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DEUTSCHE BANK PLAYERS' CHAMPIONSHIP OF EUROPE

July 21, 2005

Harald Hartmann

David Probyn

HAMBURG, GERMANY

RODDY WILLIAMS: Just a few words from the Tour's perspective about the elements today and the course of action over the next few days.

DAVID PROBYN: Yeah, we've taken about over 40 millimeters of rain on the golf course in the last 12 hours, which has caused the rivers running through the course to rise quite substantially, and so not only are we being flooded from above, but pretty much from below, as well.

Out on the course, the majority of fairways and bunkers are unplayable, and the greens survived extremely well until probably the last hour of the heavy rain when they became unplayable as well. It's the viewpoint, obviously, of the greenkeepers here and our own team that the course is going to need a sustained dry period through the night for it to become playable tomorrow.

The forecast is only for showers now, so we are hopeful that we will get substantial draining of the golf course which will allow us to play tomorrow morning on time. If that happens, the plan is to play Round One tomorrow, Round Two on Saturday and then we would introduce a cut to the Top 50 professionals and ties on Saturday night and look to play 36 holes on Sunday in a three ball, two tee format for both rounds to try to complete 72 holes by Sunday evening.

Q. What would it mean for the time, the last one will be in after the fourth round?

DAVID PROBYN: Finishing time will depend somewhat on the numbers of players that make the cut. A 50 and ties cut, we can typically expect to have in the region of 60 players. If that's the case, potentially we are looking at something between a 7:00 and an 8:30 morning round teeing off, and the afternoon round would be somewhere between 12:30 and 1:45, which would give a last match finishing about 6:30 on Sunday night. That's ballpark at the moment.

Q. Is Monday an option?

DAVID PROBYN: Monday is always observed as an option in discussions with television, with the promoter and sponsor. At the moment our goal will be to complete on Sunday night.

So if we don't lose any more play now over the next two days, then we would look to complete 72 holes in the format I suggested. If we lose any more time, then we would probably look to reduce the tournament down to about 54 holes, and in that instance, if we started to play the third round on Sunday but could not finish, we would look to complete on Monday. That would be a possibility.

Q. Do you expect the course to drain naturally, or will you be calling in for pumps or anything tomorrow?

DAVID PROBYN: No. The expectation, really, I mean, the greenkeepers refer to it as pushing dead chairs around the Titanic if we went out there this afternoon. The feeling is we've just got to give it time. There's really nowhere to push the water right now because the water level is so high underneath the golf course.

Obviously if it drains substantially overnight and we need to push it a little bit harder in the morning to get going, obviously we'll do that. The guys are equipped with squeegies and a lot of pumps ready to go if we need to do that. For now, we'll let nature take its course and then review that at four o'clock tomorrow morning, I would think.

Q. Can I just ask a question, I didn't understand the German, I'm afraid. Just wondering, what are you doing about the car parks? Did I understand you to say that you would be using Hamburg Airport?

HARALD HARTMANN: That's a good point. We're using the runway, yes. That's the best place to be, very safe. No rain delays on that runway.

No, I was talking about the one future site for the new airport which is in Kaltenkirchen which is not an airport, but it's a good parking place for us. That we will use tomorrow from six o'clock onwards. The most important message is that everybody should exit the motorway on Kaltenkirchen exit not Quickborn to get there because then we have signs to be directed to that big parking lot, at least as long as we have to close down all the lots in front of it.

Q. What's the worst case scenario?

DAVID PROBYN: Well, the forecast is pretty reasonable to be honest. It's just scattered showers from now on and Sunday looking to be dry perhaps before another front would come in later in the afternoon, evening and hopefully we would avoid that.

Worst case scenario is obviously cancellation of a golf tournament. That is our worst case scenario, but we are hopefully a long way from that right now.

Q. Would a reduction of holes play reduce the point outcome for the Tour?

DAVID PROBYN: No. We would declare a result on 36 holes as far as the status of the event having been won. But there would be discussions over the prize money that we would pay out on that basis. It would be declared as an event, but the prize money level and relative Order of Merit points would almost certainly be reduced.

Q. Kaltenkirchen, is that to the north or to the south of the Quickborn?

HARALD HARTMANN: It is north of Quickborn, north, yes. It's two exits north of Quickborn:. Quickborn, Henstedt Ulzburg (phonetic) and Kaltenkirchen, seven meters north of Quickborn. But then it's a very short ride to the parking lot, only five minutes from there, and you can't miss it and a free bus shuttle.

End of FastScripts.

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