CARI WILBER: The WWT Championship is our marquee event. This year is especially exciting with a strong field, including seven of the top players in the world, five Mexican players I might add, and featuring greats like J.J. Spaun, Tony Finau, and Brandt Snedeker as well as our returning champion Austin Eckroat, Ryder Cup captain Luke Donald and U.S. Ryder Cup member and World No. 12 Ben Griffin.

All three are WWT ambassadors. Our ambassadors will also compete in the Celebrity Par 3 Challenge on Thursday evening alongside Michael Phelps, the most decorated Olympian in the world.

Beyond the incredible golf and networking, the World Wide Technology Championship provides giveback opportunities with The First Tee chapter of Diamante and thought provoking business sessions with leading industry executives like Cisco's Jeetu Patel, Google's Francis deSouza and Dave DeWalt from NightDragon.

KEN JOWDY: Cari, you got me again. I've been here for 20 years and I'm embarrassed to say I still cannot give that speech in Spanish like she did and this is the second time she got me doing that, so you have to bear with me with my English.

I want to welcome everyone here. I know you've probably come from a long distance. We're very proud to have this event here. We're proud to have the partners like World Wide Technology that put on such a great event that we try to assist them in.

And John with the PGA TOUR, I know you like to go to nice places and nice venues and we're honored that you picked our venue here. We're just proud of what we have and I know that the people here are proud to show you the golf and not just the golf but the hospitality. I think it's an important week for this entire area of Los Cabos. We've become a prime golf destination and this is a validation of that, to have the eyes of the world on us this week.

So we want everybody to have a great time. I know that our whole team is here to assist you in any way. So if there's anything that we can do for you this week, we want to make this a special week for everyone.

And I want to welcome Austin back. We're 2 for 2 with good guys winning our tournament, first Erik, now Austin. Austin, I hope you have another great week and hope we're sitting here again next year. Thank you.

JOE MAZZEO: Thank you, Ken. I think on behalf of the tournament and all of us who have the opportunity to be here for the event, we could not be more appreciative and grateful for how Diamante has received all of us in this tournament and how much effort and work goes into it to make Diamante the best venue on the PGA TOUR. Thank you, Ken.

Now, John Norris.

JOHN NORRIS: Thank you, Joe. I appreciate, Ken, you going after Cari because I totally thought Joe was setting me up. We've known each other for a long time, I was like, are you kidding me?

But before we get started, golf has become such a connection to all over the world and I just want to let the folks in Jamaica and northern Caribbean know that we're thinking about all of you and what's happened recently with Hurricane Melissa. So just a second to recognize those folks.

To Ken's point, we're honored to be back at Los Cabos and you can't do it without partners. We talk about sort of the triangle or the square depending on how many partners are involved.

Here you have an incredible title sponsor in World Wide Technology. I remember the first time we were with the group, walking them around another site and it's only gotten better every year and it's mainly due to the partnership and leadership from your group, so thank you for that.

Ken, your vision here when we first started talking about this, I think you were in L.A. and this was just beginning to think about maybe we could host an event here and to see your vision and what's happened here is just spectacular, so thank you for your leadership and friendship.

And Joe, you and your team from Wasserman, unbelievable. We get to work with that group a number of times a year and there's no one better.

The other thing is I'd like to also, you mentioned about all the great players. We're coming down the stretch of the FedEx fall and it means now more than ever from a competition wise, which I'm sure Austin will share with you. In addition to J.J. and Ben, which you spoke about, we also have Emilio Gonzalez, a Mexico player who qualified for the Korn Ferry Tour will be playing this week, and then Michael Brennan, just fresh off a sponsor exemption wins the Bank of Utah Championship after three wins on Latin America. Just tells you the quality of players that this tour has.

And so Cari mentioned it too, what outside the ropes we do here. Ken, what you do to have turned the local chapter of The First Tee of Diamante Los Cabos to one of the biggest and successful First Tees in all of Mexico let alone anywhere in our system is remarkable, so thank you for your commitment to the youth.

And with that, I just want to wish everyone welcome and thank you for your time and have a fantastic week.

JOE MAZZEO: Thank you, John. Appreciate your kind words.

(Introduction of Austin Eckroat.)

AUSTIN ECKROAT: Real excited to be back here. Have a chance to do what everybody wants to do and win the same golf tournament twice in a row, it's pretty cool to do. Love Los Cabos, love coming down here and just really excited to get going this week. And thanks to everybody for coming out, it will be fun.

JOE MAZZEO: Thank you, Austin.

Q. John, the question is almost two decades for a tournament, what is it that makes a tournament be able to be successful for so long and remain on the Tour and remain relevant?

JOHN NORRIS: Well, I would ask Austin to maybe answer that as well from a PGA TOUR player perspective.

From the PGA TOUR, it has to have all the components I talked about earlier. It has to have a fantastic golf course, it has to have a community that embraces our sport and supports it with volunteers. It has to have a title sponsor that not only supports the event financially but leans in year round to be partners with our organization. Then it takes all of our media partners and the hundreds of people that travel every week to put on the weekly PGA TOUR.

But I would be interested Austin in what you would say about what makes a great event.

AUSTIN ECKROAT: Yeah, this is only year three for me on the PGA TOUR so I don't know if I have the proper answer for the longevity of it.

For me, you can tell the events that the community cares for, that gets a great showing, the tournament sponsors are very involved. You can kind of just see it and get a feel for the events you can tell that truly want to be involved in the PGA TOUR and they love it and this tournament definitely has that feel. It has the feel that there's a lot of people that really want this to work and be successful.

JOHN NORRIS: I would add one other thing because it got me thinking listening to Austin speak is our athletes. If you look at our athletes compared to other sports of how engaged they are, how much they care about their fans, how actively they participate in a week's worth of activities, they have a fulltime job inside the ropes but they spend a tremendous amount of time making sure that all of our partners are taken care of. So I want to thank you and the rest of the Tour players for that. Without you guys doing that, it wouldn't be the same.

JOE MAZZEO: If we could continue on, Austin, maybe you could share with us a little bit about what you did earlier today and how that went over over at the Oasis short course talking about taking care of partners.

AUSTIN ECKROAT: Yeah. So this morning, I guess it runs all day but I teed off at 9:39. Thought it was 9:48. But there's an Oasis short course out here and the tournament and everybody puts on it's for The First Tee Foundation at Diamante and we get to play with one of The First Tee players and then the mostly homeowners, correct, sponsors, homeowners.

It's a lot of fun. It's an hour and a half. It's really easy for us players to do, but it's really fun to get to go watch someone who's either getting involved in the game or a couple times they're pretty good players. It's a lot of fun to watch them make a putt, get excited and kind of remind yourself what got us in the game in the first place, so a lot of fun.

Q. Austin, how do you feel coming this year with a chance to go back to back here in Diamante?

AUSTIN ECKROAT: Yeah, I'm really excited. You like to think every week you have a chance to win. Obviously with having success last year, it feels like I know I can play well here, but it's still going to be the same thing. I'm going to have to go beat a lot of guys. We all start at zero, I have no real advantage going into Thursday. It's just going to be same as every week, trying to go out and win a golf tournament. Game feels like it's in a really good spot. Only time will tell.

Q. For Austin, Austin, how would you describe the conditions of the course right now? We were here last month. Did it change?

AUSTIN ECKROAT: Oh, yeah.

Q. And what would you describe are the keys in having success on this course?

AUSTIN ECKROAT: Yeah, the golf course is the best I've seen it in the last three years, it's unbelievable right now. Greens were perfect today and yesterday. They've really sped up from when we were here about a month ago. Golf course is looking like it's in a really good position to do whatever they want with it. Really happy with the conditions for sure.

Q. What can you tell us about the opportunities that the fall events provide for the nonmembers of the PGA TOUR like what we saw last week with Michael Brennan and like having Emilio again this year now with a card? He was a sponsor exemption last year.

JOHN NORRIS: I think that's part of the excitement when every single player literally has a change when they tee it up to win in the fall, especially when it gives opportunities to players who might not normally have those opportunities for signature events at different times of the year with different categories of players being able to play.

And that's the whole idea behind sponsor exemptions and conditional and unconditional exemptions is that it gives the opportunity for the tournament to decide what's best for them, their tournament, their local area. That's how they decide their exemptions, and the perfect example was a couple weeks ago. Every now and then you catch lightning in a bottle and one of those guys wins. It just shows you how tremendous the players are on this tour.

JOE MAZZEO: I'm going to share that with John actually at the PGA TOUR level. Question is about purse levels and how it's sort of determined where a purse is in terms of the fall.

JOHN NORRIS: Well, I think one of the biggest things we found out, and I'm not going to put Austin on the spot again, but I think the purse  we try not to spend a tremendous amount of time talking about that.

It's just a math equation. You take the amount that the media partners put in, our title sponsors put in and they come up with that number.

I think it's very rare that the players know exactly how much they're playing for. They're playing to compete on the biggest stage for the biggest prizes, for legacy. With that, you make a good living, but I don't think the guys ever go in thinking, well, I want to win this tournament so I can win X.

So we don't really spend a tremendous amount of time focusing on what the purse is, at least from my perspective, I don't know about the Tour players. But when you talk to them, they talk about winning championships and building a legacy and with that comes a nice living, but I don't think the focus is on how much you're playing for each week.

Q. Austin, currently you're outside the 100 for FedExCup Fall. Max Homa's talked about playing well, he's outside but really just trying to grind on his game and get better. Can you speak your own thought process on those lines and like what you're doing this fall to continue to grow?

AUSTIN ECKROAT: Yeah, for sure. I didn't have the greatest year obviously sitting outside the top 100. I'm in an interesting situation, I have exemptions from wins and stuff. Even if I fall outside the top 100 I'll still be on the PGA TOUR but you always want to keep your card. I don't want to be the guy that's still on the PGA TOUR who's running off exemptions.

There's a lot of things that come with it. In my situation exactly I have  it would be the difference between me playing THE PLAYERS Championship or not. You want to play THE PLAYERS Championship. Obviously outside of a major, it's probably the biggest from a media perspective, huge spectators, crowds, playing for a lot of money.

Just, you know, yeah, I mean obviously just trying to get better every week, realizing what I did wrong throughout the season. But definitely an interesting situation, but in my situation specifically it's not life or death this year.

Q. And then one more, Zach your college teammate became the last of your starting five to earn a PGA TOUR card. He talked a little bit about his struggles, yips, driver yips and just shooting high numbers and just battling working through it. What does it mean to see him fight back and get that Tour card?

AUSTIN ECKROAT: Yeah. So that, our 2018 National Championship team for those who don't know, we've got three guys have won on the PGA TOUR, we have five that have had PGA TOUR status and our sixth guy finished  he didn't even play in the National Championship in 2018 and he finished 34th on the FedExCup last season, Sam Stevens. So that team was pretty special.

And yeah, to see him  I saw it firsthand whenever he completely lost his golf game. He chips crosshanded now. He's battled some demons and to see him make it on the PGA TOUR, he's going to have a super successful career, great player. It's going to be fun to have him out here with the rest of us. It just makes it fun, you have a little fraternity out here, guys that you know. We've been through the wringer together in college so it's been fun to have them out here and it's going to be fun to have him out here.

JOE MAZZEO: Staying in that vein a little bit mentioning that college team, of course Austin being a twotime champion winner here in Los Cabos having won the Cabo Collegiate not in '18, right, but it was '19?

AUSTIN ECKROAT: 2019.

JOE MAZZEO: And now getting the professional version a year ago, so pretty cool to have the Cabo kid here winning twice in Los Cabos.

Q. What about the next tournaments, are we secure in Los Cabos again? Do you have any contract already signed?

CARI WILBER: I can take it. We are committed for seven years and we are in the process of continuing those discussions and we'll be able to share more later.

(Question in Spanish.)

JOE MAZZEO: I'll try my best to translate. The question about technology and elevating the game of golf and the golf game but also the line about people using technology  OK. So the line where technology reaches its limit and where human beings need to continue expanding and going beyond with it together.

CARI WILBER: Yeah, I'll take a stab at that not being a player, but I don't know that technology's necessarily going to reach its limit.

What I think it's going to do is propel athletes like Austin to be the best player, the best version of themself by using technology to practice, to improve their play, et cetera.

But you have to have both. You can't have a player who's not committed to training to giving it his all every single week and is relying on technology to do his work and his job for him, but I think if you bring those two things together and marry them, that's where we're really going to see these players take off.

Q. Ken, what will you say will be the perfect fit for this golf course? What kind of player is the perfect fit for this golf course?

KEN JOWDY: I think when Tiger was designing the golf course he wanted to make it fun for all levels, but he also wanted to make it competitive for the highest level like Austin.

And Austin, you can tell me but I really think it's a second shot golf course. The fairways are fairly wide. Tiger wanted to have a lot of strategy involved so he wanted you to be able to use the ground in certain areas.

I don't think it's  the guy who could possibly be short and precise off the tee might not have the advantage here because the fairways are wide. I think it's definitely a second shot golf course. And again, Tiger wanted strategy to play a role, a big role, and have different options. So I think that you generally should be in the fairway. Not me, I get out there and I still can find different areas, but these players at this level, they're going to hit the fairways. And there's not any rough out there and we've seen with no wind and with no real protection with no rough, they're going to be able to take aim at a lot of these pins.

Q. This is more than a golf tournament. What other activities are going to take place? What other surprises are there this week.

CARI WILBER: I'll give you two answers. One from more than a golf perspective, for us this is a huge opportunity to impact the community that we serve. Giving back is in WWT's DNA. It's exactly why we partner with the Diamante chapter of The First Tee. It gives us an opportunity to expand the game of golf to youth who may or may not be familiar, but also to provide them an opportunity to really strengthen course skills like confidence, resilience, determination, all the things that are core values for WWT and First Tee. So that takes place this week.

We have a golf clinic on Saturday where we'll be playing PGA pros alongside these kids, WWT executives and employees.

We also award one boy and one girl the WWT TEE Leadership Award and that's given to the boy and the girl that really exemplify those core values best.

And as far as other things that are happening this week, there's a lot of new things. We have a concert on Wednesday which we don't usually have, so that's really exciting for our guests. OAR will be performing, Train will be performing.

We have invited two of the PGA TOUR wives and fianceés to a women's networking event where they'll be giving like a behind the scenes look at what it's like to be a wife; the highs, the lows, the anxiety, how do you maintain your own identity.

I think those are just a couple things off the top of my head that we're really excited to see through.

Q. Austin, what's your fondest memory of your victory from last year?

AUSTIN ECKROAT: That's a good question. My bogey on 18 he just brought up, that's the worst memory.

I would say probably a really cool moment that I've never had that you see on TV all the time whenever you see a guy watching the last hole from the scoring tent. And obviously it's a weird emotion, you see a guy miss a putt and you win. You don't really know if you should celebrate or not. You've got cameras behind your back.

It was a really simple celebration but me and my caddie like high fived and like the bro hug, like we did it. It was like a quick really cool emotion in the moment.

It was just so stressful, you're watching this guy putt and it looks good the whole time and you're shaking in your boots and all of a sudden you're the winner. That was a pretty cool feeling.

Q. I feel like I've seen your face all over the place since I've landed in the country. Where have you seen your face that kind of took you by surprise?

AUSTIN ECKROAT: Well, the interesting one was in the airport. I knew it was going to be here because I came here about a month ago. When I first walked out, a couple tournament people were there and my wife saw it and turned around and there's a picture of me in the airport. All right, I guess I'm going to be everywhere, that was cool.

Q. Did you take a selfie?

AUSTIN ECKROAT: I did take a selfie. My wife took a photo, everybody got one.

JOE MAZZEO: Thank you to everyone on our panel, thank you for everything that you do to make this possible.

Austin, good luck to you in your title defense. One of those teammates already did it here so you can as well.