York, a 1987 graduate of the University of Mississippi and he lives in Troutville, Virginia. He's a head professional at Ashley Plantation in Daleville, Virginia. Chip has won over 80 PGA of America-sanctioned events since turning professional in 1987 and on an interesting note, a little of those stories that sometimes we all like to hear and what's really inside, about six or seven months prior to that national championship that you just saw Chip learned that he had a disease that was called hemochromatosis, which is an over abundance of iron in the blood. And with that he also contracted diabetes as a result of that.
And so the perseverance and the fact that a great champion can get up from that type of adversity, not only just to compete, but to win, that's pretty special and those are those types of stories I think that serve us all so well in society as well as the world of sports. So we're, we couldn't be any prouder to introduce our national champion, but before I do I just want to make sure that everybody knows that, along with his wife Kari and their three children, Chip is our champion, but he society's best.
So with that I would like to introduce the 2007 PGA Professional National Champion, PGA Professional Chip Sullivan. (Applause.)
CHIP SULLIVAN: Thank you. Well, it's great to be here. I have a special place in my heart for Reynolds Plantation especially after September when we brought home our PGA Cup trophy the Llandudno Trophy here back on U.S. soil. And what a life experience that was.
I had no idea going into the PGA Cup how special that event was going to be. And everybody here, Bob and his staff at Reynolds Plantation was absolutely wonderful to us that week. And I can assure you that they will be doing their best to help us out in June too.
So what a great venue to come back here and have the 2008 PPNC event. A lot of special memories. So thank you, Bob, for hosting us once again and just great to be back here for Media Day.
Also, I would like to thank Brian and the PGA of America and Jim here and everyone else the staffers, the officers, wow, since winning the national championship they have been so hospitable. They have been so friendly. I met so many people. It's so easy access to get a hold of them.
Here's the President of the PGA and what a neat honor it is to be able to talk to him and see him out and about and really caring about the PGA Professional. And I haven't seen that in a long time, Brian, and it's just been great.
Allen Wronowski is our secretary in our section and it's just a great feeling to see these officers in line and what job they do for us and it makes me proud being a PGA member. So thank you to you Brian and everybody else.
Also to Robin English and TaylorMade. Robin's never mentioned anything to me, but since I've gone on staff with them in 2004 I've really played some great golf. And so I've been expecting Robin to say, "Well, isn't it the clubs?"
But in all seriousness, they have been outstanding to me and my family. And I feel like that TaylorMade is the second family to me. We have a lot of special relationships and friends with TaylorMade and they are always there when I need them and anything that they can do for me to help me and my game or my family, they're there. So it's great to have TaylorMade such a part of Reynolds Plantation here and thanks for coming, Robin. Bob, I don't know what to say about the -- I guess, are you wanting to ask me any questions or?
BOB DENNEY: Well, I would like to hope the audience might have a few questions.
CHIP SULLIVAN: I would be more than happy to answer any questions you may have. I didn't bring my notes like you guys did, but I'm more than happy to let you all know what's going on in my life or how excited I am about this June and those kind of things. It's nice to see my trophy, I haven't seen it in quite some time, it's been traveling the country and I think I'm going to finally get it home and I have a nice new trophy case at our golf shop to put it in. So looking forward to getting that back and showing it off.
BOB DENNEY: If there's anyone in the audience that would like to ask a question of anyone at the head table just raise your hand high.
BRIAN WHITCOMB: Let me start off one there. I'll break the ice and get it started there. Let's see, you played for a purse of $550,000, you won this trophy, but you won six exemptions to the PGA TOUR also as a result of that and I know you fared pretty well so far by using those exceptions. Did you get a tie 33 at New Orleans?
CHIP SULLIVAN: That's right. I was asked last year, I said, what does winning this tournament mean to you, I go, gosh, you know, I'm not sure yet. I've got so many things to look forward to for the next year, one of them being these six exemptions on the PGA TOUR. And so far it's been very memorable.
I played in three events, I missed the cut in Cancun by three, but Puerto Rico and New Orleans I made the cut, and just on the number, mind you, been very stressful, but I did, I ended up finishing well at New Orleans, shooting a 68 in the final round and finishing 33. So I think I still have a little bit of that money left, don't I, Kari, or did you spend it all? So I have three more events that I'm going to be participating in, to finish that up, Wachovia in Charlotte, Reno Tahoe, and then I haven't picked the final one yet, I'll wait I have a few ideas, but I'm not sure which one I'm going to use it for.
Additional to that I've also been invited to play in the Japanese PGA Championship. Which I am absolutely tickled to death to be able to go over there and in May and experience the culture of Japan. I've never been there. It's going to be one of my highlights. So I'm realizing that winning last year was something else.
I also, in that, in that, I guess it's tough to explain what it means to me. I know that I had a neat experience back in October I went back to Ole Miss, my alma mater, they invited me there they're going to honor me at half time. It was the Ole Miss/Alabama game. And I got to see some old professors of mine, old golf coach is still the coach there, and they could really see I had changed. They hasn't seen me in 25 years and I have a wife and three children and reflecting on this win, I really feel that I've come full circle in that, just looking back, listening to them, verified that golf was my No. 1 priority for so many years. It over consumed me.
I wanted to be a golf professional, when I was, I put my heart and soul into it. And I love competing. But never really seemed to reach my goals that I wanted to reach. And then marrying Kari and having three young children, I started realizing, hey, golf isn't quite the most important thing anymore. But when I was diagnosed with some of these diseases, six months before winning, it really changed my attitude towards golf. It actually, I threw it out the window and focused on other priorities in my life that meant more.
And it's weird how when you, when things don't mean as much to you, you start playing better. And I think that's what happened here. I really focused on my faith and my family first and then just let golf take its own place.
And I wasn't expecting big things at all this past year and I don't know what to say. Things happened for a reason and I guess this was just a point where my priorities I feel were better in line and I was able to play golf and enjoy it more and not take it seriously. So it's weird how some rough news can change your priorities and move you around and get you thinking that, hey, nothing's ever permanent in life and you got to enjoy what you have. And you're staring right at it and I tell you what, now I try to take my family with me everywhere I go now because I know I play much better. They were there with me at Sunriver, they were there with me in the last two TOUR events I made the cut in. They were not there with me in my first TOUR event where I missed the cut. So I'm starting to realize that if I want to play well I better have my wife and three children with me.
BOB DENNEY: Any questions?
Q. Tell us about your experience in going on to the PGA Championship after winning last year.
CHIP SULLIVAN: Oh, let me tell you, the PGA Championship is something special. It was my third or fourth PGA. Fourth maybe. And it's like no other golf event. I played the TOUR full time in '97 so I have a little background in playing in TOUR events, but a Major is way above a Regular Tour event.
The people just come out and it's just incredible how many people are out there. And you get a chance to represent, you're there representing the PGA of America which is a really neat feeling. You're one of 20 guys in the world that are there in that venue and, you know, you got to push out your chest and hold your head up and say, hey, I'm one of the few here in this country that are able to do this and it's quite an honor to represent the PGA of America in that, in our championship.
It was fantastic. I won't say it was the best experience out of all, the PGA Championships, just for the simple fact it was so hot. I mean it was like you wanted to get off the course as soon as you get on there because it was just miserably hot. But Tulsa, that golf course, you ever get a chance to play it, it's fantastic.
And every year I always get to meet some of the neatest people on TOUR that you see on TV all the time and you get to talk to them and establish somewhat of a bit of a friendship that week. And that was just another week that I got to live a bit of a dream and enjoy playing in a Major.
Q. Can you speak to how you've been able to keep your game at such a high level with all the other responsibilities that come with being a PGA Professional?
CHIP SULLIVAN: Thanks, yeah, let me tell you, I'm not a juggler, and I don't know how to juggle, but I somehow know that I have a juggling act going with all the responsibilities that I, along with these two gentlemen here, I'm sure, are dealing with the same thing, all of us as PGA Professionals deal with, Brian also, and you have job responsibilities at your job. I run the golf shop, it feels like another business that I'm trying to make money in and you're promoting the game of golf. I'm the marketing manager, the advertising manager, the membership manager. I do a lot of, hold a lot of hands at the club.
And then I'm trying to give as many lessons as I can, and make our owner money at the club. Then I try to find time for my family and get home to them and then somewhere in there hit some, hit a few golf balls so I can get ready for the next event.
I'm not like, all PGA Professionals we all have our own little niches in what we like to do. I like to keep my game at a sharp level. I always have. I'm a very competitive individual. And I like to be the best player in the club, quite frankly.
So I want to hit enough balls so that the club champion doesn't beat me. And I think that those good players in the club keep me going and make sure I'm fairly sharp when I go out and play in the Mid Atlantic PGA events and even bigger events on TOUR.
But playing is a big aspect of how I promote the game. We all have our ways of promoting golf and I'm able to use my talents and go and get involved with our Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation that I'm going to serve on the board in our hometown. And the Character Counts Foundation in the Roanoke Valley, along with several other good community outreach charities that we have in the valley. So I'm able to use what I have been able to, this national championship title, and give back a little bit to the community. And we get out in the four schools in our county too, to teach golf to the little kids. 7th and 8th graders. I think that's so important.
So we have so many different things going on it is quite a bit of a juggling act and I'm sure if you asked any PGA Professional they would say the same thing. We wear a lot of hats and it's fun though I wouldn't trade it for the world.
BOB DENNEY: All right. Thank you all, gentlemen and thank you Chip very much for helping us and being with us today.
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