home

jobs

	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

MCDONALD'S LPGA CHAMPIONSHIP PRESENTED BY COCA-COLA

June 11, 2004

Janet Lindsay

Alice Miller

Barb Trammell

WILMINGTON, DELAWARE

Q. Thanks for joining us. We have be Janet Lindsay, LPGA official, she's the advance official for the week; Barb Trammell, vice president of tournament operations, and

Alice Miller, who is the tournament director.

Janet, do you want to talk about the course conditions?

JANET LINDSAY: Okay, well, this morning when we got to the golf course, which was about 5:30 this morning, and I made my first call to the superintendent, Tristan Engle, we had 1.1 inches of rain overnight, which most of us slept through, so it came as a surprise, and they informed us at that time this morning that, obviously, they were unable to do very much maintenance at all, simply because the maintenance equipment was just too heavy to do any of the mowing of the fairways, greens, et cetera.

Also, the bunker crews had already been out numerous times to try to pump bunkers and get them reraked. It became a futile effort because the rain continued. Just as they would get a bunker prepped, the rain would accumulate again, and they would have to start all over again.

When we arrived this morning we knew we were going to have a long day anyway, so after we had a chance to go out and take a look at the golf course, we knew, obviously, that we needed to delay play. We did so with a one hour delay at that time.

So, while we were able to further assess the situation and get the weather report for the day, after getting that weather report and, again, meeting with the superintendent, we found out, obviously, what would be needed to get the golf course back into condition, given the best case scenario, if the weather were to clear, and that is when we went to the three hour delay hoping to start at 10:15.

That was our best case scenario, and it wasn't much longer into that time frame that we learned that we probably could expect more showers shortly after we were to start.

So and then showers would continue the rest of the day.

Again, after meeting further with the superintendent regarding and more importantly going around the golf course and looking at which bunkers would need to be pumped and prepped, on top of that we had greens that were under water that would need squeegying, and with the forecast for more rain on and off throughout the day, not only was it in an unplayable condition at present, but it would be likely to return to that state throughout the day with further rains.

It was at that point we decided that it probably would be in the best interest of the championship if we moved to literally took the day off, and we would go to same starting times, same pairings tomorrow.

Q. Janet, was there any thought of trying to get that morning group around and have the afternoon group go off early tomorrow, or was that not an option?

STEVE ROBINSON: Definitely was an option. Again, we looked at what the weather forecast was and realized that we could very well be getting our morning group out and then we would be pulling them back in again.

Again, the golf course is pretty saturated. I failed to mention that there are several fairways here that they have had drainage problems with in the past over the years. Numbers 11, 14 and 15 are the most immediate that come to mind, and those fairways, I mean, they were completely saturated, and with standing water in most of the fairways, so we knew that with further rain, again, that would be another area that we would have to be dealing with, and again, it wouldn't be getting any better, so.

BARB TRAMMELL: I think another thing that went into our decision but a big factor in talking with Tristan, had the rain stopped at 9:00, 10:00, when we were in the middle of our meetings, the length of time it would take to make the golf course playable if we had no further rain today.

She informed us that for the remainder of the day they could not get equipment to mow the greens. We felt that sort of made our decision. It was not fair to send players out when they literally would be playing on greens that could not be cut.

The other factor, in response to your question, to send half the field out in marginal conditions at best, with the weather forecast for the next two days being extremely good, we felt was inequitable.

Q. We're going to finish?

BARB TRAMMELL: Yes, we'll play 36 holes and be done by 7:30.

Q. Hopefully.

BARB TRAMMELL: With no weather problems, it should be. Pairings will remain the same for Rounds 3 and 4. That's our best way to get play completed quicker. We would waste probably an hour plus of time, even more, to wait for the entire Round 3 to be completed and repair. The same groups will be in place. The first group will probably come in and have half an hour and go back out.

Q. What does this do for television?

BARB TRAMMELL: I'll let Alice speak to that. Obviously we won't finish on air time, which I believe is set for 6:00 p.m., which is unfortunate, we regret that situation. We do have an opportunity to complete 72 holes by Sunday at dark, and that's our first objective.

ALICE MILLER: We're very confident we can finish play on Sunday if the forecast holds true. I think we have a very good chance of finishing 72 holes on Sunday. It's unfortunate, we'll probably miss the telecast window of 3:30 to 6:00. My hope is we have a very small cut, and the players play quickly, and we come close. That does disappoint me as a tournament director.

I think we're doing everything we can to get the championship in the course is unbelievably wet. For those of you who would have been here before, it's kind of deja vu all over again. It does not hold water. The 2/10 or quarter that we were expecting during the night quadrupled. There are a couple of fairways not really playable.

The greens, as a former player, it would be very inequitable to have part of the field playing under these conditions that should be considered unplayable. I think if the forecast were different on the weekend, maybe we would have thought a little bit differently. We have a good chance to get Round 2 tomorrow, make the cut, and play 36 on Sunday and crown a championship.

Q. Will you go to Monday if necessary?

BARB TRAMMELL: Right now we're not even thinking about past Sunday to be honest. Our goal is to finish Sunday at dark. If it gets to the point we see that's not feasible, we'll go back to Plan B. Monday is an option. If we cannot complete Round 4, we will complete on Monday.

Q. Is there a possibility you could put the last hour and a half on the golf channel?

ALICE MILLER: I would love for the golf channel to step forward and do that. But if you're out there and would like to do that for us, we would appreciate it.

Q. Is somebody talking about it?

ALICE MILLER: I would hope that would be an option. I'm not in a position to say one way or another.

Q. Wasn't there a case, Alice, a couple years ago where the first two rounds weren't televised at all?

ALICE MILLER: I'm not aware of that. I may have still be playing back in those days.

Q. Alice, any thoughts of playing the third round Saturday, so you could get it in for TV on Sunday?

ALICE MILLER: I think you can try to do that. Unfortunately, we do have forecast of possibly some fog tomorrow. I think from the standpoint of logistics of the volunteers, I think we have a much better chance and will have a smoother operation by doing Round 2 tomorrow, make the cut. That gives us a little bit of leeway, if you will. I think, best case scenario, if you make the cut, and repair, you might get an hour of play.

BARB TRAMMELL: From a mathematical standpoint, we have a full field for Round 2. By the time we complete that, as you know, with no delays, it's 6:45 or 7:00. After we make the cut, repair, issue starting times for Round 3, we normally give the first group a half an hour before they tee off. We're looking at 45 minutes. It's a little inequitable for the fourth and fifth group to be off one evening, to go out and play one hole. It's cleaner. We still do mathematically have the ability to complete Sunday night. We felt it would be better to do it this way.

Q. Are there other courses that would have been able to handle this much rain and allow play; and if so, would the renovations that are going to take place this month, would this make situations in the future better to handle?

ALICE MILLER: I'm not a golf course superintendent, but I feel very confident the changes that will be made, they have had long term issues with drainage, and it should help alleviate some of these problems. I don't know anything about golf course architecture. I don't know the extent of the plans.

My understanding is they're going to address some of the bigger issues. The facility should handle water much better, not just for the championship, but for members, and they should be able to easily play after a rain of an inch or inch and a half.

BARB TRAMMELL: I also think on this golf course, had we not had the amount of rain leading into this week, we may still have been able to play today. It probably wouldn't have been an issue. We probably wouldn't be here talking to you. It was wet to begin with. It was very soft. I think they had at least an inch plus Saturday and Sunday, last weekend. No mowing has been done at all Saturday and Sunday leading into this week. So, that was part of the factor as well. Any amount of rain over about a quarter of an inch here has just magnified the situation.

Q. Was there any thought of just cutting to 54 holes at this point for TV, or is 72 holes always a first priority?

BARB TRAMMELL: As many of you know that may have been here several years ago, I'm not sure what year it was. We did revert to 54 holes to finish the championship. We've since, because of that particular situation and other rain delay situations that we have had in the past, actually sort of modified our policy about two years ago after reviewing with the player executive committee just exactly what we wanted our priorities to be and options, and we all decided, staff and the player executive committee, that it was ultimately important for all majors to complete 72 holes, that it would be our first priority.

If that meant even beginning a round on a Monday, that we would do that. Other events, other 72 hole events, were a little more flexible, and if we have to complete 54 holes and end on Sunday, we would probably do that, but for a major championship, if we have any way at all of completing 72 holes, that's our first goal.

Q. Janet, I understand, the equipment being heavy, not to mow the fairway, but why couldn't you mow the greens?

JANET LINDSAY: Again, the greens are very soft, back to the weather that led up to the conditions that we have here. I have been here for two weeks now, and when I arrived, the area had just experienced heavy rains. I had last week, I didn't see much of the sun. It didn't rain that much, but it was pretty cloudy overall. Saturday and Sunday it rained all day, each day, basically, and the greens were soft to begin with, so the weight of the equipment, and they're finding the most light weight equipment they can, it made it impossible this morning to have them cut.

We are very hopeful that we are going to be able to mow the greens for tomorrow's round. I mean, we asked the same questions. Last year we got to a point where we were told they weren't able to mow the greens, and they brought in lighter weight equipment to do the job, but didn't mow to the same height that we wanted, but at least gave it a cut.

Even that equipment is too heavy to put on these saturated greens after experiencing the rains we have had in the last two weeks.

ALICE MILLER: If any of you have played out here, these greens are very spongy and they damage very easily. You know, the putting greens have already been a topic of discussion. Believe it or not, they are very soft and spongy.

BARB TRAMMELL: We basically go by what the Superintendent tells us. If he or she says we can't mow, we rely on them for that information, and it's their expertise.

ALICE MILLER: They're nice little dartboards. If we do get out there tomorrow, we can look for good scores.

Q. Alice, do you think we'll ever see four sunny days for this tournament again?

BARB TRAMMELL: Again? Have we ever?

ALICE MILLER: The long range forecast for this looked very good. I have been very disappointed in our meteorologist that our forecast has deteriorated. This is a good time of year. I'm from Arizona. I'm not used to this rain at all. We are very fortunate we had our prime events go successfully. I breathed a little sigh of relief. I thought if we can get through Friday, now I'll sleep at night. Unfortunately, that didn't happen. That's why I wore my glasses today. It's disappointing. We lose a lot of revenue. As you know, the concessions revenue goes right to the charity. The ticket revenue isn't as great; maybe because we had a lot of tickets in our different sponsor packages. All of our sponsors that were going to be out there, I mean, we lose some significant revenue by not having the round, so it's just unfortunate.

Q. Any other questions? Thank you.

ALICE MILLER: Thank you all for being here. Better weather on the weekend.

End of FastScripts.

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297