Questions about Drive for the Dream, answered in the words of the people who did the work. The engagement itself is on its own page.
How were the golfers for Jasper Sports Management chosen?
Contracting them was the easy part. We could have signed a hundred the next month, because mini-tour players are grinding to keep the dream alive and will sign almost anything to keep playing. Choosing was hard. The better the player, the tougher to contract, and we were taking moonshots on unranked grinders with a very low success rate, putting real money into equipment, time and sponsorships. So we picked players with great stories who were good on camera and willing to do the work: self-recording and a lot of self-interviews after every tournament. Some golfers did not want that.
What did the competitive progress and resulting footage unlock for the venture?
Credibility. The PGA Tour told us they had been pitched concepts like ours many times, and they always stayed concepts. We bought the vans, signed the golfers, documented them and showed the story actually worked. So it was ready to go when we sat down with the Tour, and we negotiated with them for months.
What was the hardest point to resolve in the PGA Tour negotiations?
The Tour was not taking anything new, and they did not want to give us anything. This was right when they were dealing with the Saudi-backed golf league, and the Tour was basically in turmoil. They were afraid to do anything because they did not know what was going to happen.
Once the Tour would not move, what kept the venture going?
We just knew the Tour was a matter of time, so we kept moving forward with sponsors, production companies and the search for an executive producer. The bigger the names we could attach, the more credibility the project would have, and when the show was ready, the Tour would be able to sign off on it.