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WGC BRIDGESTONE INVITATIONAL

August 9, 2009

Slugger White

AKRON, OHIO

CHRIS REIMER: If you just want to start off with a statement with the timing of that group and then being put on the clock, that would be great.
SLUGGER WHITE: Okay. They were told early in the round, I don't know what hole on the front nine, that they were in danger of losing the group ahead of them. When they got to 15 tee, they were 18 minutes over their allotted time, and the par-5 16th was open. That's basically just regulation is what that is. We're doing our job.

Q. When a guy gets put on the clock on the 16th tee, can you walk us through what that means? I know there's a guy out there with a stopwatch. A player has, what, 45 seconds to hit the shot? What happens? So we understand what these guys were -- the standard that was being applied?
SLUGGER WHITE: They were told on 16 tee they had 40 seconds to play their shots except on the par-5. The second shot they got an extra 20 seconds. On or around the putting green they get an extra 20 seconds. That's the first guy to play. And then the third shot of a par-5, they get an extra 20 seconds, so they get a minute.
On the par-4s it's just basically the same thing. When they're first to play they get an extra 20 seconds, and that's pretty much it.

Q. What happens if they go over the time, the allotted stopwatch time?
SLUGGER WHITE: If they go over the time, then they're told that they have a bad time. If they have a bad time, it goes against them. They get basically the pass for the first one. If during the round they have a second one, then it's a one-stroke penalty and a $5,000 fine.

Q. When was the last time that somebody was given a one-stroke penalty for a bad time?
SLUGGER WHITE: It's been -- usually, 99 times out of 100, we rarely get to that second time because when they're told about the first bad time, they usually kind of get on their horse and try to catch the group ahead of them.

Q. How do you feel about the fact that Tiger basically threw John Paramor under the bus and said, we were having a great battle out there -- and these are his direct words. "We were having a great battle out there until John got in the middle of it."
SLUGGER WHITE: I don't think John did get in the middle of it. John is doing his job. We would be criticized if that group was two holes behind and finishing at 10 after 6:00. It's just a regulation, guys. That's what it amounts to. We're doing our job.

Q. Answer this how you wish, but does television have anything to do with that?
SLUGGER WHITE: Of course it does. We're trying to hit television. We're trying to finish at 6:00 o'clock.
CHRIS REIMER: The point that Padraig made is that you can't hold three groups in front of you to a certain time limit and not hold the last group to a certain time limit. It's the same competition for all groups, right, Slugger?
SLUGGER WHITE: Yes, indeed, and we had a train wreck in ahead of them with J.B. Holmes on 16 and it took 20 minutes for him to play that hole. There was plenty of time for those groups to basically catch up.

Q. Just one last one from me. Tiger said that by the time Harrington had hit his shot, hit it in the water, taken his penalty, hit it over the green, chipped it up, they both putted out, it took a long time obviously, they get to the 17th tee and they look up and they see the group ahead of them just walking to the 18th tee. So he was just -- I think that's probably why he's wondering why on earth --
SLUGGER WHITE: No, they weren't just walking to the 18th tee, they were walking down the fairway of 18, the group ahead of them.

Q. Was Padraig told on the 6th fairway -- I saw John go to Tiger, but Padraig was also told?
CHRIS REIMER: He told both of them. Slugger, thanks.

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