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KRAFT NABISCO CHAMPIONSHIPApril 3, 2009Doug BrechtRANCHO MIRAGE, CALIFORNIA DANA GROSS-RHODE: Thank you all for coming in. We have Doug Brecht, LPGA vice president of rules and competition. There was a ruling earlier today on the 18th green that we would like a general comment. DOUG BRECHT: Yeah, I believe you are referring to a ruling where a player had marked her ball on the putting green, replaced it, had backed up from the ball, and the ball subsequently rolled into the water, for which she received a one-stroke penalty, and her option was at that point in time to -- she chose to go back and play from the previous spot. She placed the ball where it originally laid and then played from there. The ruling, the main thing you need to know about the ruling is when a player places her ball back in position, it's in play, and if the wind subsequently blows it to a new position, that's where the ball is to be played from. For instance, if the ball had rolled into the hole, it would have been counted as being holed on the previous shot. Unfortunately this time it rolled into the hazard so we had the one-stroke penalty. Q. And there was no question that the ball moved because of the wind? DOUG BRECHT: It's moved for some reason, it's unlucky it was from the wind. She did not cause it to do anything, but the ball was in play and it has to be played from its new position. When she couldn't play from the hazard, she had to take a one-stroke penalty to get it back out of the hazard. Q. Just to be clear, the one-stroke penalty came from a rule governing -- adding a stroke when your ball comes to rest in a hazard and has nothing to do with the movement of the ball itself. DOUG BRECHT: That's totally correct. That's totally correct. Q. Obviously conditions were very, very difficult out there. Was there any point today discussion about the possibility of suspending play because of conditions? DOUG BRECHT: We obviously started with some very calm -- well, not calm, but fairly calm conditions. Calm compared to what we have now. This morning, around noon, the wind was clocked at ten to 20 and since ten o'clock, it's been a constant 20 to 30 since then. The last wind report I had was a constant wind speed of 31 miles an hour at 5:00. I actually was positioned by the 18th green during the whole afternoon wave, because that was the green that was giving us the most difficulty; to help make the determination whether we need to continue play or suspend. I was in constant conversations with all of the other rules officials working as a team, getting all their input. And in our opinion, the golf course played very, very difficult, very tough, but it was still playable. That's why we made the decision never to suspend play today. Q. What are the specific reasons that play would be suspended? DOUG BRECHT: Mostly what we were looking for was an exorbitant amount of movement of balls on the green due to wind situations. We did have some. At last count, it was somewhere between five and ten balls that actually had some movement that was definitely attributable to the wind. But in watching, as I did, and I can't speak to the other officials, just got their input, because I didn't see what they saw. But from what I saw, the 18th green, which again was giving us the most difficulty, remained in a playable condition throughout the day. The most balls that moved were on the 18th green; last count I had was four which moved due to what we felt, what we thought was some kind of wind or outside influence. I said straight wind of 31. Q. Was wind taken into consideration when the pins were placed today, and are there any pins that you had second thoughts about? DOUG BRECHT: The wind was taken in consideration when we set the golf course up Wednesday for Thursday. We were well aware of what might come today. The officials setting up the golf course set the golf course a little bit tougher yesterday, used a little bit more hole locations that may not have been quite as easy to get to yesterday, with the idea that it was going to be a two-day setup based on what the weather conditions were going to be today. That was done both hole location-wise and tee location-wise, to try to make as fair a contest as we possibly could based on the conditions that were going to present themselves. Q. There was never any report or any thought about the fact that it might get dangerous to spectators or fans out there? DOUG BRECHT: We didn't see an -- we had an occasional limb blow out of a tree. We didn't see a large amount of palm [] fronds or anything like that. We had no reports of that. And we were stationed, three officials on the front and three officials on the back, spread out over the entire golf course. If that would have happened, that definitely would have weighed in our decision and would have actually changed our decision. I think you also asked about if there was any second-guessing on the hole locations? Absolutely not. I can't think of a better place where we could put the hole on 18 where we could still be playing golf all day. Q. Just to clarify once again going back to the rule, had the ball been blown out of the place where it came to rest on the green, and come to rest from new place, it would have been played from that new place with no penalty; correct? DOUG BRECHT: That's correct. Because it was in the hazard, she had to play under Rule 26 and one of our options was to go back where the ball previously laid and put the ball in play. Q. The movement rule is 18; correct? DOUG BRECHT: That's correct. DANA GROSS-RHODE: Thank you all very much. Doug, thank you very much for coming in and explaining that for us. End of FastScripts |
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