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JOHN DEERE CLASSICJuly 10, 2009Arvin GinnSILVIS, ILLINOIS DOUG MILNE: No big secret why we called you in. Just kind of bring us up to speed, a couple comments on the decision factor and where we're going from here. ARVIN GINN: Well, first off, we've tried every way in the world -- let me preface this, though. Let me regress just a second. Everything out there looks good. Sun looks good, looks like we have plenty of time to play, but we couldn't get the golf course ready to play today. We have three or four holes that just would not cooperate water-wise. Our greens were much slower than the players are used to playing, and anyway, the golf course crew now has tonight to work on this and to give us the same golf course we had yesterday tomorrow. So what we'll do is play -- tomorrow becomes Friday, Saturday becomes Friday. The same tee times, same groupings, everything, so we'll finish the second round tomorrow, and then we'll make the cut. And then we'll cut to the closest number, nearest number to 60 and play 36 holes on Sunday. We'll be playing off two tees in threes and will not re-pair for the fourth round. And gentlemen, that is just strictly a time element that's involved. What we'd like to do and what we need to do and what we're mandated to do is finish on our regular scheduled time, which would be approximately 5:00, we hope, Sunday. Any questions? Q. What time are Sunday's rounds going to start then? ARVIN GINN: Probably 7:00. Q. What were the three holes -- you mentioned three holes you couldn't get ready. ARVIN GINN: Well, there's three or four. No. 10 early on obviously hurts us; No. 2 we were assured that come the end of the day would still be seeping water out of the bank, the hill that's there; No. 15, which is later on, which we'd have time to deal with; and 17 and 18. Well, you look at 18 right now, it really looks good. But it's not. Q. Forgive my ignorance, but the normal cut is 70, right? ARVIN GINN: 70 and ties. Q. So what happens to people who miss the cut between 60 and 70? ARVIN GINN: If they're tied for 70 they will get paid for that position. Q. So in other words, they don't lose points and stuff -- ARVIN GINN: They don't lose that, they just lose the right to play in the final two rounds. Q. Forecast that we just saw about half an hour ago, hour ago, has called for more rain tonight -- ARVIN GINN: You saw that? Q. Yeah. ARVIN GINN: Our meteorologist told us that we were through with the rain for today. So if we got -- Q. It was local TV. ARVIN GINN: I know, but if we have something that has built or is building -- nothing is supposed to be behind what we've just gone through. Q. I don't think the public at large, I know I didn't know as I came here, know that you guys worked through the night. What kind of work do you do to a bad hole after dark? What are you guys doing? ARVIN GINN: That's a great question, and for me to explain that to you sitting here, I don't think we'd have time. We don't do anything basically as the tournament rules staff. It's the golf course crew. So if we had played today in a very sloppy condition, now the golf course crew couldn't have the golf course to give it to us tomorrow. They would be working at night with lights, trying to do something, and there would be certain things that they couldn't do due to having play out here that now they can do this afternoon and give us a better golf course tomorrow, okay? But it is really hard, difficult to answer your question. Q. These guys are out humping around doing a lot of hard, nasty, dirty work while we're all sleeping and we just show up in the morning and the course is -- ARVIN GINN: That's exactly what happens, and believe it or not, the golf course crew, the superintendent here and our agronomy staff from the TOUR and the golf course labor as you call it, or crew, or however you want to classify them, they are the unsung heroes in order for us to have what we have. You have a beautiful golf course here that's in the best shape it's ever been in. And just like coming in yesterday, after all the stuff we went through yesterday, we had a golf course -- they had time to do it, and we had a golf course like we hadn't had any problems. Q. Does the fact that John Deere does so much work throughout the TOUR and this is their course and they're right here on-site, does that give you an added benefit to preparing the course? ARVIN GINN: Well, we can't sell John Deere short in any case because they do a terrific job. But I go back to the golf course crew that's actually doing the labor. And it's untold. There's no way that I could describe that to really give these guys the proper justice they need, these people. Q. With Sunday's rounds, is that going to be an immediate turnaround to play the first 18, turning right around to play the second? ARVIN GINN: Exactly. That's the reason you can't re-pair, because you just don't have time to wait for everyone to get in and then re-pair and then start over and finish anywhere near to where you need to be finishing, your scheduled finish time. Q. So it'll literally be a walk from 18 green back to No. 1 tee? ARVIN GINN: Depending on how many we have that make the cut. It could be for the first group finishing, they could have a suitable amount of time before their second round starts -- before the fourth round starts in order to have lunch or whatever. But by the time you work through the last group, generally that time period closes down. And I have been at tournaments when we do this, and we're handing the player a sandwich and walking with him to the next tee where the time just ran out. Q. Was there any consideration at all given to the possibility of getting as much of round 3 in tomorrow to lessen the amount of play on Sunday? ARVIN GINN: That would put us in a scenario that we couldn't finish on scheduled time, and any interruption whatsoever, then we have a problem. So our first thing we go to is the plan that I gave you to start with. That's the first one. If you have to get 72 holes in and you're going to Sunday, as we are, we're mandated to play the 36 holes on Sunday, to try to finish -- our first priority is to finish on Sunday's scheduled time. Q. Lift, clean and place, will that decision be made in the morning? ARVIN GINN: It will be made in the morning just before we tee off. Q. Is that probable? ARVIN GINN: Well, we never dreamed that we'd be playing the ball as it lies yesterday, but we did. Q. Was there any concern or factor taken into the fact that we are the week before the British and we need to get this done -- ARVIN GINN: No, sir. Everything is done according to the regs, and we're playing -- and this is not to sell the British Open short or anything else, but we're playing the John Deere Classic here this week, and that's what we're mandated to do in the scheduled time. Q. How many events -- you may not know this right offhand, have been affected by weather? ARVIN GINN: Quite a few this year, but I don't know it offhand. I mean, I worked Memphis, what, three weeks ago. We had a terrible, terrible situation there both Friday and Sunday morning. A similar situation, other than worse weather than we've had here, and a worse condition. But we have had quite a few. Q. What would happen now if there was to be more rain? Is there a consideration of taking things into Monday, or would it be backscaled to maybe 54 holes? ARVIN GINN: That's a good question, too. But once we get started with this, we would most likely go into Monday to complete the 72 holes. Q. Can you repeat once again why it was canceled for today? ARVIN GINN: Just getting the golf course ready to play golf. We had a few places out there on the greens -- everything looks really good, but once you get out examination and you start squeegeeing fairways and everything else and water keeps coming back on certain holes. We just couldn't get the golf course ready to play in time to play a sufficient amount of golf to make a difference. And then plus the fact, we think that we can give the players a golf course in very good condition tomorrow morning. But then sending a few players out today to play in a very undesirable condition is also something you look at, but it wasn't the primary condition. If we could have played enough today to make a difference, we would have done it, but we couldn't get it ready. Q. Can you quantify how much rain fell? ARVIN GINN: I think it was like an inch and a half, an inch and three quarters. I believe that's correct. It could have been a little more than that. Q. How much did we have Wednesday? An inch and a half? ARVIN GINN: Is that what it was? I've forgotten. Anyway, it was a little more than Wednesday, what we had today. Q. Is there any residual effect from that, and is that still affecting the course today? ARVIN GINN: Oh, I'm sure that's true. You know, just like if you're local here, I think you've had rain this year for four or five days, and certainly that adds to the condition. But certainly it was already wet in a sense. We don't want a player -- we did not want a player to get out there, and I don't mean to get into golf rules here with you, but I will tell you this: Lift, clean and place I believe you mentioned. Even though we would put that in effect today if we played, now if a player gets the ball in his hand to take relief from casual water, our lift, clean and place rule is move within one club length and place the ball and play on. But if he says I'm taking casual water relief, and all of a sudden he can't find total relief and he might move 50 yards. If he says, oh, I'm going back and taking a club length; well, he can't do that. He's already made his decision. He has a rules violation if he does that. And we don't want that to happen to any player, and we have that condition out here. Q. You have had at one tournament or more where you have had to go to not re-pairing for the final round this year, have you not? ARVIN GINN: The U.S. Open did it, and I think we had one other tournament, but I don't remember which one it was, because in Memphis we were playing the final round on Sunday afternoon. But that's all we had to play was the fourth round. And I think we had another one some other place, but I don't remember where it was. I was not there. I know at Pebble Beach this year we had to call the tournament after 54 holes on Monday because we got to Monday and we still couldn't play. Q. What is the situation Monday, and 36 holes now planned for Sunday, but obviously Monday is kind of a last resort; is that fair to say? ARVIN GINN: Well, Monday is, because your first resort is to play 36 on Sunday to finish on time. And then if you have to go to Monday to complete 72 holes, that's the next thing in the mix. Q. What is your long-range weather forecast that you have seen? ARVIN GINN: The only thing that I've really looked at and examined was Saturday and Sunday. Q. And that was? ARVIN GINN: That was good. Q. Clear? ARVIN GINN: That was good. Maybe late Sunday is kind of suspect. But those are the two days that I was concerned with, we were concerned with. We appreciate you being here and just am sorry that things are interrupted. But that's the way life is. End of FastScripts |
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