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U.S. OPEN CHAMPIONSHIPJune 19, 2009David FayJim HylerFARMINGDALE, NEW YORK JIM HYLER: I'm Jim Hyler, I'm getting to be a regular down here. David Fay is along side me. We want to give you a few comments about the golf course and what we're doing today and what we hopefully possibly might do tomorrow. David is then going to make some remarks about the ticket policy. First of all, the golf course, all things considered, the course is in remarkable condition inside the ropes. We had a good prep this morning. We had a very efficient restart and actually started at 7:26, four minutes early. We hope to complete the first round around 5:30 this afternoon. The pace of play is taking a little bit longer because of embedded balls and casual water rulings. We will begin the second round at 4:00, as we have previously noted. We will start the second round at 4:00. We will play all the golf we possibly can today. We'll play just as late into the late afternoon, until people can't see. We would plan to resume in the morning at 7:30, just like we did this morning, and that will be the Round 2 AM wave, and then the PM wave we would plan to start around 9:00 to 9:30. And we'll play all the golf we possibly can. Let me note that the weather forecast for tomorrow is 80 percent chance of rain, three-quarters to an inch and a quarter of rain possible. And obviously if we get hit with that kind of rain, that will severely impact our plans. But if we get lucky on the weather, maybe somehow we dodge a lot of that. There is a chance -- there is a chance that we could finish Round 2 tomorrow. I think beyond that, anything would be pure speculation, just based on the forecast and also the size of the cut. If we had a small cut, say 60 or low 60s, we'd have more flexibility than if we had 100 people making the cut. So I think any speculation beyond tomorrow, that is what it is, speculation. Let me address one point before I turn it over to David. Get back to this lift, clean and place question that's been asked a number of times. I think there's a perception that by not playing that we're somehow prolonging the event. That is absolutely not true. The reason the tours play lift, clean and place, one is they don't have a walking rules official with every group so the player's not going to get the ball back exactly like they have it. They're going to put it within a club length. But also that has to do with mud on the ball. And we're dealing with casual water, embedded balls. If you have an embedded ball you can clean it. So by not using that we are in no way adding to the length of this event. So I just want to get that point out and make sure you understand that. With that, I'm going to turn it over to David. DAVID FAY: Thank you, Jim. Jim touched on the issues that we've been facing inside the ropes. And as you all know, we faced issues outside the ropes yesterday. The reality is that we're sorry those 34,000 fans who came out yesterday didn't see more golf. And since that time we have been talking about a solution, a possible solution. And we were factoring in a lot of things. Let's get some things right out on the table right away. We understand that our ticket policy is -- it's both vague and rigid, and I think some people were upset with the vagueness of it and some people were upset with the rigidity, they didn't like the message. Certainly in the future we're going to have to amend our policy to provide more information to the ticket purchasers as to what our policy is. We looked long and hard as possible solutions to accommodate those people who saw three and a half hours worth, three hours and 16 minutes worth of golf yesterday. Considering Friday, of course, today, Saturday, Sunday, the reality is that we are dealing with, thankfully, a sell-out. We have a sell-out for all four days of the championship. And as much as some people might think it's easy to just bring people in and shoehorn them in, the reality is that when you consider the parking situation, the security situation, the transportation situation and, of course, the golf course itself, factoring in everything, including the people who are in this room, the vendors, the fans, the 42,500 who purchased tickets, we're at 55,000 max. That's what our operations people think you can get on this golf course without bursting it at the seams. And then couple it with the fact that yesterday we cancelled play for the day because the golf course was unplayable. Anybody who's out there today, I would, first of all, caution you to walk very cautiously. Because it's slippery. Our ops people are doing a great job, but it's muddy. And it's very slippery. When we were factoring in all the things we might consider, we were looking at other athletic organizations that run outdoor events where you're exposed to the elements. We know that the British Open, for example, their interpretation is a full day is two hours, two hours of play. We know that at Wimbledon it's the same thing. We know at Flushing Meadows the magic number by and large is 90 minutes. We also know that there has been some talk about rain checks. That would be like saying that if there was a game that was rained out on at Fenway you'd all be able to go there on Saturday. We all know it's not the case. It's a makeup day. We don't have makeup dates at the U.S. Open. There's not a game to be scheduled in August that we can accommodate people with. But as I said, the course is sold out. There's safety issues. There's transportation issues. We factored it all in. We want to be fair. We understand that we need to be crisper in our printed communications going forward, but cutting right to the chase, this is what's going to happen: Thursday ticket holders will get Monday golf. If there's Monday golf, their tickets will be honored. And with that, I will entertain any and all questions. Q. David, do you know what -- can you break it down into how many people were here yesterday with single-day passes out of the 34,000 and is there a possibility that you could have considered financial refunds for all or part of the $100 face or whatever the daily tickets were? DAVID FAY: We can break it down. I don't have the number right at this time. I think it might be -- I'm not going to guess -- I know it's 34,000. And there were all sorts of possible scenarios. We were driven by the fact, and it didn't seem to be a very popular position, and I heard it last night when I was pumping gas at the Sunoco at the intersection of Merrick and 24, but I must say that I'm glad I had a coat on. Because the comments weren't very positive. And I heard it again this morning at Dunkin' Donuts. But we're trying to come up with a solution that's fair. We're trying to come up with a solution that can work. We understand we have to deal with the immediate problem of Thursday, and then take the lessons from that and work accordingly going forward. Q. Jim, David, obviously there's contingencies for a playoff on Monday with infrastructure and volunteers and things such as that. But what are the contingencies going into the event in case of full-round play on Monday with volunteers and infrastructure and things such as that? DAVID FAY: Well, when you get the tickets, it has a specific day on it. It's not talking about Round 1 or Round 2 or Round 3. If there was no golf at all, no golf at all, let's say, on Sunday, then we would say that the Sunday ticket holders would be able to come on Monday. I mean, you'd almost like to push it ahead. And then you have the possibility of a playoff. When I talk about Monday golf, when we talk about Monday golf, it could be a playoff. But based on the weather forecast this weekend, we're going to have to really -- we're going to have to get very lucky to get to that point. It might be more of a hybrid like we saw at Oakmont in '83 where the guys came back for a couple of holes. We were ready for the playoff, but Larry Nelson won. So if there were a playoff on Monday, and the completion of Round 4, the people from Thursday, their tickets would be honored and, of course, the people with the playoff ticket, their tickets would, of course, be honored. If we go to Tuesday, and that's not out of the -- that's possible. It's not happened at the U.S. Open. It happened two times in a row at the Women's Open in '86 and '87 where we had a playoff on Tuesday. The playoff tickets would then be honored on Tuesday. The playoff tickets will not be honored on Monday if there's -- I take that back. We are going to allow -- if you have a playoff ticket, because that's part of a season package, you can come on Monday, whether it's a playoff or not. Because there may well be a playoff on Monday afternoon. Q. I'm saying with volunteers -- JIM HYLER: In our planning, we obviously plan for Monday playoff. That's in the queue. But as we look at the weather forecast and our ops people are thinking about it, what if we go to Tuesday, we're building contingency plans to contend with that. Q. Is it looked at differently when you have one group as opposed to a full golf course, will that affect like volunteers and such? JIM HYLER: We have all that covered. We'll be fine, if we play golf if we finish the fourth round, Monday, Tuesday playoffs, we have plans. We can handle all that. Q. On the playoff tickets, for instance last year at Torrey Pines when there was the playoffs, only weekly badge holders were able to go to the playoffs; were separate day tickets sold for that playoff day? DAVID FAY: The way the tickets are structured, you cannot buy in advance a one-day ticket for a playoff. You can't. Q. So there would be no conflict then with extra people; if Thursday went to Monday, for instance, Thursday ticket holders came out on Monday, they wouldn't be a crowd-control issue? DAVID FAY: You could; it depends on the players involved. That was certainly something that gave us pause. Because, as I said initially, we're concerned about oversaturating -- not water, but with people -- this facility. And I'd say it's a calculated risk. But when you look back at the history of Monday playoffs in the U.S. Open, last year's had by far the largest gallery. And oftentimes again it's a workday, which sort of makes sense because the people who were planning to come on Thursday, that was a workday, too. We also understand that this is not going to be -- there's no solution that's perfect. And what we're trying to do is to be as fair as possible to take the lessons we learn from tomorrow, from yesterday, and to apply them going forward. And reality is, and this is not an excuse, but when you think about the 108 U.S. Opens, only two times when you're not counting a playoff, only two times has the championship gone beyond the established finish time. That was '59 at Winged Foot when it went into Sunday when you had a double round and '83 at Oakmont. Q. Talking about the forecast being really bad for Saturday, what's your plan there if only two or three hours of golf get played? DAVID FAY: The question is what about Saturday. And Saturday doesn't look good. And we don't have an answer right now. We will take that as it comes. Because we don't have an answer right now. We'll take all available information and make a decision, but not before it happens. Q. Since we're kind of drawing up the plays in the dirt here and ad-libbing, is there any possibility that this won't go 72 holes and the corollary, whatever it takes, however long it takes? JIM HYLER: We'll play 72 holes. Q. If we finish regulation play in the middle of the day and there is a tie, playoff would begin immediately and whatever was left, we'd come back in the morning and clean that up? JIM HYLER: Well, let's just say -- let me put it this way, we're going to play all the golf we can the days, when we can play, and we'll just have to see how that works out. Obviously let's say -- we're speculating, but if we finish the fourth round sometime Monday morning and there was a tie, yes, we would commence. We want to finish as soon as we possibly can. Purely, again, speculating, and tomorrow's weather is going to have a giant impact on what we do. Q. David, as you hinted yourself, it stands to reason that certain people who made arrangements to try and come here yesterday are working men, might not be able to come Monday. Was there any thought to giving them the opportunity for a refund and, if not, why? DAVID FAY: No. And again, as I said, we realize that our policy, while clearly stated, was interpreted by some as being too rigid or not clearly stated. We don't think a refund -- that was considered but we decided against it. Again, we had 34,000 people. We had three hours and change of golf. That's certainly not a full day. And we're not going to hitch our wagon necessarily to what other events of this stature do. But when we were looking at the guidelines, two hours in the case of British championships, the Open in Wimbledon and 90 minutes right down the street at Flushing Meadow. Q. Do you have any flexibility on the playoff? Would you consider going to three holes, or is 18 holes set in stone? JIM HYLER: We have considered that many times and as we stated last year at Torrey Pines we considered going to a shorter playoff and discarded it. We're committed to an 18-hole playoff. Q. Were you surprised by the vigor of a lot of the criticism about the policy, and do you think some of that is that we're in such a media center and it's New York? DAVID FAY: I live in New York City. I wasn't surprised. I think one of the things that kept coming out is how do you define what a full day of golf is. And, boy, that could be open to interpretation, because it's not like baseball where you have a set number of innings and you've got a complete game. Yesterday we stopped play because of rain. Oftentimes we may have situations where you have electrical activity, where we're going to have to start and stop and start and stop and not get a complete day. But, no, I'm a New Yorker, so I guess I would have been surprised had they not expressed the opinions. I didn't expect to hear the first one firsthand while filling up my car. Q. As a New Yorker you know it's also not easy for people to get here. There were people in the parking lots at 10:00 a.m. that couldn't get here early enough for the three hours. Was there thought of a partial refund or any way of compensating them? DAVID FAY: There was thought. I think that we could have filled up a small book as far as the scenarios and what-ifs and how do we deal with it. But I'm glad you mentioned parking. Because parking, we're already down a lot because of the weather today. Thankfully we have Jones Beach. But super-thankfully we have the railroad. And that's really our ace in the hole. And that was one of the reasons that enabled us to make this decision on the Thursday-Monday. JIM HYLER: Just a follow-up, if we were to get three-quarters to an inch and a quarter of rain tomorrow, that's going to have further impact on outside-the-ropes issues, parking. Movement on the golf course and obviously safety is a paramount concern. So we'll just have to factor that in. Q. The size of your weekend field is going to have a great deal to do with what's going on. Realizing you can't change the rules, with split tees and threesomes can get a lot more golf in than what your 10-shot rule may produce for the weekend. Going forward, is there going to be serious thought about revision, even though it's a charming situation to have in place? JIM HYLER: We're comfortable with our policy of the 10-shot rule and we have no plans to look at that based on what's going on out here. DAVID FAY: Ask Ernie Els if he thinks it's charming because there's enough examples of people who just make it, who make the cut under the 10-shot rule. Because of that, I think because of the nature of the U.S. Open, there can be great movement over those last two rounds. Els just made the number at '93 at Baltusrol, and just by virtue of making the cut, I believe he finished, tied for seventh. That got him to Oakmont. So we're fans of the 10-shot rule, recognizing, as you point out, you run a risk. At Oakland Hills in '96 we had over 100 players make the cut. Q. What did you do with all the water that you took off the golf course? Where did it go? JIM HYLER: Well, a lot of it went into the ground. Again, the golf course across Round Swamp Road is sandy and loamy, absorbs internally. The water on the 18th fairway if you were down there yesterday you saw a pump and hoses stretched I think all the way across Round Swamp Road is where I think the water was ultimately going. So that's what we're doing with it. Q. What's the condition of the rough now that it's so saturated? JIM HYLER: The rough, again, the holes across the road are remarkably, I think, in good shape. And the rough is not -- we cut the rough. It's about like it was on Wednesday. Q. Did you cut it today? JIM HYLER: Did not cut the rough today. The greens were not mowed this morning. They were rolled, some as much as three times. The green speeds this morning were about 13 and a half, about where they were yesterday morning. But they were not mowed this morning. Q. Does the experience this year in any way negatively impact Bethpage's chances of getting another U.S. Open in the future? Mike Davis spoke yesterday about these greens being rather old and not USGA spec greens, does this experience change whether you would come back here? JIM HYLER: No. DAVID FAY: There are a number of older greens that we use for U.S. Opens. End of FastScripts |
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