Podcast Alert: Steve “Coach” Loy

Transcript

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Steve Loy: [00:00:00] I’ve held on to the tagline coach because I always felt more of a teacher than I did as an agent taking advantage of people. I like to coach our business as a family because that’s what makes great teams. 

AJ Maestas: Hello and welcome to the Navigating Sports Business Podcast. I’m your host, AJ Maestas, founder of Navigate a data-driven consulting firm, guiding major strategies and decisions in sports and entertainment. We started this podcast hoping to share the interesting stories and experiences of the amazing people we get to work with at Navigate. And even though they’re visionaries and famous, in many instances, their true stories aren’t often heard. Since they’re not on the playing field, our hope is you get to know them better and learn from them as we have. [00:01:00] Well, this week I’m excited to be speaking with a golf industry. Great Steve Loy, or coach as his friends call him. He has been a coach, a caddy, an agent, and an overall giant in our sport and entertainment industry, in particular in golf. Thank you, Steve, for joining us. I’m so grateful to have you here today.  

Steve Loy: Thank you, AJ.  

AJ Maestas: Well, if you don’t mind, I hope it doesn’t embarrass you, but I have to share some of your resume, with everyone listening because Well, it seems more than a reasonable person could achieve in one lifetime. You played golf and football in college. At, right at Eastern New Mexico. You coached at, Scottsdale Community College and won two national championships. You then moved on to Arizona State where you won a national championship. And of course, that is how you, began your long standing relationship with Phil Mickelson, but you coached other people in your career like Billy [00:02:00] Mayfair or John Daly back at Arkansas, or 40 other All Americans. Kind of unbelievable to think of. 

One coach with 40 all Americans. You purchased, Gaylord Sports Management in oh four, I believe you sold to La GA in 2012. A little bit of a transaction and rebrand makes this now Sport five and, in the year 2020. And if I have it right, you’re now the president of the golf Division and Chief Operating Officer of the Americas. Is that correct? That’s correct. And right here in Scottsdale, we’re both lucky enough to live. Well, I gotta spend a little time with, Peter on your team recently. I believe you represent as of today, 11 of the top 30 golfers in the world. Each time I turn around, you own a new course, but my tally says you own eight golf courses with Phil Nicholson and some other friends there as an investor. Speaking of Phil Nicholson alone, number two, all time money earner in the history of the PGA. Correct me if I’m wrong here. And he’s publicly reported to have eclipsed $750 million in endorsements making the eighth highest paid athlete of all time on our planet. [00:03:00] Any of that incorrect?  

Steve Loy: You, you’ve done your homework as always, AJ. You’ve got the statistics better than anybody can.  

AJ Maestas: Well, thank you. I appreciate it. I just couldn’t resist sharing because some of these are little known facts and these are pretty incredible things to have been there for, you know, three decades, in partnership with, Phil Nickelson, something like that. Well, I’ll finish off by saying you yourself are in a number of Hall of Fames that I didn’t know about, despite our friendship and relationship, including your alma mater, Eastern New Mexico, the Arizona State University Hall of Fame, the Junior College Golf, coaches Hall of Fame, and, golf Coaches Association of America. So at least a four time Hall of Famer. Any others I’m missing you care to share?  

Steve Loy: Yeah, there’s actually seven in total, the University of Arkansas Hall of Fame, Scottsdale Community College Hall of Fame, and, I’m missing one, so flattered to be associated to all those groups, but what matters most are the people that you’re always in relationships [00:04:00] with. Through time, everything else kind of comes and goes.  

AJ Maestas: You’ve been an unbelievable mentor to me from the very first moment, that Ryan Peck introduced us, you were a teammate. That put my interest first. And in some ways, you know, we were on the opposite side of, the table on some deals. In fact, just in this last year, we were working with KPMG. As you know, I believe the top endorser of of Mickelson. But somehow, some way you always make it feel, and honestly, you live that out, right? That you’re putting everybody’s interests before your own. So I believe you, when you say that, I’ve experienced it firsthand. You are a, you’re a class act coach. 

Steve Loy: Well, thank you. I, I hope that I can always say there’s no deal more important than the relationship that follows. And, and that’s kind of where you have to look at this kind of business. It’s very unique in that. The talent that we are fortunate to represent that have a very important interest to the, you know, the public and hopes provide brand awareness or [00:05:00] brand recognition to a major corporation. But when all said and done, when you’re asking for more money than the CEOs and uh, the various executives in those companies make each year, it’s a very sensitive issue. And you’ve gotta be right on and you’ve gotta be understanding. And hopefully we’ve done a good job of that.  

[00:05:19] AJ Maestas: I got to experience that full story firsthand when you came to speak in my class, my graduate program there at Arizona State. And thank you again for being a guest lecturer that day. I have to imagine that’s walking a highwire act, right to your point, asking for more money for Phil, than their highest paid executives earned on an annual basis because it’s going to. It’s going to deliver for their business. Right.  

Steve Loy: Yeah, that’s a good point too. And, and in the case of KPMG, Phil’s been with KPMG now 13 years, and four different CEOs and chairman of the company. So, you know, that’s a private company held ownership by about 1800 managing directors around the world. And they all. A piece of the business and they all have a [00:06:00] voice in the business. And you know, to have all those gentlemen and, and ladies always recognize the value of Phil over that period of time speaks well to the relationships. And that’s, that’s really what we’re talking about here.  

AJ Maestas: If you don’t mind me taking a small step backwards when I read your resume like that, and I know we’re only doing the highlights and look at us, we missed three hall of fames that you’re a member of, right. And I don’t blame you for not being able to keep track of them all. That’s pretty overwhelming. How does one person do this? All I I, I heard your comments on relationships, but is there a secret sauce or something you could share with everybody listening on how one person could consistently, repeatedly achieve that highest level of success?  

Steve Loy: Well, I always try to keep in mind what the end result should be and, and before I walked through the door, and secondly, that’s why you and I became very good. Business associates before the friendships that we formed over time is that having as much information as you can when you walk through a door, [00:07:00] asking for somebody to pay seven, eight figures at a time for a, a logo on a headwear or building a business relationship for a startup company, you’ve got to understand the purposes and, and hopefully we’ve done that throughout time and that goes back to coaching, always trying to help. 

A young player, see the vision that you had for the opportunities ahead of them, helping them figure out how to be the best they can be. I always define the coach as the person who always will help you be better than you think you are. And I, I take that and transition it into business where if we can show somebody how the values can come back and how we can serve those relationships to be more valuable, usually it answers its own question. How do we do it and when do we get started? The real key, and I think that’s when you look at a, a, a real talent in, in our type of business where you see guys that have had endorsements that come and [00:08:00] go, obviously it wasn’t a marriage and it wasn’t meant for that purpose in mind by the company or for the, the talent that you represent. In the case of a Phil Mickelson, he has been with most every one of his companies through his career. The only times that it has changed is when the entire company changed. I give an example of Barclays Capital. The Global Chairman is now on our board of directors for Mickelson Foundation. That is a fully funded charity organization. 

But when he left the banking system Barclays changed its whole vision and purpose in sports marketing completely. And frankly today they, they’ve left sports marketing completely in, in the globe. So when you have something like that happen catastrophically, it’s going to be a change. But otherwise, it’s what you do for each other during the time that you’re together that really. Continues that relationship and I’m, I’m proud to say most of our guys that we put into relationships [00:09:00] maintain those, and that’s a very critical mass.  

AJ Maestas: Well, that is impressive. And that is the core of your business as well. Right? So for those that might not understand how it works as a golf agent, despite the way that you’re paid, which I believe is just as a percentage of those endorsement, uh, deals and other investments that your athlete might make, that you do not participate in their earnings through golf. Right. And yet you’re still taking the standpoint of investing in the total athlete experience, the total relationship, their complete and total career, despite there not being, again, a financial incentive. Correct?  

Steve Loy: That’s correct. A good example, when you have the, the superstars like a Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, now John Rom coming up, Phil, as an example, has made about $90 million playing the professional golf. And as you just suggested, his endorsements have been over 750 million over the same 28 year period. Well, that speaks to one thing, doing good business with the right [00:10:00] people.  

AJ Maestas: Right? Right. And those endorsement revenue streams far outstrip his, uh, playing earnings. Right.  

Steve Loy: And again, another example is Tiger Woods making about $120 million playing golf and now has become the first billion dollar endorser in golf’s history. So, you know, yes, they are at a commodity, but if they’re not in engagement with their relationships, they don’t last long and. Fortunately, when you have golfers, the interaction and the connectivity, because everybody can play golf. So corporate America, we can engage the relationships through hospitality and events, and it interacts with the talent that they have, branding their business. So we have a very unique opportunity in golf. That’s one of the major reasons I’ve been in it this long compared to football, basketball, or baseball, where you don’t have the identity with. Logo branding, and all you have is just a really a name and likeness relationship that you try to circumvent, because really [00:11:00] the, the key to the all those three sports are the, the team organization contracts and, and you see a lot of those guys get traded in their careers and there’s just not that same, uh, grounding for the, the, the type of, of legacies that they all leave behind in most cases. 

AJ Maestas: Yeah, that’s true. That’s a very good point. And I’m honestly surprised. So I’m guessing many of our listeners will, that, you know, for these superstar golfers, their income 10 x, 10 x of that endorsements as compared to, you know their performance on the course. That’s pretty. That’s pretty incredible. So certainly you can understand why that’s financially a priority.  

Steve Loy: Yeah, I can suggest a couple of examples here that people can appreciate in, in real life. Phil Mickelson played in 47 different major championships. In 47 tries. He never did win a major championship. He won his first one in 2004 and his endorsement value climbed 300% in all his renewals [00:12:00] that came up for, uh, uh, extension that year. I’m right now in the middle of something for John Rom. John Rom’s 26 years old and, become the number one player very quickly, but he is number two, constantly behind Dustin Johnson today. But the reality here is, is his endorsements has changed 400%. In the time that he turned pro with, you know, the background that he had, which was really not to be a, an American endorser at the time he was from Spain. He was an unknown commodity in a lot of circles. But how quickly that’s changed in just a four year span.  

AJ Maestas: Yeah. Yeah. And you’ve been. Telling us about him from the very beginning. Also, another Sun Devil. That reminds me, I, I think it would be a fun story to learn about how you recruited Phil Mickelson and about your just overall a SU relationships. So many of your golfers are sun devils.  

Steve Loy: That’s flattering. I, I mean, I have a very strong relationship with, with our hometown university, and [00:13:00] I’ve been very active in it, not only as a coach, but as a board member with UAJ. I’m proud to say mm-hmm. The Sun Angel Foundation. But let’s go back to Phil. When he was 15 years old, I was still coaching at the University of Arkansas. I shook hands with him and he looked at me and saw the Razorback on the front of my shirt and said, yeah, that’s nice to meet you, coach. And I knew then that it was probably not going to happen that he would come from San Diego to Fayetteville, Arkansas. Well, over the three year period that, that he was still graduating from high school, I went from Arkansas to Arizona State, and by now I know Phil Mickelson quite well. 

And the recruiting war began. There was a bunch of universities, as you can imagine, after the number one player in the world, and I started thinking about hot buttons, and I tell this to all my agents every day. If you don’t, if you don’t shave every day, you look like a bump. That’s exactly being recruited and, uh, hot buttons are so critical. I [00:14:00] found out that his, his girlfriend at the time through high school played on the boys high school team with him because there were no girls team. So I recruited her to a SU as well and. She happened to get a spot on the a SU women’s team at the time. I recruited his mom more than anybody. I made sure that she knew I loved her spaghetti, and, and finally then I had to convince Phil that he could be a world-class player, but he could be the first guy. To win a national championship team title at Arizona State. Fortunately, he believed in all those parts and everybody else today are still together. So I think we served our purpose.  

AJ Maestas: Nice work. Who were the runners up? Who did you beat out to get him to play at Arizona State?  

Steve Loy: Well, at the time, Oklahoma State was number one in the country, and, he had made a visit there and fortunately it was an icy cold December day and from San Diego, he didn’t tell me this till after he made a commitment the following January or February that [00:15:00] he’d already made up his mind to come to ASU at that point. But Oklahoma State was, was definitely on the top of his list. USC, I mean, you name it, Florida, Texas. They were all in on it. We were fortunate to get him. And I, I think part of that also was the fact that we were selling that we would, in 1987, when he was starting to be seriously recruited by 1989, his graduating year, we would have a golf course at a SU. And, and I worked hard on selling that for a couple years before it finally became a reality. So, you know, you build a vision, you make people think that they, there can be a part of it and then you. You execute.  

[00:15:38] AJ Maestas: I didn’t know that background. So you deserve a little credit in Carsten and being an on-campus facility.  

Steve Loy: I’ll never forget the day. Linda Stead, the coach of all coaches at a SU and I sat in the living room of Karten and Louise Solheim with the president at the time of the ASU Foundation and their personal [00:16:00] attorney, John Christensen. And we were just selling our hearts out that. You know, we would love them to be the anchor investors for the golf course because we actually had no money raised at the time when I took the job in 87, and yet we had Pete Dye already having the architecture design plans completed a year before that. So we go to the Solheim and. I mean, Carsten and Louise were very conservative, quiet people that had a lot of power, as we all know. Sat there for an hour and a half trying to sell the whole thing. And finally, Mr. Christensen pulls me out in the kitchen and says, Steve, I don’t think you need to say anything more. I’ve convinced them that this is what they need to do for our university. I mean, I just felt like I just won the war, but without their investment in, and that’s why we called it the a SU Carston Golf Course, uh, we would’ve never been able to accomplish it.  

AJ Maestas: That’s amazing. Yeah. Don’t sell ’em twice. Right?  

Steve Loy: Exactly.  

AJ Maestas: [00:17:00] And what a run that followed. So Phil Mickelson joins you, coach Steve Loy at Arizona State. You very predictably win a national championship having the number one amateur in the world join your program. It’s already a strong program. We’ve already talked about your 40 All Americans, so he turns pro. And do you mind sharing that story with us? Do you immediately, without question, follow him into the professional business or what happened? 

Steve Loy: Well, you know, you’re bringing up a SU, so I. Other than the national championship, which Linda’s team on the women’s side and the men’s in 1990 are still a record today, we’re the only ones to win men’s and women’s championships in the same year. My point was not that particular year, but the entire time we were there because of the players, not the coach. We were never ranked out of the top three from the time that we came there. And when we left, we were, we were the Pinnacle program in, in America. So it was a very difficult [00:18:00] time for me to leave at age 40 knowing that we were finally at the top of the game. But I knew from day one. Being with Phil for the four years of college and winning a PGA tour of event in his sophomore year and seeing how he went about things. 

This was going to be a very special individual, and when he came to me after we interviewed all the agencies in June of that year, was. That he was turning pro. He and his family called me in for dinner one day and said, coach, we like this about this company, this about this company, but we want you to manage Phil’s business. Of course, I was flattered, but I knew nothing seriously about being a sports agent. I just knew that I didn’t like a lot of things about him. And, and I declined that and that was June. And in the meantime, he had already planned a trip with his dad and myself just as a thank you for everything we’d ever done. Another great thing about big people, they always lift others [00:19:00] up. So he took Phil Sr, and I to the Scottish and the British Open, and while we’re there, of course he had his new agent that I was very supportive of. Rocky Hambrick out of Dallas had already orchestrated a plan to get coach to join the team. 

That was July 11th when he finally said, coach, I don’t care what it takes. You got to be part of this. And I came home and resigned a SU job with lots of difficult emotional time because I knew we had another national championship team coming up, up right behind him. Which I did. I never looked back to this day that I didn’t make the right decision. It’s been a wonderful journey. We’ve had many other great players come through the door as part of our team now, and I’ve just been very blessed because of the people we associate.  

AJ Maestas: You are almost an accidental agent and now. You know, one of the giants of the industry, we just recently did a podcast with Donald Dell, who told an incredibly similar story where he’s [00:20:00] helping Arthur Ashe meet with the giants of the industry, right. Mark McCormick, himself, right. In the early years of IMG and after numerous meetings, Arthur Ashe insists that, Donald Dell considered. Being his agent for him. And, and there it was, you know, born in the moment. It’s kind of amazing to think that the both of you, were almost pulled into this. 

Steve Loy: Hmm. Well, and you know, I’ve held on most importantly to the tagline coach, because I always felt more of a teacher and a mentor than I did as an agent taking advantage of people. And I emphasize that every day. I like to coach our business. As a family, because that’s what makes great teams and uh, hopefully we’ve, we’ve held onto that legacy and I respect what coaches do every day. Many of them could be great CEOs and major companies around the world on any given moment because they’ve had the discipline. And the work ethics and the way that they can [00:21:00] motivate people to be better than what they think they are. And so that has always been my foundation and will be until they put me in that prime box. 

AJ Maestas: I feel that sense of family and, and that’s been my personal experience with you coach, so I love it. And I appreciate it, that you enjoy going by Coach. One more question on Phil Mickelson, but before we move on, you’ve gone on to, uh, create things like the line of coffee, you own golf courses together. I, is there anything you can share with us about the evolution of that business relationship that goes far beyond being an agent and an athlete? 

Steve Loy: Well, the one thing that I can proudly say about Phil is from the day that I came into the business, again, a, a real greenhorn, I knew nothing about where I was going to go with this business at the time, how I was going to orchestrate it, and more importantly, whether I really was. Cut out to be a, a, a sports agent because I was always on the other side trying to protect my players as the coach. But the day that I took the job, he says, coach, I don’t [00:22:00] want you to be my agent. I want you to be the next Mark McCormick in the industry. And I looked at him like, are you kidding me? Mark McCormick is like, God. And, and I’m sitting down here trying to figure out how to get to. First base. So I smiled and said, well, that’s very flattering. 

He’s always been a partner. And that’s the key here. Many times an agent becomes an employee and is really as manipulative as he can be with a a client. So is the client when they want something that they. Agent is not able to provide. So the partnership is very adverse and in the case of Phil, and it’s grown now exponentially with other relationships that we’ve had over time with other golfers and other associates that we’ve had. The partnership becomes the number one entity. And so I first was his coach, then I was his agent, then I became a partner. And you know, along the way, fortunately, he’s always relied on me [00:23:00] to be a mentor. I’ll never use the word a second dad, because he has the first and best one in the world. But, over time we found the right things and I, the one proud thing I’ll say is I never will make an investment with another player that I haven’t already made first before I introduce something to them. 

So, dollar for dollar, wherever one of my players have been made an investment. I put my dollar right next to that so that they know that I would do this. Whether you want to be involved or not. Well, with Phil and I, we’ve been very successful. We’ve also had a couple mis mishaps with a, a restaurant or a.com company that we invested in. And, but overall it’s, it’s been a blessing because we know that we’re not taking advantage of each other and we know that we’re fully vested with each other. He plays golf and brings the front door open and I make sure that I got the back of the house covered, taking care of the businesses, and [00:24:00] that’s how we do it. 

AJ Maestas: Well, not intending to dwell on the negative, but I think there’s so much to be learned from those challenges. Are there any stories you’re willing to share about some of the mishaps or some of the failures and what you took from it? 

Steve Loy: Well, interesting. One of our legal counsel was a guy named Harry Andrews from day one, he lived over here in McCormick Ranch and. He come out to watch the SU golf team play and really took a personal interest in Phil and I and I come to find out that Harry had retired from Chicago where his real job was first the Attorney General of Cook County and then became the legal counsel, and finally the defender of all the. McDonald’s corporations, uh, franchises that, that were distributed throughout the country. But along the way, one of the endorsing athletes that became a icon was a guy named Magic Johnson, and when he was representing McDonald’s. [00:25:00] He became so intrigued by, as we did with Harry Andrews, that he asked Harry to represent him with the Long Los Angeles Lakers, when at that time he did a three year deal for $23 million guaranteed with the Los Angeles Lakers, and in turn wouldn’t allow magic to pay him any money for his. Services because he knew that this would be a great relationship. Well, magic didn’t forget that either. And one Christmas sent Harry two first class round the world tickets at any time for life for him and his wife, and never to be forgotten. Well, here comes the opportunity when Phil’s ready to turn pro. 

I’ve learned all these stories about Harry. And he became our mentor, and one of the first things he always said is, never invest in the business you are in. So rule number one, we should have never invested in golf because that’s where our business was already maintained. The only reason we got [00:26:00] invested in golf is because as the time came in 2008 and we had the demise of all the golf industry. People came to the experts and we felt like we were pretty good businessmen to help bail out some of that industry. In my case, I had a, a home in Chaparral Pines in the rim, and it was going into bankruptcy, and we couldn’t encourage the members to buy the clubs. They, they were in very tough situation. 

And so Phil and I bought our first golf courses from there. It grew into an enterprise that became very successful, but. Again, I broke a rule there that had I looked back on. Now, things are never exactly the way they’re always supposed to be, but you better understand the purpose before you walk through the door. IE we had some friends that had the firsts. If you remember AJ back in your college days, a great bar in my early times called Downside Risk in Downtown Scottsdale. It was a tremendous success and the same [00:27:00] principles at the time were trying to resurrect downside risk 20 years later. One of those investors were the owner of Greyhawk, another investor was the, the main proprietor. Great people. Unfortunately not at the same place and not the same time. We opened up a restaurant and, and a community that was really a, a bedroom community, and they went to bed at nine o’clock and they expected everybody else to be quiet. And that’s about the time a good sports bar and places where people come to have social time starts to light up. 

The city wasn’t happy with us. The community wasn’t happy with us, and so quietly we had to resolve the fact that we weren’t going to be successful. There’s a good example of not doing enough homework and getting involved in something with just the emotions of a situation strictly because of the people. Again, that was a very important part. But not doing our due diligence. Now I’ve come back to AJ and I’m going to not let you get away with this, my friend. Okay. I have such [00:28:00] tremendous respect for how you do your business and how you take care of your people and how you engage relationships to maintain your business growth. 

AJ Maestas: And that’s exactly. Why I wanted you to be part of our company or vice versa, us be part of your company because you serve such important needs and analytics so that we don’t have these misfires, and I can’t say enough to everybody out there having more information than you think you need is just the beginning. Having a proforma that you think is going to be correct needs to be cut in half. And finally, don’t set your expectations so high that when it. You supersede them, you actually think you’ve won or lost because now we come to a coffee company that Phil and Dave Coffee are involved in. This Coffee for wellness. Our forecasts were beaten our first month that we thought would take three years, and the purpose was serving people with a [00:29:00] good product that was healthy. It was obviously experience for what? Phil’s body and how his lifestyle has become sufficient on this coffee. But number two, because of the recognition, the market value that he was able to bring immediately to the, to the marketplace with all the people that have seen Phil come and, and grow up in his career. So there is a perfect example of never expecting something that happened so quickly and we weren’t prepared for it. To be honest with you. It took us another 60 days to catch up with all the orders and make sure that we service the company with the same quality of recognition that we we had obtained from it. So there are always. Two sides to every story, and hopefully we’ll all end up in the right one. If you don’t mind me going back in time a little bit to you, just because my family’s from New Mexico. My, my last name, my Estes is unique to New Mexico. Actually. You were born and raised there. Can you take us back? How did you end up in Phoenix? What was your family doing in New [00:30:00] Mexico? Can we hear about the first 18 years of Steve Loy?  

Steve Loy: Well, a family of eight kids. My father. Was transferred from Kokomo, Indiana in 1952 to Albuquerque, New Mexico to help continue to grow Coca-Cola in that part of the country. When he got out there, he didn’t have a very good relationship with his superior and. He was let go and I’m with eight kids. I was just being born at the time. Third, from the youngest. I had no idea that we had very little hit in life other than we had a mom and a dad that loved us dearly. So he grew up as a, in the beginning, as a car salesman, a used car salesman. 

Eventually got into the management of one of the bigger car dealerships in Albuquerque. But the long story short is we grew up as a very conservative, moderate, lower income family and never thought differently. ’cause I’d never been [00:31:00] away from Albuquerque and New Mexico to know better. And the way I I actually left New Mexico was because I had an opportunity to be a graduate assistant for my master’s degree at. University of Utah. When I got there, I knew I had to figure out what I was gonna be in life besides a coach, and did some interviews for my thesis, including one trip to Arizona State University. It was all the Western Athletic conference. Utah was part of that meeting with the athletic directors and the head football coaches doing my thesis. And Frank Kush fortunately took an interest in this 21-year-old that didn’t know any better because I wasn’t a bashful guy and I wanted to work for him. And he laughed at me and said, look, if I get the information about this thesis before any of the other wack. Coaches and athletic directors. I’ll make sure I help you. 

Well, I never forgot that. You can imagine. First job was at Scottsdale Junior College where he sent one of his assistant coaches to start the program. And so that’s how my, [00:32:00] my career began in 1974. And other than the years that I spent at the University of Arkansas, I’ve been here all my life and really call Phoenix and Scottsdale my home. During that period of time, my high school sweetheart at 15 who I married at 21 and her family moved out to Arizona and my family moved out to Arizona and frankly we only have one sister left in Albuquerque, New Mexico. I haven’t really been back there AJ, since 1970, but have very fond memories of the people and the, and the culture that we grew up in. 

AJ Maestas: Well, that’s amazing. Are you telling me you and Linda have been together since you were 15 years old? 

Steve Loy: Boy, I don’t know if she’d tell you that, but that’s the truth.  

AJ Maestas: Wow. Congratulations. That’s unbelievable. When you look back at that 21-year-old Steve Loy and this opportunity in Phoenix, or even 40-year-old Steve Loy, when your going from, you know, national champion coach to athlete [00:33:00] representative, right, and the whole transition with Phil Mickelson, would you give yourself advice? What is the one thing you wish you had known then?  

If I had to do anything over again, I probably would’ve expanded my education before I went to work. But I knew I had to get out and go to work early on because I had no return. I mean, when you left home at the time I grew up, it was just the end of that type, type of generations that when you leave, you don’t come back. And uniquely, I was in that circle. So I would’ve liked to have expanded my education early on. I think. Law is a very interesting thing to me. I’ve had to have a lot of it in our sports business, but I never regret one thing. Persistency and hard work always pay dividends and as you are, and I am, we are very successful because we just don’t know the word no. There’s somehow some way we can get it done. That’s a better message to anybody you’re around.  

I do like that Carol [00:34:00] l said, persistence is the master virtue. I’m a fan of that one. In that same spirit, what would you describe as the greatest obstacle that you’ve overcome?  

Steve Loy: Well, I think it happens frequently, especially when there’s at much adversity as there is today in life. As, as proud and as blessed as we are in this country. We still have divisions and we still have conflicts, and I, I have this. Poem since the 17th century, it’s been a message to the world authored by Rudyard Kipling called If and I I refer to it daily in my office because there’s always, like I said, conflict or division where people can make different choices. And the more opportunities you have, the more. Choices that are made that can be good or bad. And I, I, I always refer to the opening line, if you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you, I tell you that [00:35:00] sometimes is the most important message of the entire poem, that that lives through life because we’re always going to be either honored or criticized for things that might not be. And in our business. Where you have lots of competitiveness, lots of cutthroat issues, lots of diversity, you have to be prepared for that. So I don’t regret any of it, but I will tell you, I always refer to this, I don’t have problems. I just have to deal with people sometimes. As long as we try to deal with them, like we want it to end up to be the purpose, it usually works. But if, if I can say that. Is the only thing that I have maybe some differences with then Ali, we don’t have any problems whatsoever.  

AJ Maestas: We were at dinner together with a friend of yours from Arizona a couple years ago in Chicago, and he said, and this is true, you have nothing left to prove Coach, when do you retire? [00:36:00] I mean, look at your resume. You know, at what point do you stop? And correct me if I’m wrong, but I remember you saying something along the lines of. I love this. This is what I do. There is no stopping. Yeah. Are you going to actually retire or is there truly no end? 

Steve Loy: No, I will not retire. I like what I read in the book recently, that you should never retire. You just want to rewire. Matter of fact, AJ reminded me of that line. I don’t know where you got it, but that that really sets well with me because I always think there’s one more great thing I’d like to do, and then I get to the next curve and I says, man, that’s given me an opportunity to do another great thing. And so. I hope I can stay healthy enough to make a difference for others.  

AJ Maestas: I have a couple sort of quick hitter questions that I just really, honestly want to know your opinion for fun. If you could change anything about the PGA, you know, the way they run tournaments, the structure, what would you do? You are the czar king, and end all, be all. You get to make unilateral [00:37:00] decisions with the future of the PGA. What would it  

Steve Loy: be? By far and most importantly, I would not have this long a season. You got to compare it to all other sports. Seven months, you know, is, is a long period of time for any of the other sports to, to participate. Golf is 12 months, 365 days a year. We have 52 events that the players are expected to play in. They can’t obviously do so, and so it’s diluted a a couple of things. One, the marketplace for sponsorships, which is very important for all the charities, and secondly, for the players having the, the fact that they can’t play in all these events, usually 20 to 25 events is a lot. For one player to play in a year. So if I could do anything, it would be shorten the schedule and make it more valuable for its purposes.  

AJ Maestas: Certainly, there’d be a stronger field right at each event, and I do hate how much you [00:38:00] travel. It is unbelievable that you can go months at a time without being here in Scottsdale. 

Steve Loy: Yeah, and I, and I say that on behalf of the players as well as the people associated to professional golf. It’s tough on families when you’ve got to put them out there all year round and expect everybody to be connected and to be mentored and cared for.  

AJ Maestas: Is there anything I haven’t asked you that I should have? I know you have an endless library of great stories, and I wish you’d be willing to share a gem or two with us.  

Steve Loy: Wow, that put me on the spot there. I just got to say, I love life and I hope everybody. Even in tough times as we’ve had and we continue to have with this virus appreciate the life that we’ve been giving and the blessings we continue to, to achieve and, and, and honor. I just think that that’s very important at a time when things are tough. I’m really proud to say that everything we can do for our kids, because they are. Everything we leave behind is [00:39:00] critical to the mass. And if we can all help others be better than they think they are, you’ll be a great coach. And I kind of like coaches. 

AJ Maestas: That’s a beautiful sentiment. Well, my last question for you, coach, would be for what in your life do you feel most grateful?  

Steve Loy: For the people I’ve been able to associate with, they’ve lifted me up and they’ve put me in places of opportunities that could be coming from a family of eight kids with barely enough money to pay the bills at time and living a very moderate conservative life. I’ve been very blessed to touch many things in life that most can’t, and I’m grateful for that.  

AJ Maestas: You’ve lived a pretty unbelievable life coach, and I’m glad you’re grateful for it because it has been exceptional to come from humble beginnings and to rise as you have in an industry that is so fun and so visible and so wildly competitive. All of those national championships. All of those, all Americans, all of the superstar athletes that you [00:40:00] represented Sportfive and beyond over your career, it deserves some true reflection and celebration. I’m really grateful to call you a friend and I’m really grateful you shared your time and wisdom with all of us here today. So thank you very much.  

Steve Loy: You bet. And thank you for having me, AJ. Anything I can ever do to help make things better and send a better message of guys like you are the reason why it’s happening, and I appreciate you a bunch. 

AJ Maestas: If you’d like to join the conversation, email us at INFO@NVGT.com or check out our website @NVGT.com. I’m AJ Maestas. Join us again next week for Navigating Sports [00:41:00] Business.