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U.S. OPEN CHAMPIONSHIPJune 18, 2009Jim HylerFARMINGDALE, NEW YORK JIM HYLER: I'll give you a quick update on things. Obviously you can hear the rain pounding the roof of the media tent. Our weather guys say that to expect this rain until about 1:30. We think that it will lighten up considerably around 1:30. We may still get some showers for a little bit beyond that. But we're hopeful that we'll get a window of maybe three to five hours this afternoon where we can play golf. So what we plan to do is, as we're better able to identify the backside of this and it lets up a little bit, is to go ahead and start getting players ready and try to get them out and do the course prep work as quickly as we can and get the players on the course so that we can get them going again as quickly as possible. So that's where we are. It's still obviously raining very hard. We've had since 5:00 this morning we've had roughly six-tenths of an inch of rain, that's a lot of water, what's already fallen over the past few weeks. We think we will get another maybe quarter to four-tenths of an inch before there's really any significant let-up in the rain. So you're looking at roughly an inch of rain that we've had, will have through mid-afternoon. But our goal is to try to get the course ready, get the players queued up let them hit balls and get back out there and get them going as quick as we possibly can. So that's sort of where we are as of right now. Q. You talked yesterday about the small army of squeegee personnel; was it there was so much rain that it's futile? THE MODERATOR: The volume of rain falling was outpassing our ability to squeegee the greens. So that was the bottom line. And so the greens just became unplayable. And we just needed to suspend. Q. I don't mean to be euphemistic here but how do you get the lake off of the green and the river out of the second hole, all the water that seems to have accumulated so far? JIM HYLER: It will drain. The greens will drain. Particularly, as I said, really the whole golf course on the other side of Round Swamp Road actually drains pretty well. Once it stops raining we'll get the squeegees and the water hogs out and the greens will naturally drain. And that water will move on through a lot faster than you think it will. So if we could get 30 minutes, really, of no rain, you'll be surprised as to how much water would be drained. Q. Are there any trouble spots in low-lying areas in the fairways that are more of a concern? JIM HYLER: 18th fairway. Obviously with an inch of rain falling on that 18th fairway, it's of great concern. And the issue there is if a player hits their drive, the ball's embedded. So under the rules you can lift your ball. You drop it as close as you can to the indentation and then are you in casual water. So then you take relief from casual water. And how far do you have to go to get complete relief? And the player may very well decide to play it right there, even though they're in casual water. Because complete relief could be -- it could be 50 yards away. Q. Are players allowed to request that a certain part of the green be squeegeed, looked like Tiger did that on No. 2? JIM HYLER: Under the squeegee policy the players can request their line of putt be squeegeed. The other bit of that is, as I said earlier this morning, if a player requests their line of putt to be squeegeed. We also squeegee at least three feet past the hole. So you squeegee the line of putt. You also go past the hole at least three feet. Q. Is there any way that all these groups can get out and play today and complete? JIM HYLER: I think if we get -- if we get four hours of playability, we'll get the first wave around, yeah. We may not get into the second wave, or maybe get the second wave just started to go off. But, yeah, we can get a lot done in four or five hours. Q. The afternoon wave may not complete today? JIM HYLER: May not even go. It just depends on how quick we can get the morning wave out and we just have to see what kind of progress we make. Q. Given a tee shot has been hit, several tee shots have been hit, is there any chance of any revision on the ticket refund policy, if you get no more play today, or is it just no money back, because some golf has been played? JIM HYLER: I'm going to refer you to Rand Jarvis on that. I don't know the answer to that question. After we conclude, check with Rand Jarvis; he can give you the answer to that question. I don't know the answer. Q. I understand the sanctity of the rules issue with no lift, clean and place, but isn't it inconsistent to have the line of a putt to be squeegeed? JIM HYLER: Lift, clean and place is about mud on the ball. If you're getting mud on the ball, the tours will play lift, clean and place. Here we're not faced with the issue of necessarily mud on the ball. And we just don't play lift, clean and place. If it gets that bad we're going to suspend. But I think where you have casual water on the green, where you have water on the green, we don't see that as inconsistency to squeegee the line of put. As long as you squeegee past the hole. Q. Do you have any idea what sort of a schedule we're looking at for the next few days? JIM HYLER: Have no idea, sir, because there's some rain in the forecast tomorrow. Again on Saturday. But, actually, tomorrow looks better, is looking better than it did yesterday. And so I think we'll have a chance to get a lot of golf in tomorrow. Very unlikely, if we lose a half a day today, it would be impossible to catch up tomorrow. So we may be looking at Saturday morning getting the second round finished, get the cut and go from there. But based on the amount of time we're losing, there's no way, I don't believe, that we could catch up and be finished the second round tomorrow. Q. Do the players have the option to, on the greens, to move the ball on a different line? JIM HYLER: Well, under the rules of golf, if casual water intervenes on your line of putt you can get relief. So, yes, they would have that option. But typically you're going to see it squeegeed and get rid of the casual water. But that's an option under the rules of golf. I wish I had better news for you, but that's the way it is. Thank you. End of FastScripts |
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