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THE OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

July 18, 2007

CARNOUSTIE, SCOTLAND

PETER DAWSON: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for being with us. For those of you who don't know who's up at the top here, Martin Kippax to my left is chairman of your championship committee; David Hill, our director of championships, on my right; and my name is Peter Dawson. Martin Kippax is going to start off with some introductory remarks.
MARTIN KIPPAX: Hello, ladies and gentlemen. A little bit of humor perhaps to start with. One of our members, Rhodri Price, as you many of you know, on his way home from the course last night at 10:00 decided it would be a good idea to get a pizza, so he got his pizza and he went home to his hotel room, switched on his favorite television program, sat down, had himself apparently a present of some bubble bath.
He decided to have a bath. So there he is, he ran his bath, put the bubble bath in, went next door, 15 minutes later, watched the television program, came in and then decided it was time for the bath. Went into the bathroom, no water in the bath. He had forgotten to put the plug in. So, R&A couldn't run a bath (laughter).
Ladies and gentlemen, on a more serious note, we're here at Carnoustie and what we have learned so far about their venue this year is we haven't had anything but compliments about the way that the course is. And the plaudits for that go to the green staff at Carnoustie, John Philp and his team.
A huge amount of work has been done in really very adverse conditions. We've had a lot of rain, as you all know. And the forecast at the moment, regrettably, is uncertain. But the only thing that is right is that the course, it seems to me, is in absolutely first-class shape. And it doesn't really matter what we say around this table; it's what the players say.
Every player that I've talked to feels that this course is in great shape. It would be lovely if we could just have a bit of decent weather, so if somebody could turn the tap off, that would be great.
That's by way of our opening remarks, and we're open for questions.

Q. At what stage did you figure out there were going to be adverse conditions, and what did you do to try to counter that?
PETER DAWSON: I think the question was at what stage did we realise we were going to have adverse conditions and what did we do to counter them. What do you mean by adverse conditions?

Q. Rain, wind. The opposite to Hoylake.
MARTIN KIPPAX: Oh, I see. I think that we all know in this country that we've had our last bit of good weather was probably about the end of April. We've had nothing short of a deluge from May on. So I think we're all getting pretty used to that.
But we have, obviously, some very good weather forecasting. But at the moment it is uncertain as far as Thursday -- Thursday, Friday is not too bad, but Saturday and Sunday we don't know about. It's very changeable. And we've had consistent rain, or persistent rain, I don't know, for weeks and weeks and weeks and weeks. So it wasn't a question of planning, it was a question of dealing with what we already got.

Q. How did that influence you?
MARTIN KIPPAX: The situation is that as far as course setup is concerned, what we do is we don't have any grand plan in relation to what width the fairways would be. We set the course up in a way that we believe is fair. And very rarely will an Open Championship venue vary to its own members, players and so forth.
So the realism is that the fairways run into the bunkers, and that's the way it will be in the Championship. We don't do anything to try to cultivate anything. The rough isn't as severe as it has been in the past, but that's because of the weather we have. If you have a warm and wet May and June then you'll have heavy links rough. If you don't, then you don't get the rough. And the rough is nothing as heavy as it might possibly be.
PETER DAWSON: Just to support that, I can't think of one occasion in my time at the R&A that we've actually widened or narrowed a fairway from its normal width for The Open Championship. I can't just think of one offhand. Except, perhaps, when we did grow some rough to the right of the 17th at St. Andrews in 2005. That's the only occasion I can think where we actually changed the normal configuration of a fairway.

Q. I don't know if you were in for Gary Player, what he said was it is a fact there are some golfers who are doing drugs, be it HDH or steroids, that The R&A is dreaming if they don't think drugs are coming into golf and you should bring a round of testing. Are you going to bring a round of testing? And are you scared that somebody who is on drugs could win this year's Open?
PETER DAWSON: I'm afraid I wasn't here for what Gary Player said, but whether or not golfers are taking drugs is a question to which I don't know the answer. I read some comments by Tiger Woods earlier this week where he didn't think people were taking drugs.
But either way we do support random testing in golf, random drug testing in golf, as we've said many times. We are working closely with the Tours around the world to achieve the introduction of a uniform drug testing policy, an anti-doping policy. And those discussions, I'm pleased to say, are at a pretty advanced stage.
It is really a 52 week a year occupation, drug test and anti-doping measures, not something that one week -- a one week a year event can have a material effect on. So The Open Championship will fall into line with whatever drug testing regimen becomes the norm in professional golf and we will do so gladly, because I think it's important that golf demonstrates that it is clean, or if it's not, identifies it and does something about it. I think that's our position.

Q. Are you scared that somebody who is on drug, one of those golfers that Gary Player says is on drugs could win this week?
MARTIN KIPPAX: I don't know if Gary Player is right about golfers being on drugs, frankly, so I can't really comment. One thing I do know is that we're not drug testing here at the Open Championship this week, so just how that would be identified I'm not sure.

Q. In here during the course of the week we've had a couple of questions put to players along the lines that perhaps a reaction to 1999, the course the players feel may actually be too easy. Would you mind telling us what you think of those -- I suspect you had read those and would you mind telling us what you think of those remarks?
PETER DAWSON: I think Martin will have something to say about this, as well. It's a brave man who sticks his neck out and says the course is too easy before he plays it in the Championship. So we'll just have to see what the scoring is like.
We're not setting out to set up a difficult or easy golf course. We're setting out to set up a fair golf course which will challenge the players, will give the public enjoyable spectating and identify a good champion.
The scoring will depend on how windy it is and how soft it is. We already see it's going to be pretty soft, so I expect a pretty low-scoring Championship personally, if the wind doesn't blow too hard. But that's a function of the conditions we'll have. I'll hand it over to Martin.
MARTIN KIPPAX: I can't add anything new to that apart from the fact that anecdotally I heard that on the 14th Tiger had a driver and wood and 4-iron to the green and I don't think he played it twice. That was clearly a very hard hole and shows what Carnoustie can be like if the wind is blowing hard. It depends on the conditions. If the wind blows, it will be a far different course than if it doesn't blow.
I suppose if it blows in a certain direction it might be even more difficult, to be northeast, and the finish, you know, 14, 15, 16 and 18 into the breeze, it's a hugely demanding finish.

Q. Given the nature of today's somewhat pampered professionals, does it make you nervous when you hear so many compliments?
MARTIN KIPPAX: What relief. What can you say? The answer is one always sits with one's fingers crossed, to be completely honest with you; there's something always lurking around the corner. All you can do is present the course the way it is. And it is, by all accounts, and I would support this wholly, it's in terrific condition. I wouldn't want to say any more than that.

Q. Is The Open Championship rotor now set in stone or would you consider -- I've heard a strong case for Royal County Down. Do you look at those courses or are you having decided now you've got your ten in the rotor that you'll keep to?
PETER DAWSON: We could have nine courses that we use for the Championship. We are obviously aware of all of the links courses in the UK, what they're like, what they have to offer, what the infrastructure around those courses is capable of handling and so on. But, no, we're not closed-minded to say we'll always have these nine courses, and over the years the courses used for the Championship have changed quite considerably.
But right now at this moment we're not actively considering another venue that is true potential for The Open. If you took Newcastle, Royal County Down where we're having the Walker Cup this year, it's a course we know very well, is it really an Open Championship venue? Love the course, I think it's terrific. No, I don't think we do think it's a big enough golf course for The Open, to be honest. But it is a lovely, lovely golf course.

Q. Just back to Gary Player's comments. Obviously there's going to be a lot of negative publicity this you can do without. Can we be certain at Birkdale next year there will be random testing?
PETER DAWSON: This is not just a matter for us, it's an agreement between the bodies that are running professional golf, elite golf. And I can't personally say when these discussions will complete. I know they're targeted to complete quite soon.
And I would imagine, if I had my own way, once a policy was agreed, I personally think there should be a period of player education, which might last for a whole season before you would introduce a fully fledged anti-doping and drug testing regimen. There's exemptions, knowing what food additives you can eat and can't eat, and so on, if people are doing that. We'd be wise, I think, to determine a policy, enter a period of education and then go for it full throttle.

Q. Isn't there a danger, though, if it is continually stalled that people will look at it as if it's some sort of lily-liver response? If you have somebody with a name like Gary Player saying it's out there, it's happening.
PETER DAWSON: Tiger Woods said it wasn't. So as I said, the jury is out on this. What I do support is getting on with this in a measured but quick fashion.

Q. I wonder if you might talk about the women playing at St. Andrews in two weeks. It's a rather historic occasion.
PETER DAWSON: Yes, there's never been a women's professional tournament on The Old Course, although there have been many women's amateur events. It's going to be really exciting, I think, to see the women professionals play the course. I think they're playing it at about 6,600 yards. I think that will give some second shots that we perhaps don't see the men playing. The men might be playing with more lofted clubs, the women might be playing with the straighter-faced irons, and that will bring the lumps and hollows at the front of the greens in St. Andrews into play. I'm looking forward to how the course behaves and how the ladies get on playing.

Q. To return to the drugs issue, the European Tour said they're going to push ahead next season. Is the holdup on the talks the U.S. side of the bargain, is that where -- is the holdup in the U.S.?
PETER DAWSON: I think it would be true to say that the U.S. Tour were among the last to support a move in this direction. But now that they are behind it, typically they're moving in a pretty strong and aggressive manner, actually. So they're right up at the forefront of this now, as well.

Q. You were at the dinner last night where the speaker, who is an R&A member, made a speech that was offensive and racist material. Are you going to apologise on behalf The R&A, and are you going to ask for his resignation?
PETER DAWSON: Well, I was there, as you know. And just to correct you, Graeme Brown is not a member of our championship committee; he's a member of our rules of golf committee. And I've spoken to Graeme about this.
Let me just say a few things. First of all, this was a private dinner. It was the golf writers' dinner, and Graeme was a guest invited by the golf writers in a private capacity and was speaking as such. He was in no way representing The R&A.
We know up here Graeme Brown very well and I can say absolutely that he is certainly not a racist, as an individual. But I have spoken to him today. He is horrified at the impression he has left and horrified at learning the effects or the impact of some of his remarks. He accepts that his comments were ill-judged, and he apologises unreservedly to the chairman and the members of the Golf Writers Association for any offense he has caused.
And I spoke to Graeme just two or three hours ago about that, and that was the outcome of that conversation, which I pass on to you now.

Q. You're refusing to condemn it?
PETER DAWSON: I didn't realise I was refusing to condemn it. But The R&A would not wish to be associated with that kind of thing.

Q. Are you going to ask him to resign?
PETER DAWSON: No, we're not.
MARTIN KIPPAX: The situation is we've got two things here. Graeme Brown is a good golfer, he's a very knowledgeable individual with regards to the rules of golf. And he's a very useful member of our rules of golf committee.
What happened last night, as Peter has said, is something that is quite independent. As far as The R&A is concerned, we disassociate ourselves from any suggestion that there was any racism. And I think to be fair to Graeme, he was absolutely horrified when he was told realistically that this had been received really quite badly. He wanted to apologise unreservedly.
And as Peter said, I think the phrase is ill-judged. And I think it was a mistake and he would say so. It was a mistake on his part. But I don't think, to answer your question, that it makes him incapable or indeed not to be a valued member of our rules of golf committee.
His work on that, he brings an awful lot to the party from a golfing perspective, and his contribution is very significant to the rules of golf. And I think that what he's done is he realises the error of his ways, if I can put it that way and apologised unreservely, and that's the way that we see it. As far as we're concerned, that is the end to the matter.

Q. What kind of message do you think it sends out, the image of the game, the image of The R&A, that he's going to continue to serve?
PETER DAWSON: If I can answer that, my understanding is that this was a private dinner held by the Association of Golf Writers. Any image that's sent out to the game is a matter for the people in this room.
MARTIN KIPPAX: I hope that what we're doing is we're saying that The R&A would not want to be associated with anything which is in the slightest bit racist or anything of that nature. And I hope that that's accepted by this room. I mean, that's the way it is. We've had it out with Graeme and that's the way we see it.
PETER DAWSON: Thank you very much indeed, ladies and gentlemen.

End of FastScripts

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