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LPGA STATE FARM CLASSICJuly 19, 2008Mike NicholsMichelle Wie WestSue WittersSPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS ASHLEY CUSHMAN: Thanks for joining us today. I have Mike Nichols on my far left. He is the Vice President of Tournament Business Affairs. In the middle is Sue Witters. She's the Manager of Tournament Competitions. I can provide you with the spellings later if you do need. At this time I'm going to turn it over to Mike and Sue regarding the Rules decision that was made this afternoon. MIKE NICHOLS: Before Sue and I run through the statement, we're going to turn it over to Michelle who is going to make a quick statement then she is going to leave without answering any questions. MICHELLE WIE: You know, it's just a really unfortunate. I don't know what happened to me. Usually, I sign it first. But I forgot to sign the scorecard. Unfortunately, I left the tournament area, and a couple of the scorers went after me and I signed it and I turned it in. And I thought it would be okay. But it was an honest mistake. I don't know why or how it happened. But, you know, I just forgot to sign it. It was really unfortunate, but hopefully it won't happen again. It was a good learning experience. MIKE NICHOLS: Thank you, Michelle. ASHLEY CUSHMAN: Thank you for your time, Michelle. At this time I'm going to let Mike Nichols make an opening statement, and then we'll on open it up to questions for Mike and Sue. MIKE NICHOLS: Today Michelle Wie is disqualified following the third round at the LPGA State Farm Classic for failure to sign her scorecard after Friday's second round, which is a violation of Rule 6-6b according to the Rules of Golf, and confirmed by the USGA. Rule 6-6b reads as follows: Signing and returning scorecard - After completion of the round, the competitor should check his or her score for each hole and settle any doubtful points with the committee. She must ensure that the marker or markers have signed the scorecard, sign the scorecard herself, and return it to the committee as soon as possible. Wie was notified following the conclusion of today's third round in order to provide her an opportunity to give an account of yesterday's second round situation. The LPGA first heard of the violation mid-morning today, but it was after Wie had begun her third round play, and actions could not be further taken until she had completed 18 holes and given the opportunities to recount the events of Friday's second round. The 2008 LPGA Rules of Play define the scoring area as the roped area defining the boundary of the scoring tents. Supplementary Rules of Play stipulate that the scoring area of boundary may instead be defined by a white line which has the effect of decreasing the size of the scoring area. The white line was not deemed necessary this week and was not put in place, and as a result, the boundary is the scoring tent. Prior to signing her scorecard, Wie had left the defined scoring area according to items number 3, resulting in her subsequent disqualification. Item number 3 on the 2008 LPGA Rules of Play reads as follows: Returning of scorecards, 6-6, page 31 - A player is deemed to have returned her scorecard to the committee when she leaves the roped area of the scoring tent or leaves the scoring trailer. Q. Was this brought to the attention of tournament officials you say mid-round today? In other words, how far into the round was Michelle? SUE WITTERS: Mid-morning, mid-morning we had heard about it. MIKE NICHOLS: After she had teed off. SUE WITTERS: She had already teed off. Q. Was she still on her first nine at this time? SUE WITTERS: Yes, she was. She was. The thought process there was to really investigate. A lot of times people ask questions or bring things up about something they thought had happened, and we'll talk to those people and then talk to the players. This isn't uncommon. When this issue was brought to our attention, we talked to the scoring tent that was involved, and they pretty much had unanimous stories throughout. At this point they're already into their round. The decision was made not to interrupt the round in fairness not only to Michelle but her fellow competitors. We wanted to give Michelle a chance to tell us what had happened, and the golf course wasn't the place to do it. That would have disrupted everything. Q. If this was said, who brought it to your attention? SUE WITTERS: Actually, it was Ashley overheard something said. Not even knowing what they had said in the media center. Ashley then brought it to our attention, one of our official's attention, and that's when we realized we had a real problem here. Q. On the release, it talks about there was -- so there's a white line painted usually that was not present? Can you explain that? SUE WITTERS: We usually use the ropes and stakes to define the scoring area, unless it's a trailer. Then we say when the player has left the trailer. We were going to put a white line down and we didn't, which would have made it an even smaller more confined area. We reverted back to the original rope and stake, which is on the 2008 LPGA Players hard card. So the only thing that the white line would have done is made the area smaller. By using the rope and stake, the area was larger. But the thing was she was clearly, clearly past the area. She was on the cart path, which is anywhere from 30 to 40 yards from the scoring tent. Q. So it would have been okay if she had signed it right outside of the tent, right next to it, is that what you're saying? SUE WITTERS: Correct, correct. The problem was she left the scoring area. The card should be returned immediately. Once you leave the scoring area, even if it's one step, the whole body is outside the rope line area, it's done. Some committees use a box so you can actually be inside the scoring area, drop the card in the box, and then that's done. It's considered returned. The reason we don't use a box is we want the player to have a chance to hand the card over, maybe start to get up and say you know what, can I have one more look at that? The box is even more restrictive. But basically once the player leaves the roped area, the scorecard is considered returned. It was an honest mistake on her behalf. Once it was brought to her attention, and we asked her to tell us what she recalls from yesterday once she got in the scoring tent, she about verbatim told us what we were told by a few of the volunteers. There was never at any point did she try to deceive us. She couldn't have been more honest. It was a total, total mistake. There was no malice involved. She was like looking at a little kid after you tell them there's no Santa Claus. Q. That's what I was about to ask. Was she very emotional? Was she crying? SUE WITTERS: She was upset. I don't blame her. We forget how young she is because of how well she plays. We've got to remember she's a kid, and she made an honest mistake. She was upright and honest from the beginning. Never tried to deceive us in any notion. She was very forthcoming. It was like I said, that's the only analogy I can make, I felt like I was telling somebody there was no Santa Claus. The look on her face, you could see it all come together and click. She was just horrified. I give her credit for coming in here today, because she didn't have to. Q. I know it's been explained. But the sequence of things that had happened according to her account. She left the scoring area, but then who was it then who brought her the card? You said she signed it essentially in the cart path area? SUE WITTERS: Correct. Q. Was it one of the scoring officials? SUE WITTERS: It was one of the volunteers. It was actually the runner, I believe, from the scoring tent. It's one of those cases where nobody realized they were doing anything wrong. The volunteer said they were being helpful. Michelle was like, Oh, okay, Geez, how silly. She said earlier. The first thing she does is sign her scorecard. She didn't think anything was wrong with it. The volunteers didn't think anything was wrong with it. We wouldn't have found out about it if it hadn't been this morning when Ashley heard in passing a reference made to that happening. And she said could you explain that to me? And when Ashley was given the story of what happened, that's when she talked to one of our officials and we realized what we had on our hands. The problem was everyone had teed off. And the last thing you want to do is disrupt the round. The result would have been the same whether we got her -- if she had been teeing off at 11:00 o'clock, and we found out at 9:30, she would have been DQ'd before the round. So we didn't think it was fair to Michelle or the other players to disrupt the whole round. We wanted to wait for her to finish, and tell us what, indeed happened. Like I said, her story, she was by herself. It was her caddie, myself, and Marty Robinson, another official. And we just asked her to tell us what she recalled from yesterday's scoring tent area. And she told us verbatim the story we've heard all morning. Q. Again, once she leaves that scoring area after turning in her card, in other words, if she had come back to what is considered the official scoring area and signed it then, that would not have been sufficient? SUE WITTERS: Once she leaves the roped area, okay. So actually leaves the rope line, it's a done deal. If she gets up, turns around, walks away, as long as she doesn't leave the roped area. But once she leaves, physically leaves the roped area, the card is considered returned. When she left the roped area the first time, the card was not signed. There was your violation right there of 6-6b. Q. So like you said then, volunteers there, they caught up to her and said, hey, Michelle? SUE WITTERS: Yeah. Everybody tried to be a hero, and, unfortunately, didn't realize what was going on. So I mean no one is to blame for this. Everyone was trying to do the right thing from the volunteers to Michelle. Michelle I don't think gave it a second thought. She was like, oh, yeah, sign my scorecard, and that was that. It was a surprise to her. Q. Can a volunteer or have volunteers looked at a card and said, hey, you forgot to sign your card? Are they authorized to do that kind of thing? SUE WITTERS: Yes, they're encouraged, actually, to do that to try to save a player. What happens is the players go over their card, sign and return them. Then the committee scoring committee sits in there and basically checks the additions. So the players are just responsible for the hole-by-hole scores, not the addition of them. So we ask the volunteers to go ahead and check the addition. Also on top put previous total, this total and the new total. They are instructed if they do find a card without a signature, to go ahead and say to the player, hey, you didn't sign your card. Now players leave the scoring area with different, you know -- some get up and rocket out. Some hang out, talk, give gloves, balls and then they leave. There's no set way to say they're in there for 10 seconds or 30 seconds or a minute. Everybody's different. Some hang out and talk to the volunteers, some just left. Had it been caught before Michelle physically left the roped area, she could have signed it and handed it back. That's another reason we don't like to use the box method which would be to put the card in the box, because then it's considered returned. Once you put it in the box, you get up, you can't go back to that card. We try to give them as much time as we can, but we have to have an area that is considered the scoring area or when would the card be returned? Could they go have dinner and come back and give us the card? That's the reason for defining a scoring area. Q. Also, a rule is a rule. But this was Michelle Wie in a big tournament. I guess what I'm asking, how did it feel personally to have to tell somebody that there is no Santa Claus? SUE WITTERS: Rotten. I think that's about the best word to describe it. It was really lard. She's gone through a lot. She's finally making her way back. She's taken her knocks by everybody, and she's finally proving once again what a good golfer she is. To have this happen, I mean, I can't even imagine what's going through her head right now. Q. Has this happened before on tour this year that you can recall an instance of something like this? SUE WITTERS: This year? -- it has happened numerous times on our tour, unfortunately, and other tours. Q. After she signed her card for today's round, did you folks talk to her inside the scoring tent? Or was it -- where did she give her account? SUE WITTERS: Right. We wanted to get a quiet place because we pretty much knew what was going to happen, barring her having a totally different account, which she did not. So we took her to the LPGA on office, and her and her caddie and myself and Marty Robinson. We took her in the back of the trailer, which is closed off. Like I said, just asked her to recall what happened yesterday. Then when we told her the consequences of those actions, she was upset. We left her alone for a little bit. And it was her choice to come in here and speak to you guys. Q. Our newspaper locally we talked about possibly doing a story during the tournament about I don't know if obscure is the right word, but the rules of golf. This is a classic -- I mean, this isn't even an on the golf course relief situation or something. Like you said, it was an honest mistake and everything. But sometimes do you look at the rules of golf and say there is a spirit of the law and the letter of the law? I mean, obviously, this is the letter of the law. This is your job, I know? SUE WITTERS: Well, I hear what you're saying. You know, when you work in the rules of golf day-in, day-out, you understand why the rules are in place a little more than the person that deals with them, you know, occasionally. And the more you delve into them, the more they make sense why they are in place. One of the responsibilities of the player is to sign the scorecard. It's virtually verifying that, yes, this is what I did on the golf course. They have the markers sign it as well. So, you know, golf is a funny game. It's not one of those where you have a referee at every corner or an empire that watches every play. They're on their honor. One of the ways of saying that, yes, I did everything I was supposed to do and abided by the rules and here are the scores for each hole and I'm putting my name on this. It's ultimately the players responsibility to do that. It's kind of a check and balance. Yeah, it's such a hard lesson to learn. And Michelle's had a few of them, unfortunately. But I can't help but think down the line it's just going to make her a better person in the long run. Doesn't help today, probably won't help tomorrow. But down the line, she did the right thing. She has nothing to be ashamed of except making a mistake. Q. As far as the Rules of Golf, is it tough for you as far as saying we have a problem here? ASHLEY CUSHMAN: Certainly not how I expected to start my morning today. It's tough. I work with these players week-in and week-out. There was something said, raised a red flag. Asked for a few more details. It's not something I could have sat on nor would I have wanted to, unfortunately. So it's tough. Q. Can you tell us who initially you heard? ASHLEY CUSHMAN: You know, I work in the media center. There's a lot of chatter. Q. (Indiscernible)? SUE WITTERS: We spoke to Michelle and her caddie. As you can imagine, she was quite upset. Any one of us would be. We then got her mom and her dad and gave them some alone time. It was their decision that Michelle would come in and make a statement. Q. Do you think this incident is something that could stick negatively with her for a while or have any kind of ramifications down the road a little bit? SUE WITTERS: She should be proud of herself for how she handled it. She was the utmost professional. She couldn't have handled it any better if the script was written. You know, how do you feel when you make a dumb mistake? Not too good. I hope she doesn't let it effect her adversely down the road. You know, it's like how many times does she have to go to the school of hard knocks? I think she's been there plenty. Hopefully, this is the last, you know? I don't know what's in her head except she should be proud of the way she handled it. ASHLEY CUSHMAN: All right, thank you for your time today. End of FastScripts |
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