home

jobs

	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

March 27, 2005

Mark Russell

Third Round

JOE CHEMYCZ: Mark Russell, our tournament director. Obviously another long day, perhaps just give us a brief update on where we stand right now and what the prognosis is for the rest of the week.

MARK RUSSELL: Well, we're scheduled to play at 7:15 in the morning in position, and I'd just like to say to Fred Klauk and his staff, it's unbelievable how hard they've worked, what a great job they have done, but we're going to try to play golf at 7:15, and hopefully we can come out here at 7:15. The forecast is no good. We're supposed to get some very heavy rain tonight (laughter), but after this passes, we've got a pretty good forecast. It's going to get a lot cooler, the wind is going to blow 20, 25 miles an hour tomorrow, and hopefully we can get out here and play golf.

Q. How much golf?

MARK RUSSELL: All day long. We'll be here all day.

Q. Can you get your 72 in tomorrow or will we be here Tuesday?

MARK RUSSELL: If we can play golf at 7:15 in the morning, I believe we can finish tomorrow.

Q. Are you going to repair them or are you going to just go on with the pairing?

MARK RUSSELL: Well, if we can start early, we won't repair them. We will keep them going. But we're going to make that decision tomorrow.

If we can do that, I think we can finish tomorrow evening sometime in the vicinity of 6:00, 6:15.

Q. If you can't start on time you will repair because there will be no chance of finishing anyway?

MARK RUSSELL: Possibly.

Q. Has Fred given you any idea how much more rain the course can take before he's going to need more time tomorrow morning to let it dry out?

MARK RUSSELL: Can there be any more rain (laughter)? I mean, I think we've used up all the rain. You know, the golf course is saturated, but if we get lucky overnight and we don't get the real heavy cells, we'll come out and evaluate it at daybreak and see if we can play golf. Hopefully we can. If we can't, we'll delay some and delay a little more, we're going to have a big wind tomorrow, we're going to have sunshine, and hopefully there will be a time when we can play golf. But we're just going to have to look at that in the morning, and hopefully we don't get an inch of rain tonight.

Q. Unequivocally, are you going to play 72 if it means going to Tuesday?

MARK RUSSELL: Yeah, we will do that, absolutely.

Q. Not whether you can, are you going to do that?

MARK RUSSELL: Are we going to? I hope not, but if we have to, we will.

Q. The option of using Tuesday to get in 72 is what you're going to do if necessary?

MARK RUSSELL: Yeah, we've said that all along, that we'd do that.

Q. How are you liking your job this year (laughter)?

MARK RUSSELL: You know, it's just a difficult situation. I mean, the thing about these rain delays, no two situations are ever the same, so you just kind of -- it's like working out a difficult algebra problem, figuring out when we're going to play and when we have to do it, what are the time barriers, how much daylight do we have.

Let me say something else, our staff, the PGA TOUR Rules Committee, are fantastic. These guys along with Fred's people have worked unbelievably hard, not only this week but every week, and they do a great job. I am the person up here that is talking to you, but believe me, I'm just head of an excellent committee, and we all put our heads together and make a lot of decisions, and those guys are great. I'd just like to say that on their behalf.

Q. Some of the players seemed to voice concern that they weren't really kept up to date of what's going on on maybe a more -- maybe like an hourly or so basis because they've been spending more time in the locker room than they have in the golf courses.

MARK RUSSELL: You just have to look outside. It's raining hard. If we went up there and made an announcement, do you think they'd say, "What, do you think, we're stupid? We can see what's going on." George Boutell has been in the locker room the whole time through one of these delays, and he's got a radio to me and every one of the staff and he can answer my question that needs to be answered.

Q. What's the TV schedule tomorrow?

MARK RUSSELL: I think NBC will televise the golf tournament.

Q. NBC at 2:00 tomorrow to conclusion.

How much did you talk with them in regards to how this is all going to work?

MARK RUSSELL: They mainly talked to us, what's your plan, what do you want to do, and they said that we can work with that, we'll stay with it.

Q. How many tournaments have you been under the pressure of having to do interviews this year?

MARK RUSSELL: I don't know, I don't know. I tried to get out of this. You wouldn't let me.

Q. Seriously, I was told today we've had rain on approximately half of all the tournaments that you've played this year.

MARK RUSSELL: I would think so. We had a lot of problems in San Diego; it wasn't rain, it was the fog. We had problems in Los Angeles, we had problems at Match Play, we had problems at Bay Hill, we had problems here. I think Slugger had a problem one day at Honda. But, you know, once again, the game is played outside and we played from daylight to dark, and springtime you're going to get some rains. I think next week is going to be a beautiful week, but we're just playing this golf tournament in a week where it rained every day. That's pretty unusual for here. You might have a thunderstorm or two, but it's pretty unusual where you get days of rain.

Q. Are you doing the Atlanta tournament next week?

MARK RUSSELL: I'm not. Slugger White is going there, and they have a good forecast, and they deserve that. They haven't had a good week in a long time.

Q. Was there ever any consideration to cut to 60 today and could you cut at the end of three rounds to try to squeeze it in to repair?

MARK RUSSELL: No, not under regulations we wouldn't do that. We would cut to near 60 if we were trying to play 36 holes in one day, but we started the third round, I think they're on the 4th hole, and we'll just go with that to conclusion.

Q. Is the course in such a state that if you get the heavy storm tonight we could have no play tomorrow?

MARK RUSSELL: Well, I guess if we got that bad of a storm, yes, that could possibly happen. Let's hope it doesn't.

Q. What's the latest you could go and start in tomorrow and finish?

MARK RUSSELL: We haven't got much time at all. I haven't really looked yet, but I wouldn't say any more than an hour.

Another thing, to follow up that question, we've got a good forecast behind this. That's big. We haven't had that all week. This rain is supposed to be out of here and we're supposed to have clear skies and low humidity and some wind, so that will help more.

Q. Somebody recorded that Commissioner Finchem okayed Wednesday; is that correct?

MARK RUSSELL: I haven't talked to him, but I know the commissioner wants to play 72 holes of this golf tournament as well as our staff wants to do. We look at it as a major championship, and we've got $8 million we're trying to give away, and we're trying to do everything we can to play 72 holes.

Q. Is it more important to rush and get this in tomorrow, or since you know the forecast is good for the next two days to do what's necessary to make it compelling and go into Tuesday?

MARK RUSSELL: Well, I think that with television able to cover 18 holes these days, I think that if we have an opportunity to play golf tomorrow, I think we need to play all the golf we possibly can, and if that means finishing tomorrow, that would be great. I think the only way we would drag that into Tuesday is if we couldn't play golf tomorrow. I think if we can play, we've got to go ahead and play.

End of FastScripts.

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297