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AT&T PEBBLE BEACH NATIONAL PRO-AMFebruary 15, 2009Mark RussellPEBBLE BEACH, CALIFORNIA MARK RUSSELL: You know, this West Coast Swing, I like to be under the radar. I don't want you guys to see me, don't have to talk to me. Talk to the players. I hope it's a lot better down there next week. MARK STEVENS: Mark, if you want to start off and make general comments about the decision today and then we'll take questions. MARK RUSSELL: We got in this morning, and first of all, it was a wind problem. It was a dangerous situation. We had gusts up to 60 miles an hour I understand. We had some tents blow down. We had some towers blow down, and it was too dangerous to get the fans and the spectators go out there and play golf and observe. We held off, held off, and then we got to a point where we would excuse the amateurs to make the field smaller so we could play a little faster, have a little better window. Then we got to a point where the wind did not stop blowing, and it continued to rain, and we had some greens go under water, and it was going to take several hours to get the golf course playable, and we just basically ran out of time. We were spinning our wheels, so rather than keep all the players and the volunteers and everyone here, we suspended play for the day, and we're going to try to play in the morning starting at 7:30. Q. What's the forecast for tomorrow? MARK RUSSELL: Forecast for tomorrow, they're not expecting this big wind, so we're just thinking if we can get a little break in this rain, the golf course drains good here, and Chris Dalhamer and his people do such a great job here, we might be able to play. We're going to try. We're mandated by the regulations to do everything we can to play 72 holes, so we're going to see what we can do tomorrow. If we come in tomorrow and everything is saturated, we might delay once or twice, but if we find that we're not going to be able to finish tomorrow, we'll make a decision at that time, if we find out that we're not going to be able to finish tomorrow. Q. Worst-case scenario, a case where half the field finishes and then you're stuck? MARK RUSSELL: Then if half the field finishes, the final round will stand, and we'd have to finish that whenever we could. Q. The tree obviously on 3, and you mentioned towers, and what was the extent of the wind damage? MARK RUSSELL: Well, I understand -- I didn't see it, but I understand that big tent at 14 blew down out there on the point. I know this tent, the ladies' score tent blew down. They got those ladies out of there. The trailer we were in was shaking a little bit. Media dining, I'm sure it was experiencing some difficulties, also (laughter). It was a little lower on the hill and The Lodge blocked it a little bit. Q. Can you give a little history as to when the importance of 72 holes came into play and how much of it was related to occurrences at Pebble? MARK RUSSELL: Well, I don't think that Pebble Beach had anything to do with it. I remember after a rain-shortened tournament in Dallas is when the board got together and said we want to play 72 holes no matter what. I can't remember exactly what year it was. I think it might have been a big playoff year. The regulations now changed by the players say that we've got to make every effort to play 72 holes, even if it comes down to playing 36 holes on Monday, and we've done that before. Q. What's in the regulation books now? How long have they been in there? MARK RUSSELL: How long has that regulation been in there? I'm not really sure. I'd have to look. Probably ten years, something like that, eight or ten years. Q. I know this is all speculation, so please forgive us, but you said if you get into a situation tomorrow where half the field has finished but you can't finish, then you said, "We'll have to finish whenever." Would that definitely not be Tuesday? MARK RUSSELL: If we could play. I mean, you remember that situation in Washington a couple years ago where half the field finished and we got record rains. We had four players trying to finish the golf tournament Tuesday afternoon. Ben Curtis had like a five-shot lead. We couldn't get him through the 17th and 18th hole. Q. If you can't play tomorrow would you try to play Tuesday? MARK RUSSELL: No, if we can't play tomorrow we'd revert back to 54 holes. Q. Obviously you don't look at a lead to make any kind of determination, but if you had a few delays tomorrow, would you consider or base a decision whether half the field might finish and put you in a pickle? MARK RUSSELL: Well, I think we'd have to make every effort to play 72 holes. Q. Are those the words in the regulations, "every effort"? MARK RUSSELL: Yeah, I think so. Q. So the local officials don't have any -- they're not at the table? MARK RUSSELL: No. They're at the table when you sign the contract that says we're going to play under PGA TOUR regulations. So yeah, they're at the table. Q. You've been here for many years and you've had a pretty good stretch. In the years you've done your job, what's the worst weather you've run into? MARK RUSSELL: Well, you know, any time you play in the southeast in the springtime, it's tough. We play from daylight until dark basically every day, and you get down in the southeast and Texas and down in there in April and May, and it's not quite summer, hot and cold air masses hitting, it's a problem to get four straight days with no weather change. Q. Thunder storms as opposed to rain, that's the problem there, isn't it? MARK RUSSELL: Dangerous situation. Q. R.J. Harper said he was out at the 6th green this morning. Were you involved in that at all? MARK RUSSELL: Some of our guys went out, but the main thing we were concerned about was the safety of the players and spectators. That was first and foremost. And then secondly a couple of our guys said, we dropped a ball down on the green and it blew off. That would come into play, too. But our main concern was safety. Q. Is there a slightly less degree of urgency when somebody has got a four-stroke lead to make sure you get these last 18 in? MARK RUSSELL: It doesn't even enter our minds. You've got to understand, we're playing for millions of dollars. I mean, the guy that's 7th or the guy that's 20th and would like to shoot 66 and move up to 3rd, I mean, there's a lot more at stake than just the first guy playing. I mean, they wore me out, when was that, a couple years ago in San Diego when I told them, "Well, it's not little league baseball, it's not a mercy rule." "Well, Tiger has got an eight-shot lead; what's the big deal?" But it worked out. Once again, they've never missed a forecast, you know (laughter). Q. When you got here and the course was in the condition -- I don't know where you stayed last night, but it didn't seem like the weather was any worse outside of Pebble Beach than it has been the other three nights of the tournament. MARK RUSSELL: Well, I was amazed at the wind. The wind woke me up this morning about 4:30. The wind was howling. You know, I think there's a wind advisory warning for the whole area until 6:00 o'clock tonight. But no, I wasn't really surprised. Q. If it was just the wind or just the rain, would that have made a difference? Was it the combination of both that made -- MARK RUSSELL: First of all, it was the wind. If the wind would have died down we could have played in a little rain. But when it starts blowing tents down, towers down, and the CBS guys were concerned about getting in those towers, let alone guys playing golf and people walking under trees and trees blowing down, you know, we just can't do that. They could hardly stand up out on the point playing golf. Q. 54 holes, if that's all you play, it's still full FedExCup points, though, right? I just want to get that on the record. MARK RUSSELL: I'm going to have to defer. Q. From a setup standpoint, is there anything you can do if you're on the borderline tomorrow in regards to tees and things on the greens that will allow you to play? MARK RUSSELL: Absolutely. We would set the golf course up what we refer to as a high-and-dry situation. We'd go to the highest point of rain. We talked to the golf course superintendent about which greens are going to puddle first, and we try to keep the holes away from those places. We would sacrifice a very difficult setup to finish the golf tournament. We'd move some tees up. Second week at Sony Open, we moved some tees up 50 yards to play in a 30-mile-an-hour wind. MARK STEVENS: Thanks a lot, Mark, for coming in. End of FastScripts |
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