San Francisco, California
18th - 21st June
Par 70 Prize Money $3.0 million

From the Press Room

DAVID FAY: I am here to discuss the 18th green. What happened today was not what we hoped would happen. A little bit of explanation, I think, is in order.

This is not a new problem with the 18th at Olympic Lakeside. We had a similar-type problem in 1987. It wasn't this severe, but it has been -- this green has a lot of slope from back to front. I think that there were problems with it when THE TOUR Championship was here. But we had a few choices to make.

One was we could decide to put four hole locations down in the front part of the game for the entire Championship, which we weighed, and we decided that we didn't want to do that for a number of reasons. Those of you who have been out on the course or near the 18th green you know how tiny that green is and to put four hole locations there would probably chew up the turf and make the conditions for this weekend, where both hole locations were planned to be placed, down below, making that unacceptable.

We felt that if we modified the mowing procedure and we put more water on 18 than is the case with the other 17 greens, we would be able to -- it would be acceptable. As it turned out, I think it is safe to say, it certainly -- if you were above the hole, it was quite difficult, to say the least, and the same with sidehill. I think if you were below the hole, it was still acceptable.

There were putts made today. I was in the television booth for the entire -- for seven hours, and so I saw the full range of results on 18. But, this was a decision that was the USGA's. It was the USGA's alone. This shouldn't take away from the fine work that was done by the golf course maintenance crew.

This again, I want to reemphasize, this was the USGA's decision. We felt that this hole location -- certainly we expected it to be the most difficult on the green. We felt that it would be acceptable. It would be very difficult, but it would be acceptable. There were a lot of factors that went into it.

We made a decision and it didn't turn out the way we hoped.

I can take individual questions as you wish.

Q. (inaudible)

DAVID FAY: No. The plan all along was for Saturday and Sunday to use two front locations. But the issue was:

Do you want to use the front of the green for four days, and we felt that, given the amount of real estate we have available, that would be too much.

Q. Is that where you had originally planned to put the pin yesterday?

DAVID FAY: Yeah, the question: Is that where we originally planned to cut the hole yesterday. The issue was whether to do -- we were going to have that hole cut there either Thursday or Friday, and I know there was some deliberation as to when to put it there. Actually, I believe we were planning originally to put the hole there, and in our testing, we realized that it was faster yesterday. Against that, as it turned out, it probably -- might have been a trade-off, I don't know, because with the cloud cover, you had less wind, you had less sun, and so, it might have all balanced out.

But after we realized yesterday just how severe it was, that is when we instituted the modified practices on that green, which were a different mowing practice, and putting more water on.

Q. Was there an alternative other than that? I know you don't want to go the front four days, but was there another placement you could have used? I mean, you obviously knew it was -- that it was severe.

DAVID FAY: No. We felt that that was the best location to have in the back. To have a location anywhere else would just magnify the problem, and, in our judgment, we thought it would be -- certainly would be the most difficult hole location. We thought it would be acceptable and we recognized that it was going to be difficult. That is why we modified the mowing practices.

Q. Did you consider putting water on the green as the round proceeded and the green dried up and got maybe faster?

DAVID FAY: There was some -- we talk about everything, but the answer was -- we concluded that wouldn't be fair either because if you start putting water down, you don't know what rate it evaporates then. Then you really introduce different conditions conceivably for each group.

What you had today was, as uniform as possible, recognizing you are playing the green the whole day. But they were as uniformed conditions as possible.

As I said earlier, there were putts made from below the hole. It became extremely dicey when you were -- when you had a side-hill putt, or if you were above the hole. I think that there is no question that the players knew that if you were to get above that hole, it would be very difficult, and I believe they knew that if you get the side-hill putt, it would be very difficult. And you would have to treat it with a great deal of respect.

Certainly the way the ball rolled, it just -- it was not the result we were hoping for.

Q. John Daly called it unfair, ridiculous, and the worse he had ever seen. Does a comment like that bother you at all or how do you respond?

DAVID FAY: We are not happy with what happened. I think I'd leave it at that.

Q. Kevin Wentworth of Manteca needed a par on 18 about five minutes ago to make the cut. And he hit his approach shot about five feet from the hole to the right. Then 3-putted after missing in the exact same way that a lot of players were missing. Now he is not going to make the cut. I just wanted to hear your reaction to that.

DAVID FAY: Well, when you have a stroke-play competition you set up the golf course for, in this case, 154 players so, I imagine all 154 could say the same thing. If Jack Nicklaus hadn't made a 38-foot putt on the last hole, he wouldn't make the cut either, but he made the putt.

Again, as I said earlier, when you had a side-hill putt, the severity of the problem, it increased either sidehill or downhill.

Q. Could you talk about what Kirk Triplett did there and what the penalty was and had he actually made the cut, what would have been the situation for stopping the putt there from going back down the hill?

DAVID FAY: Well, Kirk was -- you will have to ask him what he was doing. I suspect he was trying to make a statement and I think he felt he wasn't making the cut. He certainly -- he is a fine player. He knew what he was doing. He just immediately said -- told the official what he was doing. If you want the specific rule, it is Rule 12: Exerting influence on your ball. And the penalty is two strokes unless there is a serious breach and in our judgment that was not a serious breach because it would have been probably a matter of a few feet. But, we really didn't have to deliberate long and hard on that because it was a moot question because he didn't make the cut. And he said in the scorer's tent: I will see you next year. He is a fine player. I hope he is at Pinehurst Number 2.

Q. Was there a miscalculation and if there was, what exactly was it?

DAVID FAY: Well, a miscalculation was that we did not expect that the -- we didn't expect that the turf, that the conditions would get away from us as much as they did. That was the miscalculation. It was a combination of a severely sloped green. It was a bit of the weather. It was a glorious day, but certainly when you -- the more sun you have and the more wind you have, it is going to -- it is going to exacerbate the problem. So that is what we had.