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DEUTSCHE BANK CHAMPIONSHIPSeptember 4, 2010Mark RussellNORTON, MASSACHUSETTS MARK STEVENS: This is Mr. Mark Russell, our tournament official here, rules official. Mark, if you'd kindly just give some opening comments. MARK RUSSELL: Vice president of rules and competitions, come on. (Laughter.) MARK STEVENS: If you'd make some general comments about the disqualification. MARK RUSSELL: First of all, it's a sad thing. I'm not at all pleased with it. But it's a regulation that you've got to register when you arrive on site, and you've got to do it before you play your practice round or the competition round, and if you don't before you play your competition round, the regulation says you're ineligible from competing in the tournament. It's an insurance thing. You've got to come in there and you need to sign the application. You need to read -- I don't know if we've got an application for entry, but it's got a lot of things on there and the players sign it every week. It's a formality. I think the last time it happened was Callaway Gardens with Brandel Chamblee. It's not funny. Brandel and I have talked about it many times. I was involved in that. He didn't register. You have to register. It's one of the things you have to do, you have to register, you have to show up at the tee on time, you've got to sign your scorecard and you've got to make sure you're scoring every box. Q. Just a couple things: One, there seems to be a provision in there for extraordinary circumstances. MARK RUSSELL: Yeah? Q. What would those be? MARK RUSSELL: I don't know. I've never had to deal with that before. Q. Second, in talking to the tournament -- MARK RUSSELL: If you've been here for several days, they'd have to be extraordinary. Q. Fair enough. In talking to the -- when you say "insurance," whose insurance are we talking about? MARK RUSSELL: You know, I'm not a lawyer, but I think it's liability insurance and stuff like that for the tournament. But it is an insurance thing. That's part of the thing, you need to sign that application. Q. The only reason I ask that is in talking to the tournament, they say that they have an umbrella policy and the registration doesn't matter to them. MARK RUSSELL: You know, I don't know. I've just heard that insurance purposes over the years, that needs to be signed. Q. Just curious, why wasn't it caught -- why wasn't Chad disqualified before he even -- MARK RUSSELL: Because we didn't find out about it until last night when they were going through all the entry forms, and they didn't have Chad's. I told Gary Young, I said, "Go ask Chad." I'm thinking the whole time, they've just misplaced it. He's going to say, What are you talking about? I registered. When he thought about it, he said, "I didn't register," and we had to adhere to the regulations. Q. You told him this morning? MARK RUSSELL: I told him when he arrived this afternoon. Gary thought about calling him last night. I said, No, that's something you need to talk to him face to face. Q. When you say -- does the player have to sign in, or could he have his agent sign in? MARK RUSSELL: No, he needs to come and sign. He needs to come and check in. We need to know he's on property, and he needs to sign the application for entry. Q. When you told him the news, was he a bit upset? MARK RUSSELL: I really didn't talk to Chad, but no, I don't know how well you know Chad, but once he thought about it, he said, No, I didn't register, and he accepted total responsibility for it. MARK STEVENS: We have quotes out from Chad, so if you read those that'll cover that part of it. Q. How does a scorecard with his name on it appear at the tee when he didn't register? MARK RUSSELL: I don't know. I mean, he was in the tournament. He was committed, on the list to play the tournament. He just didn't go by and sign the registration form. Q. Is this a rule that's more necessary in a regular -- MARK RUSSELL: A regulation. Q. That's more necessary in the regular season when you have alternates that could replace these -- MARK RUSSELL: No, it's all the time. First thing you need to do, we emphasize it to the players all the time. Before you play your practice round, you need to go to registration and register. You need to sign that application form. Q. So there's no thought of changing this rule, like last week's rule about oversleeping the pro-am? MARK RUSSELL: I don't think so. I mean, I can't speak for the Commissioner, but I don't think so. Q. Weird summer for rules and regs. MARK RUSSELL: It is kind of strange. Once again, I wish Chad was out there playing and I wasn't in here talking to you folks about it. But it's reality. Q. I know you can't talk about fines and things like that, but the regulations seem to indicate that if you don't register before you hit a ball on site -- MARK RUSSELL: Absolutely. Q. -- that you can be fined. MARK RUSSELL: Absolutely. Q. Do you have knowledge of cases where fines have taken place? MARK RUSSELL: Yes. It's a very important thing. You don't want to play a practice round before you register. It's the first thing you do. We emphasize that in qualifying school. We talk to the new members and we emphasize that to the members all the time. The first thing you do when you get on property is go to registration and register. Q. So if you play a practice round and then register, is that too late? MARK RUSSELL: Not cool, Andrew. Q. But you can do it, get away with it? MARK RUSSELL: Yes. Q. You won't get caught? MARK RUSSELL: Well, you won't be disqualified. But once you tee off in the competition and you haven't registered, the regulation says you're ineligible. Q. Do you have a checkoff at registration, like everybody signs in and then they check the list if you register? MARK RUSSELL: Yes, we do, should have, absolutely. But you know, I don't know what happened. Once again, they couldn't find his registration form, and we went and asked him if he registered. And I was hoping all along he'd say, absolutely, I registered. We'd just have him sign another one. Q. How was it discovered? MARK RUSSELL: They were going through the registration forms and didn't have one for him. Q. So if he had just said he registered, he could have signed another one -- MARK RUSSELL: Yeah, if he would have told a lie, we would have gone with him. (Laughter.) Listen, it's a situation -- I'm just kidding. He's an honest guy, and we went to him and asked him, and I was thinking the whole time that he did register, that they just misplaced it. But once he thought about it, he said, You know, I did not do that. Registration is up there in the room where the players eat. I know he had some meals in there probably. I don't know, but it's right there in the dining area. Q. And Gary Young is the one that told him that he was disqualified? MARK RUSSELL: Gary Young told him, yes. Q. Procedurally since there hasn't been one since Callaway Gardens, since none of us covered Callaway Gardens -- MARK RUSSELL: It's a great place. Q. But could you see procedurally where they may change how they deal with this in the future, or is it not necessary? MARK RUSSELL: I think the regulation will stay the same. I mean, I'd like to prevent it if at all possible. Q. That's what I'm saying, procedurally, meaning how you guys deal with the registration process in regards to checking it before the first round to see if anybody hadn't registered. MARK RUSSELL: You know, I can't really speak to that. You know, it's the players' responsibility for registering. I mean, 97 out of 98 guys registered, and they have for several years on the golf tour. It's not something we really think about. It's like going to the tee -- being on the tee on time. You have a deadline that you need to register, and the players need to do that. But you know, I hate that Chad did it and I hate that he didn't get to play. MARK STEVENS: Thanks a lot, Mark. End of FastScripts |
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