NATHAN GRUBE AND ANDY BESSETTE OF TRAVELERS

We got everybody's coming in. Every single player, we just out in Pebble Beach three weeks ago, yeah, and we saw all the top guys because that's a signature event as well. So we saw all the top guys in the world and every single one of them, we'll be there. We'll be there. Why would you even bother coming? Because we're going to be there. So then I said, well we have to tell your caddies, it's always my joke, I stand there and I said we're actually coming here to tell your caddies that we're going to have cars for the caddies again. Only event on the PGA tour that does this. We give cars to the caddies now and the caddies love us. They're phenomenal. Oh my gosh, very excited. So yeah, it's great. Rory's a fan favorite, everybody follows that guy around.

But Scottie Scheffler has become one of those names as well. Like everybody's going to want to follow that gallery. And just like some of these names, and there are people that are going to be in this field that people don't know now but in two years are going to be the next Seamus Power, going to be the next Shane Lowry. Like these guys all started at The Travelers. And that's the one thing I asked you last year, being a signature event, are we going to keep the exemptions around this time? Because yeah, we love the field of superstars, but I kind of like the no names as well.

Yes, it is still a no cut event. And that's actually, I mean, our sponsors and the fans are like, that's awesome, we can come any day we want. And we kind of say this, the cut happens before, right? The cut happens to be the top 70 in the world and then you get in these couple of events. So yeah, still no cut, you're going to see all those guys all four days. And our golf course is a course where there have been a few guys that have been like on the cut and then still won at our event, so like it's always in play. Even if a guy isn't playing that well on Thursday Friday, River Highlands, if you risk it, you can go low and actually still, so you're never ever out of it. And we always try to give... last we started doing Nathan's being nice. We used to have eight exemptions when we were a regular tournament, now that's signature, we only get four. And one of those four we save for the winner of PGA Tour University, which is all the collegiate young players coming out. So we have one for them. The other three we use for established champions who might need an exemption to play. And that's really important to us because it's just as important to us to keep really famous players who have done a lot for our tournament in the past coming back with us and they're part of the family. But like last year, the winner of PGA Tour University came and as Nathan said, Ludvig Åberg, and we've got to know him very, very well. We've done some things with him. Great young guy, I mean really a nice man. And so we're excited to have him coming back too this year. They're all, you know, we'll announce them all in due course, but any name you throw out is coming.

You know, last week, last Thursday Friday, I was at a meeting with the commissioner in Ponte Vedra. And on Thursday night dinner, Justin Thomas was a speaker and he was great. And he was asking about his different courses on the PGA tour and he looks right at me with Trevor Immelman doing the interview, and so he looks right at me and he goes, 'Andy, the PGA Tour of TPC River Highlands is phenomenal, we love it. I mean, it's a tricky course, it's tough, you got to be on and play.' And he's going on and on about how great the course is. So to have Justin Thomas talking about how great the course is, unprovoked, nobody asked him, but he was speaking to there 15, maybe 20 of us that were down at this meeting. And then we played golf on Friday morning. But it was unbelievable to see because Ludvig was there, Justin was there, and then Trevor Immelman was there to announce some stuff. But to see and hear that kind of feedback when you have your biggest title sponsors in the room is pretty good.

Oh yeah, a lot of... but that fits in with who Travelers is. Travelers is a company that cares about its communities, it cares about charity, and we give over $24 million a year nationwide, worldwide, mostly nationwide, as a corporation. So this fits right into what we are and who we are as a company. That's why we're title sponsor. Charity, community, and it doesn't hurt our brand either.

Treehouse Brewery. He wasn't going to give it and you just put it out there. Andy already announced every player that's coming, so no. So um, yeah, that's another venue that's going to be to the public. And they're phenomenal partners. Again, you find these partners that care about the community, that care about the charitable mission, and they're all in. And Treehouse is one of them. That team up there is phenomenal.

There's only the best part of all this, Ben. There only two important things for The Travelers Championship to remember: golf and food. This is true. We have to get both of those right. If I don't get those two things right, you're talking to somebody else next year. You got to have brew and moo, you got to have UConn ice cream, you have to have the best cheeseburgers around. Oh my gosh, and the quality of the food has just continued to improve every year. And I think also, what Nathan's talking about, these venues, you can take this great food, go to the venue, sit down as if you're in a suite, and really enjoy yourself and watch it and have a great time with your family. So Ben, to your point, I have to chase Andy often after interviews like this. I'm like, what do we build? What are we doing now? What do we build? So it's, but I tell you, that's half the fun. I mean he does it because he knows what it means to the community and he loves it. But I there are some ideas that have come out of interviews and I'm like, I'm sorry, what are we doing? And he's like, oh, you'll figure it out. You know, I've been working for 19 years trying to get Nathan to put sleeper cars on the railroad track. And we haven't done it.