James Sutherland | Golf Australia CEO (14.04.26)

0:00Yes, Tom Morris filling in for Jared Whitley. James Sutherland isn't far away. If you've missed any of the show or want to catch up on a Luke Hodges leadership portfolio, Matt Shervington on Australian athletics was fantastic out, out being the centerpiece of that because he's just going from strength to strength round end of 20 seconds the first time and Australian has done that in a 200 meters race. Ashley Brown on two 300 game milestones all on your podcast at those milestones. Of course, Mark Blissarves on Locking Neal this weekend. As an aside, I also noticed that Cal Tumi has ranked Nick Deikos's best games, one to 99 on the AFL website. And you can say whatever you want about Nick Deikos, but I reckon about 80 of those games have been absolutely superb. So have a look at that content. That's right up the alley of anyone in a digital age just to have a look to see which one is number one. I'm trying to think what I would put number one is certainly had many good games Nick Deikos. Rory McAroy is having the time of his life over at Augusta. He was 12 under when he won. What was that yesterday morning?

1:02Just holding off Scotty Sheffler. And the Aussies performed pretty well early. Jason Dane, particular in the first couple of rounds, but then they faded. He was the best of the Australians at five under. We'll get to James Sutherland in a few moments time. I want to have a listen to Justin Longmer and Sean Darcy, first of all. He's got a lot of criticism, Sean Darcy, the Ruck Rolls at Freemandal. This is Justin Longmer, the Freo Coach speaking on AFL 360 last night. I actually don't mind the rule. I wasn't a little bit hesitant when it came in, but I don't mind the rules keeping the ball in play. It's keeping him transition more. But we've got to be careful of going to the arc. That's an interesting start. You get a bit of a sense that it happened every time on the weekend, but only three times. But a lot of the rules have been brought in to quicken up the game. So to go to review on some pretty obvious out of bounds, rules doesn't really make a lot of sense. So we've got to watch how much time is taking out of the game for sure. Yeah, I agree with Jayal on this. I think there's only four and a half a game.

2:07Less so. So I think as well, if we're trying to speed the game up, going to the arc just delays it even more. So we've got to as football clubs, if if a decision is made just the way it is, well, you've got to cope and deal with it. So I like the idea of keeping the ball in transition as low as quickly as you possibly can. And I think with the four and a half times that is happening, it's not not been too much of a detriment either. Yes, I'm on the right show here. I think the arc will continue to be a source of discussion for the rest of the years. The AFL just tinkers with the best practice and the best way to use it, making sure they get the right decisions in the most timely way possible. As I mentioned earlier, Rory McAroy has won back-to-back Masters tournaments. It was just engrossing to watch on the TV yesterday morning. The most golf majors since 1986, Tiger Woods 15 and Nick Fowldo, Phil Mickelson and Rory McAroy six apiece. It unequivocally puts him in the next bracket and the good thing is we get to see him in Australia in just a few months time as we did in the summer. He'll be at Kingston Heath for the Australian Open in the summer coming

3:12up. And James Sutherland was over at the Masters. He's the Golf Australia CEO and I believe he's just got off the plane. James, welcome to the show. Oh, thanks Tom. Good to be with you. You just flying in. Tell us about the Masters. What it was like to be there? Paint a picture for us. Well, it was as it always is. It's a great occasion in World Golf. This one in particular is the best weather I've ever seen. In fact, we will have seen in the broadcast. It was actually the greens and other areas. Of course, we're starting to brown off a little bit by the time the weekend came. But yeah, it was a topsy-turvy sort of, I guess, last weekend for Rory and they were obviously thrilled to have secured him as our market pilot in Australia. I couldn't like it. They said liking doesn't strike twice. He went for us with him winning two years and the end of each year coming and flying in Australia and open. Does his price go up a bit now? He's won another Masters or have you signed a rock solid contract? Rock solid D.O.I here. I hope

4:17I'm sorry. I'm sorry. He's managed to have been an hour before Rory hit off and just confirmed that everything was on track. And he confirmed to me that he's had a fantastic time in Australia last year. We've got the blood drink. We know what to do. We love it down there and we can't wait to get down. Tell us about the Masters as a tournament more broadly. We know the Masters will always be the Masters. There's certain elements that are particular to that tournament, not just in the way it's set up, but also the no phones, the way the commentators or the media describe patrons, not fans and various other intricacies. But what can we take or what can you take from the Masters and implement in Australia that would make golf better here from a professional standpoint? I think one of the unique things about the Masters is that it is played at the same golf course every year, which is unlike any of the other majors, which is just sort of shared around.

5:19And that in itself given, I guess in many ways Augusta National Golf Club was established with a view to hosting a championship every year. They've built a model and I guess a model of economic sustainability allows them to continue to invest in the tournament. And I would just by way, for example, there was quite a lot of media coverage about the player facility that they built in the off season. It is quite extraordinary. I mean, it's a huge three-story building that looks as though it's been there for 30 years. That was just, you know, it's absolutely brand new and all of the players. I didn't see it firsthand, but the players and coaches and others that did have access to it, but I spoke too soon. It was just like nothing else in World Golf. What does it say? I suppose that's the example. Yeah, that's just an example of things that are out of reach for us, but it still sets the standard like no other.

6:24You know, we just want players to want to come to our event. And I think the Masters is obviously the ultimate ticket. It's quite an exclusive event in terms of the number of players that can play it, playing it. But excuse me, for us, it's very much about the end of a long year, which is when our Australian opening is on. We want international players to want to come to the end of Australia and have a great experience. Part of that's playing on great golf courses, part of it is also us looking after them as best we can. Is there a sense of familiarity as well with Augusta? The fact that people go back the same time or about the same time every single year, played the same course. They can be replicated here. I understand it would be difficult to have, let's say, the Masters, sorry, the Masters, the Australian Open at Kingston Heath or Roma when every single year. But is there a world where you could rotate between two or three golf clubs for an extended period of time? Or is that not feasible? No, I think that's something that we would like to

7:26get to. I think in, as I understand it, the RNA and the Open Championship in the UK as it has a sort of commitment, I suppose, to the old courses in Andrews to play there every five years. And that sort of thing, I mean, we're blessed really, particularly here in Melbourne to have a number of genuinely well-class golf courses that we could rotate around. As you and many of your listeners will know, Tom, the economics and joint golf is somewhat different here in Australia where we don't have the significant television revenue and we do have a level of reliance on state government support and tourism dollar, I guess tourism investment to make these events viable. So to some extent, we need to work with our relevant state governments and build that proposition. But having that certainty and looking further ahead is definitely something that we aspire to. We're talking to James Sutherland, the CEO of

8:29Golf Australia, former CEO of Cricket Australia as well, and the father of Tom, Annabelle and Will, Tom of Court, what's he off now about? Plus four, and Will being the captain of the Victorian team and Annabelle making double hundreds for fun in Test Cricket. So you've got some great pedigree in your family, but when you're walking around the Augusta, what does the CEO of Golf Australia do? Are you camping yourself on one particular haul? Are you following Jason Day or Adam Scott? What was your game plan over there? Unfortunately this year, I was basically in meetings from I arrived on Monday night and I was in meetings all the way through from Tuesday through Friday, so a little bit of golf on Saturday, and very little on Sunday. But one of the things for us is that it is a pilgrimage to take all from all over the golf industry and we do have an opportunity

9:29to have meeting places that allow us to catch up with people, colleagues, and business partners, and indeed, player managers and others that, although I guess allow us to play in a head, no, these sorts of opportunities a few are far between, so there wasn't a lot of golf watching, but to your point, anyone that has been to the Masters will know that there are just so many iconic places around that golf course to sit and watch. You can either choose to sit on a hole and watch groups come through or follow a player. It's probably a little bit harder with an acid crown that they have to walk around and follow players, but it's a nice thing to do to watch how players block their way around. I know you're a footy man, James, I've just got to break into live programming and tell our listeners a story, so still, side bottom won't play versus Carlton. He copped a knock to the hip pointer and he'll be assessed in the coming weeks, but he won't play against Carlton. That knock to the hip pointer came during the game,

10:31calling would have caused played against free mantle last week, so that's a blow to the pies, ahead of the game against Carlton. Tell us about participation numbers in Australia at the moment. I know and COVID golf exploded. Are we still seeing a huge rise? If so, what else can the governing body do to continue to promote the sport? Look, the game is in root health at the moment, Tom. I think in some quarters almost bursting at the same, which creates challenges in itself. I think our research suggests that around the year 2021, so five years ago, there were about 3.7 million out of Australians hitting golf balls in Australia and last year it topped 4 million, so that's not all members of golf, but they're not all playing around to golf, but the amazing things that the game and one of the things that's really changed about golf is that there's all these alternative formats that effectively create a huge funnel in which people are coming

11:32into the game, experiencing the game, and I think the image of the game is changing, it feels like it's a lot more accessible, affordable, it's not as stuffy as some might have had predicted today, and that in itself is creating a huge opportunity, but also challenges in some areas as golf clubs. You know, three times get picked up and they're awaiting lists on various golf clubs, membership lists, all those things, I guess, that of the alternative, but they create challenges as well. So when Rory McAroy comes out here later in the year, is it going to be roughly this a similar itinerary forum? Because as big as he was last year, after winning the Masters, I imagine that would just be amplified after going back to back, and the attention around him will just be so strong. I think so with this no doubt that I'm, I'm going to, he's just going up, his legend status has gone up at a level. We've got, we're already in planning, I'm obviously knowing that we have people secured and that we're playing a kick tonight,

12:35this year allows us to plan ahead. We did our best to match the security of tomorrow's seer at Royal Movement, had record crowds, I think 133,000 through the gates over the course of the week, and we expect something similar at Kingston, Ethan, the way we will build the golf course and make sure that there's ample capacity is somewhat of a challenge with a slightly smaller block of land, but knowing the, the team of Kingston, Ethan, embracing the, the opportunity and the challenge and it'll be an absolutely fantastic event and just encourage people to make decisions early about getting tickets and choosing days because by the end of it last year, people like that run a little bit late and when I get in on the webcam. Yes, I'm looking at the dates now online, so do you have them handy? What's straight up in go? First weekend of, first weekend of December, it is, whatever that is. December one, to December six it says, yeah.

13:36Yeah, that week, yeah. Awesome. James, really appreciate your time, thanks for jumping on, particularly after a long flight, get some rest and I'll see you down it. Well, one of your many golf clubs soon. Thanks Tom, good to chat.