home jobs contact us
Our Clients:
Browse by Sport
Find us on ASAP sports on Facebook ASAP sports on Twitter
ASAP Sports RSS Subscribe to RSS
Click to go to
Asaptext.com
ASAPtext.com
ASAP Sports e-Brochure View our
e-Brochure

AT&T NATIONAL


June 30, 2012


Mark Russell


BETHESDA, MARYLAND

Q.  What's it look like out there?
MARK RUSSELL:  Well, it looks a lot better than it did earlier.  Mike Giuffre and his staff, those guys had no sleep.  They had to get four big trees off the entryway into the club before anybody could even get in.  So it was really a mess out there.  But they've done a great job.  We're going to try and play golf at 1:00 off two tees and see if we can get done.

Q.  How many workers does Mike have?
MARK RUSSELL:  Well, a huge problem with Mike and his staff is that they've had a lot of people in from other golf courses.  Well, they've got the same problem this morning.  You know, there are a lot of people that want to play golf, and they've got to try to work on getting their golf courses ready to go.
They've done a great job.  They've had some setbacks here and they've been up all night on the situation with the entryway and all these trees down.  I just want them to get this thing ready to go and get some rest and see if we can get it cleaned up for tomorrow.

Q.  Did we get a lot of rainfall?
MARK RUSSELL:  We got three tenths of an inch of rain, mainly wind.

Q.  (Inaudible.)
MARK RUSSELL:  I'm not exactly sure.

Q.  When did they start cleaning?
MARK RUSSELL:  They've been cleaning all night basically.  They've been working all night.

Q.  When did it come through?
MARK RUSSELL:  To tell you the truth, I was kind of tired.  I went to sleep.  I didn't realize it was that bad of a storm.  I can't say enough for Mike Giuffre and his staff.  They've done a fantastic job.  We're shooting for 1:00.  Hopefully we can do that.  At first I told them, look, just single cut the greens.  We'll do the minimum.  Just touch the bunkers up, do whatever, but now we're going to double cut the greens, we're going to treat them like we have all week, we're going to rake all the bunkers by hand and hopefully we'll be ready to go at 1:00.

Q.  What was the worst spot on the golf course?
MARK RUSSELL:  There was a giant tree across the 14th fairway, and there was a big tree in the 18th fairway.  Those were of major concern.  There were several trees down behind the 2nd green.  There was a huge tree covering the cart path.  They had to get that out to give them access.  That's where their maintenance area was, to give them access, plus the fact we don't have any power a lot of places, so we weren't able to charge some golf carts all night, do some things like that, so we're working on generator power.  Hopefully that power comes on later today, and that would be a giant help, too.

Q.  Can you speak to the 11th fairway?
MARK RUSSELL:  The 11th fairway was unbelievable.

Q.  That wasn't a massive tree, but how do you get rid of that stuff?
MARK RUSSELL:  I don't think there's any stuff there now.  That's the great job that Mike Giuffre's staff is doing.  Go out and look at it now.  It's clean.

Q.  Was it an easy decision with the fans?  This is going to be kind of a weird day.
MARK RUSSELL:  Yeah, it was an easy decision.  I mean, it was just too dangerous.  I mean, there was just debris out‑‑ everything that was inside the ropes has fallen outside the ropes.  It's going to take a long time to clean this up.  We talk about the golf course, but the whole area is suffering from this.  It just so happens we're having a golf tournament out here and we're concentrated on that.  But there's over a million people I understand without power.

Q.  Chances of spectators coming out tomorrow?
MARK RUSSELL:  We hope so.  We hope we can do that.

Q.  What was the rule that might be used more than usual?
MARK RUSSELL:  Pile for removal.  You get relief for something piled for removal.

Q.  They said they were 40 trees down; is that right?
MARK RUSSELL:  I would say minimal, probably more than that.  And trees are one thing, but how about hundreds of limbs, big limbs.

Q.  At the end of the day we'll touch on fans being allowed out tomorrow?
MARK RUSSELL:  Oh, absolutely.  That's a very drastic decision, not allowing fans to come out.  But it's in their best interest.  It's a dangerous situation in the area today with the heat and the storm and everything.  I mean, I drove down here, down Wisconsin Avenue, there wasn't one stoplight working.

Q.  (Inaudible.)
MARK RUSSELL:  Well, we're going to take our chances with that.  You know, you can't‑‑ it's difficult to predict the weather.  You're right, there's severe weather‑‑ possibility for severe weather this afternoon.  We'll just have to see how that goes.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports




About ASAP SportsFastScripts ArchiveRecent InterviewsCaptioningUpcoming EventsContact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297