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WASTE MANAGEMENT PHOENIX OPENFebruary 4, 2011Mike McQuaidSCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA MIKE McQUAID: It's really out of our control. Acts of God, there's not much you can do about it. We'd certainly welcome the opportunity to finish on Sunday, but that's not going to happen. They will be playing up to dark tonight, Saturday night, Sunday night, and based on what we're hearing from the TOUR, there's definitely going to be a frost delay tomorrow, and that's what's I guess going to hinder us from being able to finish on Sunday because of the frost delay tomorrow and the freeze tomorrow. We'll play up to dark on Sunday and then have to get back out here and we'll play sometime around 8:00, finish probably five, six holes or so for the last groups. Q. And so will the entire final round end up being played on Monday, or part of it? MIKE McQUAID: Just part of it. We will start the fourth round on Sunday, the final round on Sunday, play as far as we can into -- throughout the day, and then obviously dark will play a halt, and then we'll go into and finish up on Monday. Q. Well, at least you get another day of crowds. MIKE McQUAID: We'll get another day of crowds, and we're certainly working on that now, but the people will be able to come out, and it will be free. They'll be able to come out and watch the players, watch the final round. Our hospitality will be closed, and it will be very small on concessions, just your basic food and beverage. Q. So you're not going to make up a lot of money on Monday? MIKE McQUAID: No, we don't anticipate it. It would be our gift back to the great community and the fans that we have. It's going to be a beautiful weekend, but certainly the week started off frustrating. It would be a free gift from the Thunderbirds and Waste Management to come out and watch the end of the final round. Q. It's just going to be too cold Sunday morning to get going after 36 possibly? MIKE McQUAID: Well, I think the issue is it's not so much Sunday morning. We probably may have a frost delay on Sunday morning. It's more tomorrow morning. You would have to really be able to tee off and get the players out first thing tomorrow morning, 7:30-ish, and there's going to be another frost delay, freeze tomorrow, probably an hour or two, so we just can't get enough golf in on Saturday really. Q. I'm sorry if you already answered this, but was 54 holes an option, shortening the event? MIKE McQUAID: That was discussed. That's a TOUR decision, and that was discussed, but my understanding is they'd prefer to play 72 holes, let the players, I guess, crown a champion based on 72 holes, which is the right thing to do. Certainly we have heard that they don't do 54-hole tournaments unless they see some type of weather pattern coming in Monday and Tuesday that would hinder the ability to play on Monday or Tuesday. Q. Talk a little bit about how much you guys have lost. MIKE McQUAID: Certainly it was a disappointment from dollars. I don't know yet, and we don't know yet. Where we do lose money there, that was the least attended silver pro-am day, Wednesday, that we've had in many, many years, and not having the fans out here to support our vendors is where we lose money. Q. You were down I think two thirds. MIKE McQUAID: We typically on that day get anywhere from 35,000 to 60,000 people, and we announced just over 15,000. So not getting those people out here certainly will affect our bottom line and therefore affect our charities. Q. And there's nothing really you can do about it, it's not like you can make that day up? MIKE McQUAID: We really can't. Well, Monday. I'm just kidding. We certainly can't make it up. It's unfortunate because as you guys know, Waste Management and the Thunderbirds are here to give back to our community for our charities, and our charities are the ones that because of that weather will be affected. Q. Was there some kind of a pro-am post-tournament an Monday, an outing that's going to get bumped or moved? MIKE McQUAID: There is one, and certainly the golf play of the TOUR would take precedent over that, but I guess where we finish with the players on Sunday evening, it's still something we're looking at, and that could still happen, assuming we get done early enough in the morning that event could still happen. But we're looking at that now. Q. Is that a makeup for Thursday? MIKE McQUAID: It's a different pro-am, so it's totally separate. Q. Was there any concern at all about having a lot of your tournament going on with the Super Bowl actually being played whereas you're usually off the course by the time they kick off? MIKE McQUAID: Yeah, we certainly usually end play and people have plenty of time to go watch the Super Bowl or go to their Super Bowl festivities, and probably if you were going to stay out here and watch the end of golf you would miss the first half of the Super Bowl, so certainly that will affect our crowds late in the afternoon. But it's going to be a beautiful day on Sunday, and they'll be playing golf, and the minute we can tee off the minute we're able to, so it'll be golf all day so people can get out here earlier to watch golf, and I think hopefully we'll make up maybe for some of the crowds that we have not seen on Wednesday and Thursday maybe Sunday because they can get out here earlier, watch golf, and then we're not going to crown a champion on Sunday, so maybe that's better and people can still come out, still leave at 3:00 or 4:00 and get to wherever they need to go for the Super Bowl. Q. Have you considered having some sort of a setup here where people could watch the golf and the Super Bowl, maybe the Bird's nest or something like that? MIKE McQUAID: We have, and to do something like that, it takes time to plan that to do it right. We just don't have time to do that. We would have had to plan that months in advance. Q. Going forward is 132-man field something you might look at reducing? MIKE McQUAID: I don't think so. I mean, we certainly from a tournament perspective don't want to do that. We like the 132-man field. Again, that's something established more by the TOUR than us. But we like the 132-man field. Just the last couple years we've had some bad weather, and it's not typical. Certainly the three weeks leading into this, we would have completed all our rounds and a 132-man field wouldn't have made any difference, and certainly if we had played a week later it would have been fine. So I don't see us reducing that. Q. How about some frost technology, some heating type things or under-soil type things? MIKE McQUAID: All good ideas, good thoughts, certainly things when I haven't slept the last couple nights I've thought about. But it falls outside of what I know. We're the host organization for the golf tournament. That really you'd have to ask the TPC and the people who know that business, and it's certainly not me. Q. So you're hearing that tomorrow will be a delay, but Sunday won't be? MIKE McQUAID: We're not sure. There certainly will be a delay tomorrow. We're not sure on Sunday. The weather is kind of iffy early in the morning, and there may or may not be a delay. We'll know better tomorrow once we get an update on the weather report. Q. And your forecast for Monday looked pretty -- MIKE McQUAID: Looks beautiful. I think the high it's showing on Sunday is like 71, 72, I think 75 on Monday. We've got good weather from here on out. Q. You'll start Monday as early as 8:00 a.m., 7:30? MIKE McQUAID: Well, we think what we talked about with the TOUR was sometime probably right around 8:00 a.m. End of FastScripts |
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