U.S. WOMEN'S OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

July 20, 2000

Kendra Graham

KENDRA GRAHAM: Thank you. I was as surprised as many of you probably were to hear how Meg played 14 today. But, I guess, creativity is a hallmark of U.S. Women's Open Champions, and she came up with an alternative way to play 14. I hope a lot of you have seen 14, because it's a beautiful hole, a great golf hole. We purposely are playing it from the tee that we chose, because we wanted the players to have to hit over the water; have to figure out where they could hit it to carry the water. There is a fairway bunker on the left side of the fairway; so, if you choose to carry less water, you have a chance of going into the fairway bunker on the far side of the fairway. If you choose to bite off a little bit more, you might avoid that bunker, and also get a good bit closer to the green. I think it's ingenious. I mean, just shows there's many ways to skin a cat. As far as the hole is concerned, I think Meg took some chances playing down 13. There are bodies of water on 13, left and right as you play the 13th hole and left and right as you play from 14 tee. And, there's several large oak trees between 13 and 14. Now, from there, Meg had about 147 into the green, and that she did have to play over a tree; I don't know which tree. But there certainly isn't a big, open area from the 13th fairway to 14 green. So, obviously, she took a chance that -- I guess that she felt she would be able to get over the tree; that she would have that short of club that she would have enough loft to get over the tree. But, it sounds interesting. I haven't heard of anybody else playing the hole that way. I guess the only concern that we would have at this point is obviously the safety of the players on 13, if someone chose to play the 14th hole this way. Now, when Meg did it this morning, there were no problems, and it did not create any sort of delay in play or anything. The rules official who was with that group called me when she did it, just so I would know, and be able to kind of store it away. I will say that I didn't think it would create that much attention.

KENDRA GRAHAM: At this point, no. I have just briefly discussed this. I will give you my personal opinion, and my personal opinion would be that we would do nothing, because as I said, I think Meg took some chances to play the hole that way. And secondly, what do we all remember about that Open Championship? We remember the Hinkel tree. I have to admit that someone had to tell me a little while ago who won that U.S. Open Championship, and I would not want to do that at the U.S. Women's Open Champion. She played a beautiful round of golf. She made a 4 on that hole. As I said, there's a lot of ways to skin a cat, and she had a great round of golf. She's one of our past champions, and I would not want to create another story, other than the great story that we have here, which is a championship golf course, the Merit Club, and the start of a great championship. But, I am one member of the committee. So, that is my personal opinion. But there have been no discussions to do anything of that sort at this point.

KENDRA GRAHAM: I would say it probably would be looked at by our committee. I would not say that this decision is final, no. But, it's interesting. The committee in charge of a competition, their decision is final. But I do have to think about the fact that this is a 72-hole stroke-play championship. And the first stroke the first day is as important as the last stroke the last day. And we'd have to think long and hard before we did something that would really affect how players had played the course earlier in the championship the first and second round and what they were doing in the third and fourth rounds.

KENDRA GRAHAM: That is up to the committee. It is the committee's responsibility to accurately define the golf course, which includes boundaries, water hazards, lateral water hazards, ground under repair. That is certainly within the realm of possibility as far as that being a responsibility of the committee. But again, I think we'd have to look long and hard at that.

KENDRA GRAHAM: Actually, I think it's a front center, front left. It is front left, that's right.

KENDRA GRAHAM: That's interesting.

KENDRA GRAHAM: Well, I will tell you that we came back in May, Mary Capouch, Judy Bell, myself and Tim Moraghan, and we chose the four hole locations we were going to use during the Championship week and during the interim time we decided which hole locations we would use which days. So, we have had a master plan for a while now. And, as I recall, again, I don't have that sheet in front of me, but that was the only front hole location we had planned on having. And so, we had no reason to change that or, you know, go off of our game plan. But, that is interesting that Meg felt that today's hole location is the one that allowed her to do that. I'd have to get my sheet, but my recollection is that was the only front hole location on that green. And what's also interesting is, we have very few front hole locations on this golf course. If you take a look at our hole location sheets today and the next three days, we have a lot of center, back centers, left back centers; there's not a lot of front areas that we can use. So, we try to use them whenever we can, because we obviously want variety, front, center, back, left, right, center. So, look what we did.

KENDRA GRAHAM: Well, I think we would have to take a look at our interpretation of undue delay Rule 6-7. Right offhand, I don't think we would put her on the clock, because she had to wait for another group to move. It would depend on whether her group was already on the clock or not. But again, if she could not play because of interference from another player even in another group, that's one thing. But if she took an inordinate amount of time to get a yardage, and decide what club to hit. That's a different situation. It would not be so much delay of game for her waiting because of another group, but, because she chose to play that way and how much time she took to get a yardage and pick a club.

KENDRA GRAHAM: There are many times that we may have an area of out-of-bounds that's on the course property, say, a driving range, the clubhouse, golf course maintenance area. The 18th hole here, those corporate hospitality tents on the left side of 18 are out-of-bounds. Now, as far as another hole being out-of-bounds in play of a particular hole, I don't recall that in any of our championships that I've been involved in since 1986. I don't recall that. It's an interesting question. But I can certainly poll some of our staff members here and see what memories they have. But I partly feel that if we had had it, I would have heard about it, even if it was prior to my time. Because interestingly enough, that's certainly an option of the committee, as I mentioned earlier. The committee determines the boundaries of the golf course, and really, what you're saying when you have out-of-bounds is you're prohibiting play from an area, and the committee has every right to do that. And certainly, to protect the integrity of a hole or for the safety of other players, it is permissible to have on course out-of-bounds. We actually have a decision in our decisions book about it. But a lot of people have the perception that it's not permissible, but it is. I don't recall us ever having one ourselves, the other areas I mentioned, but not another hole in play of a particular hole.

KENDRA GRAHAM: I have to say, I would struggle with that in a stroke-play championship, because, as I mentioned earlier, the 1st hole, the first stroke, is as important as the last hole the last day. I think in a match-play championship, where you're talking about a new day or it's really just between the opponents, I think you could do it more easily. But I would really struggle with that. Again, the committee has the opportunity to do that in that it's their responsibility to define the golf course, but they should do that before the championship starts, as we did before play started today.

KENDRA GRAHAM: I think what we are going to do as you probably know we have a walking rules official with each group, and I think we would want to have some conversation amongst the rules officials where the one official could at least let the group behind know what's going to happen, where they should stand, and then they could tell the marshals because they would be back there with them as far as having the spectators be aware of. Now, obviously, Meg played it down the fairway and she ended up in the fairway, but she could have ended up outside the ropes, too. So that is my biggest concern, not so much the integrity of the play of the hole; she just chose to play it a different way. But it would be safety, for not only other competitors, but the spectators.

KENDRA GRAHAM: On the rules committee? We have five of us. It's Mary Capouch, who is chairman, Cora Jane Blanchard, who is the vice chairman of the women's committee; myself; David Fay, who is our executive director and Tom Meeks, who is the director of Rules and Competitions here working as my counterpart at the Men's Open, U.S. Open. That's the five who are named to the committee.