U.S. OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

June 15, 2000

Tom Meeks

TOM MEEKS: Thank you, Les. Well, obviously, we had what was threatening weather all day, in reference to the fog. It looked like it was coming in, but it never did. It seemed to go over towards Cypress, I guess. But at approximately 3:45, I got a call from one of my officials that Jeff Maggert was not going to play his tee shot on 10 because he couldn't see where he was trying to hit it. So Fred Ridley, the Chairman of the Championship Committee and myself were in a cart and went down, and I think Jeff was playing with Darren Clarke and Freddie Couples. I think Couples had hit. But anyway, in looking down the 10th fairway, you couldn't see the bunker on the left. And if he would have hit a tee shot to the right, it would have been hard to see where it crossed the hazard margin; or if it bounced, it would be hard to see where it bounced in, therefore, depriving him of a chance of finding the ball. Even though we had several holes that were playable, particularly 15, 16, 17, and 18, we had some holes that were not playable. And when we stop play, we have to stop it for everybody, which is what we did. We delayed it at 3:57. And then at 5:01, we realized that it wasn't getting any better. In fact, it was getting a little worse. So we arranged for the players to be evacuated through the evacuation procedure that we have in process this week, with the hope that we might still get to play, go back out, and get possibly an hour and a half of golf, which would have been a big hour and a half, I might add. At approximately 6:00 to 6:10 we realized that we were socked in for the day; and therefore, had to determine our gameplan for completion of Round 1, as well as any adjustments that we would make in Round 2. The gameplan goes something like this: We still have 25 groups out. I believe the last group that finished was the Notah Begay, Steve Pate and Lee Porter, which means we had 27 groups finish and 25 groups still out. They're stacked out, with the final group, the 3:00 group being on the third tee. We've informed all the players that did not complete Round 1 that the practice range will be open at 5:00, knowing it's still a little dark, but it's starting to get there. I think players can actually start hitting balls around 5:15. The range at Pebble Beach is not quite big enough for the number of players that will want to hit balls, but we've arranged for Spyglass as an auxiliary practice range, and possibly Poppy Hills, if a second one is needed. This also requires a great deal of organization with the transportation people. We're confident that's under control. The players can start hitting balls around 5:15. I don't know what they normally take -- half hour, 45 minutes. If they want to do any putting, they will be transported to the practice putting green behind the first tee. And then at approximately 6:20, vans will start loading the players to take them back out to where they were when we suspended play. And we hope to resume play at 6:45 for all the players who did not complete Round 1. To balance this out, we have had to make an adjustment to Round 2 starting times, and Round 2 will start at 8:00. And ironically, the last group to finish is Pate, Begay, and Porter, will be the first group off at No. 1 tomorrow at 8:00. All of tomorrow's starting times will be pushed back an hour and a half. I don't think we're going to have to make any adjustments to that. We could with our final 3:00 group, which happens to be players 154, 155 and 156. They are now scheduled to go at 12:10. And I hope that they're done in time with Round 1 to be able to grab a little something to eat and make this time. If not, we'll make that adjustment when we need to. The next question probably is: Will we finish Round 2 tomorrow? I don't think so. I would be very surprised, because we thought with the 3:00 last starting time, we thought we were looking at probably an 8:15 finish, if we'd have had proper weather. So therefore, I don't think we're going to get finished with Round 2. And we will therefore bring the players back and finish Round 2 Saturday morning, and then make the groupings and starting times once the cut has been made for the 3rd Round, and we'll start it as soon as we can -- once Round 2 is completed, and we've had a chance to make the groupings and starting times. Obviously, we had a 5:00 finish for Saturday and Sunday for TV purposes. It looks like now Saturday's round will not finish at 5:00. I think we would be very lucky if that happened, but I don't believe, unless we get a low number in the field and the numbers just happen to work out, but I'd be surprised if we don't have to go substantially later than 5:00 Saturday to finish the 3rd Round. I think one big question is: What's the weather forecast for tomorrow? And I've got to tell you, I don't know. I've heard rumors, even to the fact that the fog tomorrow is supposed to be worse than it was today. And if that's the case, we'll have to probably -- possibly, come up with a different gameplan. But I think right now we can only go with positives, and those positives are what I've outlined for you. If I get here tomorrow morning and we've got some really unusual weather tomorrow morning, we'll have to put our committee together and come up with a gameplan. And we haven't even thought about doing that until we see what we've got tomorrow. I think that pretty well sums it up, ladies and gentlemen. I haven't talked to any of the players; I don't know what their reaction was. I hope -- we're trying to do the best we can under the circumstances and the time frame we're working within, and yet I'm sure that when you do things like this you're always second-guessing a bit. But I think our gameplan is reasonable; and it could mean, obviously, that some of the players tomorrow are going to have to play a large number of holes, particularly that last group, which has 16 holes to finish, Round 1, and could very easily end up playing 18 holes tomorrow for Round 2. That's too bad. I'm sorry that's going to happen. But that could happen.

TOM MEEKS: Absolutely. Questions?

TOM MEEKS: Have you seen the Superintendent here? This guy looks like he's just out of high school. He's a neat guy. He's done a terrific job with his crew. He's out there mowing fairways right now. That's one way about it; he's mowing the fairways. That's going to be done. Tees will be done tonight. Greens will be done tomorrow morning. He informs me that he's got enough time to do greens, and they'll drag the dew off the fairways and tees. So we'll have a golf course that we can play on at 6:45. That's getting 16 holes ready. And once he's done there, then we can jump over and start doing his maintenance on 1 and 2 and come in right behind. We'll have to leave the holes where they are on 3 through 18. Tom Moraghan and I will be going around. We've done the holes for tomorrow. We'll go in at 7:00 with the hole cutter and start cutting the holes for Round 2. We'll cut 1, and then, of course, cut 2, and set the tee markers. We'll be coming in right behind the last group that's on the 3 tee. And as soon as they finish 18 for the completion of their first round, we'll be right behind them cutting the hole for Round 2. So, the maintenance crew, I can't say enough about. What I was really impressed with this young man today was how calm he was throughout all this. It's easy for people to maybe have a little -- with the Murphy's Law, things that sometimes happen, people tend to get a little uncomfortable. But this young man has been so neat to work with, and I'm very impressed. He's only, I think, 30 years old, but he's done a terrific job. He's got a terrific crew, a lot of good help, and the maintenance is in good shape.

TOM MEEKS: Well, the cut in the U.S. Open is low 60s and ties, and anyone within 10 strokes. We can't make the cut until they're all done. The neat thing about the age of computers, with Kevin O'Connor who oversees our scoring system here for the U.S. Open, he'll have me a draft of this groupings and starting times. We'll play in twos, of course, on Saturday and Sunday. They'll have a draft as soon as that last putt goes in the hole. I don't wish any player any bad luck, but we could have that last group coming in on Saturday morning to finish Round 2, and all three players, let's say, are going to shoot 168 -- some number that definitely will not make the cut. If that happens, we can still go ahead and get our grouping starting times ready, because we know nobody in the last group is going to make that. Even if two or three players do, he'll still have me a draft within five minutes after they finish that hole. So we'll work as fast as we can there, and we'll get started as quick as we can after the second round is over.

TOM MEEKS: It's impossible to answer that question, because I don't know how much time it's going to take for us to finish Round 2. I'm optimistic that even tomorrow night, with just a good break on the weather, a reasonable break, that we should have, hopefully, all the golfers will be -- let's say the last group is on 13 or 14. If that's the case, we would bring them back out -- I'm going to guess at maybe 7:00 to finish their round on Saturday morning. If they're on 14, that means they're going to need about an hour and 20 minutes. So 7:00, done by 8:30. We could maybe go as early as 9:00, if we had to.

TOM MEEKS: That's an arbitrary figure. It might be that we would at 6:30. We've gone at 6:30 the last two mornings. We could do that.

TOM MEEKS: I don't think we'd go any earlier than that.

TOM MEEKS: If we get another delay tomorrow, we're definitely looking at going deep Saturday.

TOM MEEKS: The question was if we have no delays tomorrow, the last group, I have to talk with Tommy Roy of NBC Sports, but I would guess maybe the last group on Saturday would have gone around 1:00 or 1:10, which would be a 5:00 finish for NBC on Pacific time. And then from that, we have 60 players and ties. If I had 70 players make the cut, that's 35 groups of two; we play at nine-minute intervals. I'd have to back it up from 1:00. You have to figure out the math with that. I'd guess around an 8:30 start.

TOM MEEKS: I can't tell you that, because you back it up from 1:00. The two leaders go at 1:00, or approximately 1:00, and if we have 90 players, then we go at 6:30. If we have 70 players -- it depends on the number of players who make the cut.

TOM MEEKS: The question is how much leeway were we giving the players today? I was surprised that we didn't get a few players to question us earlier in the day. It was very close. It was iffy. But the nice thing I think about -- if they could see where they wanted the shot to land, then I think that was somewhat of our parameter. These guys are so good, they know the distance to the hole, they know if the flag sits right or left. In fact, a cute little story: When I went down to see Jeff Maggert, he said, "Tom, I can't see where I'm hitting my shot here, and I'm going to stop." And I talked with Fred Ridley, the Chairman, and we agreed to stop. And lo and behold, our official with Ernie Els, who was in the group ahead, Ernie told the official: "Tell Tom Meeks that I hit that tee shot, and I had the same view Maggert did." He was having a little fun with us. But he knew we were close. But I really think our call to stop it when we did was right. Because although we had five or six holes that were very visible and very playable, those around 8, 9, and 10 know that it was not fair to make those players play those shots down there. I think we did the right thing. I think we were right on the money with our time as far as stopping play.

TOM MEEKS: Well, the Superintendent's people here tell me if we had wind today, we'd have had a chance to get some of this stuff blown out of here. Early a.m. fog becoming partly sunny and possibly foggy in the afternoon. This is going to come to be known as the Foggy Open. Weather is something you have to deal with when you're in the golf business. I tell you we'll do the best we can to finish on Sunday, but if we have to go into Monday, that's part of the deal. We'll try to get them back on schedule as quickly as we can.

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