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| Kamienski is also entertaining contingents from future host sites |
PGA Tour VP
MATT KAMIENSKI was given a mission from new Commissioner
JAY MONAHAN for
this year's Presidents Cup at Liberty National in Jersey City -- re-imagine what the biannual competition can be. With the event back stateside this year, Monahan wanted Kamienski, who also holds the title of Presidents Cup Exec Dir, to showcase the competition's growth, as well as elevate other Tour brands. Kamienski: "This will be my ninth Presidents Cup, and every one gets bigger and better in size and scope. It’s a busy week, but we’re in good shape and have been plugging away." Competition teed off Thursday afternoon and runs through Sunday with coverage on Golf Channel and NBC.
SETTING THE STAGE: Earlier this week we had our first ever Junior Presidents Cup with captains DAVID TOMS and TREVOR IMMELMAN. That concluded Tuesday, then that night we also had our World Golf HOF inductions. We also tweaked our traditional opening ceremony this year to have the U.S. team introduced on (NBC's) "Today" show Tuesday morning. Then we took the players around 30 Rock for a media tour, including stops at offices for Facebook and Twitter, something we obviously haven't done in years past. That way we reached a much different demographic from our traditional audience. We've been looking at how do we make this the Super Bowl of golf essentially. This year we've taken that on by really trying to incorporate the greats of the game, as well as celebrate the 20th anniversary of the First Tee. We also launched our first Fan Experience free to the public at the base of the World Trade Center earlier in the week as well.
ON THE TEE: Thursday we finally had some golf, with BARACK OBAMA, GEORGE W. BUSH and BILL CLINTON on hand. These guys love the game and what it symbolizes. As for myself, I’ll be all over the place this weekend. But our teams know their jobs and it’s really a divide-and-conquer thing. Thursday, hospitality opened up, and I spent a lot of time with our corporate partners, global partners, as well as doing some prospecting for future years. We’ve got a large contingent coming over from Australia ahead of 2019 with plenty of meetings. We’ll take them around, and while obviously things will be different over there in two years, some elements will be similar. Glean best practices and things like that. We’ve also got JOHNNY HARRIS and his group from Quail Hollow in Charlotte coming ahead of ’21 as well and we will also have meetings with them.
TEAM ATMOSPHERE: Once the competition itself started, it’s really in the hands of our match committee and our operations guys that are working with the course. I’ll step in if I need to with certain things, but that freedom gives me the opportunity to spend time with our sponsors and hospitality clients. You’re going around the course and you never stop looking at how you can make it better. Our growth of this event starts with the players, and the ’15 edition coming down to the wire has really set the stage to get behind it again. Fans feed off the energy the players exude. I have interactions with the players if there are things their liaisons can’t answer, but for the most part we let those guys be a team. They don’t get much opportunity to play together for one common goal, and I think that’s what makes the team room and the event itself so special.
