THE NORTHERN TRUST

August 23, 2021

John Mutch

Liberty National Golf Club

Quick Quotes

Q. With Chief Referee John Mutch. Give us a sense of the weather situation.

JOHN MUTCH: Since 7:00 PM Saturday we've had nine inches of rain, approaching nine inches of rain, obviously a lot of rain. Bad news is we had three times the amount of flood precipitation that was forecasted but the good news is we didn't have the wind. So we didn't have the damage on the structures or trees or anything like that.

So really now we are just pushing water. The bunkers have all been repaired. The maintenance staff has done an incredible job. They have worked through the night as has all the ops team and everyone else.

So we plan to start at 11:30 today. It's going to continue to dry. Fairways are remarkably good for nine inches of rain but obviously it is wet.

Q. Will you play preferred lies?

JOHN MUTCH: We will. We will play preferred lies today. These fairways are all sand capped so that's helped us a lot. This golf course is built on sand. It's a links style course, right on the Hudson, so it does drain well. Also what hurt us a little bit is we had high tide this morning and a full moon last night. So it all kind of works together.

Q. Everything works against the poor golf course, but it seems to have done well. How much more rain can the course take do you think?

JOHN MUTCH: We have definitely reached field capacity. But as the tide goes out, so will the ponds drain, and right now the forecast is pretty good for next four to six hours. We have some chance of something hitting us tonight, some embedded cells. I'm being optimistic and hoping that that doesn't happen.

If it does happen, the meteorologist things we can get up to an inch. But after that from that point on, we don't have any predicted rain.

Q. Worst case, what time, roughly, do we anticipate those storms rolling through?

JOHN MUTCH: He told me that we have to be on watch starting around 3:00 PM today, and by 7:00 he thinks it will all be gone to our east.

Q. We were talking about the 50 percent finishing rule you mentioned on Saturday. Things have now changed. Give us an update from the Commissioner that came in?

JOHN MUTCH: So yesterday evening we had a call, and because of the importance of the FedExCup and how these tournaments are linked to each other, one to the next and then to the next and finally to East Lake, we wanted to -- it's paramount in his view, and our view, that we play 72 holes. And that we do everything in our power to get 72 holes in.

Like I said, we have a good forecast for Tuesday, and if we don't get hit by anything tonight, we'll have it done tonight.

Q. So potentially Tuesday finish, and you confirmed to me, as well, that no spectators today or tomorrow?

JOHN MUTCH: Correct. The tournament, for safety precautions, is not allowing spectators today, which is unfortunate. It's definitely not the way we wanted Northern Trust to go out. They have been a spectacular sponsor for many years for the PGA TOUR and they still are.

But it is what it is. It's out of our control. Nine inches of rain here is a lot, and some of the areas where spectators would have to go are impassible.