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BARBASOL CHAMPIONSHIP

July 22, 2018

Steve Carman

Nicholasville, Kentucky

Q. As you've mentioned, one for the record books. Quite a day out there, wasn't it?
STEVE CARMAN: Yes. Hard to explain. I mean, Mother Nature is just not giving us very much to deal with. Golf course is saturated, so any kind of rain makes it unplayable.

Q. And talk a little bit about the long delay that we had, sort of which holes were the problem, and just in terms of getting the golf course ready.
STEVE CARMAN: The problem holes right now are 1, 2, 12, 17. It's mostly fairways. We did have some issues with some bunkers. Bunker No. 8 we had to pump because there weren't anyplace in the bunker to give relief.

12 fairway bunker we had to pump. All the casual water is at the back of it.

Q. Looking at the forecast, was any consideration given before play was started to maybe just go on ahead and call it off and put it off until Monday earlier in the day?
STEVE CARMAN: No. The forecast we had yesterday was slight chance of isolated showers this morning and 50% chance of showers in the afternoon. The forecast we had for Saturday was actually worse, and yet we played Saturday and never got stopped.

So it's unfortunate Mother Nature didn't give us a very good shake. Really wasn't any consideration to postpone until Monday. We were trying to finish the golf tournament on Sunday if at all possible.

Q. Do you see any problems with tomorrow?
STEVE CARMAN: Forecast overnight is isolated showers and then isolated showers again tomorrow. Fairly small percentage in the morning, but then increasing again in the afternoon about 50%.

Q. How much rain did we get, do you know, Steve?
STEVE CARMAN: I don't. I asked Willis to let me know. He had to go check his rain gauge. I'm sure it's been a couple inches.

Q. Is if there is a problem with trying to finish tomorrow, are there other options?
STEVE CARMAN: Well, our goal is to finish 72 holes, and that includes on Monday. We've got about four hours and 30 or 40 minutes of golf left to play. If we get started 7:30 and finish on time, it's 11:30, 11:40. If we get suspended, then we've got until dark to get it in. The goal is 72 holes, and that includes on Monday.

Now, if the forecast was such that it was completely unreasonable for us to expect to be able to play, then the scenario would be that we wouldn't play on Monday and we might consider -- would consider going back to 54 holes.

That's not in the cards right now.

Q. Logistically what were the challenges in really trying to decide going into Monday and calling it, besides the radar? With the golfers specifically.
STEVE CARMAN: Again, the goal was to finish this tournament, this 72 holes, on Sunday, if at all possible. If not, into Monday.

There was really no consideration about next week's event. They don't start playing until Thursday, so the players in this that are in that field have an opportunity to get there.

But the whole goal is this particular week. The downside here is we didn't have any experience with this golf course so didn't know whether it drained or didn't drain. Unfortunately we discovered that it has issues on a few holes where it doesn't drain very well.

Q. Is the first impression for this tournament that this has been kind of a disaster?
STEVE CARMAN: No, I really don't think so. It's been well-supported in the community, and it was encouraging to see the number of people that were out here. We played on Thursday and it was good. The golf course had gotten some rain early in in the week on the weekend but had dried up, and players were very shocked at how much it had dried up. They were pleased with it.

I think it was good. It's just Mother Nature and the way she deals.

Q. What do you think the appetite is for golf in Kentucky?
STEVE CARMAN: This is my only experience. Golf in Kentucky, again, because of the number of people that were out here and the response I've seen, I think it's great.

Q. Do you now anything about TV? Will it be on the Golf Channel?
STEVE CARMAN: It's going to be on the Golf Channel. They were waiting to figure out how much golf we had to play. I haven't heard what the broadcast windows are going to be.

They told us for us to start at 7:30 and they would figure out when they were going to be on the air.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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