An interview with:

KENDRA GRAHAM

RHONDA GLENN: Ladies and gentlemen, I know a few of you wanted to check with Kendra Graham about the ruling on Annika Sorenstam on the 72nd hole. If you would go through that for us, please.

KENDRA GRAHAM: Okay. Well, Annika hit it short right of the putting green surface. And she was just inside of, golf course side of the chain link fence, which had mesh covering it, surrounding the port-a-johns, which is a temporary immovable obstruction. And she had intervention with the monster board, which means that the monster board intervened with your ball and the hole, a direct line with her ball and the hole.

So the first step was to determine whether or not she was entitled to relief, because of the fact that there is an exception to the rule that says if a player cannot play a stroke, in the case of intervention, which was the monster board, if the player cannot play a stroke, that would finish on a direct line to the hole, then she's not entitled to relief. So we had to move all the people and we did determine that, despite the trees that she could have played a stroke that would finish on a direct line to the hole. So she was entitled to the relief from the intervention from the monster board. So at that point, after moving a lot of people, you go to the outer edge of the temporary immovable instruction, which is the platform that the volunteers stand on, and we -- it's like you draw a straight line from the flag stick to the corner. And that's where the intervention stops. And what the local rule says is that then the player is entitled to -- or a one club length alleyway. So you measure one club length to the side. So at that point where that one club length ends, that's her nearest point of relief. She's free of having to deal with the obstruction. And she has to drop the ball within a club length of that spot, no closer to the hole. So we kind of arced out from the port-a-johns, because again you're not going closer to the hole, got to the edge of the board, she measured one club length, she dropped within the club length and the ball was back in play. It took a little while because of several reasons, one, all the people who were there, we had to clear a lot of people out just to see, to be able to see these different things and just make sure we got it right.

Q. So right before she hit she was saying that -- I know she was maybe just trying to make the argument that she -- she was arguing for how she might have wanted to play the shot as opposed to just having to be that straight line?

KENDRA GRAHAM: Right.

Q. Was that just gamesmanship on her part?

KENDRA GRAHAM: No, it wasn't gamesmanship. The way this rule is written it's very geometrical, it's all straight lines. And obviously we don't necessarily play golf on straight lines. But the way the relief is, is it's a direct line from the flag stick to the edge of the obstruction, and go back, and one club length. So you have an alleyway. It's like okay, we're not all perfect, we get a buffer zone there. We're not going to drop within a club length of the edge, we're going to give you a buffer zone, and then you drop within a club length of that. And the rule is very straight forward. And so I think it was a valid question, but that's not how the relief is given. It's given in straight lines.

Q. Did she seem satisfied with the ruling when it was all said and done?

KENDRA GRAHAM: She did. I will tell you, Annika is pretty savvy on the rules of golf. In fact she's one of the few players who have attended one of our four day rules of golf workshops. And I appreciate her understanding at the time of us taking our time. And I was very conscious of wanting to make sure we did everything by the book. And she was fine with that. And in fact when she dropped the ball, I said the ball was back in play. She said, "Thank you very much". And I tried to step back and she got down to her business. But, yeah, she asked good questions and she didn't seem impatient. She wasn't trying to rush us. And her caddy was involved also, but -- and he helped kind of with the spotting of the ball. We had a couple of officials down to help with where's the flag stick, where's the edge of the monster board, where's the ball. So no, she was terrific.

Q. Kendra, how did you, in your words, make sure everything was done by the book?

KENDRA GRAHAM: Well, you know, it's been a long, busy week, and I just -- I just kind of went through it step-by-step and wanted to make sure I had confirmation from Marsha Luigs, who is the walking rules official with the group, just make sure my thought process was correct. And David Fay was on the radio. And I again just confirmed with him, because I do do this for a living, but I don't do this week in, week out, like LPGA Tour professionals -- excuse me, LPGA Tour officials. So I just wanted to make sure I had the confirmation that I was proceeding correctly. So -- and I tried to make sure that Annika was right with me, that she knew what this process was we were going through. Because I think the hitch was, it wasn't straight forward in the beginning, in that we had to find out if indeed she was going to get relief from the monster board. That element of it, that exception to the rule I don't think is widely known. And again you have to make sure that the player, because of the trees that were there, the player can play a stroke, and could have finished on a direct line to the hole. And she did have room to hit a shot around the trees that were there, and hit a shot that would finish on a direct line to the hole. I felt comfortable with that and then we proceeded with the rest of the ruling, but that was another element.

RHONDA GLENN: Had she dropped and the ball had rolled within the allowable rolling distance behind a tree, then it would have taken the monster board out of it, would it not have?

KENDRA GRAHAM: Are you saying when she dropped?

RHONDA GLENN: The first drop, the first relief from the fence.

KENDRA GRAHAM: No, it was all one process, it was just one drop. It was just one drop.

RHONDA GLENN: They were saying on television she was going to take two drops.

KENDRA GRAHAM: No, it was one drop.

Q. I guess most of us would not understand how that could be, because you wouldn't know where she could take the second drop from. The drop from the monster board, how would you know that she had relief, that she could get relief if she never dropped in the first place?

KENDRA GRAHAM: But she had the intervention to begin with, from the monster board. So we have a decision that talks about an imbedded ball in an area of ground under repair. We have two situations. So in this case she had the intervention, to begin with. You take away what was built, if the port-a-johns weren't there, if you take away the port-a-johns, the monster board was still going to be there. So that's why you have to give her what she's going to get the relief from, the most relief from.

Q. So you don't take a drop and then once you drop then you see if you have the intervention?

KENDRA GRAHAM: In this case she had both. But because of where her nearest point of relief would have been, from the port-a-johns, from the fence, she would have still had intervention from the monster board. Her nearest point of relief, she was going to swing to the left. If she went to the right she would have had to go way, way around. So her nearest point of relief from the port-a-johns was going to be to the left. So she would still have had the monster board between herself and the hole.

Q. The trees could never have been in play, if she would have taken a first drop from the port-a-johns?

KENDRA GRAHAM: But she didn't take a first drop.

Q. Right, but if she had. Assume there's no monster board there, and she had to take a drop from the port-a-johns, could the trees have ever been in play on that first drop?

KENDRA GRAHAM: If she was going to play and stroke towards the hole?

Q. Yes.

KENDRA GRAHAM: I don't know, I have to go back and look at it.

Q. My question is, if we don't know if the trees would have been in play, if she never took that drop from the port-a-johns, then how could she get relief from the monster board, because technically she could drop so we can see if the monster board was in fact a problem.

KENDRA GRAHAM: But the monster board was a problem with where the ball originally lay.

Q. But if she dropped from the port-a-john and she dropped and it rolled behind a tree as Rhonda just indicated, the monster board situation would never have come up, right?

KENDRA GRAHAM: You're saying if she'd gotten behind a tree, and she couldn't have played towards the hole, or finish on a direct line to the hole?

Q. Right.

KENDRA GRAHAM: I guess the way I view it, and how I viewed it at the time, obviously, is that she was entitled to relief from the monster board, because of the fact that it interfered on her line to the hole with where her ball originally lay. Take the port-a-johns away.

Q. Take the port-a-johns away, yeah, but the port-a-johns are there, that's the problem. The port-a-johns were the first relief that she gets from, right?

KENDRA GRAHAM: She gave her relief from both at the same time is what I'm saying.

Q. Right. And all I'm saying is, I guess generally what we always do is we drop from the first incident, which would have been the port-a-john, and then after that drop if we have another issue, which ^ Nick is the monster board then we drop from the monster board, if we're entitled to relief. I'm asking if she would have been entitled if she had taken her relief from the port-a-johns only, and the question, would it have gone behind a tree, which have not allowed a relief.

KENDRA GRAHAM: Well, my feeling is since she had -- had interference from the monster board to begin with, she was entitled to relief from the monster board. That's why I didn't -- she had interference from both -- she's entitled to relief from both. So we took relief from the one that caused the most problem.

Q. So really the port-a-johns were never an issue?

KENDRA GRAHAM: Not an issue as far as this ruling goes, no. Because the ball was there, but to me the bigger thing we were dealing with was the intervention. So she was entitled to relief from that because of where her ball originally lay.

Q. Can I ask one other question? During the four days, were there any time penalties?

KENDRA GRAHAM: No, there were no penalties.

Q. Could you answer how the final group was almost an hour behind time and throughout the four days it was relatively slow out there and yet there were no time penalties given?

KENDRA GRAHAM: That is due to the difficulty of the golf course, and the waiting time. A lot of that time they spent waiting on tees, waiting in fairways. For instance, I'd have to go look today, because I'm not sure, but I know yesterday there was a ten minute wait on 6th tee, for instance. Today because of, again, the difficulty of the golf course, there was a wait on 5, because we had several players who made big numbers. So there weren't any -- there were groups that were timed today, but the last group alone, and I can get this information, because our rules officials keep track of it, they keep track of waits. So most of that time that they were so far behind was because they stood and waited. Now, I will tell you, I was surprised, yesterday the last group played in four hours and seven minutes. It was a big difference today. Usually Sundays are about the same length of time as Saturday, if not a little shorter, because the earlier groups are catching flights. So I was very, very surprised at how long it took to play today. But again, especially those last groups, nobody was out of position, they had just, through the course of the round, had quite a few waits. And that happened Thursday and Friday, also. But again, there were a lot of groups timed. And there were some warnings given, but nobody was penalized.

Q. Not to rehash it, but your decision, is that the only decision that could have been made or was at some point was your interpretation paramount to the decision that was made? I guess what I'm saying could it, for instance, could you have taken step-by-step -- the relief step-by-step, instead of deciding that because two -- you know what I mean?

KENDRA GRAHAM: I haven't talked to too many people about it, but the people I talked to about it said they would have done it the exact same way. I was talking to some of our rules officials, Barb Trammell and Sue Witters with the LPGA Tour, said they would have done it the exact same way.

RHONDA GLENN: Thank you so much, Kendra.

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