WGC NEC INVITATIONAL

August 25, 2001

Tom Strong

TOM STRONG: Thanks, James. Due to the weather and the chance of thunderstorms tomorrow afternoon, rules officials and tournament officials have decided to move the tee times to start at a two-tee start at 7:45 a.m. we are going to have the gates open at 6:30 a.m. and first shuttle buses for the public parking will come in starting at 6:30, as well.

TOM STRONG: The reason for doing this, obviously, is we want to get play completed. We want to protect the players and the spectators in case of the thunderstorms coming in and that's really the goal. We want to complete 72 holes of golf.

TOM STRONG: Somewhere between 9:05 and 9:10 would be the times of the last groups.

TOM STRONG: We anticipate conclusion of play at 1:00, at which time we will also do the trophy presentation. That's really the news. We really could use some help from the media, especially the radio and television stations, to get the message out. We have a lot of people who purchased a lot of tickets that are throughout more than a 100-mile radius and we need a message to run as often as we can. We want to have the opportunity to come out and see the players and see the conclusion of play.

TOM STRONG: There's a chance of rain, but the greater chance of thunderstorms is coming in the afternoon, which is what really caused us to make this decision.

TOM STRONG: Well, it started with, really, the Commissioner's office and the on-site tournament operations staff. It includes all of our volunteers and executive vice-chairs that come into it at the other end. Basically, our whole media team. It pretty much touches everyone, but the ultimate decision is the rules officials and our executive staff.

TOM STRONG: Well, it impacts just about everybody running the event, from not just the players, but the spectators and hospitality groups. If you think of hospitality, they have already sent out other tickets. They have everything set on how they were planning on the day and now we are moving it up, really, the entire morning. We started at about 1:10 and now we are going to be completed two hours after that. So, really, just about everyone, to go to a two-tee start; all of our volunteers need to be in place, all of our shuttles need to be in place. Most of our volunteers will probably be up at 3:00 to get here to get in place. Transportation, you name it, there isn't one item in our whole checklist that we did not have to touch to do this.

TOM STRONG: Right now we are probably in the process of notifying the players as they come off the golf course what will be happening. We are also putting a message out on the scoreboards as we speak that will notify everybody on site. We are taking information to every hospitality venue, all of our volunteers, everything is going to be notified today as far as where we stand on the announcement.

TOM STRONG: We would like not to go to Monday.

TOM STRONG: We definitely had a game plan if we did go to Monday last year. We just deal with them as they come and it's unfortunate that -- you never really want to change the starting times once they are in place. I mean, everybody -- you want the week to kind of unfold the way it has been designed, but unfortunately, that is the best opportunity for us to complete play, and again, to protect the players and the spectators and complete 72 holes. So I think this is the wisest decision that we made.

TOM STRONG: Yeah, I think he took a serious look at it probably yesterday afternoon when he noticed it.

TOM STRONG: Are you talking spectators, everything? We are anticipating 25,000 to 30,000 spectators tomorrow, and then when you include the volunteers another thousand plus all the staff, probably another 2,000 people. So there's a lot of people to inform and everybody is on the move doing that right now.