THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

March 11, 2022

Gary Young

TPC Sawgrass

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Gary Young, chief referee THE PLAYERS Championship. Not excited to see you in here, but we've got a lot of folks eager to ask you a couple questions. Can you just give us a general statement on where we are right now.

GARY YOUNG: We've received about 2 1/2 inches of rain at this point in the last 24 hours. The golf course, we battled through some pretty tough conditions this morning. The staff did a great job keeping up with the greens as much as we could, squeegeeing, trying to manage play through some really difficult cells that we were facing.

Unfortunately, we have reached a point now where there's just no window behind this area that we're moving into now. There's some lightning that is headed in this direction. We knew it was just going to be a point where we're just going to be battling too hard to keep up.

The golf course has reached a point where it's unplayable, and we will ride this out as long as we can this afternoon. If a window of opportunity presents itself, we'll get back out there later today.

So unfortunately, we do need to keep the players around, and if we do get that opportunity, we'll get back out there.

Q. At what point do we reach the point where a Sunday finish becomes very unlikely? Are we close to that now?

GARY YOUNG: We've been crunching some numbers, and yes, we are coming close to that point now. We were hoping to get four hours of golf in today, which we did accomplish, but at some point we were hoping to get back out. We need to try to get as much play as we can by the end of the day.

I would say, if we do not get back out on the golf course by the end of the day, then we are into that situation.

Q. You said you were hopeful and keeping the players around because you're hopeful to get some play back potentially. But as you all look at the radar, how hopeful and realistic is that?

GARY YOUNG: In our meetings with Wade Stettner, our meteorologist, and looking at future models, there is the possibility that this area that's settling in right now could move slightly to the north. We are right on the border of the models that we were looking at. We were on the southern border of this system, and if for some reason it lifts a little bit to the north, it could provide us a window of opportunity, but that would probably be later this afternoon.

And of course, at that point we've got to evaluate the golf course and make sure that it's proper condition for us to get back out there.

Q. When you said that you might -- if they don't get back out on the course today, you might be in that position where you're just not going to be able to get it done by Sunday. Is that taking into account what potentially is in the forecast for tomorrow? Is that why you say that? Or is it just from a logistics standpoint in general, you just don't think we'll be able to catch up?

GARY YOUNG: At this point, we're just battling, trying to make up for lost time. We also know that the conditions we're going to be facing tomorrow with the winds that are predicted, the pace of play is going to be slower as well. So we're trying to factor all of this in in our projections.

We may be in a situation where, if we don't get back out there today, we're assured of a Monday finish, and we're also going to have some conversations about whether or not we re-pair following Round 3.

Q. As you're logistically trying to figure out what's going to go on now, what are a couple of the scenarios you're trying to think through and decide upon in order to come as close as you can on Sunday? Or if you know Monday's inevitable, are you going to do something different on Sunday just to not overload the players given how difficult the days have been already?

GARY YOUNG: We will have internal discussions about it, and we see a scenario where I think a Monday finish is possible, if the system -- a lot of it depends on this system that's going to come in overnight and be with us through a portion of the morning tomorrow.

In speaking with Wade, they're anticipating some winds that could be in the area of 60 miles per hour as it comes through. So we're going to make some adjustments to that, prepare for that overnight. The superintendent and his crew are going to need proper time to pick up debris, get the golf course back in condition. So there's a lot of variables involved.

I'm talking a little bit about scenarios down the road, but I want to be careful about too many expectations. I would say, if we don't play any more golf today, we all know that we'll be here on Monday.

Q. How much time do they need to play again today to be able to say that you have a chance to not finish on Monday?

GARY YOUNG: They'd need to get out there for at least a few hours, I think, to be in that scenario.

Q. And in regards to the weather for tomorrow, is it suggested that, because of the winds that you might have, that you would not let spectators out here for part of the day?

GARY YOUNG: That has not been part of any of our discussions, the spectator part of it. I think, obviously, we'll have internal discussions about that as well. But our expectations are to be back to normal operations once this system does move through.

We'll evaluate what's gone on with the golf course and possibly with the structures, but I think everything is in a good spot to handle those type of winds, but we'll just have to wait and see. It's a lot of speculation.

Q. More speculation, Gary, depending on circumstances obviously, is there anything, once the cut's been made, that will affect what the cut is? In other words, would you consider going nearest to 60 if you have a chance to finish at an appropriate time?

GARY YOUNG: Again, that would be really speculating. I don't know that we would be at that point. I think that we would be making our normal cut. I don't see a situation where we would be, 36 holes in one day would be possible, if we lose the rest of today.

Q. Seeing as the pace of play will be an issue and 36 will likely be impossible, do you foresee any possibility that this could bleed into Tuesday potentially?

GARY YOUNG: The potential is there. The potential, but let's hope not. I think everything that we're looking at, we feel very confident that we can finish this tournament by Monday.

Q. Is this just seriously bad luck, or does this expose a risk of playing this tournament here at this time of year? What do you think on that?

GARY YOUNG: Highly, highly unusual to have this pattern for this prolonged period this time of year, looking back at the historical data on it. I would say at this point it's just bad luck.