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THE BARCLAYS SCOTTISH OPENJuly 9, 2011Peter AdamsMike StewartINVERNESS, SCOTLAND MIKE STEWART: This has obviously had a dramatic impact on the playing surfaces. We have had a lot of flooding on the golf course and as I'm sure you all are aware we had some landslides as well on holes 1 and on 12, as well. The staff here have been absolutely superb, and they have done a great job over the last couple of hours or so in the drier conditions in repairing much of the damage that occurred earlier on today, and they are continuing as we speak to do the best they can to get the golf course ready and playable. As you are aware, we did set an initial possible starting time of 2.00. But based on the information we got from the golf course and when we think we could be playable, we have pushed this time back to 3.00 on the basis that we need a bit more time to get everything ready and ship shape for a start this afternoon. Our intentions now are to complete, or try to complete, the second round this afternoon and then to play the third round tomorrow. So we have decided that it's in the best interests of the event to reduce the tournament to a 54-hole tournament. SCOTT CROCKETT: Peter, before we move into some questions perhaps you can outline the issues that your staff had in terms of making sure that everything is okay for the public and their health and safety. PETER ADAMS: Certainly, Scott. Our role really is to make sure that everything is safe, really, for everybody that is coming to the golf course, if you like, outside the ropes. And when we arrived this morning, I think as most of you know, regrettably, most of the parking areas were pretty much under water. That includes the main public car park, the main bus turning circle for buses from Inverness, and also the spectator route ways on the golf course were in a bad state of repair. I'm pleased to say that we have had a team working on the parking situation, and we feel that we will be ready to actually have public come back this afternoon, if we get the golf underway. On the golf course, we have still got some work to do. We have got to rebuild some of the footpaths, and we are not going to be able to have spectators on holes 1, 2 and holes 10 and 11 and 12. But the rest of the golf course, we have looked at with our team and also with our health and safety consultants and we believe that that's viable. SCOTT CROCKETT: Peter, thank you. If I could just ask for your assistance, any broadcast media who are here, if you could get that message out as quickly as possible when this conference is over, that spectators will be allowed back in and we hope to start play at 3.00 and we'll finish the second round today and complete the third round tomorrow. But The Barclays Scottish Open will be a 54-hole event. Q. Did you give any consideration to playing 36 holes tomorrow? MIKE STEWART: We certainly did. From first thing this morning, we were considering completing 72 holes. It was always -- it's always really something we look at. But we realised that we were going to struggle with the weather today, and the forecast is also poor for tomorrow, and we just felt it was in the best interests of everyone concerned to try and ensure a good solution to the event, and a good conclusion to the event, to reduce it to 54 holes. Q. Is it reduced prize money to 75 per cent? PETER ADAMS: No, it isn't. We have been in discussions with Barclays and the full prize fund will be on the 54-hole tournament. Q. Can you also confirm reports we have heard that spectator safety, yes, very important, but apparently two members of the public broke legs yesterday? PETER ADAMS: That is correct. We did have two members of the public is sustain leg breaks. We are taking every step that we can to ensure that all of the pathways are in as good of condition as they can be, but it is the nature of going to a golf tournament that there will be slopes and there will be slippery ground. The one thing that we would say is that we would very much like to stress that those people coming to the tournament wear golf shoes or sensible outdoor shoes, and that will actually help to stop many of those issues and situations. Q. On the issue of resuming play today halfway through the second round, preferred lies, what's the issue there? Because some players have completed their rounds without them. MIKE STEWART: Yes, well, once we start a round, we obviously don't change the playing conditions for that round; so the round must be concluded without preferred lies. We then take a view for tomorrow as to whether they are necessary for the final round. I would say that one good thing, that being a links golf course, especially one that drains as well as this one does, it's possible that preferred lies wouldn't be necessary, anyway. So it is probably not so much of an issue here as it would be at many of the other courses we do play on Tour. Q. I suspect I know the answer, but was Monday ever an option? MIKE STEWART: I think talking to everybody connected with the event, it would not be our -- we would prefer not to go into Monday if we could do if at all possible. We would certainly not schedule play on a Monday, but we may have considered concluding a round on a Monday, but it's something we really didn't want to get into if it's at all possible. Q. Has that been completely ruled out? MIKE STEWART: No, it's not been completely ruled out because we have a situation where we have play seriously impacted tomorrow by the weather we may be faced with concluding a few holes on Monday morning to complete the golf tournament. So by reducing so we only have one round to complete tomorrow, it gives us more chance of concluding the event on Sunday than had we been trying to play 72 holes. Q. Given the bad forecast for this afternoon and tomorrow, are you supremely confident that we are going to get 54 holes in by tomorrow? MIKE STEWART: Well, I'm optimistic. But I think certainly by reducing to 54 holes, we have much more chance of completing 54 holes than we would of completing 72 holes. Q. With the rain, are the structures -- PETER ADAMS: We have had our structural engineer that has gone around all of the structures. He has declared that they are all safe. So aside from the car parks and the spectator route ways, really, we believe that everything on site is solid and safe at this time. Q. Were the players involved in the consultation process? MIKE STEWART: No, we don't involve the players generally in those decisions, no. Q. If this rain continues like it's coming down at the moment, what knock-on effect would that have? MIKE STEWART: Sorry, I didn't quite hear that clearly. Q. If this continues as it does at the moment, still hammering down, is there concern about not getting out today and what effect would that have on tomorrow? MIKE STEWART: I think our thinking there is that if we start at 3.00, we have got probably 6 1/2 hours to conclude the second round, effectively today, and given that we have about three hours of play, we have got a fair bit of time up our sleeves in order to complete the round today. If for any reason we didn't complete today, we would bring the players back in the morning to conclude the second round, and then schedule the third round for completion after that. Q. There are certain holes that are much worse affected and worst-case scenario, could you take those holes out of play in the third round? MIKE STEWART: There are no holes on the golf course that will give us any problems like that. All of the greens are in good shape. Tees, fairways are generally good. There's certainly a lot of puddling and ponding on certain fairways but that water will be pumped off. But on the hard ground of these holes, the surfaces are very solid and good. So we can still play under the rules using the casual water rule to take relief. Q. Did the logistics of getting players, caddies down to The Open come into the thinking about Monday, as well? MIKE STEWART: Well, I think it's always in the back of your mind about how people actually move on from one event to the next regardless of where we are and which part of the world we are playing in, and clearly with a major championship coming up next week, it's in everybody's interests that they can get there as soon as possible. Now, in an ideal world, we will hopefully finish play tomorrow night and that's not going to be an issue for anybody. Q. Will you do a new draw -- MIKE STEWART: If we conclude play this evening, the plan would be to do a one-tee start draw tomorrow, but do it in three-balls. So that if we have any weather disruption tomorrow, we have got the ability to flip the draw to a two-tee start and that way we can hopefully catch up a bit of time during the day. Q. With the various weather challenges on Tour over the years, where does this rank in terms of problems you've had compared to other courses? MIKE STEWART: It's very challenging. It's quite tough up here. Here we have got a fantastic golf course with fantastic drainage. It drains very well. It's obviously very sandy here, which helps us a lot, and yet we are still faced with these severe weather problems. Coming into the event I thought our issues would be more to do with the wind if anything, that might affect us, and also possibly lightning, which we had yesterday. I didn't really think rain was going to cause us so much of an issue. Q. If you play tonight, is SKY Sport back on? MIKE STEWART: BBC are covering it today and that's something that they would have to work out in terms of their scheduling. Q. If play does start at 3.00, what sort of times will they be coming in -- PETER ADAMS: Is that a question about spectators coming in? Q. When can they get in? PETER ADAMS: The report we gave you about the car park, we felt that they would be viable in the relatively near future, but even while we speak, you can hear the rain. So that was the report at that time. I think all being well, they should be prepared to come from about 2.30 onwards, and I think as long as we can actually cope with this current surge of rain, we will be ready to receive them. Q. Have the players been told now to return to the course? MIKE STEWART: We advised them just after 12.00 that we were putting the start time back until 3.00, so they are now -- they are obviously getting their transport arrangements made to come back into the golf course. Q. And will the driving range open? MIKE STEWART: It's open now. It will be open as long as anybody wants to go out there and as long as it's safe to go out there and there's no lightning around. Q. Given the extreme weather conditions, are any of the effects related to the design of the course? MIKE STEWART: I think this is completely unprecedented for the Tour and for Castle Stuart. I don't think they have ever seen anything like this before, and it's just so disappointing and so sad for everybody connected with the venue and everybody around the event who is involved, Barclays, everybody, that it's happened today, on the third day of The Barclays Scottish Open. It's such a shame. If it happened in the middle of the winter would not be an issue, the course is closed anyway. It's such a shame it's here in July. PETER ADAMS: It's also fair to say that we are on a free-draining links course here, and as Mike said, I think we might have been in a much worse situation. I think Castle Stuart as a golf course has stood up incredibly well to what the weather is throwing at it. Q. Are you committed to playing 54 holes come what may? Or will there be a point where you say -- MIKE STEWART: That point in time may come, but I think we are a long way off from that yet. Q. On places where there have been landslides, the construction of the course -- are you satisfied that the top soil, if you like, is strong enough? MIKE STEWART: Yeah, I'm fairly satisfied that everything is okay out there. The actual areas where there were landslides are areas of the golf course which have been in existence long before the golf course was ever bit on the hillside and they have been there for many, many years. Q. In the event of you not completing the third round, would the result then stand on the second round? MIKE STEWART: No, I think as I mentioned earlier on, we would consider going to complete on Monday, but we would not be scheduling the third round on Monday. Q. But what if the rain was still here on Monday. MIKE STEWART: Well, I think we would possibly be in that situation then, yes. Q. And it would be the second round that would stand as the result? MIKE STEWART: We would make a decision when we get to that point, but as I say, I think we are a long way off that at the moment. Q. Just to follow up on, that do you know whether that would be accepted, if you had to declare a result after two rounds, as far as Open Qualifying is concerned? MIKE STEWART: Historically we have completed events over 36 holes. 36 holes are the minimum required to get a result and that's what we would like to achieve but obviously our target at the moment is 54, and we feel very confident we will get 54 holes by tomorrow evening. Q. If there's more rain, are you close to unplayable? How much more rain can the course take? MIKE STEWART: It was certainly unplayable very early on this morning. But I think it does drain so quickly, the golf course, that we are pretty confident that it can take an awful lot of rain without major disruption. I think what we had this morning, it was an absolute deluge over such a short space of time that it's not something that is the normal and it's not something that you see on a regular basis here. SCOTT CROCKETT: Mike, Peter, thanks for taking the time out. We know it's been a busy morning for you. Appreciate your help. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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