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This is a production of WKNO - Memphis.
Production funding for "Sports Files" is made possible in part
by..
My guest today on "Sports Files" is the Tournament Director of
the FedEx-St Jude Classic, Phil Cannon.
♪♪♪
Before we dive into this year's FedEx-St Jude Classic,
let's talk a bit about the Grizzlies season which came to
an end Monday night when the San Antonio Spurs completed a four
game series sweep in the Western Conference Finals.
The Grizzlies season in a nutshell..
Well, was the most successful in franchise history.
56 regular season victories set a new benchmark.
Records were also set for home and road wins.
The Grizzlies rallied to win their opening round playoff
series against the Los Angeles Clippers and their conference
semi-final round set with the Oklahoma City Thunder after
trailing both.
The team made the Western Conference Finals for the first
time in team history but ran into a Spurs team that was
playing at an all-together different level.
The result was a disappointing effort by the Grizzlies.
But while the series was hard to stomach,
the season was a smashing success.
Now come some big off season questions that will be examined
in the weeks to come such as Lionel Hollins fate as head
coach and will the team re-sign defensive stopper and fan
favorite Tony Allen.
Of course we'll keep you up to date with any and all Grizzlies
news right here on "Sports Files."
Moving on, one of the annual rituals of the Memphis sports
scene is to walk the grounds of TPC-Southwind each June and
follow some of the greatest golfers in the world as they
battle in the Fedex-St Jude Classic.
The challenge each year for the staff of the FESJC is to put
together the most attractive field possible,
which is not always easy, especially when you throw in the
fact that the US Open directly follows the Memphis event on the
schedule and there are many golfers who want the week off to
prepare for the major.
However, despite the obstacles, tournament director Phil Cannon
and his staff work diligently to make the field as good as it can
be, and this year is no exception.
They have scored big with a commitment from four time major
winner Phil Mickelson.
They have added 2012 FedExCup champion Brandt Snedeker and
defending champion Dustin Johnson is returning to defend
his title.
As for the hard-working, dedicated tournament director
Phil Cannon, nothing gives him more satisfaction than to put
together a great field, put on an incredible event,
and make golf fans happy.
And that's what he's been doing for many years.
Today we walk 18 with the heart and soul of the FedEx-St Jude
Classic, Phil Cannon next on "Sports Files".
♪♪♪
Phil, thank you so much for joining us.
Well thank you for having me, Greg.
One of my favorite events that Memphis holds each and every
year so when I see you, I know it's right around the corner.
We've got the FedEx-St. Jude Classic
really getting kickstarted Sunday.
But tomorrow, Phil, as you know is the player entry deadline.
Before we talk about the players that are entered,
any last minute additions or expecting anybody to enter the
field here in the last few hours?
No, we added Padraig Harrington, a two time major winner and
Vijay Singh who's well known to the Memphis audience here
earlier this week.
So don't have an tricks up our sleeve but got our fingers
crossed for Davis Love the third still.
He has not said no yet.
So that probably is the last big piece of the puzzle to fall in
place.
I think everybody knows the challenges of trying to put
together a field right in front of the US Open.
And you guys do a spectacular job each and every year.
This year, no exception.
I know you like this field that you guys have playing this week
in the FedEx-St. Jude Classic
or next week as I should say.
Yeah, we have a great field led by Phil Mickleson,
number two player in the world basically.
The young 14-year-old Chinese golfer who made the cut at the
Masters, Guan Tianlang will be playing with us.
Brandt Snedeker is in the field.
In fact, we've got 10 of the top 20 in the FedEx Cup points race
this year.
So some names that probably some viewers might not be as familiar
with, D.A. Points is in the field for instance.
And then a lot of winners from this year.
In fact, some of our former winners have already won this
year, including our defending champion,
Dustin Johnson who got off to a great start in the first event
of the year in Hawaii.
Brians Gays already won this year.
Freddie Jacobson is definitely a man to watch next week who's a
perennial.
He's back from Sweden.
Great international field with Reteif Goosen,
David Toms, Justin Leonard, some international players and former
winners that people are familiar with.
So all in all, it's going to be an outstanding field for the
golf fans of the Mid-South.
You've had a quite a history of winners over the years,
colorful winners, big names, obscure names that have come out
of no where to win your tournament.
But what's it like to have a guy with a name as big as Dustin
Johnson defending your title?
It's very big.
Being able to use his picture and collateral that needs to
start in to production in January is huge.
We're not like most sports.
We don't know our product until literally 48 hours before the
curtain goes up.
So we don't have the luxury of including,
for instance, Phil Mickleson's picture in our literature and on
our website and on our tickets and the souvenir program.
And so much of the effort to sell the gold tournament takes
place in November and December and January.
So getting people to think about golf and to recognize the
magnitude of our event with a champion like Dustin Johnson is
huge.
Well speaking of the hard work you have to put in to lure these
player to Memphis, how did you get Phil Mickleson?
I know he's been here before but it's not like he comes every
year and likes to play everytime the week before a major.
How'd you pull it off, Phil?
Well the perserverance and hard work and the sophisticated
e-mail campaign and suave personality and site visits to
other tournaments didn't have anything to do with getting him
here.
Our event was literally in the way of his schedule.
So you lucked?
Love to take credit for it.
But you know the week before the Open,
some guys decide they want to practice and become tournament
ready the week before the Open.
So it's a great date.
Other guys decide they want to skip the open and skip the week
before the open and go on to the open site the week prior.
In that regard, it's not such a great date.
But we've had the week before the open for seven years now.
And it looks like we're going to have it for an eighth year next
year.
We're trying to firmk up the dates for next year as we speak.
And the week prior to the open is probably about as good a date
as we can hope for.
And we find ourselves in a position of having a player like
Phil Mickleson almost every year.
You mentioned the 14-year-old form China, Guan.
To get a young man like that who just blew the golf world away by
not only playing in the Masters to qualify to play but to make
the cut.
What does that mean to go for fans around here to see--and I
ahte to say novelty but right now it is--a 14-year-old playing
with the big boys and playing that well?
Well first and foemost, we're in the entertainment business.
And it takes that novelty and that headlienr sometimes to
break throught the clutter.
And heaven knows we've had our fair share of media clutter the
past six weeks with the great run that the Grizzlies had made.
But having Guan in the field is helpful from just a publicity
standpoint.
Case in point, we announced Brandt Snedeker and Ian Poulter
three weeks ago and it was on C1 of the Commerical Appeal,
front page, one column to the right beside a big picture of
Mike Conley.
We announced Phil Mickleson two weeks ago.
He's on the front page of the sports C1 across the top of the
front page.
We announce Guan and he's on the front page of the paper,
A1 literally above the fold where everybody sees it when
they pick up their morning paper.
So it might be a little blase to use newspaper analogies but that
does indicate the star power of that announcement.
And so we're real happy he's coming.
And incidentally, I was calling him "Juan" for a long time and
somebody reminded me he's not from Mexico.
He's from China.
So it's not "Juan", it's Guan.
Pronounce the "G".
I've been practicing that all day.
He gets a sponsors exemption.
How many sponsors exemptions are there and who else are getting
them?
Well we have eight sponsor exemptions to give.
In a normal year, we would have four of those that could go to
any golfer that we so choose.
And the other four have to go to members of the PGA tour.
Well this year because of the shortened PGA tour season,
they only gave us sponsor exemptions in the open category.
The other six have to members of the PGA tour who are not
otherwise exempt.
I see.
Now if all the players get in who want to play,
then we get four of those spots back.
So sponsor exemption is a very complicated category.
It's quite frankly, we spend a lot more time on sponsor
exemptions than we need to.
We don't know until tomorrow afternoon's deadline at 5:00 who
will be in the field on their own number to know how many
spots we have back.
So we have not awarded any other sponsor exemptions to this date.
And it's a very unusual year.
A lot of agents when they talk to us,
a lot of palyers when they talk to us are confused about the
current set of rules that the tours operating under.
But it'll all sort itself out tomorrow afternoon at about
5:00.
Well let me ask you this, Phil.
John Daly, a fan favorite, of course he brings a lot of
followers.
He's here annually.
Is he in on his own accord or is he waiting for an exemption?
No, John Daly currently is in on his own number.
Okay.
But if three players come in above him right now,
it'll knock him down to first alternate.
And then we would have to use a sponsor exemption.
I see.
So I can't tell player A, B and C that they're in the field
until I know who is in the field.
Did you go to MIT to figure this stuff out?-- Harvard?
I'll tell you what.
It's 25 years of practive and I'm still confused.
Well Phil, all these great events that coincide with the
actual tournament itself and it gets kickstarted on Sunday.
Tell everybody about what's going on at TPC-Southwind,
how they can get tickets, how they can come and take advantage
of it.
Thank you for that opportunity.
We ought to go on the road as Abbott and Costello.
(laughter) Our after hours events,
we call them, are sponsored this year by Campbell Clinic.
And the Campbell Clinic After hours kicks off with our Sunday
at Southwind Family Festival at 5:00 pm Sunday.
The Garry Goin Soul Review playing a jazz concert.
The Dennis Walters trick show back.
We'll have some hitting stations for the kids.
This is a great opportunity for the fans to come to Southwind
and enjoy themselves a relaxing afternoon.
And then Monday is our first Pro-Am,
the Danny Thomas Pro-Am.
John Daly will be in that.
Guan Tianlang will be playing in that event as well.
That's at 1:00 pm this Monday, June the third.
And then on Tuesday, we have a great new event,
Executive Womens Day.
It's an all-day set of meetings with 150 of the best business
leaders in the Memphis area, female business leaders.
We do have a few seats left for that.
It starts with a breakfast.
Then they take behind the scenes tours,
a luncheon speaker Molly Fletcher who is the female Jerry
Maguire for those of you who want to Google Molly Fletcher.
Great dynamic speaker.
And then a wind down in one of our hospitality venues to wrap
up Tuesday.
And then Wednesday is our Window World Pro-Am.
We've actually sold the Pro-Am to Window World this year.
Not a big celebrity emphasis this year.
Last year we had a lot of celebrities because of Saint
Jude's 50th anniversary.
But this year it's mostly just the amateur golfers along with
their pro partners.
So that's an all day event.
Thursday the big boys tee it up for $5.7 million,
156 golfers playing golf for five-four days.
Friday afternoon at 5:00-- I'm sorry.
Firday afternoona t 7:00 we're going to show "Caddyshack" on
the big screen TV at the 18th green.
Now "Caddyshack", I came to find out was an R-rated movie.
I don't remember much of it.
So I went back and did some edits and got with our
production company.
So our movie night Friday night lasts from 7:00 to 7:15-- like a
15 minute movie, ya know?
It's like the caddy swim in the actual movie.
It is.
And then Saturday night when play ends at 5:00 pm,
the Will Tucker band is another event on our Campbell Clinic
After Hours line up.
Sunday afternoon after the final putt,
we'll make the award ceremony and CBS will leave the air at
5:00 with the new champion.
Phil, obviously for the golf itself,
you need tickets.
Do you need tickets for every?-- For Sunday for example.
Is it free or do you need a ticket to get in?
Sunday, Monday and Tuesday are free at Southwind.
Wednesday through Sunday of next week when the competition takes
place, including the Pro-Am, adults need a ticket.
Those 15 and under do not need a ticket.
Tickets are $35 at the gate but you can still buy them in
advance online at StJudeClassic-dot-com or call
our office where you'll find the one-day ticket for $30.
We also have a family pack that is good for four adult
admissions, four hot dogs and four soft drinks for $74.
What are you hearing about the course from the superintendant?
Well the golf course is going to be in good shape.
It's going to be a good golf course.
We've got 10 more days roughly.
Well maybe five more days once this show airs of hot weather,
70 degree nights.
But we had a cool, wet spring.
And a couple of the golf greens are not as good as we would hope
they'll be.
But they have five more days.
A lot can grow under that time.
As case in point, May the 15th we had had two days with a high
temperature of over 80 degrees.
Right.
The average is 17.
We had as of May 15, we were six and a half inches over normal.
We had a good three, four inch gully washer about a week ago.
So we're a good eight to ten inches above normal.
So we need some hot, dry weather right now to let the greens
mature.
And then we'll see a golf course,
you know, a week from now.
As the guys finish up, it'll be in prime condition.
We normally get that weather at this time.
So hopefully Mother Nature will cooperate.
Without going in to too much detail,
how many more years left on the current contract with FedEx as
title sponsor and are you working on trying to continue
that for years to come.
One and yes.
There's your simple answer.
Expound on it a little bit.
We do have one more year with the FedEx contract.
And then FedEx has signed their relationship with the PGA Tour
through 2017.
So I can't imagine that we're not in really good shape with
FedEx to host the tournament at TPC-Southwind at least through
'17 and beyond.
How early do you and your staff start working on players?
That's a pretty good question, Greg.
We will start visiting tournaments in January.
The FedEx team and our General Chairman Zach Sammons were out
at the Phoenix Open in February.
I attended the Honda Classic in March.
We had a player, a staff member Darrell Smith,
our tournament manager was at the Wells Fargo Championship in
last month.
In fact, talked to Rory Mcllroy.
had a chance to visit with Rory.
Rory had Saint Jude's logo on his bag that week.
So it was an opportunity to talk to him.
And at that time he told Darrell that he had probably was going
to go to the Open, 50-50 shot that he'd be here.
But we've since learned that Rory won't be here.
But we did get another Rory in this weeks' list,
golf's other Rory.
Who's that?
Rory Sabbatini.
Oh, yeah!
He has not played here in a long time and we're looking forward
to hosting him.
You've been doing this a long time.
Do you ever get tired of it?
No, I don't, Greg.
I'm blessed.
I have one of the great jobs in America.
And you know there's only 42 tournaments ont he PGA Tour.
So I've been very blessed.
Don't take it for granted.
My job literally during tournament week is to stay out
of the way and let the hard work of 1800 volunteers take over and
produce the event.
And if I insert myself, I usually end up screwing
something up.
So we only have five full-time staff members.
We rely on about 25 or 30 volunteer sales people to help
us sell during the winter months.
And then we have 1800 volunteers that decend on the golf course.
And to this day, they do things and accomplish things that I
have no idea that they've ever been done.
And I find out after the tournament.
How long have we been doing that?
Well five years.
Oh, great.
It's important to have good people around you and as a
member of the media for many years here in Memphis,
my appreciation to you and your staff for what you guys do.
Like I said, this is one of my favorite,
if not my favorite event of the year of sports in Memphis.
Well we are running an adult day camp for seven days.
Exactly.
And it is so much fun.
And as a golf fan, I love it.
Phil, thank you but you're not done yet.
You're not off the hot seat.
It's time for "Five for the Road".
I'll give you a question-- quick answer,
first thing that comes to mind.
What is your favorite professional sports team?
You can't say the Memphis Grizzlies.
New York Yankess.
The New York Yankess!
Why is there a connection?
Just love baseball and the pinstripes.
My late father-in-law lived with us for five years and he would
pull for the Red Sox and I'd pull for the Yankess.
That must have been nice.
Between like 300 games a year, I bet we watched 150 of them.
Combination pin stripes and seersucker.
That would be a nice uniform.
Who's your favorite pro-athlete of all time?
You could use a golfer if you want for an answer.
You know what?
I think I have a lot of respect for Loren Roberts and the work
that he does in our community and for our games.
So Lorens right up there.
Former guest of mine here on "Sports Files."
Okay real quick, favorite music, musician?
What do you like to listen to?
I'm a huge jazz fan.
I'm heading to the Monterey Jazz Festival in September.
So any jazz, I'm all about it.
Favorite movie of all time?
Oh, "Blazing Saddles".
Oh, that's a great one.
Yes.
You could recite some.
You might not remember "Caddyshack" but you remember
all the lines from "Blazing Saddles".
"Airplane" was another good movie.
It was a good one.
So you like comedies.
How about "Animal House?"
"Animal House" was definitely up there in the top five.
Another good one.
And finally, your favorite TV show,
past or present.
Wow, um, "Seinfeld"!
All time best!
"Seinfeld."
There's an analogy in life for every "Seinfeld" episode.
It's amazing.
Well if I hear some of them on the course next week?
That's right.
At the FedEx-St. Jude Classic.
Phil, always a pleasure.
Thank you so much.
Thank you, Greg.
Looking forward to seeing you out there next week.
My pleasure.
That's Phill Cannon.
We'll take a short break.
When we come back, it's "Overtime."
Stay with us.
♪♪♪
Did you ever want to get behind the wheel of a real fast
racecar?
How about the same type of car that is used in NASCAR?
Well you can, and you can do so at Memphis International
Raceway.
It's called the Rusty Wallace Racing Experience.
Recently the hall of fame driver spent some time with us in
Memphis to share his thoughts on the racing experience.
What is the Rusty Wallace Racing Experience?
The Rusty Wallace Racing Experience is a time where the
fans can come out and drive full-blown Nascar style cars.
And they can get in cars and be driven around the race track at
high speeds or they can drive it theirself.
And there's different levels of experience,
different levels of cars out here also.
If you go to racewithrusty-dot-com,
there's a whole menu of what you can do.
And now recently we just added go carts.
So now we've got 25.
We bought 25 brand new italian built carts.
They're calling it go carts.
And we've got more on order so they can be permanently right
here at the Memphis Speedway.
But you can come out here and be droven around,
like I said, at fast speeds.
And this particular car we're standing by,
this was one of the Nascar stock cars that was in competition in
Nascar.
Runs in the top five in speeds.
We had this car at the California Speedway.
This car ran over 200 miles per hour.
So we've got really full blown race cars here.
We've got full blown uniforms, shoes,
the helmets, the new device that Nascars mandating.
We've got all that stuff.
We think that our school and driving experience is probably
one of the best in the country.
We're proud of it.
We've got over 80 of these race cars.
We were doing over 380 dates a year.
We're going to have over 50 go carts.
So it's a pretty big driving experience and we really,
with my name on it and me being really involved in it,
they know that I want stuff first class.
You know that's one nice thing.
When you're a Nascar champion and you got put in the Hall of
Fame, people expect a lot of good things out of you.
And that's what I expect out of this driving experience.
So when people come here, they're going to have a good
time.
What does a driver have to do to prepare for race day?
Well as a driver, you got to be in good shape.
You got to, you know, you got to eat the right food.
You got to be prepared.
The mental alertness is everything in the world.
You don't have to be the strongest drifve.
You've got to be able to stand this heat because inside these
cars on the floorboards, it gets about 170 degrees.
And there's coolers that blow cold air through your helmet to
keep your brain cooled.
So as long as your upper body can stay cool,
that's the most important thing.
You're losing on an average of anywhere between five and eleven
pounds per race.
Thats how much weight.
The most weight I've ever lost is 12 pounds in Darlington,
South Carolina one time.
And I finished second in that race and I was spent,
man, when it was done.
So these babies get hot inside and they're hard to drive.
How's that feel?
Is it snug?
Yeah, feels fine.
Okay, good.
You can go ahead.
(engine starting)
(engine)
That is unbelievable!
That was nice!
I mean how do you know?
That is unbelieveable, unbelievable.
Oh, wow!
That is unbelievable!
I don't know how they know where there's cars around them when
they're diving down low and they're right against the wall.
Right against the wall!
I'm a little disoriented.
Yeah, they get close to that wall,
don't that?
My gosh!
Have you done this?
Yeah, we did when it was with Ricahrd Petty.
I think he was going a little extra for me.
I mean he was diving down that last.
I don't know how they dive down.
There's cars down there.
I don't know where they go.
Yeah with 42 other cars on the track,
can you imagine?
(laughter) And this is three-quarter mile.
And think of that video when they go to Super Speedway and
they're diving.
That is cool!
Did you have fun?
I did.
I really did.
Jarvis Greer everyone.
Jarvis Greer.
Phew, I made it!
Good to have Jarvo there for support.
And folks, I highly recommend it.
As we say good night, we do so with heavy hearts.
In the last two weeks the University of Memphis has lost
two respected members of their sports family.
First, former All American offensive lineman Harry Schuh
passed away on May 20th at the age of 70.
Harry was a guest on our "Sports Files" Super Bowl 47 special
earlier this year.
He was a tremendous player and an even better person.
And just this past Sunday Frankie Conklin died suddenly at
the age of 53.
Conklin was one of the most successful cheer coaches and
spirit squad directors in the entire country and led the
University of Memphis to seven national cheer titles.
Our thoughts go out to the family and friends of both Harry
and Frankie.
And that will do it for this week's show.
Remember you can see any of our previous shows by heading to our
website at WKNO-dot-org and clicking on KNO Tonite.
Have a terrific week and we'll talk to you next time.
♪♪♪
Closed captions provided by WKNO- Memphis