PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

August 9, 2020

Dede Moriarty

Harding Park Golf Club

Press Conference

JOHN DEVER: Good morning, and welcome back to the 2020 PGA Championship here at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco. We are very pleased to be joined by Northern California Section President Dede Moriarty.

Dede, thanks for joining us. This championship holds a spot in everybody's heart right now. It hasn't always been a straight line getting here, but this golf course, it means something to you personally as you grew up nearby. Maybe you could tell us about your background here at Harding Park.

DEDE MORIARTY: Yeah, I grew up about a stone's throw from here. I could walk here from the house I grew up in, and I started hitting balls here when I was about 10 years old. And sometime after that, I took my dad's clubs and took my little pull cart and walked across the bridge and walked into the pro shop and said, hey, can somebody give me some golf lessons.

I think I was here every morning for years after that, getting out, hit balls, and the starters in those days they'd let you sneak out and play the back nine. So was just a wonderful experience and Harding Park was really special, special in the neighborhood, it's a neighborhood place, and I think really special to the City of San Francisco. So we're just super grateful that we can have it.

JOHN DEVER: How many members of the section have had a hand in getting this championship ready, not only this week but in the lead-in the last couple years? How many would you estimate?

DEDE MORIARTY: I don't know the exact count, but we had a ton of people sign up to be section volunteers, and we had our board of directors had all signed up to do some volunteer work, and of course everybody was really enthusiastic.

Unfortunately it didn't work out that way, but it's the times we're in, and I think they're going to more than enjoy seeing it on TV because the city is going to shine, Harding is going to shine, and it's going to be spectacular.

Q. I just wanted to ask you how much would you say in this centennial year for the section, has it been meaningful for your members or how have they embraced it?

DEDE MORIARTY: Well, we've been excited about this for about five years, and we've gone, the section officers, to the last two PGA Championships, and the whole section has been excited. It's a really big deal to have the PGA Championship at a public golf course in your section.

I share everybody's disappointment that they can't be here, but they're here in spirit, and just wish everybody could be here.

Q. Is this your 14th season at Presidio Golf Course?

DEDE MORIARTY: I think 15 now.

Q. Can you describe what this facility was like when you were that little girl hitting balls out here, and to see it host such a grand championship with all the best players in the world, what kind of emotions does that stir in you?

DEDE MORIARTY: Well, the golf course wasn't that much different. I mean, there's been a lot of trees that have been cleared out, and the driving range used to be in a different place. The clubhouse used to be in a different place.

The pro shop was sort of -- the pro shop was in one place and there was sort of a big space next to it where, for instance, if you played in the city championship, everybody would gather. But the structure of the course has remained pretty much the same. A little less trees, a little bit longer, but it's stayed intact.

You know, it's holding up. We're really proud of it.

Q. Looking across the parking lot at Sandy Tatum's statue, talk a little bit about what Sandy meant to golf in the Bay Area and Harding Park.

DEDE MORIARTY: Well, he saved Harding. He put it in the condition it's in now. So it meant a lot, and of course he's a golf icon, from Stanford and his friendship with Tom Watson.

We miss him. I wish he was here so he could see this great championship. In heaven, thanks, Sandy, thanks for what you're doing.

Q. In terms of your leadership role in the section, obviously a different year from what you anticipated, but you and the section have come together. Talk about what it's been like to lead back to golf in California through COVID and what your members are facing right now.

DEDE MORIARTY: Well, California, thanks to the leadership of Len Dumas and Tom Addis, we've been really vigilant in doing the right things, doing our best practices, taking advice from the PGA of America.

Golf has done really well. I've always said golf has been a hero in California because doing the things that we've done gave people the opportunity to have some normalcy and some freedom in their lives, and I think that's the best gift that golf has given people.

You see a lot of different people playing golf, kids that weren't really golf athletes, but they played a little. Now they're playing all the time, they're playing with their parents. What a great thing for golf as this has gone forward because people have continued to play, so that's all good stuff for golf.

Q. I want to ask you about just how far this golf course has come in the last 15, 20 years since the remodel of sorts. Maybe talk about where it was, I guess, at the depths there and how much it's risen to the top of the sporting world.

DEDE MORIARTY: Yeah, there was a period of time, and I think it was in the late '70s with the drought that the course was probably pretty much dying. It was pretty brown. It's come such a long way from then until now.

The people I talk to are just -- they can't say enough good things about the condition of the golf course, other than the last few weeks when they can't get their ball out of the rough. Just kidding.

But you know, the course is fabulous, and it's come a long ways. It's a championship golf course. I think it always was. It's just better now.

JOHN DEVER: Can you just talk about San Francisco as a golf town, your observations from the last few decades and where it is right now.

DEDE MORIARTY: Oh, San Francisco is a great golf town. Those of us that are born-and-raised golf nuts here in the City will tell you that a lot of it stems from San Francisco City Golf Championship, which is I think one of the largest amateur golf events in the world. So it's not just the championship flight; it's all the flights going down. I've known so many people that have enjoyed that tournament.

You know, we've got Sharp Park over here and Presidio over there, obviously Olympic Club, San Francisco. We've got all these great golf courses. So people love golf in San Francisco.

Hopefully people watching this tournament on TV that don't play golf will want to play golf, and they should, because golf is the greatest game in the world, right?

JOHN DEVER: Thanks so much for your insights, thanks for having us this week, and we'll look forward to a return soon enough.