Golf Channel Premieres A New Trump-led Reality Show

For Donald Trump, one reality show is not enough. He’ll host a bunch of celebrities and sports figures at his various golf courses around the country for his new series which of course, bears his name. Check out the press release and subsequent conference call.

Donald J. Trump’s Fabulous World of Golf Debuts Monday on Golf Channel

NFL Hall-of-Famers Jerry Rice and Lawrence Taylor Compete for Charity and Bragging Rights on Premiere Episode

Video Sneak Peek: Premiere Episode Sneak Peek

ORLANDO, Fla. April 8, 2010 – Donald Trump will head straight from the boardroom to the golf course in a new six-part series titled Donald J. Trump’s Fabulous World of Golf debuting Monday (April 12) at 9 p.m. ET on Golf Channel. In each hour-long episode, Trump will host a bevy of celebrities, superstar athletes and professional golfers at his exclusive golf properties around the world, as they compete head-to-head for their favorite charity.  The premiere episode, co-hosted by professional golfer and former Big Break contestant Blair O’Neal, showcases football greats Jerry Rice and Lawrence Taylor as they take their skills off the football field to face off on the green. 

From West Palm Beach to his top-rated courses in New York, New Jersey, Washington, D.C. and California, viewers will get a behind-the-scenes look at Trump’s golf empire, as well as an opportunity to watch celebrities from the world of sports and entertainment swing for the charity of their choice – and bragging rights.  Off the course, in each show, fans also will be granted exclusive access to witness how Trump brings his competitive bravado to his growing golfing empire.  Future episodes of Donald J. Trump’s Fabulous World of Golf will feature Oscar De La Hoya vs. George Lopez, Mark Wahlberg vs. Kevin Dillon and Rocco Mediate vs. John Daly.  The series’ final two matches will be announced at a later date.

To ensure each episode brings excitement and a high-level of competition, celebrity players will face off against others of similar handicaps.  Each match-up is destined to take a series of twists and turns as Trump presents many entertaining and exciting challenges along the way, including a pre-determined hole that’s worth $10,000 for their favorite charity. In the first episode, Rice and Taylor will be playing for the charities March of Dimes and For Life, respectively.

Donald Trump said, “As everyone knows, golf has always been one of my greatest passions, so I’m excited to work on this new program with Golf Channel, which showcases my award-winning, top-rated golf resorts from around the world and fierce competition between some of the biggest known celebrities, all while raising money for charity.  I’m looking forward to granting viewers access to the inner workings of the unparalleled Trump golf empire, which is growing at a break neck pace.”

“Donald J. Trump’s Fabulous World of Golf will bring viewers into the unique business of golf, ‘Trump-style,’” said Tom Stathakes, Golf Channel senior vice president of programming, production and operations.  “We’ll go behind the scenes at some of the most breathtaking courses in the world while featuring top celebrity match-ups in unique golf competitions.”

Donald J. Trump’s Fabulous World of Golf is part of Golf Channel’s new slate of original programming featuring A-list Hollywood talent and fascinating sports personalities.  Golf Channel’s other original programming standouts for the spring include Being John Daly and The Haney Project starring Ray Romano. 

Trump also is the creator and star of NBC’s highly rated The Apprentice and The Celebrity Apprentice.  The new season of The Celebrity Apprentice is currently airing on NBC.

Donald J. Trump’s Fabulous World of Golf is produced by Golf Channel in conjunction with The WorkShop, LLC, an independent multi-media production company based in Bryn Mawr, Penn.

I’ll give you a conference call with Donald Trump after the jump. It’s very long so if you want to scan through it, click on “Read More”.

Here’s a conference call conducted earlier this week with Mr. Trump.

An Interview With: DONALD TRUMP

DAN HIGGINS: Hello, everybody. Good afternoon. If you’re on the line to find out more about Mr. Donald Trump’s new Golf Channel series, then you’re in the right place. The series is called “Donald J. Trump’s Fabulous World of Golf.” My name is Dan Higgins. I’m head of public relations for The Golf Channel, and I can say on beha
lf of our network that we are very excited, and everybody with our network is anticipating the premier of this series on Monday night, this coming Monday, April 12th.

           
The series is pretty much like nothing else that we’ve ever aired on our air, but I’ll let Mr. Trump tell you why that is.

           
But first of all, a little housekeeping. Like I said, “Donald J. Trump’s Fabulous World of Golf” premiers Monday, April 12, at 9:00 p.m. eastern. The series will be in six parts, and each Monday episode will be one hour long. Of course viewers will have multiple opportunities to watch on The Golf Channel as we do replay our series several times during the week.

           
So without further ado, let me introduce the man who actually needs no introduction, Mr. Donald J. Trump. Welcome, and maybe you can give our callers a quick synopsis of the series from your perspective before we open it up for some questions.

           
DONALD TRUMP:  Thank you very much, Dan, and thank you, everybody, for being on. I hear we have a lot of folks on the call, and I appreciate that.

             

We are going to be doing a show that’s golf. I’ve always loved golf, and over the last ten years I’ve built a really wonderful portfolio of golf. As somebody said, there’s never been a group of courses so quality, so good, built and really controlled by one person, and I hope that’s true. But we have courses like in Los Angeles, which is the No. 1 rated course in the state of California; in Florida, we have the No. 1 rated course in the state of Florida; Westchester County, we’ve had terrific ratings on our course in Westchester, and we have many more.

           
And we have been buying over the last year ?? I just bought one right next to Pine Valley called Pine Hill, which is now called Trump National Golf Club Philadelphia. We’re spending a lot of money on it, but it was a Tom Fazio gem, and we think it’s going to do spectacular business. Since we bought it, which is two months ago, we’ve signed over 104 members who have joined. It was a semi?private course. We’ve made it a private course, and now that people can’t play it, they’re all joining. So it’s been really a very good experience. And Dutchess we just bought. So we have a total of 11 courses, and they’re highest level of golf, otherwise I don’t buy or build them. If they have ?? if they’re 10s or have the potential to be 10s, we do it.

           
And I guess the big one that you’re all reading about is in Scotland where we have started construction on what’s called the Great Dunes of Scotland, the largest dunes in the world, and it was a very long process getting that approved because in theory I’m not sure anybody else could have got that approved.

           
But we’re now starting construction on something that’s going to be beyond. So we’re having a lot of fun with it. We’re doing well with it.

           
And Golf Channel came to me, and because of the success of “The Apprentice” we’ve had many nights where “The Apprentice” was the No. 1 show on television, and now we have “Celebrity Apprentice,” and actually NBC just renewed for “Celebrity” and for “The Apprentice,” one in the fall and one in the spring, for next season.

             

And one thing I learned about your business and the business of television, if you get good ratings, they renew you; if you don’t get good ratings, they don’t renew you. It’s a very simple business. You can be nice or you can be nasty, but if the ratings are there they renew you.

           
So The Golf Channel came to me, and they saw the ratings of “The Apprentice,” and the last iteration has been terrific. In the 18s and 49s especially we’re killing everybody. In fact, last night, Sunday night, when we fired Governor Blagojevic, the 10:00 o’clock hour we killed everybody; especially in the demos we beat everybody. We were the No. 1 show in that hour. So it just continues to do very well, and I think Golf Channel saw this.

           
So I got a call from the folks at Golf Channel, would I do a show. It started off where there was no concept. They said how about a half an hour show where we talk to you about different things. I said, let’s not bore people, because what am I going to talk about? And they were thinking about maybe talking about how I build a golf club or something, and I said that’s good for four minutes, but what are we going to do with the rest of the time.

           
And I said, look, one of my favorite shows of all time having to do with spo
rts or golf was “Shell’s Wonderful World of Golf,” but there were certain things I disagreed with. It was stroke play, and it was only professionals, and ties were allowed. In other words, if two people shot 69, they would have a tie as opposed to a playoff. So there were things I disagreed with.

           
And the early versions of “Shell’s Wonderful World of Golf” were great. It’s sort of interesting, as it progressed it became worse and worse, but the early versions were really fantastic with Jimmy Demaret and Gene Sarazen. They were classics. The other night I watched Ben Hogan and Sam Snead playing, and Arnold Palmer playing Julius Boros.  They were great.

           
I said, why don’t we do match play. We can have a lot of other things in it. It’s very different from Shell in that we’re going to have a lot of other things in it, but we’re basically talking about matches, but the difference is it won’t only be golf pros. It will be golf pros, too; for instance, we have Rocco Mediate playing John Daly, which turned out to be a great match.

             

But it’ll also be, and I think importantly, celebrities. We have the first one is Lawrence Taylor playing Jerry Rice, and I can only tell you it was an amazing match. They’re both 2 handicaps. We will never do strokes, so I always want to ?? I’m not a big believer in strokes. We will always get players of comparable ability. We have Oscar de la Hoya playing George Lopez. That turned out tobe a really good match. It went more than the distance, meaning it went beyond the 18th hole, and it really turned out to be a great match.

           
So we have players of equal capability. We have some unbelievable matches that will be shot, and we have things ?? for instance, when Lawrence Taylor plays Jerry Rice, they say things to each other that frankly professionals will not say. I’ve never heard language like this, what they were doing to each other when they were playing. And it really is very exciting and very different, and very tough and very nasty.

           
So we’re doing the show. We’re doing initially six of them, and then they want to extend, and I think they’re going to get very good ratings relative to the Golf Channel. It can’t be “The Apprentice” because it’s a different kind of a thing and it’s a little bit nichy because it’s golfers, but I think it’s going to be their big show, and I think it’s going to do really well, and we hope it’s going to do very well. We’ve tried to make it exciting. The camera work has been absolutely fantastic.

           
And when we have the matches, I put down my foot on one thing; if we have matches with people, we have to go immediately from the first hole to the second hole to the third hole.  We don’t want the golfers waiting. It’s not fair, and frankly it’s inconvenient for a lot of people, and they were able to do that. I mean, literally there’s no stop time on any hole.

           
So I’m really excited about it. It airs on the 12th, and with the first match Lawrence Taylor?Jerry Rice, as I said, and if you folks would have any questions, please feel free.

           
DAN HIGGINS:  By the way, in case you were wondering, the show will give a little glimpse into the Trump golf empire. We get a little behind the scenes, right, Mr. Trump, of how you work with your golf courses?

           
DONALD TRUMP:  Yes, it also will do that. They wanted the whole show to be that, and I didn’t think that was a good idea because who wants to hear me bragging about how great my courses are, right? So I can do that in two minutes as opposed to in 60 minutes.

            

So what happened is all of the events will be shot at my courses, and they are Florida, which is Palm Beach; Los Angeles; Bedminster, New Jersey; Colts Neck, New Jersey; and Pine Hill, which as I told you is right next to Pine Valley; and Westchester and Dutchess; and Los Angeles is a phenomenal venue. Then we can go out of the country to Canouan Island which is beautiful, and we also actually shot one, John Daly and Rocco, they played in Puerto Rico prior to the PGA tournament.

           
The other one we have is Washington, which is under construction. I bought it. It’s three miles on the Potomac River. It’s phenomenal. When it’s completed, it’s going to be phenomenal. It’ll be completed around July 1st, and it’ll be really a spectacular place. There’s no course that has frontage like that on the Potomac River, and this one has more than three miles on the Potomac. So that’s a very, very special place.

           
DAN HIGGINS:  And four of the six shows have been shot. The fourth one that we didn’t mention was in Hollywood with Mark Wahlberg and Kevin Dillon facing off against each other.

           
DONALD TRUMP:  They’re the stars of “Entourage,” which is a hot show on televis
ion.

           
DAN HIGGINS:  And this week is a big week in golf with the Masters beginning. Before we open it up for questions, I wonder if you have any thoughts on The Masters and what’s going on this week and the return of Tiger Woods to golf.

           
DONALD TRUMP:  Well, I know Tiger, and I like Tiger, and I’ve always liked Tiger, and Tiger does a lot of his clinics at my courses, especially the one in Los Angeles. He’s been there many times doing clinics. And it’s amazing to watch Tiger. I’m a golfer. It’s amazing to watch Tiger playing golf. I mean, it’s amazing to watch these clinics. I could tell you stories that are amazing, and I’m a pretty good golfer. I’ve won many club championships in lots of different tournaments, and when you see this, it’s really incredible.

           
The only question I have, though, is how will he handle the pressure, because I don’t think there’s ever been pressure on a golfer like there is on Tiger. How will the pressure affect his game and how will being away from it for so long affect his game. But I really think he’s probably going to do well.

           
It’s interesting, I was watching him hit balls at Augusta, and he’s really hitting the ball well, and he’s really ?? his swing looks fantastic. But that’s different than scoring. So it’ll be very interesting to see. I hope he does well. I’m a big Tiger supporter, and I hope he does well.

           
DAN HIGGINS:  It certainly is a big week. Thanks very much.

            

DONALD TRUMP:  Well, I think, talking about ratings, I think the ratings will be the greatest in the history of golf, and they could get close to Super Bowl?type ratings. As an example, I have a wife who’s a wonderful woman, but if I watch a golf tournament, it’s like, Darling, I love you very much, and then she leaves the room.

           
And she called me yesterday, and I was talking to her, and she said, Can you do me a favor? When is the Masters, because I want to TiVo® it or I want to watch it. I said, You want to watch a golf tournament? Oh, absolutely. She’s going to sit in front of a television, and she hasn’t watched a golf tournament in her life, and she’s going to be watching every minute of the golf tournament. She’s fascinated by it, and she’s not a golfer. So I think the ratings are going to be phenomenal.

Q.  We’ve got 2 handicaps, Rice and Taylor. I heard somewhere that your handicap was 4.  I don’t know if it’s still 4?

DONALD TRUMP:  Well, it’s hovering anywhere from a 1 to a 4, and it’s ?? I don’t know, for whatever reason, as I’ve gotten older, I’ve gotten a little bit better as a player, and at some point you know that will come crashing down because there’s a thing called the clock, which is ticking. But I guess as the equipment gets better ?? I’m a believer in golf you reach a certain level, you can’t get better, and obviously I hadn’t reached that level because I hadn’t played as much. And now because I have all these courses I get to play as much, and it’s work. I can actually feel good about it because I can say it’s work.

Q.  I saw Taylor I think smoking cigarettes at some point and cigars at some point while he was golfing.

DONALD TRUMP:  Yes.

Q.  Is that common?

DONALD TRUMP:  It’s not common. Lawrence is not common, either, I can tell you. But you had a lot of people watching him play, and they were wearing 56 ?? you had guys 60 years old wearing Lawrence’s jersey, it’s crazy. But he had a lot of people out there, and it was really exciting to watch.

           
No, he does smoke a cigar a lot while he’s playing.

Q.  Will you be doing any match?ups of female players or female celebrities?

           
DONALD TRUMP:  Yes, and in fact, if you remember Jimmy Demaret was with Gene Sarazen during “Shell’s Wonderful World of Golf,” and I’ve done it a little bit differently. I hope people don’t think this is sexist, but not only did I have ?? I have two or three great women players, including Suzann Pettersen, who hosted one of the events with me. She’s now ranked the No. 3 or 4 player in the world, women.

           
But I also have Miss Universe, Dayana Mendoza, from Venezuela, hosting an event with me.
I start out by saying, Dayana, have you ever seen a golf course before? And she goes, no. This is my local expert. Do you know what this is? Yes, that is a golf ball. I said, That’s right. And what is this? That’s a golf club. So she knows nothing, but she is very beautiful and she is Miss Universe, and I own the Miss Universe contest and the Miss USA contest, and I do that as a spoof. I do that as a joke. But she really actually was actually a great hostess. She helped me on one.

           
And then I have professional golfers or top?of?the?line golfers. I have one of the very, very good female golfers involved with Big Break, and I have Anna Rawson, who’s also an LPGA player, and we have quite a few golfers. So we do have hosts and hostesses, and they go around with me on the course. Not any one particular person, but Suzann Pettersen was, as an example, one, and she’s No. 3 or 4 on the LPGA Tour.

Q.  So they’re hosts and hostesses, they’re not actually playing each other?

           
DONALD TRUMP:  Yes, I will also have somewhere along the line people playing each other, yes, which I love. I’m a big fan of the LPGA, and I think the new commissioner is terrific, by the way.

Q.  I have a very simple question for you. Who would last longer on “The Apprentice,” Tiger Woods or Phil Mickelson?

           
DONALD TRUMP:  That’s a very tough question. I know them both. I like them both. And I would say that I’m going to take a pass because I don’t want to create any enemies, okay? But I can tell you one thing, they’d both do very well. They’re both tough, smart guys, and they’re very talented golfers, but I’d better take a pass on that question. It’s a very interesting question. I’ve never heard that one before.

Q.  I was just wondering because so many of us actually know you best as a business mogul, but how has being a golfer benefitted you as a businessman, either through making deals on the course or just life lessons?

           
DONALD TRUMP:  Well, I’ve made some really good deals on the golf course that I don’t think I would have made otherwise.  I mean, I could name a couple of them. But I became very friendly with people on the golf course that I would never have been really friendly ?? I don’t want to embarrass them by telling who, but they were very well?known people.

           
I’m really good friends with those people, and if I did that while sitting down at lunch, I’m sure I wouldn’t even know them right now and I’m sure the deals wouldn’t have happened.

           
But I have made really some significant deals because I play golf. I don’t mean winning a Nassau over the summer or winning a Nassau over a Saturday or a Sunday afternoon; I’m talking about major business deals that I’ve made on the golf course that have been very significant.

           
And the other thing, of course, is that you learn a lot about a person on the golf course. You learn their honesty, you learn their competitiveness. I mean, you learn a lot about a person.  It’s not that they have to sink the putt, because that’s also ?? there’s a great deal of talent involved, but you do learn about how competitive a person is on the golf course, and frankly how honest.

           
I’ve played with people that they’re behind a tree, and all of a sudden they’re hitting a nice free shot, and I’m saying ?? recently, and I’m saying, what’s that all about. He said, oh, no, I had a shot. Well, they were not particularly honest, and you sort of put that down in your memory bank. But you learn a lot about a person on the golf course.

Q.  And does that make it more of a reason to, say, walk as opposed to, say, take a cart?

           
DONALD TRUMP:  It’s interesting, walking is a great thing at a golf course. I’m a member of Winged Foot, and at Winged Foot you walk. At a lot of courses today you take carts. The thing I’m a big fan of with the carts is it is faster, and anything you can do to speed up the game is a positive in my opinion.

Q.  Mr. Trump, two quick questions for you: Number one, I think that one of the most interesting parts of the show that you’ve proposed and I’m looking forward to seeing it is the fact that it seems to me, and I’ve been around sports for many years, that the real competitiveness of true sportsmen comes on the golf course. It’s a totally different vibe when they get on the golf course. Is that something that you observed when you were watching this as the shows evolved?

           
DONALD TRUMP:  Well, it’s true, and when you have two
great athletes like Lawrence Taylor and Jerry Rice ?? and they’re so different. They’re both obviously strong guys, but Lawrence is extraordinarily long. He hits a very, very long ball. People don’t think Lawrence would be good because he’s such a big guy but he’s really good.

           
He came up with a statement at the beginning of the show. He said, Well, Jerry knows how to play, but I know how to win, and that was a killer statement. And then you watch what happens, and you go through the show. And I don’t know how many people saw the clip, but we used that show to show some of you. It’s a killer. I mean, it’s a brutal statement. And there’s a lot of truth to that.

           
Some people know how to win, and frankly, a lot of things come out. But I do see a level of competitiveness with the athletes that’s at the high ?? I mean, it’s really ?? it can be brutal sometimes.

Q.  Second question has to do with your golf course here in the Washington area, which I’ve had a chance to look at. It’s actually ?? I’m sure it’s going to be gorgeous. It looks lovely right now. Do you have any hopes of perhaps bringing ?? I know that Tiger is trying to find a permanent home for his tournament in Washington.  Is that something that you hope some day to land?

           
DONALD TRUMP:  Well, maybe, maybe. I like Congressional very much, but I have a thing called the Potomac River. We front for miles on the Potomac, and nobody else does. You know, the Potomac is a sacred river. It’s all about statues of George Washington, and it’s a very powerful river, a very important river. You know, I have the Potomac River. Tom Fazio did one of the best courses he’s ever done, and as you know, this was an existing club that I bought, and ??

Q.  I was going to say, I’ve seen the course. It’s a beautiful ?? it’s going to be beautiful when it’s finished.

DONALD TRUMP:  It’s going to be amazing, and it’s being done now by a company that’s worked at Augusta, that’s worked at Pebble Beach, that’s really the highest level of golf.  You know, we’re putting in all new tees and greens and this and that. We’re doing everything. It’s going to be essentially new. We’re lengthening it to 7,700 yards. So we’re all set.

           
But the big thing we have there is we have the Potomac River that fronts on the entire stretch of the course, and that’s pretty tough. I mean, I mentioned to ?? some people would say it’s a little arrogant, but who cares. I said, our course is really superior to Congressional because Congressional is missing one thing, and they said, what is that, and I said, the Potomac River. It’s very tough to compete with the Potomac River, and we’re the only course that fronts on the Potomac.

Q.  With the Masters coming up, I just wondered if there’s one piece of advice you could give Tiger Woods right now. I know you’ve been really open about the subject. What would it be?

           
DONALD TRUMP:  Well, I think Tiger, he put himself in a very tough position, and now he’s got tremendous pressure on him, but he’s been the greatest pressure player, so maybe it makes it better. Pressure makes some people better, so if that’s the case he’ll win by 100 strokes because nobody has ever had this kind of pressure.

           
I do think the one thing Tiger has to do, not necessarily this weekend at all, but over a short period of time, the one thing Tiger has to do is win, and if Tiger wins, he’s going to be hot as a pistol. But he has to win. He has to play great golf. He has to be as good as he was before, if not better.

           
You know, I’ve seen it over the years, but winning solves a lot of problems, and I think that will solve the problem for him. I think winning is going to be very important for Tiger.

Q.  And do you see people getting back on his side after the Masters?

           
DONALD TRUMP:  Well, I think a lot of people are already on his side. The galleries have been very nice to Tiger, and I’m on his side. I’ve been on his side the whole way. Tiger is in a very tough position, but I think Tiger will do very well.

Q.  Just on a personal level, I know you’ve mentioned that maybe he should just take on a playboy lifestyle. Is that something you still think would be a good idea?

DONALD TRUMP:  Well, I think Tiger is ?? I think it’s going to be very tough to get back with his wife. I personally don’t think that will happen. There’s a level of trust that gets built up, and also destroyed, and I think it’s going to be very, very tough for Tiger and for his wife
to get back together, just like I’m the resident expert on Jesse James because he was on “The Apprentice,” on “Celebrity Apprentice” last season, and I don’t feel it’s possible for Sandra to go back to him. I feel if she goes back to him ?? I like Jesse.  Jesse was wonderful on the show, but I know Jesse very well. I think it’s very hard for Sandra to go back to Jesse James. A lot of people are asking me that.

And likewise I think it’s very hard for Tiger, for he and his wife to get back together. I think it’s a very, very hard and very high hurdle, so I don’t think it’s going to happen. But what do I know?

DAN HIGGINS:  Thank you, Mr. Trump, for joining us.

That’s it. Long conference call.