U.S. OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

June 14, 2001

Marty Parkes

MARTY PARKES: Good evening. We have suspended play for today. Tomorrow morning players will be able to start hitting balls on the range about 5:45 a.m. We have a 7 a.m. resumption of play. There are 90 players still on the golf course. We estimate that that will take the last group, group 52, should be done, hopefully, by about noontime. And that would give each group a minimum of 30 to 45 minutes before the second round. At this point, the plan is to resume the second round at 9 a.m., in ten minute intervals, in exactly the same order as what the pairings were supposed to be for tomorrow. We estimate that will put the last group off at about 5:30 p.m. for the second round. We hope that they'll be able to complete play to about hole 13, which would mean they would need to come back Saturday morning, finish round two, then we make the cut and proceed from there. A couple of logistical points. The buses tomorrow will start dropping off spectators at 6 a.m., an hour before play is due to resume. And Friday tickets only will be honored tomorrow. We did have ten hours of play today. So tomorrow only Friday tickets will be honored at the gate. I'll be happy to answer any questions that anybody has.

MARTY PARKES: I spent a good part of the afternoon up in the weather center here, as you can imagine. And the forecast is for good weather over the next few days, that's one of the reasons we're optimistic that we'll be able to get completely finished, back on schedule for Sunday's final round.

MARTY PARKES: 5 p.m.

MARTY PARKES: Tim Moraghan, our championship agronomist was in that conversation. He felt they needed a minimum of two hours to get the golf course back in shape. And given the time of day and what was required, they felt it was better to suspend for today and concentrate -- I can still hear thunder -- hopefully if this weather front moves out, they can get out there and start working on the bunkers, and then go tees to greens to get ready for the resumption of play tomorrow.

MARTY PARKES: Fortunately, when I spoke to Tim he didn't know of any major problems that had occurred. They're going to check the bunkers first, because they're worried about the greatest build up of water. But they are optimistic that we won't have big problems. It would be nice if it will top raining.

MARTY PARKES: I don't know exactly, but I know it was more than an inch.

MARTY PARKES: 3:39 p.m.

MARTY PARKES: That wasn't a question that came up when I was up in the conversation. I didn't hear any complaints that play was particularly slow today. I think they were mostly concerned about what time it was that it was reasonable to resume tomorrow, given what they need to do with the golf course, and to be fair to the players to give them enough time to get warmed up tomorrow morning.

MARTY PARKES: It was not one of the major issues I heard discussed during the meeting.

MARTY PARKES: Some of the meteorologists were hoping it would stop right about 6 p.m. or shortly thereafter. I noticed that prognosis seems to be going by the boards as we sit here. They're hoping it will end up early enough that they can work on the golf course tonight. They do have a lot of lights here, and maybe they can do a lot of work after dark, as well.

MARTY PARKES: Well, immediately we'll resume tomorrow with the same setup, during the remainder of round one. And I don't really think so at this point, at least for round two, they seem to have their plan set, and I think they're going to stick with that.

MARTY PARKES: That would be the last group. That's just a rough estimate. We were doing the math to work on pairings.

MARTY PARKES: No, all groups are on the golf course.

MARTY PARKES: As I said we're working with estimates, he didn't do a precise number for each group.

MARTY PARKES: Not that I'm aware of, but I'll have to check that question with Tim Moraghan, but I don't believe so.