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THE TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP PRESENTED BY COCA-COLASeptember 11, 2007Mark RussellATLANTA, GEORGIA Q. How are they? MARK RUSSELL: Well, considering that record heat and all this incredible drought here in the southeast, I think they're much better than can be expected. It's a cold-weather grass. You know, Ralph Kepple and his staff have done a fantastic job, our agronomy staff has done a fantastic job, very aggressive with them the last week, and they look a little better than expected, and I think they'll get a little better through the week. They're not what we would like to have every week, but for what they've been through, they're pretty good. Q. There's a lot of courses around this area that don't have greens that have suffered this kind of damage. What is it in particular to this course that led to this happening? MARK RUSSELL: Well, I can't speak for other golf courses, but when you start bringing a golf course in -- and I guarantee those other golf courses were not gearing up for a championship like this and trying to put the greens under any stress, but I really can't speak for that. But any time you have 100-degree temperatures -- in Greensboro a few weeks ago, once the temperature got to 98 degrees, the bentgrass greens just shut down. We didn't even mow them. It was a situation where we were trying to keep them alive. That's what we've had here. These other golf courses that you say might be in better condition, I have no idea -- I guarantee you they weren't mowing the greens, and if they were, they certainly weren't mowing them down at all. Q. Why did they announce that you were going to play the course and then unannounce it? Why didn't you just hold off a bit? MARK RUSSELL: Well, my question to the golf course superintendent, with a few extra days before we started mowing the greens to tournament conditions without mowing the greens, would that help, and the answer was, absolutely. So that's the reason we made that decision. It's a shame we had to cancel the Pro-Am, but a lot of wear and tear on the greens would have really been tough on them. I hate we had to do that, but it's the only thing we could do. Then once we got back and we saw some improvement in the greens, we figured we could get 30 guys go out and play them, but we still closed some greens. Q. (Inaudible.) MARK RUSSELL: The sod we put down, when we put it down last week, the sod seams were very evident. Now you can't hardly see them. Q. When did you do it? MARK RUSSELL: Middle of last week. Q. Where? MARK RUSSELL: No. 2 and No. 13. And now if you go out and have a look, those sod seams have vanished. That tells you we're getting some decent growth. We've been very aggressive with them, treated it basically like we're growing it, not mowing the greens down, just baby them, the way I put it, tender loving care. Hand-water them a couple times today, what needs to be done. Q. (Inaudible.) MARK RUSSELL: Well, I think the greens will be rolling about 9 to 9.5, and we're not going to press them too much on the speed, and we're just going to play it by ear day by day, but I don't think they're going to get much faster than that. Q. What would a normal green run? MARK RUSSELL: Well, I think last year we probably had them run 11 to 12, something like that, certainly. You know, it's a situation, too, with the greens being a little slower, we can be a little more aggressive on some hole placements where we have some good grass on some greens, maybe get a little closer to a slope than we normally would or put it on a little more of a hill because when the greens are rolling 12 you can't do that. When it's rolling 91/2, you can do that, be a little more aggressive with it. Q. The kind of plaid effect, the verticutting, it looks like there's kind of lows in the damaged area. MARK RUSSELL: Well, I can't really speak to that. I hate to give you an answer from an agronomist's standpoint, what's he talking about. I would ask one of the agronomists that. Q. When did the TOUR first find out there was a problem? MARK RUSSELL: I mean, we knew there was a problem back in early August. I mean, when the temperatures -- we didn't have to look at it to realize that a record August was setting up and an extreme drought, that we were going to have a problem. We got to work on it early. Cal Roth and Jay Sprohl got together with Ralph Kepple, and we've been getting to it for over a month. Q. Hal wouldn't normally be here a month before, though, would he? MARK RUSSELL: Exactly. We called in an agronomist early, but in this situation, we knew we were going to have to -- we knew we had a problem, so we got on it the moment we thought we had a problem and starting treating it a little different. To tell you the truth, guys, I think they're really good for what they've been through. Q. Calc was saying that he's expected that the TOUR scared the players into thinking that they were really really bad when they got here, and he said they're not nearly as bad as what was expected based on what they were told. MARK RUSSELL: Well, they've improved due to the aggressive nature of being treated. They've fertilized them every three days. They were treating it as a grow-in, a new golf course you'd grow in, and they put some sod out there. Q. (Inaudible.) MARK RUSSELL: 2, 13 and 15. Q. Any similar situations that you can remember? MARK RUSSELL: To tell you the truth, I think we had a problem in Dallas last year -- this year. But other than that, we played on some pretty good greens. I mean, we might have one green that has a spot on it or two, but as far as a set of 18, usually they're pretty good. Q. Are you going to try to keep the pins away from sort of the bad spots on the greens? MARK RUSSELL: Absolutely, yes. No. 2 we'll probably play the front half of that green because of the condition on the back. You know if you look at that, we'd never use that back anyway because of the way it slopes up. Q. (Inaudible.) MARK RUSSELL: I mean, it was never brought up to me. Q. People compared it to the conditions out at Southern Hills. Why were the greens so much better there than here with the 100-degree temperatures they had there? MARK RUSSELL: Well, I think these greens were probably pretty good late July, but the more you stress them or continue to stress them, they just can't handle it. Q. It's just the time of year? MARK RUSSELL: Yeah, time of year and record heat and drought. I mean, they could have handled it with ample rainfall, if they had some days where it cooled it down and got some nice natural rainfall, but every day it was just boring sun, 100 degrees. Plant some palm trees in northern Canada, and see how they do. It's not that simple. Q. Were there any sort of restrictions when it came to aerating here at all? I know that this course because it's an international membership and they never know when people are coming and going, that they resisted aerating on certain schedule. MARK RUSSELL: I don't know what their aerification schedule is, but I'm sure that they still to a pretty normal aerification schedule. I mean, they might move it a week or do. You'll have to talk to them about that. End of FastScripts |
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