What they said: Slugger White & Randy Watkins

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SLUGGER WHITE: Okay. We got sunshine and blue skies. Obviously, we've got an unplayable situation out there right now that's getting pretty much worse by the minute. We are going to make an announcement to the players within the next couple of minutes that there will be no golf tomorrow. The facility will be closed, driving range, putting green, everything.

Our staff will come out tomorrow morning, reassess what we are looking at after tonight. Hopefully after this front gets through, and we will have an update at 11 o'clock local time here, so we should be out here tomorrow morning looking around by 9 o'clock or so just to see exactly where we are going from here and just see if we can find some golf to play here in the next few days.

THE MODERATOR: Any questions?

Q. Can you talk about the history of this tournament here, whether it's been canceled before and any problem like this in the past?

SLUGGER WHITE: I think we shortened here three times. It was rain shortened. I think that's when we 10 sloping down between 9 and 18.

Q. Either one of you guys give us your thoughts on the chances you will get to play? What are the odds right now, pretty slim?

SLUGGER WHITE: I don't want to speculate Rusty right now. I would rather wait. I would rather wait until tomorrow, how about that? I don't want to put you off with a question like that. I don't care it is something that I can sit here. My crystal ball is foggy right now so wait until the morning.

Q. I know you don't want to speculate, what if you can't play on Saturday either?

SLUGGER WHITE: That's something we have to talk about after tomorrow. It's just like this morning we weren't going to not play this morning at 8 o'clock. We delayed as long as we could and to a point where it was going to be that we couldn't play. I think we have to wait until the morning. I apologize for that. But that's all.

Q. When we talked to you earlier today you said there was other things about being discussed as far as pushing it forward to next week or into the weekend? Did you get any further with those discussions? Is there a possibility that you can move it to next weekend?

SLUGGER WHITE: I don't think that's out there right now. Again, it will be a little easier for me to speculate tomorrow morning. How about that?

Q. (Inaudible)?

RANDY WATKINS: I think I can safely say with Slugger that decision really needs to come tomorrow. Overnight we will evaluate all of the possible scenarios. We will be in lock step with their decision. It is their decision on the playability of the golf course. But we'll be with him on that and to speculate between now and then it's going to be tough to do that.

Q. What needs to improve tomorrow? What are you looking for in order to be able to play on this course?

SLUGGER WHITE: The rain to stop, the sunshine to come out tonight and the wind blow about 50.

RANDY WATKINS: And overnight we want to transform yazu (phn) clay into sand. That would be a Christmas wish early.

SLUGGER WHITE: The fairways have got to improve, the tees have got to improve. I can tell you this, we've thought about are there some holes out there that we shorten to par 3s? Yes, we thought about that. One, maybe two holes, we would think about that. But other than that, then we just compromise the competition. That's not what we're all about. That's not what the PGA TOUR is all about.

THE MODERATOR: Any last questions? Thank you, guys.

RANDY WATKINS: I've got a couple of comments about our part of the show. We are in agreement with The TOUR about playing tomorrow. We do want the public to know that the culinary talents that we provide this week are on for tomorrow, and we have some outstanding talent. Tyler Florence will be here twice tomorrow. If you never seen him before you need to come. All of the hospitality will be open tomorrow.

We are the benefactor of a great title sponsor with great talent and a lot of fun to be had. We prepared a lot. A lot of people are ready to see some folks, watch some good shows, eat some good food. We want Madison, Mississippi, and all of Mississippi to support stuff the other than golf.

Our part of the show will still go on. While they decide what happens with the golf course, we are going to do some cooking and some eating which we do like here.

Q. I don't know if there anything you can say at this point, but address tickets for fans, if play should start at some point?

RANDY WATKINS: What we want people to know tomorrow, everything is free, parking is free, tickets are free tomorrow. We want you to come out and see what we have to offer and see the talents that we are blessed to have here with Viking. It's an open day. We are going to be here ready for business tomorrow and ready to entertain what we do outside of golf.

Q. (Inaudible)?

RANDY WATKINS: We willl make those decisions once we decide what happens to the golf tournament. Saturday and Sunday all of our hospital shows are on. All of the talent is still coming. We're still preparing food. We still want people to come see us. Viking is still ready to entertain and display their talents, until there is another decision made on the golf tournament.

Q. (Inaudible)?

RANDY WATKINS: I said in the earlier press conference that one of the great things about The TOUR, and about our event, is no matter what happens to the tournament and the playability of the tournament, and whether we play or not to play, the money we raise for charities is not going to change.

We are going to make significant charitable contributions to, not only to The Hospital for Children, but 89 other charities across Mississippi. We are proud of that. We thank all of our sponsors for that and all of our fans for that. Regardless of that, that's part of the joy of being associated with a professional sports league like the PGA TOUR that produces their events for charity. Unlike some other organizations.

PGA TOUR raises more money than any other organization, all of them put together. We are lucky to have them as our partner and what we do is important and it matters. A lot of capable people do a lot of work and have worked very hard to make this event come about, and we are not through working. Our work is going to go on whether it's raining or stopped raining. We are going to raise money for charity and entertain some folks.

Q. (Inaudible)?

RANDY WATKINS: Well, I'll be honest with you, I'm not sure you can bring in concrete, and could get rid of all of this water. The part of the country we live in, the soil structure, you have to understand the composition of the soil in Mississippi to really understand what happens with the water. At some point it can only do what it does. It's not sand. We don't grow palm trees here for a reason. We grow grass, corn, cotton and beans and oak trees.

That's the kind of soil we have. When it rains like this, it retains the water, it does not disburse the water. It's not a surface water problem. It's a soil condition. It has nothing to do with the quality of the turf grass. It has nothing to do with the maintenance of the golf course. It has nothing to do with the structure of the golf course. It only has t do with the composition of the soil. That is an important part of what they run into and they decide what's fair and not fair, what's a level playing field, and what the safe conditions for their players to compete under. This soil does not provide that.

Q. (Inaudible)?

RANDY WATKINS: There is 52 weeks in a year. We get one. We aim at 51 weeks. If it doesn't go exactly right, we are easily disappointed. There is a lot of people that volunteer there time to help. That hurts a little bit.

Q. (Inaudible)?

RANDY WATKINS: I don't know the answer to that. I really don't. I think we out to wait on those kind of things and wait until there is a final decision made on play.

Q. (Inaudible)?

SLUGGER WHITE: About what we have right now? We have an unplayable condition today. This morning we didn't make our final decision about 10 o'clock this morning that we were not going to play. Unfortunately, our situation is getting worse, and we are just going to have to wait and see what tomorrow brings. We are going to come out and reassess the golf course and have an update at 11 o'clock local time here and just see what the overnight brings us. It's rather dismal. There is no fooling anybody with that. So it's something we have to look at and I just don't want to speculate on anything until tomorrow we look at it again.