USGA PRESS CONFERENCE

RHONDA GLENN: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the USGA's annual press conference, being conducted in conjunction with the Women's Open. We have a couple of announcements to make first. Yesterday, Peter Jacobsen on behalf of the PGA TOUR and the PGA of America, announced a 3 year financial commitment to the LPGA, USGA Girls' Junior Golf Program of $75,000 each. We're thrilled to receive that support from these allied association, and it's going to help the game grow, and put more girls out on the golf course. So it's kind of a first for us, and it's significant to this program, that's been going on for the last two years. We have a press release announcing the distribution of these funds where they'll go and who they'll go to, and we'll make that press release available to you following this press conference.

I'd like to introduce Jeanne Meyers, Chairman of the USGA's Women's Committee. Kendra Graham, Director of Competition, and Marty Parkes, Senior Director of Communications. And I believe Jeanne would like to open our conference.

JEANNE MYERS: First of all, I'd like to thank you all for being here, and I know you're going to enjoy a wonderful week of golf, here. We have some fabulous women golfers here. This morning the Women's Committee met and has selected the Curtis Cup Captain for the 2004 Curtis Cup match; that will be Martha Kirouac. The Curtis Cup match will be played June 12th and 13th in England, and we are delighted to make that announcement at this time. There will be a press release for you after this conference.

RHONDA GLENN: She might be better known to you old-timers as Martha Wilkinson, who won the Women's Amateur in 1970, and was a two-time Curtis Cup player.

Kendra, would you describe the golf course, how it's set up for this championship, and what we can expect the players to encounter.

KENDRA GRAHAM: Thank you, Rhonda. We are thrilled to be back at Witch Hollow. Obviously 1997 provided a stern test and a lot of drama. And Bill Webster, the senior superintendent here at Pumpkin Ridge has done an outstanding job, and the golf course matured beautifully. And one of the things we are seeing this time around is not only a very well-conditioned golf course, but a tougher golf course. Six years have passed. It's almost 200 yards longer, when we play the longer tee on No. 10. And we're seeing a lot more definition on the golf course, and just the natural maturity of six years time. But I think there's several key holes that have been lengthened. We found in 1997 that this golf course, Portland this time of year, we have very firm, fast conditions, which we like, and believe me, I think the players are thrilled after the wet, rainy conditions they've been playing under the last probably two months, safe to say. So I think it's going to really be a great test. We feel like we're getting to a good stretch of weather over the next couple of days, hopefully a little wind. And I think we are certainly going to identify the best player this week.

RHONDA GLENN: I'm remiss, a couple of people I didn't introduce. Tim Moraghan is here, he's the Director of USGA Agronomy, and he's here with Bill Webster, the Pumpkin Ridge Golf Superintendent. I omitted Ms. judy Bell, the Past President of USGA, who is Consulting Director of the USGA Foundation, and Dr. Betsy Clark, from the LPGA. They'll be happy to take any questions about the girl's golf program.

Q. Kendra, you said you thought the course was mature, and would play tougher. Could you talk about what you think will make it tougher this time than in '97?

KENDRA GRAHAM: Well, certainly length. I think the key holes that we have lengthened are 4, along with 8, just a little bit, and 9. So I think certainly 4 and 9, as you might remember ,4 played as a very birdieable par-5 in 1997, and I think that added length makes it more of a legitimate three-shot hole. And 9 is certainly going to be a bear, especially depending on which direction the wind blows.

13 is longer.

15 is about 20 yards longer.

So I think 14 really starts a great finish, a tough finish with the lengthening of 15.

17 is longer, and 18 is only about 10 yards longer, but it's a key ten yards in the way that hole plays with the creeks.

The rough is longer, a little thicker. They had a very wet spring, followed by hot weather, and everything just popped. So you've got that long rough and also the greens are right where we want them, firmness and speedwise.

Q. What's the speed?

KENDRA GRAHAM: Just over 11 on the Stimpmeter.

Q. What is your philosophy on the par-5s, you said 4 was a legitimate three-shot hole. How many of these par-5s, can the majority of women reach in two? Could you talk about -- 7 is like 560, is that about right?

KENDRA GRAHAM: 7 is 559, downhill, obviously. Again, a lot of roll. But obviously 7 is a three-shot hole.

I believe 4 is now a three-shot hole.

18 for the majority, if not all but a few players is a three-shot hole. From what I heard talking to some marshals yesterday, three players hit 18 in two.

Q. Do you think it would be a more exciting finish if it would be a more reachable par-5 with playing in trouble, if there's a tremendous risk/reward, you can bring eagle into the picture, but you can --?

KENDRA GRAHAM: Well, I think it's a very exciting hole, because there is so much trouble. Not only off the tee, some players obviously have to decide whether to lay up on their second shot. But those who go for it, it's so narrow in front of the green, it's obviously worth getting up close and having a little club in your hand and getting it close. It may not be an eagle hole, but certainly a birdie hole. But once you go for it in two or even go over the creek, you've got the creek and the bunkers to get to that approach, second fairway area, there's a lot, there's the trees, there's the bunkers, a few obstructions. It's tight. It's tight in there. So I think it is very exciting, even though it may not be an eagleable hole, it's birdieable, whether you're hitting it in 2 or cozying it up there. The other key feature is the closely mown areas. Where the players have a putter or fairway wood, that they're trying to get back up on the green. Obviously that collection area on 18 got a lot of play in 1997. And you'll see that on 3 a little bit, definitely on 7. Again on 9, behind 11 and certainly on 18. I know when we were here Media Day, Juli has nightmare memories of that collection area from 1997 she mentioned. So again I think the greens are really interesting. There's certain parts on certain greens you just do not want to be, when the hole is in certain locations. So I think accuracy is key.

Q. There are 14 teenagers in the field this year, including two 13 years old. This being a Women's Open, we have a couple of kids who are a long way away from being a woman. What do you think might be part of the contribution to that, equipment, better training, just the fact that people see it and so they want to do it? And also you made qualifying tougher two years ago, you extended it to two rounds, is there any thought of making it even tougher or even putting an age limit on it?

JEANNE MYERS: I actually think that a whole bunch of factors that have brought the youngsters in play here this week. I think it goes all the way back to Title IX. When I was growing up it wasn't popular to be an athlete, and it is now. The whole emphasis on fitness among the young, better training for the young players, many, many more opportunities for the young players, and I just think it's a bunch of factors. I even think it's partly Tiger-mania that caught on with the girls, and we're delighted to have them. They're the future wave of golf.

KENDRA GRAHAM: To carry on from what Jeanne said, I think the two stages of qualifying that we implemented did several things. But the first is, with local qualifying we have roughly twice as many spots around the country where people can qualify. So it's easier to go try to get through local qualifying for the Women's Open, because you don't have to go as far. And I think it feeds on itself. Once you have a few youngsters in the field the other youngsters who are at home watching see that, and say, "Well, I want to give that a try next year". And I think we saw this trickle down effect at the U.S. Open this year. We had 10 amateurs in the field at the U.S. Open, two exempt. But that was a lot for the U.S. Open. Again, you're seeing just better play, earlier on, better instruction, better equipment, more competition and I think it's great. I think it does show that you've got to look at the youth. And this game is certainly, I think, trending toward that. And these young women who are in this field, they played their way in. They had to play 54 holes to get here.

If you look at our 8 sectional qualifying places around the country, where they played 36 holes, and I assure you it's under very similar conditions to Pumpkin Ridge this week, we tried very hard to do that with our sectional qualifying sites to make sure they're set up lengthwise, and to the extent they can be conditionwise, as the championship course, they all deserve to be here.

Q. Why do you think there's 14 teenagers at Pumpkin Ridge, and only two at Olympia Fields?

KENDRA GRAHAM: I think that's pure numbers. I think if you look at the number of entries that we have in the U.S. Open compared to the number of entries that we have in the U.S. women's Open Championship, it factors down to that.

Q. If I could follow-up on that a little bit, and this is as much a LPGA issue, maybe more than a USGA issue, but maybe a decade ago this was almost a crisis thing with women's tennis, where they implemented age restrictions, and limited the number of tournaments, because they felt like too many girls were getting in the game and getting so involved in the game, they quit school and everything. Do you see that ever becoming an issue in women's golf, that you have a talented 8th grader who leaves 8th grade and goes to play on the LPGA Tour?

KENDRA GRAHAM: I think that may be more of a LPGA Tour question, but I guess my comment would be from what I'm hearing a lot of these young women say they want to go to college. I've heard Michelle Wie wants to go to Stanford. The Song twins are going off to college, and I think maybe many of us didn't think they would go off to college, they would have turned pro by now. So I don't think we're there yet. I'd be interested to hear what Ty Votaw has to say. But I think college golf is such a great opportunity, and is only getting better, that so far it seems like these young women wanted to take advantage of that opportunity, not only the educational aspect of it, but the collegiate golf experience.

RHONDA GLENN: The LPGA does have a low age limit of 18. You have to be at least 18 to play on their Tour.

Q. What factors into how much of an increase -- how do you determine how much of an increase you get each year, since it's obviously going to be well below the men. And how much do you consider the prize money being too far ahead of the rest of the purses on the LPGA Tour?

MARTY PARKES: Well, certainly when we look at the purses we look at each of the Opens on their own, because each event is distinct, it has its own site and revenue stream. They're each pegged according to those factors that work into it. As far as the increases go, it's done year to year and looked at. I think in the last few years the Executive Committee felt that the pay structure for the Women's Open should be higher than the Senior Open, but not as high as the Men's Open. That's sort of the basic criteria that they've used.

Q. If you guys had a four million purse, and the highest LPGA is 1.8, the person who wins the Women's Open all of a sudden may finish at least two or three on the money list?

MARTY PARKES: Sure, we talked with the Tours quite often on those kind of issues, we work with them all the time on all the issues that we do. So we certainly would never set a Women's Open purse at a certain rate without having talked to the LPGA about that.

KENDRA GRAHAM: One thing I might add, too, is certainly we are aware of what the other major purses are going to be. But I think we feel comfortable that this is the national championship. We know that it's arguably the best field of the year, the toughest golf course that the golfers are going to see or going to play and if a player rises to the occasion and puts it together that particular week under that pressure, she deserves the pay out.

MARTY PARKES: I think we're also proud that this is by far the biggest purse in women's golf that we have here, that's not the same on the Men's Tour. There are other purses on the men's Tour that are larger than the Men's Open purse.

Q. Obviously the Men's Open is sort of wedded to Father's Day. And that's -- everybody thinks of that second weekend in June. The last several years this has fallen over the 4th of July, and a lot of people don't like that, because people go on vacation, people may not go out to watch a golf tournament over the 4th of July holiday. Are you guys wedded to this tournament being on the 4th of July or is there a better time to have it?

JEANNE MYERS: We are not wedded to the 4th of July. And actually I did look at the schedule out until 2009, and I cannot give you the exact dates, but I think by 2009 we're in July, July 9th to the 12th or something like that. So we are getting away from the 4th.

RHONDA GLENN: And that schedule will show you, I believe, two of the next tournaments, none of them are over the 4th.

KENDRA GRAHAM: Next year is. But to give you a little history, second, third week in July was kind of our usual week. And in 1998 the folks in Kohler, Wisconsin asked for the 4th of July. They felt that would be key in their part of the world. And those of you who were there saw that it was. The crowds were terrific. Except for when we went to Bermuda grass golf courses, we have always been in that second or third week in July. But the July 4th works in some areas, Hutchison, Kansas, and doesn't work as well in others. We had future sites who we talked to who said it's not going to fly here. Because of that, starting in '05, we go to the last week in June for a span, and then I believe starting in '09 we get back to the 2nd week in July. That wasn't fully because of the 4th of July date, but it had some factors to do with the Senior Open and also I guess we can say David Fay's dream of having the three open championships played as closely together as possible.

Q. I was curious following up on that, what was the thinking for Denver in '05?

KENDRA GRAHAM: Denver, I know Joanie Birkland and Judy Bell from Colorado, the folks told us people go to the mountains, we're not going to get people there. Next year in South Hadley, Massachusetts, the people at the Orchards said, "Hey, people don't have typical 4th of July vacation plans here", they don't see a problem with that date. It really is a regional thing.

Q. On lengthening the course, was that in reaction to the technology and how far players are hitting it today or is it more last time it was 10-under, and you would like to see that lower?

KENDRA GRAHAM: That's a fair question. I think it's just a sign of the times. I think obviously six years has passed. I think we all feel like we had such an exciting championship in 1997. We weren't bothered by the scores. But I think time has passed. The game has changed. It's not necessarily only technology. I think it's a combination of equipment, how far the players are hitting it. If you look at the stats today compared to six years ago, I think you'd see a difference. And also the condition of the golf course at this time of year. It's firm and fast, which we love. But it does offer a lot more roll for the players.

Q. Understanding that a club is responsible for asking for an Open site, what do you think the chances are, A, of ever having a Women's Open at Pebble. And B, having a couple of Open courses at traditional, current Men's Open courses, Congressional, a No. 2, instead of a Pine Needles, et cetera, et cetera. Why doesn't that happen?

KENDRA GRAHAM: You're right, clubs invite the USGA to conduct the U.S. women's Open Championship at their golf course. And you're voicing what we hear from players. They want the traditional, older courses. They want U.S. Open golf courses. And I think we have started that trend with Cherry Hills in '05, Newport Country Club in '06, Pine Needles a lot feel is a better golf course than No. 2, so I just think it's who you talk to. Interlachen Country Club. So maybe these aren't recent U.S. Open golf courses, but they are U.S. Open golf courses. And we are in conversations with some other golf courses of that type right now. So there is certainly a push for that from many different areas, not only the players, but the USGA, the Women's Committee feels strongly about it. Whether we would follow-up on the heels of a Bethpage or a Torrey Pines, that remains to be seen, because obviously there's so much work that goes into hosting an Open, to have another major within a certain time frame is difficult. But I think the players, I think everyone would be pleased with what we've got on the back burners right now.

Q. Do you think you get a better bounce by going to places that aren't traditional sites, for instance Portland as a city, Kansas, Old Waverly, things like that?

KENDRA GRAHAM: Certainly I think there's two factors in site selection is the golf course, and that's first and foremost. But there's also being the big show in town. And women's golf, much like senior golf or the Champions Tour, I think, have thrived in second markets, in smaller markets, when you're not competing with major league baseball or other events of that magnitude. But first and foremost we're looking at the golf course. And I think Prairie Dunes is in a lot of peoples top-10 in the world. We got both things by going to Hutchinson.

RHONDA GLENN: Thank you, ladies and gentlemen.

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