Deane Beman - Part 2 (Tour Life and Becoming Commissioner)

World Golf Hall of Fame member, Deane Beman recounts his decision to turn professional after a very successful amateur career, his Tour wins and the hand injuries that ultimately led him to accept the job as PGA Tour Commissioner in 1974 at age 36. Deane tells of the early transformation of the Tour that included becoming a non-profit, creating value in television for corporate sponsors, adding a charitable focus to the Tour and developing a robust player's pension scheme. From golf professional to golf administrator, Deane Beman tells his story, "FORE the Good of the Game."

Transcript

Intro Music 0:07

Straight down the middle. It went straight down the middle.

Mike Gonzalez 0:13

Then it started to So take us through that decision process you went through about uh deciding to try the tour qualifying school and turn professional.

Deane Beman 0:23

Well, I had I had wanted to turn professional back in uh 63, uh, but that's when I hurt my right hand, and I really literally couldn't I I I couldn't play in enough tournaments to make it work. And uh, you know, back that was the dark ages of medication med medicine. I I went to several uh doctors. I ended up in New York. I lived in Maryland, went up to New York uh to the hand specialist at New York Hospital for Special Surgery. They had a hand clinic up there, and uh they treated me uh with uh injections, and uh they they decided that that that in order to be able to play golf, they would put it in a cast that was a removable cast, uh so that I would it it would it it was pretty immobile until I took it off to play golf. Um and every time I used it, it got inflamed, and when it got inflamed, then uh the uh the the wrist area, the uh the your tendons, for your fingers ran under what is called the corporal ligament, and when that inflamed the that pushed the tendon up there and it hurt like hell. So I had pain in my in my right hand for uh you know anytime I started to practice or uh playing tournaments by the time Sunday got around, I I was hurting like a dog. So uh I I was I was it was impossible for me to play professional golf uh while I had that. So I uh this I'd hurt it in 63. As a matter of fact, I heard it so bad in 63 I was I was uh invited to play in the Masters. I couldn't play in 63 because of my right hand. I finally uh I finally in desperation uh I was playing in uh in a tournament in uh Mexico and I was leading on the last round, going to the 12th hole, and hit a shot, and I couldn't finish. So that's when I went back to New York. Uh and actually the doctor was named Rolla Campbell, and it was Bill Campbell's brother.

Bruce Devlin 2:44

So small world.

Deane Beman 2:46

Yeah, small world. So uh I I told him that uh you know we we we they they just didn't know what to do uh with with it, and that and they'd been treating it for almost four years or three years. And so he decided to go in and and uh and do an exploratory surgery. Uh and and I did want to turn professional, but uh uh it was physically impossible. So he went in and and did surgery and found out and cleaned up all the scar tissue and everything. And he literally couldn't fix what the problem was because I had uh unusual uh build of my arms. I had I had uh very uh long uh extender tendons and short muscles in my right forearm, and it was a little unusual. So uh what he did was he he took the carpal ligament and and clipped the carcal ligament and transplanted it underneath a couple of the tendons that hurt. And uh and after that, I I still had inflammation, but it didn't hurt anymore.

SPEAKER_00 3:59

Amazing.

Deane Beman 3:59

Uh so after that surgery, um I went to uh I went down to Florida uh in March and played in a couple of events. Uh I believe I played in Orlando or played in uh in a South Florida amateur tournament. Uh played in Orlando in a tournament, uh tour tournament in Orlando and found out I could practice and play, and uh then played in the Masters tournament in '66. And following the Masters, I had been named to the Walker Cup team for the fifth time. I sat down with Joe Dye and Augusta and told him I'd I'd I after my surgery, I was able to now practice and play more than just a few events a year, and that I was going to turn professional. So that's how it happened.

Bruce Devlin 4:52

Interesting, Dean. I didn't know that at all. That's great.

Deane Beman 4:55

Well, of course, postscript of that is I'm one shot out of the uh uh of the lead of the U.S. Open where Trevino won in Marion, and I get to the 16th hole, and then rough on the right side, and try and hit it out of the deep rough on the on the right side of 16. I ri I rip my left hand. And then I had the same problem with the wall with my left hand and and ended up with surgery there again in in 72, a couple years later.

Bruce Devlin 5:28

Isn't that something?

Mike Gonzalez 5:29

You know, Bruce, for anybody that's played this game for an extended period of time, particularly professionally, I can't imagine there's too many guys that have gone through many years without having something go on with their body.

Bruce Devlin 5:41

Well, you know, some of us have been very lucky. Uh I I had one just quickly, I had one real problem with my left shoulder, and I had to withdraw from the Canadian Open one year, and I went to Philadelphia, and uh I was recommended to this particular gentleman, and uh he decided that what what was needed was radiation treatment. Now I had no idea what that meant, but I went into this room with this big machine and he tied me in a chair so I couldn't move. It scared the hell out of me, I might tell you that. And then uh two two consecutive days, he put that big machine right on the edge of my shoulder, and he he turned it on for six seconds for two days in a row, and I have never had another problem with that left shoulder. So I don't I don't know what he did, but he blew something out of those joints that shouldn't have been there. Yeah, remarkable.

Mike Gonzalez 6:44

Interesting. Dean, let's reflect back on uh a few of your PGA tour wins. I think your first uh professional win on the PGA tour came in 1969 at the Texas Open Invitational at Pecan Valley Country Club.

Deane Beman 6:58

Right, yeah. Back up a little bit, uh when I started on the tour, uh I went out to the West Coast and uh I I played uh I finished, I think, uh fourth in the uh Crosby tournament, and then uh got in a I got in a playoff with Arnold at uh at the Bob Hope Desert Classic, and I actually I actually won the playoff, but but it's not recorded that way. First hole of the playoff had a huge gallery, and I hit it in there about oh 15 feet from the hole, and Arnold flew it over the pin, over the green, and behind the green, and there was out of bounds, and the gallery's back there and hit the gallery and bounced back in. He made par and then beat me on the next hole. So I I had one of those Arnold Palmer experiences where early in your career. That's right. That's right.

Mike Gonzalez 7:57

That happened, that happened occasionally, didn't it? Oh, yes, it did. Who who'd you partner with at the Crosby, Dean?

Deane Beman 8:06

You know, I don't remember uh long long time ago. Um, but I f I finished fourth and then and then a couple weeks later uh finished uh and and and lost at a playoff. So that was the start of my career in in 68, yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 8:22

Yeah. You played with a dean, didn't you, at uh Crosby, Bruce?

Bruce Devlin 8:27

I did play with the dean. My partner for 10 years was Dean Martin. All right. Which which was uh which was a fun week each year to uh spend a spend a week with him.

Mike Gonzalez 8:40

So what's your memories of that win at Texas?

Deane Beman 8:44

Um I I wasn't playing very well. Uh I I remember playing the final round with uh you can help me here, Bruce, the two brothers from Michigan. Uh Hill? Yeah, Dave Hill. I played with Dave Hill.

Bruce Devlin 8:59

Dave Hill?

Deane Beman 9:00

Yeah. Yeah, Dave Hill. I I remember about middle of the middle of the last round, I'm I'm either leading or one back, and he went to one T, and I think Dave said to me something. He said, Beaman, he says, if you didn't have a short game, you'd vault right into the 90s. But I like I got around and and um and um and and kind of snuck in there and and uh won the turn, didn't play very well, but I scored well.

Bruce Devlin 9:34

I want to tell you that uh Mr. Dave Hill was one fine, fine player, too. He was a heck of a player, David.

Deane Beman 9:42

Dave Dave Hill was could could really play. Yes, he could. Yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 9:46

We just talked about him last week with Tony Jacqueline, uh kind of reminiscing about the 1970 U.S. Open at Hazeltine, and uh, of course he had he had plenty of Dave Hill memories as well.

Deane Beman 9:56

Well, I got one for there because I was there. I'm I'm I I went there early and and played practice round, and I went in the locker room and Dave Hill was there, and I said to Dave, hey Dave, I said, This is some golf course. I said, they they they really ruined a great uh farm here, you know.

Bruce Devlin 10:19

He was pretty outspoken that week, wasn't he?

Deane Beman 10:22

He did that. He said the same, he quoted he didn't quote me, but he said it to the press, and and I think Joe Dy fined him ten thousand dollars or something.

Mike Gonzalez 10:31

And you might have fed him the line, huh?

Deane Beman 10:33

That's right. I fed him the line. Yeah, I I was I was uh hooting and hollering the locker room and he picked it up.

Bruce Devlin 10:40

That's funny.

Mike Gonzalez 10:41

Well, the next year you won the Greater Milwaukee Open uh uh as a former Milwaukee, at least for a few years. That's sort of near and dear to my heart. That was at North Shore Country Club by three over Don Massingale, Ted Hayes Jr., and Richard Crawford.

Deane Beman 10:56

Yeah, um I I played very well that week. Um I I remember hitting the ball well and putting well, and I won by three shots, and you don't you don't usually not too many tournaments do you win by three shots. So I I really led the field and played very well.

Mike Gonzalez 11:14

And uh you were gonna play the open championship at the old course probably that year, weren't you?

Deane Beman 11:21

I I was, but uh that was 1970, and uh I wasn't playing that great um in in the springtime, and uh, you know, uh I I decided not to go over and play in the British Open.

Mike Gonzalez 11:36

Yeah. You won the Quad Cities in 1972 at Crow Valley Country Club by one over uh none other than Tom Watson. TW, yeah. And and and the previous year, I guess you'd won that as well, but it was it was not an official tour event. Is that your recollection?

Deane Beman 11:51

Yeah, what happened there is that uh that uh uh Quad Cities was uh gonna get on the schedule in a year. They put on a smaller event that didn't have enough prize money uh to make it official. And I was on the uh uh I was on the board uh as an advisor to the board, and uh the board members, uh the uh commissioner Joe Dye asked board members to go and support this tournament because uh if it was successful, they would we'd have a now a full event. So uh I I I went and played and won it. I think Tom Watson finished second uh at one of his first events, and then the following year uh uh uh it became a full-fledged event, and I won it again uh the following year uh and and when it was an official event, yes.

Mike Gonzalez 12:48

And then uh in 1973, you won the Shrine Robinson Open Golf Classic. That was the last uh last playing of that event. You must have really liked Crawford County Country Club.

Deane Beman 13:02

Well, I don't know. Um that that's an interesting story because uh that spring in May uh I was on the board of the uh the policy board. Uh the then Commissioner Joe Dye and uh uh and Paul Austin, who was chairman of Coca-Cola Company, who was our chairman of the board, asked me to go to the golf course. This was in Memphis and drive to the golf course with them, and he did. And during that uh car ride, they uh announced to me personally and confidentially that Joe Dye was going to retire um in in the next year, uh when the end of his five-year contract was up. And uh what then they asked me, uh they said that we we want you to become commissional. And of course, I had just come off of my second surgery on my on my left hand uh in the in November of or uh late October, beginning of November of the f the previous year. I didn't get to play any golf until March or April. And uh I uh I I told uh I told them that uh I'd never never done anything, that I that I quit when I wasn't uh doing well. And I wasn't doing well. I I I'd had a hard time getting back and getting my game back. I was struggling. And I said I I just couldn't walk away after my uh lifetime in golf and walk away uh defeated. So I told them to go ahead and and uh form a committee and and look for somebody to commission because I wasn't gonna do it. I was gonna I was gonna keep competing until I was successful. So uh they they put a committee together to look for a new commissioner, started interviewing people, and then uh later that year I won that tournament, uh, which made me exempt for everything. British Open and US Open and Masters and two-year exemption on the tour. And uh I went from there to uh to uh California to play, uh I think we were playing uh uh up in uh Napa Valley. And I remember sitting down and had an uh had one of those uh apartments up there that they rented to the players by myself, and uh and thought about uh what would I do the rest of my life here and now I'm uh I'm um uh I got started ten years late on the tour. Um had the injury and had all kinds of uh um intrigue in in where I where I was then where where was I gonna spend the rest of my life. And I decided that I could contribute more to golf. Uh I was never going to be, based on, you know, based on what I had done up to now and what other players had done, I was never going to be the best player in the world. Uh and uh that uh I I decided that uh I called uh Paul Austin and Coca-Cola Company and Joe Dye and told them if they now wanted me to consider me to be commissioner, I'd do that. I'd won a tournament, I could walk away with my head high and feel that uh I hadn't walked away defeated. And so that's when uh that's when they uh had a big meeting in December and interviewed, I think, six people for commissioner, and that's that's when they appointed me as commissioner.

Bruce Devlin 16:57

Well, they did a hell of a job, I can tell you that. They picked the right guy at the right time.

Mike Gonzalez 17:03

You know, Dean, in the absence of that second wrist injury, you think you might have played a little longer?

Deane Beman 17:09

Uh no no no doubt I I I probably would have, yes.

Bruce Devlin 17:16

So you never know uh how things work and why they work, do you?

Deane Beman 17:20

So life life has its ups and downs and ins and outs that you can't maybe ever calculate.

Mike Gonzalez 17:29

Dean, for our listeners, why don't you just remind everybody of uh who Joe Dye was, a little bit about what he did, and uh because he was the the first commissioner, uh, which which probably happened right after the PGA tour players broke away, right, uh, from the PGA of America.

Deane Beman 17:46

Yes, in in uh in 1968, the uh the players broke away from the PGA of America and formed their own organization. The name of the tour was the tournament player division of the PGA of America, and they and the board hired Joe Dye, who was then executive director of the USGA, to be the first commissioner.

Mike Gonzalez 18:11

And Joe had had that job for 34 years, I believe, before uh taking the first commissioner job.

Deane Beman 18:17

That's correct, yes.

Bruce Devlin 18:19

You think about a guy that who'd been in the uh in the amateurs, you know, side of the Gulf for so many years, and then to to uh to actually accept the job, uh, you know, running the pros side of it was uh I thought was a very interesting choice.

Deane Beman 18:35

Well, he uh you know the USGA is an organization that's not a business organization, it's an association of independent uh clubs. And uh and Joe um administered basically uh the biggest uh uh activity for uh somebody uh who is the executive director of the USGA is running their events. Uh they had the open, they had the amateur, uh they had the uh ladies' amateur, uh, they had the junior tournaments. So they, you know, he was an administrator of golf tournaments, and of course, that's that's what the tour. That's what golf. That's right. That's what the tour only that's only what the tour did, which is it scheduled tournaments, uh, it tried to get them on television, and it uh sent officials out to officiate the tournament. So that's what the tour did, very much like the USGA. They were very similar organizations.

Mike Gonzalez 19:37

So, Dean, why don't you set the stage for our listeners? We will take everybody back to 1974. The tour, as we knew it, was fairly young, quite different. Why don't you just describe for our listeners what you were coming into? What did the tour look like? How it was organized, what were the some of the things that you saw early on that probably needed to be done to take it to the next level?

Deane Beman 20:03

Well, the tour, the tour uh in 1974 was, I say, very similar to the USGA. Uh it ran an association of players. Um it held four meetings a year. Uh it it administered uh uh you know, it hired officials to to officiate golf tournaments, and it scheduled golf tournaments of local organizations, and it tried to get as many as they could on television. That's what it did. And uh to give you a perspective, golf was a minor sport back then. Clearly a minor sport. As a matter of fact, um bowling had more events on television and got more money for television than golf did. Uh so golf was very much a minor sport. Um I I had uh of course been an amateur golf for many, many years and and then professional for a few years. Uh I I I ran a business, uh, insurance business uh with my partner. I understood business and I thought that the I I thought the tour, even though the the tour had very famous golfers, Arnold and Jack and Gary and and uh and and prior years to that uh the the uh Caspers and uh uh and Hogan's and Sneeds uh been around a long time, but it was still a very minor sport. And uh I I thought that uh golf had much more value than that, and that uh uh that I I thought I could make a difference. That's that's why I took the job.

Mike Gonzalez 21:56

Yeah, how prepared did you really feel you were at age thirty six? Taking on uh that sort of a role.

Deane Beman 22:02

You know, I never thought of that. I I'd never I I I'd never done anything in my life that I didn't think I was capable of doing. Anything I I uh accepted the responsibility for or thought about and uh envisioned doing, I never never thought I couldn't do it. In anything, whether whether it was playing golf or playing football in the younger years, or or being successful on the PGA tour or or being commissioner of the PGA tour.

Mike Gonzalez 22:41

So you mentioned the events. Um a lot of these events, the tour really didn't have the controlling rights to these. These were you know Crosby and Williams and Hope and some of these guys with their own tournaments. And tell us just a little bit about that.

Deane Beman 22:55

Well, actually, uh uh the reality was that the tour actually owned the television rights. They didn't exercise ownership of them, but they actually owned them. The players owned their own rights, and when they joined the tour, they assigned the rights, their personal rights to the tour. So the tour actually owned them. But because uh uh because it was very difficult for Goff to get on television um uh and and make it a pay payable and uh financial windfall for the networks. And uh most of the tournaments that got on television were the celebrity tournaments. Uh Crosby, who had a association with uh, I believe ABC and uh Bob Hope and NBC, and of course uh Dean Martin and Andy Williams, and uh all these uh all these events uh got on television from a financially marginal standpoint uh under the influence of these super celebrities. And that's how most of the events were on the air. There were a few events like the uh Westchester Classic, uh because it was New York and that's where the networks were, um, and a lot of corporations were there. Uh some of those got on, but very, very small rights fees, um, and and uh the celebrity events that got themselves on television got most of the money. They the tour got a little bit. Uh none of the other tournaments got anything, and that that the tournament that you know, Andy Williams tournament, they got them on, or the Crosby tournament, most of the money went to them. Because golf is uh is a low-rated sport, the television ratings are low, and uh the cost is high, um the the the problem it was enormous because uh back then in the 70s, uh you could you could telecast any other sport, uh baseball, basketball, football. Um it cost$25,000 to produce it because you only had one or two cameras in the stadium that was already there. You just plug them in and somebody walks in at a booth and that's it. To do a golf tournament, you had to build towers, they had to string the cables, uh, they had to bring trucks in uh for the equipment. It cost$250,000 to do a tournament, and you could do any, you could do a football game for$25,000 or a baseball or basketball game. And uh, and and and all these other sports had a broader audience and a bigger rating. So we had small ratings and high cost, and and therefore it was uh almost uneconomical to get a tournament on television. It was a it was a huge problem. So that that was a that was a situation that was what that we faced at the time.

Bruce Devlin 26:07

Dean, how significant was it when uh when you decided to convert the tour into a 501c6 organization? That that must have had a a big move as far as the tour was concerned.

Deane Beman 26:25

Well, at the time it didn't have a really big move, although um uh you know in in later years as we became more successful, it's become huge. Uh, but back then uh the the uh the tour uh was a profit-making organization. Um when I when I took the job as commissioner, I had about I had two months between the time they uh hired me and and uh and it was March 1st until I actually became commissioner. So I had two months. I lived in Washington, D.C. So I commuted to New York to Joe Dye's office uh at least three days a week and read everything in the office. And I did read uh all the original incorporating documents and all the files. Uh and and uh I was because I was in the insurance business and did business with nonprofits in Washington, D.C. And had uh I'd gotten the first one of the first uh uh approval of a of a deferred comp program for a nonprofit organization. Um and and uh I I just uh I saw what kind of taxes we paid. Uh we didn't have a lot of money, but we paid over five years about$500,000 in taxes. And I wondered, uh, having dealt with the in the Washington area where most big associations are, and I'd done business with them in the insurance business, I thought that uh we were wasting uh money on taxes because we were, I thought, clearly capable of being a nonprofit. And uh I went to our lawyers in New York who had uh engineered the uh pull away from the USGA and were our lawyers, and sat down with the the the guy there, uh fellow named uh Gates, Sam Gates, and asked him why it was that the tour was a Delaware for-profit corporation and not a nonprofit. And uh, of course, he's a big, you know, here's a little tiny organization. The tour was nothing, and he represented these major corporations. So basically, uh, in so many words, he didn't say it this way, but I can tell you that's what that's how I that's how I received it. Basically, he said, Sonny, he says, why don't you go run your tournaments and let me take care of the big stuff?

Bruce Devlin 29:13

Yeah, thanks a lot.

Deane Beman 29:15

Yeah. So I I went back to Washington, D.C. And uh I had hired a lawyer to uh to uh help me do the uh the uh deferred comp with this uh fellow that I knew who was president of the third-class mail users, and said to him, uh, you know, explain the PGA tour and what it was like. And and uh I said, is there any reason why we can't be a nonprofit? He says, No, there's no reason you can't be. Problem is you've been playing taxes for five years, and there's nobody in the local guy that you you you go to is gonna give up your the money that you've been that you've been paying the federal government. So you're gonna have to go to court. You're gonna have to fight them, and it'll take you a couple years. But the answer is you're gonna win. So I said, okay, so I went back to the board and explained it to them and said, I think we should do this long term. They agreed. So we hired uh uh my friend in Washington to file for a nonprofit. And uh I remember I was flying to Phoenix in the and uh for for a meeting, and I had the I had the papers to be filed, and they took them with me to read on the airplane. As I'm as I'm uh in the airplane, I was reading through it, and I I I called the attorney on the phone, and when I got to Phoenix, put a quarter, she didn't have cell phones, I put a quarter in the phone in Phoenix, and I had to have more quarters because it was gonna take me a few minutes. And uh I said to him, I said, Bob, now uh we can we can you as I understand um you you can be successful here. I've read all the papers, yeah. I said, Well, what's it gonna cost us uh for to fight this for two or three years? He said, Well, probably gonna cost you a couple hundred thousand dollars in attorney's fees before it's all over. I said, fine. I said, well, what would happen, Bob, if uh if somebody decided to compete with the PGA tour and and and do their own tour and do their own association? He says, Well, they could do that. I said, Well, fine. Well, Bob, change those papers. We're gonna create an organization to go in competition with our with the tour. You put yourself on it and put your secretary and your wife and anybody else's board of directors and file it. So we filed it and got a return, got approval for a new organization by return mail in 30 days. So once we had that, we transferred our board to that to those officers and went to IRS and they gave us a tax-free exchange for the profit making. And it took 30 days and cost$2,500 in attorney's fees, and we were nonprofit in less less than 60 days.

Bruce Devlin 32:19

Isn't that something?

Mike Gonzalez 32:20

I'll be darned. Uh Dean, from our conversation thus far, it's sure you sure strike me as a as a structured guy, a guy that works a plan, a guy that sets goals for himself. So as you came into this job and got situated, what do you reflect back on as perhaps the top three things that you saw that you needed to set out and get done?

Deane Beman 32:46

Well, I knew that I knew the tour had to be run as a business. I I I saw the uh the fact that television was key to success. Uh if you could uh if you could find a way of monetizing golf on television as other sports had done in the NFL, uh, baseball, football, all had major contracts that really supported their sport. And and and golf had nothing to do when I became commissioner financially supporting golf. Uh it was the volunteers and the amount of money they ran they raised locally that that uh that put all the money into the pot for the players to play for. There was literally very little television money going to each event. So uh I I I knew I knew that would be the key to a success to find out how to make golf pay from a television standpoint, that it make it valuable to not just doing a favor for their favorite celebrity uh that that happened to be associated with the network. And uh there was a there was a a huge roadblock to it all at the time. And that was all the three network, there were only three networks back then. You know, we were only dealing with ABC, CBS, and NBC. And uh the the big the big problem was all three networks had a policy against on camera or announcer on saying anything commercially unless it was a commercial break and somebody was paying for it. So uh if a for local tournament had a you know commercial sponsor that was helping them uh pay for their event, uh the cameraman could not show anybody's signage. As a matter of fact, it was a big hurrah, Bruce, you'll know. When a manna came up and and paid uh, you know, a guy made the cut, and the manna guy would come in on Saturday and give you a hat and pay you what, a thousand bucks or five hundred bucks or something like that. Well, the networks went crazy because they didn't want to ever show and give a manna a free free ride. So that was a that was a huge problem. And uh so um I I uh you know uh I I I I broke the ice basically. Uh Rune Arleigh's never agreed with me, but I convinced uh CBS uh that if they would allow uh commercial uh intrusion, verbally or on camera, that I could get corporations to put up a huge amount of money and actually support the television so they could actually make money.

Bruce Devlin 35:54

Right.

Deane Beman 35:55

And uh Rune Arledge was completely opposed to it, and he hated me from day one. Uh ABC never did golf with the with the tour because Rune Arledge walked away from they did most of our golf back then. And I converted both NBC and CBS to what you now see as uh title sponsors. And the title sponsor, uh I'll tell you where it is today. Um it was not this way because we didn't have all of the uh communications and and uh texting and all that as we have today, but it was still important and still valuable. Um we we we found out that if you calculated the value, if a tournament would abandon its local name and adapt only a title sponsor's name, purely so nobody could call the event anything else. It wouldn't wouldn't be the Travelers Hartford Open, it would just be the Travelers that so that it was inconvenient to call it anything else but the title name, that we calculated the value that uh that the uh the camera that that showed Hartford uh the or or travelers on the air, and the fact that every newspaper in the company covered all the golf tournaments, and on the agate page, uh when they ran down who's leading the tournament, the title to that tournament was the travelers. And on local television sports programs, it wasn't the Hartford Open, it was the Travelers. When you calculated all that, uh a title sponsor who put up whether it was back then 2 million or now 12 million, uh would get three times the value of their investment because of all the other associated publicity that went with their name on the tournament, not just the ratings for the for the couple hours they were on on Sunday. And once we broke that ice and showed the networks uh and showed the title sponsors that they could get three times the if they if they spent the same amount of money on television, they're only gonna get what they're they're only gonna get what the what the ratings give. If they spend it on a golf tournament, they're gonna get three times the value. And so all of a sudden, golf became a profit maker on television. And uh, unlike other sports, uh most most television networks don't make money on other sports. The net the the sports are are just as sophisticated as the networks are, and they will keep increasing the rights fees so that the the so networks don't lose money, but they don't make money, that the the sport makes all the money. And and major sports on Sunday or on the air, and as you will see to even today and way back then, they promote the events on prime time where they make their money. So sports are used as a promotion for their prime time events. So we were able to take golf. Not only can they use the time on the air to promote their big making money making, we showed them how to actually make money doing a telecast in golf, and that transformed it. And that is uh that's what we figured out, and we needed to break the barrier to do that. One of the ways we broke the barrier is about that time that was happening, ES uh ESPN just had had had been established. And the tour, we bought time on ESPN and did our own telecast and got a title sponsor and showed the networks that we if we could do it, yeah, if we could do it and make money out of it, they could big time make money out of it. And that's how it, that's that's how it was transformed.

Mike Gonzalez 40:32

So, Dean, the the the transformation of the television model, did that predate or sort of coincide with then the move toward the tour events and title sponsors uh having this uh philanthropic uh focus?

Deane Beman 40:47

It happened just about the same time. Um the the the uh the the conversion to thrill the to the uh charity uh aspects of golf um uh the charity aspects were not it wasn't brand new. Uh a lot of tournaments had charities. You know, the Crosby had uh had their foundation up there and they had it, they had charities. Uh we had uh promoters that ran tournaments that made the money. Uh, but we had uh, you know, for instance, the Hartford Open was run by the JCs, and so was the uh the Greensboro Open.

Bruce Devlin 41:31

Century Club in Dallas.

Deane Beman 41:33

Right. So it sounded there there were a charitable aspect out there, but it wasn't it wasn't mandatory. And it didn't uh and it wasn't uh across the board, okay? So um I I I I decided uh as we were and we came up with the concept for television to make to monetorize golf on television, is what I call it, uh, and make it work for everybody so that everybody won. The title sponsor won, he got three times his value. The networks won because they were could finally put golf on at a higher operating cost than any other sport, but still make money at it. Uh, and and we won because we were getting rights fees to add to our purses. So it was a win-win-win for everybody. Uh as we uh as we got into that, uh we we uh decided that that uh I decided that as that was going to all the money was being plowed into increasing prize money. You know, when I played on a tour, there wasn't a tournament, there was only one tournament that had a bigger prize money than$250,000, that was Westchester. That's the only one.

Bruce Devlin 42:56

Right.

Deane Beman 42:58

And so I I decided that um if we were successful, and I thought we were going to be, and I was projecting down the road four or five years, where instead of playing for$100,000, we'd be playing for$250,000, three, we'd be, you know, five years and I'd be paying for$500,000 a week. But I I I you if you're involved in operating golf tournaments, you know you can't do it without volunteers. And and I I hadn't I know no tournament didn't have a thousand volunteers. I didn't see uh a successful model that the players would come into town, volunteers would uh take a vac take their vacation off of work to work for the for the tournament, and the players walking out at the end of the week with all the money and going home, and the community left with nothing so. So I decided that it for the long term that we should uh create a policy which I presented to the board, which they ultimately agreed to, uh that uh no tournament in the future, we wouldn't cancel anybody, we wouldn't throw anybody away who was a who've been helping us become modally successful. But in the future we wouldn't sign a new contract with anybody that a hundred percent of the proceeds of the tournament go didn't go to charity to reward the volunteers that were completely necessary to operate, and that's how it started.

Bruce Devlin 44:42

Dean, I I can I can give you some numbers because I've got them in front of me. In 1974, there was less than a million dollars went to charity, right? In 2019, there was two hundred and four point three million dollars raised for charity, and that took the tour's contribution to charity through their golf tournaments to three point zero five billion dollars. What a milestone. And then last year, just the tour championship alone, three point five six million dollars went to charity. So uh that was what a great success that whole thing has been, Dean. Thank you.

Deane Beman 45:27

Yeah, it turns out, it turns out, Bruce, and and uh that uh it's a big win for everybody for a community to hold a tournament. The volunteers uh can feel really good about what they're doing for their community. Um specific charities within the community are are uh being helped and and being financed, and the tours are and the tour players are winning too. It's a it's a you know it's it's it's one of the things that uh that I've always believed as I was back in the old days selling insurance, that if both sides aren't a winner, if if I'm the only one that's winning because I get a commission, it's not gonna last long. It ain't gonna last long. So you you you to have a uh a a sustaining business deal, both sides have to win. Uh for it to sustain itself. And I think Bruce, one one of the things that people need to understand that the PGA tours raise over three billion dollars, more than all other sports combined. But two things. One is individual players like yourself, Bruce, who have your own foundation. And and and uh almost every player on the tour who's reasonably successful has his own charity that he raises money for locally.

Bruce Devlin 46:55

Right.

Deane Beman 46:56

Nobody's ever accumulated that. My guess is the players doing on their own have raised just as much money as the tourism organization has.

Bruce Devlin 47:09

I think you're correct, too. There's a lot of uh just like you said, just about everyone has uh got involved in trying to help the game through their own charities, and that's what we've done. Yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 47:20

Bruce, why don't you take our listeners back to 1974 if you can transport yourself back then from uh give us the player's perspective? What were some of the issues you guys were talking about in the locker room as it related to tour operations and what you felt you needed to have the product improve for the player themselves?

Bruce Devlin 47:40

I think I think when Dean came along, uh I think just about everybody that was playing on the tour in those days could see the the little changes that were happening that ultimately, you know, five or ten years later become the big changes. Uh I don't think there's a player that's ever played in the uh you know the 70s and 80s that could could uh say more about what the job that Dean has done the 20 years that he was a commissioner. Uh we didn't we didn't all like we didn't always agree with one another. Uh we Dean and I have had a conversation or two about you know differences of opinion, but the overall strength of the tour has become uh quite remarkable. And and then you you know you just look at the players and what they've been able to uh have in their pension plans today. Uh I mean it's remarkable to think that it for instance, I'll give you an example, I don't know what Tiger Woods is gonna end up when he finishes career on the tour, but my sense, Dean, it would be in the it could be uh it could be close to a hundred million dollars.

Deane Beman 48:54

I don't I don't know what the numbers are, but yes, I would agree with you. And I I've gotten I've gotten several letters in the last couple of years by players who are now retired, who who uh uh didn't never realize back then what it would mean to them today.

Intro Music 49:14

Right.

Deane Beman 49:15

That they have something even though they're not no longer competitive on the tour, that they have uh this uh uh what we call a deferred compensation plan set aside for them. And there's uh probably today, uh Bruce, uh uh maybe uh somewhere between a billion and a half and two billion dollars sitting there that a player owns.

Bruce Devlin 49:43

Correct. I I can give you an example of how how it's improved. Uh when I went off the regular tour, my my the payment that I got off the pension, uh, and I have no animosity about this at all, but I got paid uh$4,600. That was what my pension was off the PGA tour. I played on the senior tour for about nine years, and I was allowed then to defer some of my prize money, which thank you, Dean. You allowed us to do that. Uh when I left the senior tour, it was nearly$400,000. Uh, and then we could take that. Uh when we stopped playing, we could then take it after we turned 70 and a half, uh, as many years as up to 15 years we could take it out on an annual basis. So uh that gives you an idea. So me being at 84, think of the guys that are only in their, you know, their mid-20s today, and if they have a successful career, goodness knows how much money they're going to retire with. Uh, it's it's quite fascinating, really. Right.

Mike Gonzalez 50:57

Thank you, Commissioner Beaman. Yes, that's the sentiment of many of the former players.

Deane Beman 51:03

You'll enjoy this. I can remember when we made a presentation uh to the players about this deferred comp and that we were filing for it and try to get it. It was difficult, it took us a couple of years to get it approved. But uh one of the players stood up in the player meeting and says, Wait a minute, why don't we just play for it?

Bruce Devlin 51:24

Yeah. That is pretty funny.

Mike Gonzalez 51:30

Thank you for listening to another episode of For the Good of the Game. And please, wherever you listen to your podcast on Apple and Spotify, if you like what you hear, please subscribe, spread the word, and tell your friends until we tee it up again for the good of the game. So long, everybody.

Intro Music 51:55

It went smack down the fairway. Just mid offline. It headed for two, but it mounted off nine. Mac heads, as long as you're still in the stage, you're okay.